August 8, 2026

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The Scraps Dossier

Pauline Kael

Reviews, essays and interviews by the critic whose voice changed the way American movies were discussed.

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180 articles
2001: A Space Odyssey

Reviews

Pauline Kael on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Pauline Kael’s infamous review of '2001: A Space Odyssey', where she referred to the movie as “trash masquerading as art” and “monumentally unimaginative.”

The Scraps dossier

Pauline Kael: the criticism, book by book

This hub reconstructs Kael’s published collections from their printed tables of contents and connects each entry to the corresponding essay or review when it is available on Scraps. Unlinked titles remain visible as a record of the complete volume.

01 Choose a volume

Open a book below to see its complete printed table of contents.

02 Follow the available essays

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03 Explore across books

Use "Browse the archive" above to search every piece by film, title or keyword.

First publications

Books by Pauline Kael

Original collections, in chronological order. Open a title for its complete table of contents.

1965I Lost It at the MoviesOriginal collection

Introduction

  • Zeitgeist and Poltergeist; Or, Are Movies Going to Pieces?

I: Broadsides

  • Fantasies of the Art-House Audience
  • The Glamour of Delinquency: On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Blackboard Jungle
  • Commitment and the Straitjacket: Room at the Top, Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, Sons and Lovers, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
  • Deep in the Divided Heart of Hollywood: Hud

II: Retrospective Reviews: Movies Remembered with Pleasure

III: Broadcasts and Reviews, 1961–1963

  • Breathless, and the Daisy Miller Doll
  • The Cousins
  • Canned Americana
  • West Side Story
  • L'Avventura
  • One, Two, Three
  • The Mark
  • Kagi
  • The Innocents
  • A View from the Bridge, and a Note on The Children's Hour
  • The Day the Earth Caught Fire
  • The Come-Dressed-As-the-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties: La Notte, Last Year at Marienbad, La Dolce Vita
  • A Taste of Honey
  • Victim
  • Lolita
  • Shoot the Piano Player
  • Jules and Jim
  • Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man
  • Fires on the Plain: Nobi
  • Replying to Listeners
  • Billy Budd
  • Yojimbo
  • Devi
  • How the Long Distance Runner Throws the Race
  • Confessions of a Movie Director: 8½

IV: Polemics

  • Is There a Cure for Film Criticism? Or, Some Unhappy Thoughts on Siegfried Kracauer's Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality
  • Circles and Squares (The attack on Andrew Sarris's auteur theory)
  • Morality Plays Right and Left
1968Kiss Kiss Bang BangOriginal collection

I. Trends

  • The Creative Business
  • A Sense of Disproportion: The Sand Pebbles, Grand Prix, Funeral in Berlin, The Quiller Memorandum
  • Movie Brutalists
  • So Off-beat We Lose the Beat: Georgy Girl, Morgan!, The Red Desert
  • Spoofing: Cat Ballou
  • Tourist in the City of Youth: Blow-Up
  • Saddle Sore: El Dorado, The War Wagon, The Way West
  • Bonnie and Clyde
  • The Making of "The Group": The Group

III. Reviews, 1965–1967

  • Night Games
  • The Comedy of Depravity: Accident
  • The Shameless Old Lady
  • Band of Outsiders
  • It's a Great Technique, but What Can You Do with It?: The Knack, Help!
  • The Moment of Truth
  • Madame X
  • Before the Revolution
  • A Man and a Woman
  • Masculine Feminine
  • Epics: The Bible, Hawaii, Dr. Zhivago
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
  • A Shaggy-Man Story: Boudu Saved from Drowning
  • The New Anne Bancroft, Already Boxed In: Seven Women, The Slender Thread
  • The Living Library: Fahrenheit 451
  • Southwestern: The Chase
  • A Man for All Seasons
  • Fantastic Voyage
  • Darling
  • Zorba the Greek and The Pawnbroker
  • The Glamour of Failure: La Guerre est finie
  • 10:30 P.M. Summer
  • Ulysses
  • Persona
  • Laurence Olivier as Othello
  • The Sound of . . .: The Sound of Music, The Singing Nun
  • Movies for Young Children: Born Free, Around the World Under the Sea

IV. Careers

  • Marlon Brando: An American Hero
  • Orson Welles: There Ain't No Way: Falstaff, Chimes at Midnight
  • The Intentions of Stanley Kramer: Ship of Fools

V. The Movie Past

1970Going SteadyOriginal collection

I. Movies by the Week: First Sequence

  • Movies as Opera: China Is Near
  • Celebrities Make Spectacles of Themselves: Wild 90
  • Ciphers: How to Save a Marriage - and Ruin Your Life, Sebastian
  • Intentions: Poor Cow
  • Making Lawrence More Lawrentian: The Fox
  • Apes Must Be Remembered, Charlie: Planet of the Apes, Sweet November, Doctor Faustus
  • A Great Folly, and a Small One: Intolerance, Charlie Bubbles
  • That Clean Old Peasant Again: The Two of Us, Bye Bye Braverman, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Matter of Innocence
  • Business as Usual: We Still Kill the Old Way, The Secret War of Harry Frigg
  • The Freedom to Make Product: 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
  • O Pioneer!: The Producers, Up the Junction, A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • The Old Wave: Benjamin, No Way to Treat a Lady
  • A Minority Movie: La Chinoise

