A.O. Scott Interview

From http://www.nytimes.com/ref/readersopinions/questions-scott.html

Dec. 15

Q. I find it’s impossible for me to criticize movies I loved when I was child, even the ones I know are bad. Last summer on TV, for example, I watched “Smokey and the Bandit” for the first time in 20 years and I enjoyed it far more than I should have. Do you have movies from your childhood that you know and admit are bad but are unable to criticize because you liked them when you were young? — Antoine Lahaie

A. Recently, I took my son to see “The Haunted Mansion,” which was one of the worst things (I hesitate even to call it a movie) that I have ever seen. He thought it was better than “Finding Nemo” and we had a fruitless argument which I’m sure made him acutely aware of the disadvantages of having a film critic for a dad. I gave up when I remembered my own youthful delight in just about every live-action G-rated Disney picture of my own childhood — “Son of Flubber,” “The Shaggy D.A.,” “Follow Me Boys,” “Herbie the Love Bug” — movies I would probably have a hard time sitting through, much less reviewing, today. > When we’re young, we take so much delight in the sheer adventure of going to the movies that we don’t bother to discriminate much, which is as it should be. The indiscriminate love of movies is the first step in the development of taste. When I was young, “The Great Waldo Pepper” looked as good as “The Sting,” and “Midway,” the “Pearl Harbor” of its day, looked like an out-and-out masterpiece. Like you, I loved “Smokey and the Bandit,” which I don’t think is such a bad movie (“Smokey and the Bandit II” is another matter entirely), and also a lot of other Burt Reynolds good-old-boy pictures from that era (“White Lightning,” “WW and the Dixie Dance Kings,” “Gator). I saw every Mel Brooks movie, and all of the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor buddy comedies. Some of these — “Smokey,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Silver Streak"— I’m always happy to watch again, partly to affirm my youthful good taste and partly because they bring me back to a time before I had, or cared about having, any taste at all. Others don’t hold up as well, but judging them too harshly would feel like a bit of a betrayal. Listening: Kill the Power - Snowden