An Apology, a Retraction, and the Power of Storytelling

First, I have to apologize. On Monday I published a piece that, first and foremost, was poorly written. I should not have published it for that reason alone. It sparked discussion, both here, at Alex Thompson’s blog, James Ewing’s blogs, and on the Filmspotting forum. Worse still, I wrote a post specifically designed to draw a reaction without consideration of the meaning of my words. The idea was to write an article that James could then respond to, thus starting a bit of a back and forth. I certainly succeeded at this, but I staked out a position so extreme that it lacked any semblance of logic or reasonability.

This is where the retraction comes in. Many of the things I said in that piece, most notably the idea that only narrative films are “real” films, were not representative of what I truly believe. I was playing provocateur, and doing so poorly. I was pushing some legitimate views to a disingenuous extreme, like a cinephilic Mitt Romney selling out my integrity to sound like a Tea Partier. It was stupid, and I take it all back.

Well, not quite all of it. There were, of course, kernels of truth to which I can still attach myself. Primarily, the power and importance of storytelling in cinema. Now, let’s see if we can go ahead and talk about it reasonably.