III. Movies by the Week: Second Sequence

  • Bravo!: Funny Girl
  • Weekend in Hell: Weekend
  • War as Vaudeville: The Charge of the Light Brigade, Les Biches, You Are What You Eat, Duffy, Charly
  • "She Came at Me in Sections": Romeo and Juliet, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!, Finian's Rainbow, The Subject Was Roses
  • Cripes!: Star!, Bullitt, The Boston Strangler
  • A Fresh Start: Pretty Poison, Secret Ceremony, Barbarella
  • Lioness in Winter: The Lion in Winter
  • Muddling Through: The Shoes of the Fisherman, The Split, Head
  • Metamorphosis of the Beatles: Yellow Submarine
  • The Corrupt and the Primitive: Joanna, Faces
  • The Concealed Art of Carol Reed: Oliver!
  • Frightening the Horses: The Killing of Sister George, The Fixer, The Girl on a Motorcycle, A Flea in Her Ear, The Magus, The Birthday Party, Greetings
  • A Sign of Life: Shame
  • Big Misses: Ice Station Zebra, Candy, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
  • Filmed Theatre: The Sea Gull
  • Baggy Pants: The Night They Raided Minsky's, The Sergeant
  • Son of Little Caesar: The Brotherhood
  • Overkill?: The Stalking Moon
  • Saintliness: Simon of the Desert
  • The Lady from Across the Sea: Model Shop
  • He Walks in Beauty: Mayerling, Hell in the Pacific
  • The Small Winner: Stolen Kisses, Three in the Attic, The Night of the Following Day
  • School Days, School Days: If . . ., The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1973Deeper into MoviesOriginal collection

Part One

  • The Bottom of the Pit: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • Waiting for Orgy: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
  • Off with the Statues' Heads!: Oh! What a Lovely War, The Bed Sitting Room, A Walk with Love and Death, de Sade
  • High School and Other Forms of Madness: High School, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, The Madwoman of Chaillot
  • Somebody Else's Success: Paint Your Wagon, Lions Love
  • Private Worlds: The Sterile Cuckoo, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Duet for Cannibals, Coming Apart
  • The Once and Future King?: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Adalen 31, Hail, Hero!
  • Blood and Snow: In the Year of the Pig, Downhill Racer
  • Kazan's Latest Arrangements: The Arrangement
  • The Bourgeoisie and the Rabble: La Femme Infidèle, Futz, All the Loving Couples, Popcorn
  • Elfskin: The Comic
  • Exiles: Z, Alfred the Great
  • Gloria, the Girl Without Hope: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, John and Mary, Gaily, Gaily
  • Americana: The Reivers, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, Topaz
  • Keep Going: Hello, Dolly!, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Marooned, The Damned
  • English Bull: Hamlet, A Boy Named Charlie Brown
  • Blessed Profanity: M*A*S*H, Anne of the Thousand Days
  • The Man Who Loved War: Patton, Hospital
  • Duds: The Milky Way, The Molly Maguires, The Kremlin Letter, The Honeymoon Killers
  • Trends and Paroxysms: A Married Couple, End of the Road
  • The Beauty of Destruction: Zabriskie Point, The Looking Glass War
  • Recognizable Human Behavior: Loving, The Only Game in Town, Start the Revolution Without Me, The Magic Christian, Tropic of Cancer
  • Fellini's "Mondo Trasho": Fellini Satyricon
  • Scavengers with Computers: The Adventurers, Airport, The Boys in the Band
  • Lust for "Art": Women in Love

Part Two

  • Numbing the Audience
  • Mothers: Trash, The Baby Maker
  • Clobber-Movie: The Great White Hope, Monte Walsh, First Love
  • Kamikazes: Ice
  • Men in Trouble: I Never Sang for My Father, Goin' Down the Road, This Man Must Die, Little Fauss and Big Halsy, C. C. and Company
  • Mythmaking: Burn!, Queimada, The Twelve Chairs, Cromwell, WUSA
  • Team Work: The Owl and the Pussycat, Where's Poppa?, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Song of Norway
  • Bolt & Lean: Ryan's Daughter, Perfect Friday
  • Slapstick Tragedy: The Pizza Triangle, Bombay Talkie, Scrooge
  • Worlds Apart: Groupies, I Walk the Line
  • Stalinism: The Confession, The Act of the Heart
  • Beyond Pirandello: Gimme Shelter
  • Epic and Crumbcrusher: Little Big Man, Love Story
  • Megalomaniacs: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Husbands
  • Spawn of the Movies: Alex in Wonderland, Brewster McCloud, There Was a Crooked Man...
  • Notes on Heart and Mind
  • Genius: The Music Lovers
  • How Boys Grow Up: Bed and Board, Promise at Dawn
  • Blood and Sand: The Last Valley, Puzzle of a Downfall Child
  • Varieties of Paranoia: Little Murders, The Hour of the Furnaces
  • Misanthropic Movies: Doctors' Wives, The Sporting Club, The Garden of Delights
  • Eric Rohmer's Refinement: Claire's Knee, Wanda, A New Leaf
  • The Poetry of Images: The Conformist, The Andromeda Strain
  • Pipe Dream: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Klute, Carnal Knowledge, The Anderson Tapes

