"For 23 years I've been dying to tell you what I thought of you. And now, well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it."
--Auntie Em to Miss Gulch, that witch of woman who became Dorothy's nemesis.
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This past couple years I've been acquiring and reading books from the BFI Film Classics series. The films of Hollywood have formed a backdrop for most of our lives with many of these movies being touchstones of cultural literacy. When we hear someone say, "Make him an offer he can't refuse" we're well aquainted with its source, The Godfather. Similarly, it's pretty well known that Nicholson's iconic outburst, "You can't handle the truth!" came at the pinnacle of courtroom tension in A Few Good Men.
Because my brothers also enjoy movies, I decided to gift each of them a book from this British Film Institute series. When I received their books in the mail, I was surprised to see that BFI volume on The Manchurian Candidate was written by Greil Marcus, so before mailing it to my brother I decided to read it first. What I expected was some insightful analysis of the film. Based on how many times my brother has referenced the movie over the years, I thought the book would be a sure hit. After reading it, I scratched my head and b.alked, but sent it anyways, with apologies
Marcus, as veteran Dylan fans recall, is the Rolling Stone critic who began his review of Dylan's Self Portrait with the question, "What is this s%#@?" That didn't stop me from purchasing Marcus's Like A Rolling Stone years later. I have a substantial (by some make-believe standards) collection of books about Dylan, his life and work, most of which I purchased to read, not just display on my shelves. I'm not sure how far I got—possibly halfway—but I now know where the expression "Gag me with a spoon" came from.
It's generally a habit of mine to check out the reviews of books and movies before I fork over my cash, but in both these instances I did not. There are always a few unhappy comments, often over the font or a torn cover, usually 1-3%, but to my surprise with these two books, 15% and 18% registered only one star or two.
Generally, I subscribe to the adage, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." In this case I'll print only what others have publicly stated in their Amazon.com reviews. [EdNote: These are mostly excerpts. There's plenty on the cutting room floor. I've corrected a few misspellings.]
Kevin Briton
This book contains bad writing and has absolutely no focus, The Manchurian Candidate is an important film and the BFI film classics should be the highpoint of film criticism. This book wanders all over the place and cannot focus on the film. Coupled with some of third rate writing and muddled thinking, the book should only be bought if you must have all the books in the series. Don't buy it.
The BFI editors should be embarrassed for having released it.
Douglas Payne
What a waste. Whoever thought Greil Marcus had anything of value or merit to add to the lexicon of film artistry - much less one of the great works of film artistry - completely missed the boat - or doesn't care to see this film get the passionate discussion it deserves. BFI Film Classics have issued an incredible set of books devoted to individually worthy films - such as this one. But this must be the worst book in a truly great series. Honestly, this must be a joke. It's got to be. I don't care if Greil Marcus is a professor, esteemed or respected, outré-hip or passé-hip. This guy has no business talking about, reflecting on or wasting anybody's time with his useless commentary on film. He was the wrong man for the job. …This is not a book about film, the art of film, the art of this particularly magnificent film or the artists who had anything to do with this film. It's about Marcus and the way he views the world - or the way he views the world through the lens of this film. Again, who the hell cares? This film is far too important to be left to someone whose trite aphorisms are as meaningless as those of Greil Marcus - an alleged writer who seems awfully damned confident to write his subject off so easily.
George Hatch
Probably the Worst Entry in an Excellent Series
Greil Marcus is so out-of-sync with "The Manchurian Candidate" that he has absolutely nothing interesting or informative to say but manages to make his fifty-five page essay sound like one long run-on sentence. Each chapter is further padded with desperate introductory quotes -anything vaguely referencing the film- as Marcus belaboredly tries to build a case for - What? He has no point of view other than "The Manchurian Candidate" is the single best film between "Citizen Kane" and "The Godfather"; though is knowledge of film is questionable. He wildly overpraises the casting of a black actor as a psychiatrist, a professional, and asks, "How many other American movies use a black actor to play what audiences expect to be a white character without patting themselves on the back to congratulate themselves?" I guess he never saw Sam Fuller's 1951 film "The Steel Helmet".
…I have over two dozen commentaries from the BFI Modern Classics Series, each filed along side the DVD or VHS of the film itself. This book has no place in anyone's library. The definitive analysis of this classic has yet to be written, and but Marcus and BFI have misfired with this one.
MrHonorama
I'm particularly perplexed by his need to devote an entire chapter to denigrating the cast and director of the movie -- Marcus marvels that no one in this movie came close to producing art at this level. Yet, what is remarkable about this? A substantial number of great movies are a result of special convergences that one might not expect. Furthermore, maybe Frankenheimer, Sinatra and Lansbury never hit this height again (though Marcus is extremely disingenuous to Lansbury -- to cite Murder She Wrote and not note her distinguished stage career [Sweeney Todd, for example]) -- so what?
William S Pepper IV
Pompous, overdone, obtuse, containing barely intelligible ideas and meanings. The information and anecdotes are the only things that make it worth the time. I have never had to re read so many sentences in my life and still had no idea what was being expressed. A huge disappointment in more ways than one. The "take notes" in the epilogue were the best part.... Stripped of the author's pretentious windiness, there would be no book.
Flippy
I Don't Mean to Be Disparaging…
....But I think some people should not be allowed to be published.
Or have some books in print for that matter.
Especially this one.
I read about fifty pages and every page had the same long-winded sentences, the same rambling, the same self-important purple prose soaking up the space. All I kept thinking is this book ISN'T about Bob Dylan but about Greil Marcus' appreciation of Bob Dylan. In other words, this is the author spouting off and not really getting to the meat of his topic. (And really, it's obvious by the cover... Marcus' name is in a larger font than Dylan's.)
R Daniels
This book is more about Greil Marcus than it is about Bob Dylan. Marcus is always pretentious, long-winded and under foot in his writing, and he is at his absolute worst here. If you were to randomly choose a book about Dylan, you couldn't do worse than this one. One star, and even that is too generous.
Carlos Edmundo Lima
I tried hard; very hard but unfortunately I couldn't finish this book.
The author is boring and pretentious.
Zero star.
Mike Rudge
Candidate for the worst rock book (on the best song.)
Hard to imagine how this could be worse. Pompous and Flatulent at the same time. BEWARE
Garbageman
Asinine ramblings from an obsessed occultist
I can understand the significance of the song and its importance in blah, blah, blah. And yeah, it's a damn good song. But enough from Mr Marcus already. As if "The Old Weird America" / "Invisible Republic" wasn't maddening and embarrassing enough in its excessively flamboyant examination of minutiae, here we have an overblown and haughty trip through a self-absorbed fanship about a song that was written around the same time, pretty much. It's not even like Marcus tries to shed light on a particularly fascinating point in Dylan's career (say, the Christianity experience), but instead chooses such an obviously unoriginal topic, the influence of his sole most popular "hit", that the analysis itself can't be anything but banal.
…It also includes some inappropriate passages that, aside from showing just how out-of-touch Marcus is with contemporary cultural goings-on (underground and otherwise), are ridiculously ironic to say the least. Comparing the song "Like a Rolling Stone" in style and substance to the Pet Shop Boys' dance-remix cover version of the Village People's "Go West" should go down in history as one of the more outrageously contemptible displays of arrogance and insipidity ever put to paper. And his comparison goes on for PAGES.
Anne Folan
In the Immortal Words of Elvis Costello
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. This was the book that cured me of my belief that you have to finish reading any book you start. You leap at the first chance to escape the drunken bore at a party, right? Putting this book back on the shelf? Same thing.
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