Pulp Thrills (Midweek, 8 August 1991)

Here's another article from the archive, written to promote the first Vintage Paperback & Pulp Book Fair back in 1991.

 

A Clockwork Orange (re-release, March 2000)

Few would argue that A Clockwork Orange is a cinematic masterpiece. Well, when it was re-released in the UK in March 2000 – after spending many years in limbo after its director, Stanley Kubrik, pulled it out of cinemas following a backlash against its original release – the papers managed to find a couple of people who hated it, more for the loss of innocence it represented because, 28 years after its initial outing, it had lost its ability to shock so deeply.

There have always been people who will take up a contrary position just to sell a column, but even as recently as 2000, I always thought that the people held those opinions and were able to express them reasonably, even if I disagreed with them. Nowadays, vile opinions have been weaponised through social media and newspapers demand outrage from their writers to attract clicks and comments. Re-reading these clippings, even 19 years ago feels like a more innocent time.

(And, yes, I'm aware of the irony.)

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Alan Smithee (Bizarre #20, May 1999)

A special clipping today, as this is one of my old articles. The idea was to treat Alan Smithee, a pen-name used on movies when the director was dumped or the producers took over the editing to try and make a film more commercial, as an auteur film director. The article appeared in Bizarre magazine, published by John Brown, under the name Noel A. Martena – an anagram of Not A Real Name, which was my way of telling people that the article on Smithee was not to be taken seriously. I doubt if anyone even spotted it.

Somewhere I have the first issue of Bizarre which suffered from a bit of censorship, with copies reaching the shops with a page torn out. I have a complete copy somewhere and will come back to this story when I find it. (To be honest, I've completely forgotten what the censored story was about – nothing written by me, I hasten to add, and the Wikipedia entry for Bizarre doesn't refer to it at all.)