Part Three

  • A Movie Classic Is Not Nothing: Sunday Bloody Sunday
  • Movies in Movies: The Last Picture Show, The Last Movie, Skin Game
  • Helen of Troy, Sexual Warrior: The Trojan Women
  • Louis Malle's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog: Murmur of the Heart, The Début, T. R. Baskin
  • Urban Gothic: The French Connection
  • Cheaters: Long Ago, Tomorrow, Is There Sex After Death?
  • A Bagel with a Bite Out of It: Fiddler on the Roof
  • El Poto — Head Comics: El Topo
  • Winging It: Billy Jack
  • Notes on New Actors, New Movies: Born to Win, Going Home
  • Peter Brook's "Night of the Living Dead": King Lear, Man in the Wilderness, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
  • The Fall and Rise of Vittorio De Sica: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
  • Couples: Nicholas and Alexandra, Made for Each Other
  • Stanley Strangelove: A Clockwork Orange
  • Pleasing and Punishing: The Hospital, The Boy Friend, Such Good Friends
  • Saint Cop: Dirty Harry, Diamonds Are Forever
  • Baby Machos: The Cowboys
  • Peckinpah's Obsession: Straw Dogs
  • Killers and Thieves: Macbeth, The Hot Rock, Le Boucher
  • The Messiness of Love: X Y & Zee
  • Grinning: Cabaret
  • Literary Echoes - Muffled: Without Apparent Motive, Outback, Bartleby, To Die of Love
  • Alchemy: The Godfather
  • Collaboration and Resistance: The Sorrow and the Pity, What's Up, Doc?
1976ReelingOriginal collection

Part One

  • Soul Food: Sounder, The Emigrants
  • Sex in the Head: Chloe in the Afternoon, Bad Company
  • Dusty Pink: Young Winston, Two English Girls
  • The Irish Inheritance: A Sense of Loss, Fellini's Roma
  • Tango: Last Tango in Paris
  • Pop versus Jazz: Lady Sings the Blues
  • Anarchist's Laughter: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Play It As It Lays
  • Hyperbole and Narcissus: Savage Messiah
  • Foundering Fathers: 1776, The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book
  • Notes on Black Movies: Black Girl, Farewell Uncle Tom
  • New Thresholds, New Anatomies: The Heartbreak Kid, The Poseidon Adventure, Child's Play, Traffic
  • Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Sleuth, Man of La Mancha, The Getaway, Images
  • Star Mutations: Up the Sandbox, Pete 'n' Tillie, Jeremiah Johnson
  • Flesh: Cries and Whispers
  • Unfair: César and Rosalie, Travels with My Aunt, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
  • Poetry and Politics: The First Circle
  • Out of Tragedy, Suds: Limbo
  • Lady Zelda: Lady Caroline Lamb, Trick Baby, Under Milk Wood
  • The Businessman-Pimp as Hero: Save the Tiger, Steelyard Blues, If I Had a Gun
  • The Riddles of Pop: Payday, The Harder They Come
  • A Generation's Clown: Ten from Your Show of Shows
  • Crooks: Slither, The Thief Who Came to Dinner
  • Lost and Found: Lost Horizon, Days and Nights in the Forest
  • Kings: Ludwig, Two People
  • A Rip-off with Genius: Marilyn, A Biography by Norman Mailer

