The Life and Career of a Critic
Detroit News film critic Tom Long is moving into retirement.
As newspapers downsize throughout the country there are forms of art and information that are being lost. Photojournalists, beat reporters, film critics… these are all diminishing segments of print journalism. But if you visit Rotten Tomatoes to get your movie reviews you may have seen one name from Detroit papers consistently rise to the top of critical reviews. Tom Long is a long time film critic with the Detroit News whose opinion on the art of cinema has been widely respected. And now Tom Long is retiring from the paper. Here to talk about his career in the papers and with the movies is Tom Long.
First Review: Long’s first review happened to be one of Henderson’s favorites, a certain Bruce Willis action movie. “The first movie I ever reviewed was Die Hard,” Long says. “We gather around the hearth every Christmas Eve and watch Die Hard.”
Western: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one film that Long says still resonates with him from childhood. Paul Newman and Robert Redford have “the smoothness of Newman and Redford together… they just have wonderful chemistry,” says Long.
Change: Long approaches films as a marker for societal change, saying that “Films are a mirror…we see ourselves and the changes in society.”
To hear more of their conversation, click the link above.
