Wednesday 25 February 2009

Judge the Rich

I love reading reviews of stuff I've already seen or read, especially reviews that bash it, and rather perversely, especially reviews that bash or at least criticise films or books or shows that I like.

Anyhow, today I was reading IMDB reviews for a movie I really like, 'The Remains of the Day'.

One comment stuck out to me - it said it was a great film but its "weakness" was that "it didn't judge the rich". (the review seemed to feel that negative judgment ought to have been passed)

Is that a weakness in a film - NOT judging the rich? Would it be a weakness in a film to judge or pass judgment on the poor, and especially to make a negative judgment?

I think a lot of people would say that it would be a weakness to allow such judgment at all - that is their situation could be portrayed but to make an ethical judgment based simply on their economic situation or to generalise about the group would be 'wrong'.

So why should we do any differently for the rich ... just because they are rich and they've had it good enough in other ways we don't feel we have to be fair in terms of 'judging'?

1 comment:

TimT said...

I love reading reviews after I've seen a film, too. And it's always fun, after having watched an unwatchable film, going to the review and reading 'DO NOT WATCH THIS UNWATCHABLE FILM'. Grimly satisfying.

As for the rich, it's okay to judge rich people until you are a rich people. Then the only people you're able to judge are the poor (and if you're a rich person, judging the poor is not only expected, it's compulsory).