Part Two

  • After Innocence: The Last American Hero
  • Everyday Inferno: Mean Streets
  • Three: The Way We Were, Day for Night, The New Land
  • Movieland - The Bums' Paradise: The Long Goodbye
  • Un-People: The Paper Chase, Sisters
  • Moments of Truth: The Iceman Cometh, The Inheritor
  • Bloodless and Bloody: England Made Me, Charley Varrick
  • Politics and Thrills: The French Conspiracy, Executive Action
  • Humanoids and Androgynes: Westworld, Triple Echo, The Homecoming, The All-American Boy, Some Call It Loving
  • Strawberry Jam: Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
  • The Hero as Freak: Serpico
  • Labyrinths: Don't Look Now, Papillon
  • Survivor: Sleeper, The Sting, The Day of the Dolphin, The Glass Menagerie
  • Back to the Ouija Board: The Exorcist
  • Killing Time: Magnum Force
  • A New Voice for Hoffman: Alfredo Alfredo, Cinderella Liberty, The Laughing Policeman, Bone
  • Cicely Tyson Goes to the Fountain: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
  • Love and Coca-Cola: Thieves Like Us
  • Nicholson's High: The Last Detail, McQ
  • O Consuella!: Zardoz, Blazing Saddles
  • The Street Western: Walking Tall
  • The Used Madonna: The Mother and the Whore
  • A Brash Young Man: Conrack, Mame
  • Sugarland and Badlands: The Sugarland Express, Badlands

Part Three

  • On the Future of Movies (Kael's iconic critique of the corporate studio system)

Part Four

  • Lacombe, Lucien
  • Stuck in the Fun: The Night Porter, The Abdication, Juggernaut
  • The Actor and the Star: The Gambler, The Longest Yard
  • The Uprooted Artist: Law and Disorder, Gold, 11 Harrowhouse
  • Taking a Chance: Le Fantôme de la Liberté, Airport 1975, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
  • Spieler: Phantom of the Paradise
  • When the Saints Come Marching In: Lenny
  • Shearing the Sheep: The Trial of Billy Jack, The Savage Is Loose, The Groove Tube
  • Decadence: Earthquake, The Little Prince
  • Dames: Murder on the Orient Express, A Woman Under the Influence
  • Fathers and Sons: The Godfather, Part II
  • A Magnetic Blur: Young Frankenstein, The Towering Inferno
  • Woman on the Road: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
  • Pure Chrome: Stavisky, Les Violons du Bal
  • Hardboiled Valentine: The Front Page
  • Don't Touch Me: Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins, Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York
  • For Oscar's Sake: Report to the Commissioner
  • Beverly Hills as a Big Bed: Shampoo
  • Male Revenge: The Stepford Wives
  • Coming: Nashville: Nashville, A Brief Vacation
  • New York Self-hatred for Fun and Profit: The Prisoner of Second Avenue
  • Talent Isn't Enough: Funny Lady
  • The Rear Guard: At Long Last Love, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Yakuza
  • The Darned: The Day of the Locust
1980When the Lights Go DownOriginal collection

Part One

  • The Man from Dream City: Cary Grant

Part Two

  • Lazarus Laughs: Conversation Piece
  • The Visceral Poetry of Pulp: Hard Times, Three Days of the Condor, Smile
  • Living Inside a Movie: Hearts of the West, Royal Flash
  • Metaphysical Tarzan: The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser, Every Man for Himself and God Against All
  • All for Love: The Story of Adèle H., Mahogany
  • Horseplay: Rooster Cogburn, Conduct Unbecoming, Let's Do It Again
  • A Dream of Women: Distant Thunder
  • Walking into Your Childhood: The Magic Flute, The Sunshine Boys
  • Becoming an American: Hester Street, Black Moon, Lisztomania
  • The Bull Goose Loony: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • Poses: Rancho Deluxe, The Romantic Englishwoman
  • Political Acts: Special Section
  • Killing Yourself with Kindness: The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
  • Kubrick's Gilded Age: Barry Lyndon, Lucky Lady
  • Brotherhood Is Powerful: The Man Who Would Be King
  • Notes on the Nihilist Poetry of Sam Peckinpah: The Killer Elite
  • Kaputt: The Hindenburg, The Black Bird
  • Dirty Harry with Weltschmerz: Hustle
  • The Artist as a Young Comedian: Next Stop, Greenwich Village
  • Underground Man: Taxi Driver
  • Seven Fatties: Seven Beauties
  • Libel: Gable and Lombard

Part Three

  • Lion-Hearted Women: French Provincial, I Will, I Will. For Now
  • A Bit of Archie Rice: The Entertainer
  • A Piece of Music: Vincent, François, Paul, and the Others, Inserts
  • Suicide Is Painless: Robin and Marian
  • Creamed: Bugsy Malone, Sparkle
  • Charmed Lives: Small Change, The Front
  • Running into Trouble: Marathon Man, The Memory of Justice, America at the Movies
  • A Cuckoo Clock That Laughs: Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, Alex & the Gypsy
  • No Id: The Marquise of O..., Car Wash
  • The Hundred-Per-Cent Solution: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, A Matter of Time
  • Notes on Evolving Heroes, Morals, Audiences: Jaws, The Shootist, The Return of a Man Called Horse, Dog Day Afternoon, The Man Who Fell to Earth
  • Travesties: The Incredible Sarah, The Next Man, The Curse, Carrie
  • The Curse: Carrie
  • Stallone and Stahr: Rocky, The Last Tycoon
  • Hot Air: Network
  • Affirmation: Bound for Glory, Lumière
  • Here's to the Big One: King Kong
  • Contempt for the Audience: A Star Is Born
  • Processing Sludge: The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Silver Streak, Nickelodeon
  • Harlan County: Harlan County, U.S.A., The Enforcer
  • Werewolf, Mon Amour: Providence
  • The Late Show
  • Boss Ladies: Nasty Habits
  • Where We Are Now: Fun with Dick and Jane, Thieves, Fellini's Casanova
  • Hill's Pâté: Slap Shot
  • Stag Show: Islands in the Stream
  • Oh, Anomie, I Love You: Welcome to L.A., The Wonderful Crook

