Just so we're clear I used a phrasing from "The Simpsons Movie" to help with my title. So I was looking around the interweb one day as I usually do and scope out my favorite sites like Kim Morgan, Jim Emmerson, Roger Ebert etc... and I went over to the movie blog "Windmills of My Mind". The owner of that blog Damian a video store Manager from the states is doing his 31 days of Spielberg blog-a-thon where he dedicates every day to a different Spielberg movie and writes his feelings about it.
I've found the blogs very interesting and I admired Damian's critiques on the films which were intelligent and thought provoking. But on this particular day where Damian was supposed to write about "Jurassic Park", I saw a different entry. It seems Damian has been accused and well proven guilty of a little plagarism. It seems Damian used passages from a book called "Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Hollywood Blockbuster" a little too liberally. Damian wrote about the mishap and gave a sincere apology. But of course that is when the pig leavings hit the fan (Sorry I'll stop referencing "The Simpsons Movie"). Comments came about both praising Damian for his forthrightness but also bashing him for not being upfront about it in the beginning. You can all read here www.damianarlyn.blogspot.com and judge for yourself. If you ask me (and if you didn't stop reading) Damian has received his punishment, he has been exposed as a plagarist by few and outcasted from other blogger's links, I don't know if that's noble or petty it's hard to tell in this day and age. Damian seems like an ok guy maybe someone I might've hung out with in high school (Those were my big Spielberg days). He might've been a guy who underestimated the power of the blogger.
I've been recently reading other people's view on the idea of bloggers being actual film critics. Richard Schickel who's voice I hear very often in a lot of movie commentaries has made his view about bloggers very clear by not thinking of them as actual critics. Jim Emmerson over at Scanners has always made his site open for discussion on this very topic in fact I think he just wrote a piece recently that made me laugh called "The Stepford Critics" where he talks about this issue. I suppose Damian's little brew ha ha has opened the door a bit for blogger critics, of course it may prove to be a step back, but never the less we are being watched so the next time you decide to go all fanboy over a director or actor or movie just watch your words and cite any references we're playing in the big leagues now.
As a footnote I do hope Damian doesn't stop writing his Spielberg musings. It's been a few days since his last entry so I'm hoping he's just getting his head together. As a former video store clerk myself I couldn't help but have a soft spot for him and I hope this little sticky situation doesn't discourage him from any further writing. To show I'm still on his side I'm gonna add him to my link.
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