While Roger Ebert remains as my favorite movie critic, close behind is David Thomson. His love of movies vastly eclipses mine, but his tastes and my tastes coincide on many films.
“By “the movies”, incidentally, he [Thomson] means Hollywood, with a side order of established European and east Asian arthouse: he takes us from the cine-prehistory of photographer Eadweard Muybridge to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, DW Griffith’s Birth of a Nation with its sinister Ku Klux Klan hero-worship, Chaplin, Stroheim, Hitchcock, Capra, Renoir, Bogart, Marilyn Monroe in The Seven-Year Itch, Monroe Stahr in The Last Tycoon, Scorsese’s GoodFellas, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (“Is it drive or dream?”), Kirk Douglas and his alleged rape of Natalie Wood, Barbara Loden’s Wanda, Sean Baker’s Anora, Tracey Emin’s Why I Never Became a Dancer and much more.” (Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian, Mon 20 Jul 2026)
I’ve read several histories of Hollywood, but A Sudden Flicker of Light is a distillation of the 40 books David Thomson has written. Thomson seemingly has seen every movie ever made. And, he has strong opinions about all of them. Some might quibble about Thomson’s fixation on profit and losses in the film industry. Some might bristle at Thomson’s provocative generalizations about classic movies.
Thomson proclaims Steven Spielberg as “the most decisive figure in the history of film, a guy who came upon an art experimenting with difficulty or doubt and talked it in off the ledge”.
While reading A Sudden Flicker of Light I would get a vague sense that this could be David Thomson’s last book–he’s 85 years old. But A Sudden Flicker of Light demonstrates he still has his wits and his critical senses. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Fade away — 1
- A couple on the beach — 3
2. The sea is moving — 9
3. Who’s in charge? — 23
4. Like lightning — 37
5. Going to Death Valley — 47
6. Our metropolis — 57
7. Attention must be paid — 69
8. Wait a minute — 77
9. Cutting could be cuter — 93
10. Vagrants in the limelight — 109
11. Style and nature — 127
12. The scorpion and the frog — 139
13. Hitler’s hand — 153
14. A cobra and the rats — 167
15. Fatale — 183
16. Voyeur beware — 195
17. The waves — 200
18. Ain’t life grand? — 225
19. “I’m with you” — 241
20. Our lap dance — 261
21. The big boys — 281
22. Look — 303
23. “Quiet, piggy? — 317
Fade out — 323
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS — 325
SOURCE NOTES –– 329
INDEX — 347
I’m familiar with him but I don’t read him. My limited exposure to his work gives me the impression that, like too many critics, he fell into the trap of fashioning his work and himself into one of those niche celebrity/brand critics that used to be so prevalent before the internet and that inevitably distorts one’s judgment.
The quote about Spielberg is ludicrous. The guy certainly help the movies rediscover fun (and a little wonder) again but they also helped lower the bar to the floor in terms of depth and artistry in a way it has yet to recover from. If you look at Hollywood films in the decades before and after “Jaws” it’s depressing as hell.
That said, I used to love reading pop culture criticism, especially film (though the last 25 years of banality beat that out of me) so I know where you’re coming from. Enjoy.
I think, Byron, that that is part, at least, of what the quotation from Thomson is getting at, about Spielberg. His ridiculous level of success is certainly one of the drivers of megabudget foolishness in today’s films.
The ledge, however, as I read the quotation too quickly probably, has been the precursor to falling to the ground floor shallowness.
Todd, I agree with you. But AI is going to change EVERYTHING!
Byron, to me Spielberg’s historic importance to the movie Industry was inventing the Summer Blockbuster. The success of JAWS launched a whole new Hollywood strategy of releasing “big” films during the summer months. Spielberg and Lucas also gave their films “a Sense of Wonder” that was missing for decades. Now, the whole movie enterprise is threatened by Artificial Intelligence.
Eh. The likes of DR. ZHIVAGO and 2001 had plenty of SensaWonda. Spielbefg and Lucas made mostly dumb films with pretty flashes.
Todd, you might be right…but audiences went to those dumb films in droves!
Also true of ZHIVAGO (not exactly an art film, to be sure, but a bit more sophisticated than every Spielberg film) and 2001. Kids did go more often, particularly in the ’70s…
While you two are by no means twins, George, that photo suggests to me that you could easily pass for cousins.
I’ve barely read his work, but as I have enjoyed the collected reviews of Kathi Maio, John Simon, and a number of others, I might give this a try.
A selection of Maio, if interested…I’d read her FEMINIST IN THE DARK before she was asked to be the new film/a/v critic at F&SF. https://fandsf.com/dkathimaio.htm
Todd, I’ve always enjoyed Kathi Maia’s thought-provoking reviews.
Todd, I’ve read several of David Thomson’s books on movies. His love for Hollywood shines through in every book even when he’s critical.
Never heard of him!
Bob, you should check David Thomson’s books out.