The 50 Year Argument

Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, known in the movie industry mainly for his work as an editor, collaborated in directing this excellent documentary on the history, value, and impact of the legendary New York Review of Books, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013. The documentary was released a year later and it contains several interviews with major contributors narrating their experiences from the magazine which hosted articles on various subjects such as literature, culture, economics, science, politics, and others. The magazine established itself as an influential, liberal and -above all- independent medium for all those who wished for a place in which free-thinking was not only permitted but also desirable. I will name just a few of the many of the country's intellectual giants who have featured reviews and articles throughout the magazine's existence: Harold Bloom, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dworkin, Gore Vidal, Vladimir Nabokov, Jean-Paul Sartre and a whole galaxy of other major thinkers. New York Review of Books' first editors were Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein. Epstein edited the magazine from 1963 (its foundation year) till 2006 when she passed away. From then until his death in 2017, Silvers was the sole editor.

The documentary uses mainly interviews in order to serve its purpose as well as archive footage which brings the audience closer to the last 50 years of American history. All large-scale events during that time-span were covered by the magazine, for example, the Vietnam war, the birth of the feminist movement, the "enhanced interrogation techniques" -a euphemism for torture- used by the American government, etc. The directors chose to quote directly from certain articles/reviews and the words are wonderfully accompanied by a strong visual illustration, helping the audience understand why each thing is mentioned. It is a rather dense documentary, nevertheless not lengthy (its runtime does not exceed the 97 minutes) and the viewer absorbs lots of information from the beginning until the end. The 50 Year Argument was screened in several International Film Festivals (Berlin, Toronto, Jerusalem, Tokyo) and it was aired on HBO on September 29, 2014.

Whether or not you are a fan of the New York Review of Books magazine, this is a documentary that will satisfy you as it is a great way to learn more about the history of the United States from the middle of the last century until today. It is an oasis for the critical and demanding reader who seems to be unable to find high-quality journalism from the mainstream media and longs for text pieces that help him develop intellectually. Concluding I will quote a phrase from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about The 50 Year Argument that condense the documentary's overall character : " The 50-Year Argument is a rare animal among documentaries because it honors intellectualism - a dirty word in some quarters - rather than a person or an event and proves that ideas are powerful and effective in the hands of serious-minded people."

The 50 Year Argument, the new documentary codirected by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, opens with a tender and hard-hitting monologue about the subjectivity of journalistic stories due to the impossibility of the human mind being able to objectively record and store memories from our lives. Because of this mental improbability, we rely on stories we tell ourselves or stories we read in newspapers or online to receive our information, and we use that as the makeup for our opinions and our ideas about the world. This monologue was taken from an article written by Oliver Sacks from "The New York Review of Books" in 2013 and it sets the right tone for the documentary, which serves as a ninety-minute history of the publication.

"The New York Review of Books" has been a cornerstone for literary criticism and opinion on social and political ideas since 1963. We learn how, from the get-go, the magazine was never interested in denoting a bias or acting as a politically involved piece of literature in a sea where numerous other publications fulfill that same need. Instead, the magazine decided to be a haven for well-written, intelligently-researched and organized publication catering to those who love literature, classic and contemporary, and those who enjoy reading well-articulated, eloquent editorials on social and political ideas. The magazine, we see, is almost like a coffeeshop on the pages of a book, minus the aroma of coffee and the environmental perks of a social resting place; it's a collection of editorials by readers for readers and its essays have gone on to be highly-regarded pieces of criticism.

The 50 Year Argument shows the magazine's emergence during the bitter writers strike and Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's to become a beloved source for thought-provoking ideas to flourish. For starters, at only ninety-one minutes, there's an evident amount of rushing present to try and hit all the main points of the magazine's history, making the film feel like a greatest hits compilation of sorts. This means that no singular news story can be developed in its entirety, which allows for more topics to be mentioned and analyzed, but not enough to truly make one seriously contemplate any specific issues.

In addition, The 50 Year Argument occasionally becomes redundant, as it is basically a montage of talking heads discussing the magazine's significance, rather than developing on specific issues or how exactly the magazine is put together. Scorsese and Tedeschi desperately try to make sure every writer and editor is included in the film that it isn't until the film is over that you realize you really can't identify anyone else in the film except for Robert Lane, the magazine's chief editor.

The 50 Year Argument will no doubt be embraced and thoroughly enjoyed by loyal readers of "The New York Review of Books," and the magazine really deserves a film to analyze and state its significance and its role in many different news stories since the early 1960's. Yet, despite the generous runtime and the admirable attempt of inclusion, I can't help but feel this was an exercise much too lengthy for its own good.

NOTE: The 50 Year Argument will air throughout the month of October 2014 on HBO.

Directed by: Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi.

Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi's documentary looks at the 50-year run of the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS. With Robert Silvers at the helm, the magazine has established itself as a vehicle for liberal-minded, independent thinking; it has never shied away from controversy. This is chiefly due to Silvers' policy of encouraging the best writers to contribute, irrespective of their socio-political views. The cast-list of contributors reads like a litany of great writers over the past five decades, including Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Colm Toibin, Robert Lowell, Derek Walcott, Noam Chomsky, Mary McCarthy and Timothy Garton Ash. The film includes extracts from several articles, attesting to the quality of the writing, as well as archive footage of interviews with many of the writers involved; there is a particularly juicy sequence from THE DICK CAVETT SHOW in which Mailer and Vidal go head-to-head over the issues of sexism and feminism. And yet there is a strong sense in which the magazine's commitment to liberal values is actually quite conservative in orientation: most of the writers originate from the Anglo-American literary and cultural traditions, and, while they are critical of certain issues, there is always a sense that they are in some way wise after the event. They seldom seem to engage in political or social issues, but remain on the outside, distilling their impressions for a bourgeois, middle-class readership. What THE NEW YORK REVİEW OF BOOKS OFFERS is a safe, comforting construction of liberalism designed for western audiences, based on consensus and peaceful protest. The fact that such values might not be shared by members of other cultures is not actively considered. While the documentary pays tribute to the work of many of its writers, its theme becomes rather repetitive. Perhaps the time has come for a change of editor, if only to introduce alternative - and perhaps antiliberal voices - into the magazine's literary conversations.