Talk:A. O. Scott

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Information sought

According to the NYT bio, he started grad school at Johns Hopkins toward a degree (presumably a Ph.D.) in American literature, but dropped out. I would be very interested in knowing more about this. What was he studying? Did he publish any articles or deliver any papers? Some of this information should be accessible in Jstor and similar databases, but it's hard to know what to search for. "A. O. Scott"? "Anthony Scott"? "Tony Scott"? The latter are very common names. (By the way, on the discussion about "Tony" below -- I have heard people refer to him as "Tony Scott." He definitely goes by that name.)

Removed as unverified

I removed the following text, as I could not verify it from his bio at the NY Times.

His hiring occurred simultaneously with that of Elvis Mitchell and Stephen Holden as film critics, though Mitchell, dissatisfied with Scott's promotion to chief film critic, left the paper in 2003, whereupon he was replaced by The Los Angeles Times's Manohla Dargis. Stephen Holden remains, though in an auxiliary role.

He has mentioned as his overall favorite films, The Wizard of Oz, Nashville (film), Modern Times, and Rocco and His Brothers.
The "A" in his name stands for Anthony, and his friends call him Tony.

I would not be surprised at all if it was true, but it needs a source, or sources. I encourage anyone to add it back in with a source. Thanks! JesseW, the juggling janitor 08:29, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Talk:A.O. Scott merged to this page

I merged Talk:A.O. Scott to this page. The main articles A. O. Scott and A.O. Scott (and their talk pages) were duplicate pages, and from Mr. Scott's NYTimes bio, it appears that "A. O. Scott" (with the space between the initials) is correct. --Iamunknown 04:41, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

O

What does the "O." stand for? This should be added to the article. Badagnani (talk) 07:23, 24 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For awhile it was an unintentional mystery. It was sent in as a fan question to At the Movies, to which he replied "Oliver". The whole video is in the "Web Exclusive" Section of the At the Movies official site at the moment.--64.114.135.25 (talk) 01:16, 24 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Jewish?

It appears that Scott's mother, philosopher Joan Wallach Scott is Jewish (or at least David Horowitz in this critical piece claims as much). That would make Scott Jewish as well, although I'm not sure how he feels about his relationship to Judaism.Laneb2005 (talk) 14:19, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I happen to know Tony, and know more about the answer to this than I'll comment on here. The only answer related to this discussion is that the question has nothing to do with Scott's reasons for notoriety and therefore has no bearing on the article. LotLE×talk 00:36, 23 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It seems perhaps relevant given Scott's extensive November 21, 2008 NY Times article on the prevalence of Holocaust films. He writes, for example, that "[f]or American audiences a Holocaust movie is now more or less equivalent to a western or a combat picture or a sword-and-sandals epic — part of a genre that has less to do with history than with the perceived expectations of moviegoers." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.25.39.22 (talk) 21:22, 25 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's a very insightful comment by Scott. He's quite a clever guy :-). I share a bit of disdain for the formulistic "genre films" about the Holocaust. Still, the observation has noting whatsoever to do with Scott's "relationship with Judaism" or whatever. It's just a true observation about Hollywood. LotLE×talk 23:07, 25 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think he's a stuffed shirt.

~~Scot having a Jewish mother makes him half Jewish by ethnicity. Why does his other half go unmentioned? One has to wonder if Israel or Jewish groups are literally paying hundreds of Jews to post and edit, as Jewishness is often discussed even where, as here, mentioning only it and not other ethnic [or religious] influences.

as for the merit of mentioning it - check out his review of "Exodus" -

"Exodus" is ludicrous only by accident, which isn't much fun and is the surest sign of what we might call a New Testament sensibility at work. But the movie isn't successfully serious, either.

What does that even mean? That the ethnocentrism, racism, approval of genocide in the Jewish Bible can't be adequately conveyed by the *goyim* who perhaps grew up hearing that God is love rather than a homicidal, racist real estate agent?

Scott may not even appreciate that the Exodus is pure myth, but his Jewishness surely seems to impact his capacity to understand.

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/egypt.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.136.53.238 (talk) 22:54, 13 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

has he stopped reviewing films?

i cannot find any reviews he has done since 2012 - if he has retired then it should state so in the wiki article--68.231.15.56 (talk) 23:11, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

He hasn't retired.--EclecticEnnui (talk) 01:29, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ten Best Lists

Roger Ebert joked that film critics are contractually obligated to make lists of the years ten best films, and Scott obliged. His ten best lists used to be on here. They would be worth linking to, as they gives a sense of his critical taste (and would, hopefully, point people towards some good films, which is the point of ten best lists in the first place.) Charlie Faust (talk) 14:58, 29 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]