Part Four

  • Contrasts: Star Wars, The Truck, Short Eyes
  • The Sacred Oak: Padre Padrone, Bobby Deerfield
  • A Woman for All Seasons?: Julia
  • Heart/Soul: A Special Day, The American Friend
  • Goodbar, or How Nice Girls Go Wrong: Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Handle with Care
  • Hail, Folly!: 1900
  • The Lower Trash/The Higher Trash: Valentino, Equus
  • Scrambled Eggs: One Sings, the Other Doesn't
  • Shouldn't Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?: The Turning Point
  • The Greening of the Solar System: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • The Unjoy of Sex: The Man Who Loved Women, Roseland
  • Drip-Dry Comedy: Semi-Tough
  • Cutting Light: That Obscure Object of Desire
  • Nirvana: Saturday Night Fever
  • Fear of Heights: High Anxiety
  • Regressions: The Goodbye Girl, Iphigenia, The Gauntlet
  • The Duellists / The Battle of Chile
  • More Torment, or When They Broke the Silence: The Serpent's Egg
  • Soul-Snatching and Body-Snatching: The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain, Coma, Mr. Klein
  • The Calvary Gig: Renaldo & Clara
  • Mythologizing the Sixties: Coming Home
  • The Cotton Mather of the Movies: Blue Collar, The Betsy
  • Empathy, and Its Limits: An Unmarried Woman
  • “What symmetrical digits!”: Fingers
  • Shivers: The Fury, American Hot Wax, A Little Night Music

