Harlan Ellison's Watching

Harlan Ellison is a paradox for me. I like his writing... when he's not writing science fiction. I don't really care for his style in fiction. But I loved his TV review books, "The Glass Teat" and "The Other Glass Teat". (These titles are unfortunately long out of print, but used copies are out there.) I also had the pleasure of seeing Ellison at a book signing, and he is absolutely hilarious in person. He's one of the best monologists I've ever seen, and his razor sharp wit is deadly to all, including the audience. (I refer to him as "The Don Rickles of science fiction".) So, about *this* book. Ellison always has an opinion, and he's always ready to share it with anyone. And he's an incredibly intelligent man. As other reviewers have noted, have a dictionary at hand when reading this book! I didn't agree with a lot of Ellison's opinions. But they were always informative, and very entertaining. This book covers movies back to the '60s, so it really brought back some memories. Many of the films reviewed were ones I had seen when they came out (yeah, I'm an old fart). Others I had missed. But Ellison's reviews made me want to see the ones I had missed, and re-watch many of the ones I had. I've even thought of getting some friends together for a regular "Review A Movie Along With Harlan Ellison" night. But some of the more interesting movies aren't available in any format. "Mickey One", for example, which Ellison described as "the finest American film of the year, and possibly of many years!" His review really made me want to see the film. But it's out of print, not available, as far as I can tell never came out on DVD. If you want a review book that will just give you ideas about what to rent for the weekend, skip this book. But if you want something that will make you think, that will stretch your mind a bit, that will make you want to search out obscure movies, The "Harlan Ellison's Watching" is just the ticket.

My first edition of this book has over 500 pages. The "new" edition has half this? Is this an edited down version? Or does it have tiny type? What? My rating is for the hardcover edition. Maybe someone can explain it. I might have bought it, but information is scant.

You'll learn more from one Harlan Ellison movie review than you did in a week of any college history or media class.He's done the screenplays for various movies to varying degrees of quality, and he's honest about that, which gives him MAD credibility points with me (self-effacing is the path to free, open blasting of others). He blasts movies on the premise that, if they're bad, they've lied to you and sucked the very life out of your existence and should be punished. He's got lots of backstage insight and, even though a great deal of the films in this book are dated by the nature of the films discussed (ever seen a 10 page essay about how bad "Gremlins" was?) which slows the book down in spots, it's over 400 pages of the most erudite, informed, intellectually stimulating slamming you've ever read. He makes you want to go to the video store and stock up on everything in the 80s to see if its as bad as he says it is. I don't agree with every review (and some reviews aren't even reviews, but diatribes about how jacked up society and art is, and these are often chilling), but I am thoroughly engaged with every review, and what more could you ask for?A must for movie fans or anyone looking for intelligent writing that dares you to not own a dictionary. The book literally makes you smarter.

The written reviews have much more to give in terms of sheer entertainment value then the moves themselves. If you run across this in a library check it out, it shows how movies reviews should be done