GROSS DISTRACTION - consider the critic
Seriously, it's a sunny day and there's a huge new Pixar animation I could be watching…
But what am I doing? I’m watching 1951’s top-grossing Hollywood movie - a huge and in almost every respect execrable Roman-biblical epic called Quo Vadis.
And I’m doing this, of course, for you. I know that you’re probably enjoying an iced tea under an awning or similar as I type this. But I’m not bitter. I’ve taken on an obligation, I have a duty to you, my reader, to watch this stuff and to properly account for its success, for its place in the timeline of blockbusters. As Peter Ustinov - Nero - says in the clip, “let it be wonderful. Or let it be awful. So long as it is uncommon.”
So, bear with me while I craft the next episode of GROSS - about a vast, shallow, sanctimonious nothing, a huge box-office hit that essentially rescued MGM from bankruptcy that stretches across almost three hours and misuses the talent of so many brilliant creative people.
You’re welcome.
And if you’d like to support this project - the biggest movie from the Hollywood system from every year since 1913, reviewed and put in its political and historic context - here’s a pink button that’ll give you a whole year - one movie per week plus some DVD extras - for £20 instead of £40 (or £2/month instead of £4).