Part Five

  • Fear of Movies: National Lampoon's Animal House, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Heaven Can Wait, Hooper, Convoy, The Last Waltz, Eyes of Laura Mars, Interiors
  • Forty-eight Characters in Search of a Director: A Wedding, Bloodbrothers
  • Furry Freaks: Up in Smoke, Somebody Killed Her Husband, The Boys from Brazil
  • Bertrand Blier: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Calmos, Femmes Fatales, Going Places
  • Detectives - The Capon and the Baby Bowwow: Death on the Nile, The Big Fix
  • Saint Dorothy: The Wiz
  • Tentacles: Autumn Sonata
  • Enfant Terrible: Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, Comes a Horseman
  • Rocky's Knucklehead Progeny: Paradise Alley, Slow Dancing in the Big City
  • Movie Yellow Journalism: Midnight Express
  • Taming the Movies: Movie Movie, Same Time, Next Year
  • Manic/Depressive: Goin' South, Magic
  • The God-Bless-America Symphony: The Deer Hunter
  • Pods: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  • The Package: Superman
  • Simon & Ross — The Compassion Boys: California Suite
  • Doused: The Last Wave, Hot Tomorrows
  • Steam Engines: The Great Train Robbery, The Innocent
  • No Contest: Hardcore, Once in Paris, Halloween
  • The Altman Bunker: Quintet, Agatha
  • Rumbling: The Warriors
1984Taking It All InOriginal collection
  • Devolution: The Shining
  • Why Are Movies So Bad? Or, The Numbers (The highly analytical industry essay)
  • Muckrakers and Saints: Brubaker, The Blues Brothers
  • Boys and Girls: The Blue Lagoon, Urban Cowboy
  • Master Spy, Master Seducer: Dressed to Kill
  • Craft: Honeysuckle Rose
  • Who and Who: Willie & Phil, Airplane!, The Great Santini, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Special Edition)
  • Australians: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The Getting of Wisdom
  • As Swift as Buzzard Flies: The Stunt Man, Those Lips, Those Eyes
  • The Man Who Made Howard Hughes Sing and the Iron-Butterfly Mom: Melvin and Howard, Ordinary People
  • The Frog Who Turned into a Prince / The Prince Who Turned into a Frog: The Elephant Man, Stardust Memories
  • Dizzy, Dizzy, Dizzy: Private Benjamin, Divine Madness, Used Cars
  • The Civilization of the Rump: Every Man for Himself
  • Religious Pulp, or the Incredible Hulk: Raging Bull
  • Poses: Heaven's Gate, The Idolmaker, Resurrection
  • The Funnies: Popeye, Flash Gordon
  • Sensory Deprivation: Altered States, The Competition
  • Victims: Tess, Kagemusha
  • Abel Gance: Napoléon
  • The Itch to Act: Fort Apache, the Bronx
  • Tramont's Mirror / Women à la Mode: All Night Long, Caddie, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Nine to Five
  • Love, War, and Custodial Services: La Cage aux Folles II, The Dogs of War, Eyewitness
  • Chance/Fate: Atlantic City, The Postman Always Rings Twice
  • Boorman's Plunge: Excalibur
  • Safes and Snouts: Thief, The Howling
  • Waddlers and Bikers: Caveman, Knightriders, Zombi, Dawn of the Dead
  • Sad Songs: This Is Elvis, Heartworn Highways
  • Whipped: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Cattle Annie and Little Britches
  • Hey, Torquemada: History of the World - Part I, Outland
  • Good News: Dragonslayer, Superman II, Stripes
  • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gadgeteer: Blow Out, Arthur, Zorro, the Gay Blade
  • Dunaway Assoluta: Mommie Dearest, The French Lieutenant's Woman, So Fine
  • Three Pairs: True Confessions, Chariots of Fire, Rich and Famous
  • Childhood of the Dead: Pixote, Looker, Continental Divide, Body Heat
  • The Swamp: Southern Comfort, Ticket to Heaven, Ragtime
  • The Devil in the Flesh: The Devil's Playground, On Golden Pond
  • Dreamers: Pennies from Heaven, Reds
  • Flag Nag: Four Friends, My Dinner with André, Absence of Malice
  • Shoot the Moon: Shoot the Moon
  • Melted Ice Cream: One from the Heart, The Border
  • The Man Who Understands Women: Personal Best
  • Carry Your Own Matches: Quest for Fire, Missing, Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man
  • Francesco Rosi: Three Brothers
  • Comedians: Diner, Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip, Deathtrap
  • Rhapsody in Blue: Diva
  • Audience Pleaser: Victor/Victoria, Cat People
  • A Devil Without Fire: Mephisto
  • Fighters: Smash Palace, Annie, Rocky III
  • The Pure and the Impure: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist, The Escape Artist
  • The Only Logical Thing to Do: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Baby, the Rain Must Fall: Blade Runner
  • Comedy Without Impulse: A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Author! Author!
  • Texans: Barbarosa, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
  • Neutered: The World According to Garp, An Officer and a Gentleman
  • Action: The Road Warrior
  • Buzzers: Tempest, Night Shift
  • Actors as Heroes: My Favorite Year, Tex, Le Beau Mariage
  • Up the River: Fitzcarraldo, Burden of Dreams
  • Rice Krispies: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sweet Hours, Jinxed!
  • The Magician: Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
  • Designs for Living: Leap Into the Void, By Design, Eating Raoul
  • Raunch and Reticence: Heartaches, Still of the Night
  • Tootsie, Gandhi, and Sophie: Tootsie, Gandhi, Sophie's Choice
  • The Cool and the Dead: 48 Hrs., The Verdict
  • Hopeless: Coup de Torchon, Best Friends
  • Memory: The Night of the Shooting Stars
  • Torrid Zone: The Year of Living Dangerously
  • Jokers: The King of Comedy, Lovesick
  • Night Life: Local Hero, Tales of Ordinary Madness, La Nuit de Varennes
  • Saved!: Say Amen, Somebody, Bad Boys
  • Gents and Hicks: The Flight of the Eagle, Tender Mercies
  • Fun Machines: Return of the Jedi, Blue Thunder
  • Ingmar Bergman's Family Reunion: Fanny and Alexander, WarGames
1985State of the ArtOriginal collection
  • Silliness: The Man with Two Brains, Octopussy, Flashdance
  • Time-Warp Movies: Superman III, Trading Places, Betrayal
  • Hysterics: The Survivors, Twilight Zone-The Movie
  • Anybody Home?: Zelig, The Grey Fox
  • Framed: The Draughtsman's Contract, Staying Alive
  • Sex and Politics: Pauline at the Beach, Risky Business, Daniel
  • A Bad Dream/A Masterpiece: The Moon in the Gutter, The Leopard
  • On Golden Swamp: Cross Creek, Lonely Hearts
  • The Sevens: The Right Stuff, The Big Chill
  • Image Makers: Under Fire
  • Hair: Heart Like a Wheel, Educating Rita
  • The Perfectionist: Yentl, Star 80
  • Retro Retro: Terms of Endearment, Never Cry Wolf
  • A De Palma Movie for People Who Don't Like De Palma Movies: Scarface
  • Busybody: Silkwood, To Be or Not To Be
  • Vanity, Vainglory, and Lowlife: The Dresser, Uncommon Valor, Sudden Impact
  • Vulgarians and Ascetics: Broadway Danny Rose, Basileus Quartet
