2014 Directed by Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi
Follows the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. Provocative, idiosyncratic and incendiary, the film weaves rarely seen archival material, contributor interviews, excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and Joan Didion along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices.
The New York Review of Books: A 50 Year Argument, 50 lat literackich polemik, The New York Review of Books: 50 gadu strīds, 50 години тежка дума, The New York Review of Books: Спор длиною в полвека, 纽约书评：争鸣五十年
UK
UK
Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi team up for a 90+ minutes long recount of the many big events that took place around the world from James Baldwin to the raise of the second wave of Feminism to Central Park Five and the Nazis, using real life footages and bringing some of the stars of these events, we get to see and hear first hand some of these moments that shook the world.
As a huge history buff I was already inclined to enjoy this and as you can see by my rating, I clearly did get to enjoy it. Many of the material used in this were mostly new to me and the way it tackled each and every topic…
vaguely irritating in that it is very ostentatiously witty and kind of self-important, but also engrossing and not necessarily incorrect. kind of like reading the New York Review of Books! zingaling.
Scorsese’s celebration of the New York Review of Books never really ascends beyond (or even matches) the people and ideas at hand with comparable style or probing insight, but it’s an effective piece of documentary nonetheless. It’s basically a revolving door of some of the country’s (and, in some cases, the world’s) most thoughtful, articulate writers assembling to reminisce about their triumphs, rarely dipping into much criticism or controversy beyond the work that they’re proud of to this day. It’s smart but surprisingly simple.
Not much of a movie, I suppose; its most appreciative audiences will be NYRB readers and possibly graphic designers, who may dig the number of different ways text is highlighted and displayed on-screen, but I kind of don't care if this is Cinema. It was a real treat to watch this in the midst of getting more irritated than usual about the deluge of trivial stupidities on the Internet (this was the 36-hour epoch, to be recalled by whoever our Tacitus will be, when every website on the planet drummed up traffic by writing about Ben Affleck's dick in Gone Girl, and then my Twitter feed decried this with a single unitary voice — not the stuff of legendary point-counterpoint).…
I do appreciate journalism and critique-pieces, but I was a bit afraid that Martin Scorsese doing a film about the work at a magazine for literature and art would be a bit… Self-congratulatory? However, The 50 Year Argument covers much more than just the world of art, perhaps most interestingly painting an image of the role of journalism throughout the years. There’s this political strength and fight against injustice felt throughout this film, although the lack of a clear thread is perhaps Scorsese’s biggest fault here. Save for the archival footage, this looks quite boring and being jerked around different journalists talking about their work may be interesting, but not thrilling enough to make this anything exceptional.
Scorsese just directed a shitty video essay and somehow got HBO to produce it
I may not be smart enough to read The New York Review of Books but at least I'm smart enough to watch this 95 minute HBO documentary about The New York Review of Books
Quanto ossigeno dà, quanto rinfranca, in questi tempi cupissimi, un film che racconta la bellezza del lavoro intellettuale, che mostra l’importanza della conoscenza e come il confronto e lo studio siano le uniche strade per il miglioramento, individuale e collettivo.
E chi l’avrebbe mai detto che pure con un documentario che celebra il compleanno di una rivista sarei riuscito a piangere?
E invece se già con Joan Didion che rilegge sé stessa a riflettere su violenze e pregiudizi razziali mi si erano inumiditi gli occhi, è sul finale con Darryl Pinckney e il suo ricordo di James Baldwin che mi sono proprio lasciato andare.
I didn't really know or even care to know what the New York Review of Books was, and I guess that's kinda on me for watching a documentary about how cool it is.
It seems kinda dumb and self-important though.
Just gotta remind myself I'm doing this all for Marty. Love Marty, even when he makes boring documentaries.
A fascinating, informative, and warmly rendered portrait of the New York Review of Books, its murderers row of contributors, and its late, great editor Robert Silvers -- touching on their pioneering coverage of the women's movement, Vietnam, the Central Park Five, the post 911 'war on terror', and more... I only wish it were longer! I wanted more!
As with far too many Scorsese documentaries, this isn't streaming anywhere nor was it ever put on disc, so...
archive.org/details/the-50-year-argument-2014-martin-scorsese
Look I love books — but even I recognize perhaps the only thing more boring than watching people talk about them, is watching people talk about talking about them. Still....I would have been hard pressed not to enjoy parts of this.
Also: The NYRB subscription is too expensive.