  • Comedy, Epic, Sitcom: The Lonely Guy, El Norte, Blame It on Rio
  • The Women: Entre Nous, Footloose
  • King Candy: Splash, Against All Odds
  • Hugh Hudson of the Apes: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Racing with the Moon, Unfaithfully Yours
  • Circus: Moscow on the Hudson
  • Exaltation/Escapism: Iceman, Romancing the Stone
  • Smaller Than Life: Swing Shift
  • The Candidate: The Natural, Sixteen Candles
  • A Breeze, a Bawd, a Bounty: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Eréndira, The Bounty
  • The Pop Junkpile: Gremlins, Ghostbusters
  • Sneaks, Ogres, and the D.T.S: The 4th Man, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Under the Volcano
  • Ethnics: The Pope of Greenwich Village
  • The Woman Question: The Bostonians, Repo Man
  • The Charismatic Half-and-Halfs: Purple Rain, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
  • Roger & Edwina, Sheena, and Uncle Jean: All of Me, Sheena, First Name: Carmen
  • Tight Little Thriller: Dreamscape, Country, Swann in Love, Tightrope
  • Mirrors: Utu, Places in the Heart
  • Mozart and Bizet: Amadeus, Bizet's Carmen
  • Faked Out, Cooled Out, Bummed Out: The Little Drummer Girl, Stranger Than Paradise, Body Double
  • Three Cheers: Stop Making Sense, Comfort and Joy, A Soldier's Story
  • Unreal: The Killing Fields, Falling in Love, Independence Day
  • David and Goliath: Dune, Beverly Hills Cop, Choose Me
  • Fever Dream/Echo Chamber: Mrs. Soffel, The Cotton Club
  • Unloos'd Dreams: A Passage to India
  • Lovers and Fools: Micki & Maude, Starman, The Flamingo Kid
  • Schoolboys: The Falcon and the Snowman, Birdy
  • Plain and Simple: Witness, Blood Simple
  • Golden Kimonos: The Makioka Sisters, The Return of the Soldier, The Mean Season
  • Charmer: The Purple Rose of Cairo, A Private Function
  • Coddled: Lost in America, The Breakfast Club
  • Passion: Heartbreakers, Desperately Seeking Susan
  • The Muddle Ages: Ladyhawke
  • Tidal: Once Upon a Time in America
  • Slaphappy and Not So Happy: What Have I Done to Deserve This!, Dangerous Moves, A View to a Kill, Stick
  • Extremes: The Shooting Party, Rambo: First Blood Part II
  • Ripeness: Prizzi's Honor, The Home and the World
1989HookedOriginal collection
  • Arf: Secret Honor, Cocoon
  • Living Out a Song: Songwriter, Back to the Future, Silverado
  • Pop Mystics: Pale Rider, The Emerald Forest, Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of "Heaven's Gate"
  • Tangled Webs: Kiss of the Spider Woman, Dance with a Stranger
  • The Great White Hope: Year of the Dragon, Compromising Positions
  • Airhead's Delight: After Hours
  • Dead on Arrival: Plenty, Wetherby
  • Heroines: Sweet Dreams, Dreamchild, Marie
  • Knife, Bike, and Book: Jagged Edge, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, The Story of the Lost Reflection
  • Straitjackets: White Nights, Re-Animator
  • Hugging: Eleni, Target, Twice in a Lifetime
  • Sacred Monsters: Out of Africa, The Color Purple, Shoah
  • Macro, Micro, Stinko: Ran, The Trip to Bountiful, Revolution
  • Lasso and Peashooter: Fool for Love, Young Sherlock Holmes
  • White and Gray: Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Brazil
  • Couples: The Best of Times, Hannah and Her Sisters, F/X
  • Yes, Yes: My Beautiful Laundrette, Kaos
  • Twits, Turtles, Creeps: A Room with a View, Turtle Diary, Smooth Talk
  • Mars: Pretty in Pink, Trouble in Mind
  • Lost Souls: Ginger and Fred, Crossroads
  • Man in a Bind: Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, Violets Are Blue, Just Between Friends
  • Drifters, Dopes, and Dopers: Vagabond, Wise Guys, 8 Million Ways to Die
  • Fizzle / A*I*D*A: Absolute Beginners, Sweet Liberty
  • Brutes: Mona Lisa, Top Gun
  • Thefts: Raw Deal, The Manhattan Project, Legal Eagles, Mike's Murder
  • Toads: About Last Night . . ., Ruthless People
  • Pig Heaven: Salvador, Back to School
  • Pairs: Club Paradise, Heartburn, Aliens
  • Ersatz: Men . . ., Stand by Me, Nothing in Common
  • Out There and In Here: Blue Velvet
  • Bodies: The Fly, She's Gotta Have It
  • Quests for America: True Stories, Peggy Sue Got Married, Down by Law
  • Scorsese's Showmanship: The Color of Money
  • Doubling Up: Something Wild
  • Families: Crimes of the Heart, The Decline of the American Empire
  • The Good, the So-So, and the Ugly: Nutcracker, The Motion Picture, The Morning After, Heartbreak Ridge
  • Little Shocks, Big Shocks: Little Shop of Horrors, Platoon
  • At Fifteen: Thérèse, Brighton Beach Memoirs
  • Killer-Diller: The Stepfather, Touch and Go, The Bedroom Window
  • Virgins, Vamps, and Floozies: The Hour of the Star, Black Widow, Outrageous Fortune
  • Niceness: Radio Days, Defense of the Realm
  • Not for the Ages: Tin Men, The Good Father, Swimming to Cambodia, Angel Heart
  • Manypeeplia Upsidownia: Law of Desire, Raising Arizona, Street Smart
  • Vamps: Prick Up Your Ears, The Secret of My Success
  • Nannies and Noncoms: Personal Services, Gardens of Stone
  • Noodles: Tampopo, Ishtar
  • Happy Feet, Dead Heads: Roxanne, River's Edge
  • Broad Strokes: The Untouchables, The Witches of Eastwick
  • Ponderoso: Full Metal Jacket, Jean de Florette
  • A Lady Surrenders: Wish You Were Here, Eat the Peach, Innerspace
  • Siblings and Cyborgs: Good Morning, Babylon, La Bamba, RoboCop
  • Tender Hooey: Dirty Dancing, Stakeout, Nadine
  • No Shelter: Hamburger Hill, No Way Out, The Big Easy
  • Temporary Madnesses: Forster, Mailer, Hepburn: Maurice, Tough Guys Don't Dance, The Making of "The African Queen"; or, How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind
  • 8, 19, 17½: Hope and Glory, The Pick-up Artist, Dark Eyes
  • The Feminine Mystique: Fatal Attraction, Baby Boom, The Princess Bride
  • Cons: Weeds, Barfly, Someone to Watch Over Me
  • Mindspeak: Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Made in Heaven, Suspect
  • The Manchurian Conformist: The Last Emperor, Cry Freedom
  • Irish Voices: The Dead, Housekeeping
  • Religious Experiences: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Empire of the Sun
  • Fakers: Broadcast News, Ironweed, Good Morning, Vietnam
  • Loony Fugue: Moonstruck, September
  • Take Off Your Clothes: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  • The Lady from the Sea: High Tide, Au Revoir les Enfants
  • God's Pickpockets: Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, Hairspray
  • A Smooth Sail: Masquerade, Frantic, Switching Channels
  • Soft Light and Hellfire: High Season, Pass the Ammo
  • Boo!: Beetlejuice, Bright Lights, Big City
  • Art Tour: Colors, Love Is a Dog from Hell
  • Red on Red: Matador, Dark Habits
  • Zone Poem: Wings of Desire, Willow
  • Outside: A World Apart, Lady in White
  • Sunshine: Bull Durham, Big, Big Business
1991Movie LoveOriginal collection

Reading across the decades

Retrospective collections

Later selections are indexed separately so their contents can link back to the original essays without being mistaken for new review cycles.

1994For Keeps: 30 Years at the MoviesAuthor-selected retrospective

Part One: From "I Lost It at the Movies" (1965)

Part Five: From "Deeper into Movies" (1973)

Part Six: From "Reeling" (1976)

Part Seven: From "When the Lights Go Down" (1980)

  • The Late Show
  • About Paul Newman (from review of Slap Shot)
  • Marguerite Duras: The Truck
  • Going Places
  • From Review of The Wiz
  • Midnight Express Movie Yellow Journalism
  • The Deer Hunter
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  • From Review of Peter Weir's The Last Wave

Part Eight: From "Taking It All In" (1984)

Part Nine: From "State of the Art" (1985)

Part Ten: From "Hooked" (1989)

  • Songwriter
  • Steven Bach's Final Cut
  • Sweet Dreams
  • Dreamchild
  • Re-Animator
  • About Kate Nelligan (from review of Eleni)
  • The Color Purple
  • Down and Out in Beverly Hills
  • Hannah and Her Sisters
  • My Beautiful Laundrette
  • From Review of The Taviani Brothers' Kaos
  • 8 Million Ways to Die
  • Mona Lisa
  • Top Gun
  • Mike's Murder
  • Blue Velvet
  • From Review of Something Wild
  • Crimes of the Heart
  • Little Shop of Horrors
  • Platoon
  • The Stepfather
  • The Hour of the Star
  • Law of Desire
  • Street Smart
  • Tampopo
  • Roxanne
  • The Witches of Eastwick
  • Full Metal Jacket
  • Jean de Florette
  • Hope and Glory
  • Fatal Attraction
  • The Last Emperor
  • The Dead Irish Voices
  • The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
  • Moonstruck
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  • High Tide
  • Beetlejuice
  • Wings of Desire
  • Big Business

Part Eleven: From "Movie Love" (1991)

2011The Age of MoviesSelected writings, edited by Sanford Schwartz