Christopher Tookey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section is an autobiography, or has been extensively edited by the subject, and may not conform to Wikipedia's NPOV policy.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.
Notepad
 To comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, this article may need to be rewritten.
Please help improve this article. The discussion page may contain suggestions.
This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Christopher Tookey (born April 9, 1950) is an English film critic.

Tookey was born in Bromsgrove and educated at Tonbridge School and Exeter College, Oxford. At Oxford, he was President of the Union, Editor of Isis and President of the Etceteras. He has written 10 stage musicals, all produced, most recently Hard Times: The Musical, which had an extended run at the Haymarket Theatre, London in the summer of 2000. He worked as a Producer-Director in television for ATV, Central and Channel 4, directing among other shows the award-winning rock series Revolver, After Dark and Network 7.

Contents

[edit] Work as a critic

He has been film critic for the Daily Mail in London, England, since 1993, and for six years before that TV and film critic for The Sunday Telegraph. He has also written for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The European, Books and Bookmen, Prospect, Literary Review and (in the US) National Review. He is the author of The Critics' Film Guide (Boxtree, 1993).

He was Chairman of the British Film Critics' Circle for five years between 1994 and 1998, producing and presenting their annual awards ceremony in aid of the NSPCC. He is also a frequent broadcaster on television and radio, often presenting The Film Programme on BBC Radio 4. and contributing to programmes such as Front Row, Back Row, Today, Moral Maze (all Radio 4), Meridian (British World Service), and The Arts Programme (Radio 2), on which he was the film critic for two years. On TV he has presented What The Papers Say (BBC2), Book Choice (Channel 4) and First Edition (BSB), and he was the regular film critic on Gloria Hunniford's Open House (Five). He has also appeared on Heart of the Matter (BBC1) and The Late Review (BBC2). A documentary about him was broadcast by Channel 4 in 2001. He lectures on Film Criticism to final-year American college students for the British American Film Academy.

[edit] Reaction to him

Commentators on the internet frequently take issue with Tookey, calling him among other things "Britain's self-appointed moral guardian", "notoriously conservative" and "the mad Mullah of the Mail". His opinions are most frequently denounced for being populist and right-of-centre in Sight & Sound, Time Out, The Guardian and Observer, though some in those papers have been more positive, viz:

"Mr Tookey is the Mail's chief film critic (and, in my book, one of the best and most consistently intelligent of that breed now operating)." [1] In 1997, he was the driving force behind The Daily Mail's campaign to ban David Cronenberg's controversial film 'Crash,' based on the novel by British writer JG Ballard. The campaign failed miserably and the film opened to generally strong reviews soon afterwards. Similarly to many of The Mail's previous attempts to enforce film censorship and make the BBFC more accountable for their decisions, Tookey's campaign was particularly noteworthy for the fact that he consistently failed to address what implications he felt the release of the movie might actually cause. Similarly to many of his film reviews, his writings concerning both 'Crash' and its Canadian director were littered with inflated opinions, hyperbole and regular inaccuracies. He described Cronenberg as being a filmmaker who had made his name directing movies featuring "exploding heads,' when, in fact, the film he was likely referring to - 'Scanners' - features a short sequence near the start where one man's head does, indeed, 'explode' by way of some very inventive special effects. When The BBFC eventually granted the film a certificate, Tookey wrote a further article in the newspaper that described how their decision "came of no surprise" to him. He also claimed that the next government who came to power - at this point, a general election in The UK was looming - would not be ignoring the BBFC's work and their lack of accountability in their election manifestos. However, it was clear that both Tookey and The Mail's campaign had been defeated miserably and Tookey's final writing on the fiasco was simply a way to try and gain a little credit for a campaign that, by all accounts, should never have happened and which had no notable impact on the role of The BBFC or on British film classification in general. Since the release of 'Crash,' Tookey has slated two of Cronenberg's later movies ('Existenz' and 'Spider') but been more positive about 'A History of Violence' and his more recent effort, the London gangland thriller, 'Eastern Promises.' In his review for the film, Tookey writes: "There are recorded case of copycat crimes, and this film might be regarded as dangerous for several reasons. The lethal weapons that it fetishises and makes seductive are not guns (which are not readily available to the British public) but cars (which are). Joyriding and dangerous driving by the young are already social problems." Since the release of 'Crash,' there has been, on a global basis, a total of 0 crimes of any kind being recorded that were, in any way, 'linked' to the movie. The Crash campaign has not, however, stopped Tookey from regularly ranting about The BBFC in his film reviews that he writes for The Daily Mail. In his reviews, he regularly makes elaborate comments about the certificate of a film and whether the BBFC were right or wrong to award a particular picture a certain certificate. Even thoygh it remains highly debateable as to whether such comments should, in fact form part of a film review, Tookey has developed a name for appalauding and criticising the BBFC's decisions on a regular basis. In 2005, for instance, he commended their decision in his review to reward 'The Descent' an "18" certificate, but has attacked the Board for allowing the release of movies such as 'Hostel' at all. His conservative beliefs are often borderline-comical; he was the only critic of any major national newspaper to slate Michael Moore's acclaimed 'Fahrenheit 911' in 2004. In support of his review, he also published an article attacking Moore's filmmaking processes and his 1989 picture 'Roger & Me,' once again making a number of dubious statement and inaccuracies. The following week, his remarkably positive review of 'Spiderman 2' went as far as to compare the picture to Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' and he further justified his praise for the movie by comparing the plotline to that of the American people since the 9/11 tragedy. Tookey's bizarre review concluded near the end with: "Like Spider-Man, America has discovered that some of its most well-intentioned actions are portrayed in parts of the media as acts of criminal aggression, and there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of bad guys in the world. In coded form, Spider-Man 2 asks what America should do: attempt to retreat to normality as it was before 9/11, or accept its responsibilities as a super-power and stand up to be counted. You won’t be surprised to hear that the hero of the movie chooses the latter course, and it’s cheering that - even with Michael Moore’s dishonest documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 around to demoralise the masses – the vast majority of the American people appears willing to accept the challenge of responsibility."

[edit] Citations and references

[edit] Reviews for Daily Mail

[edit] Features for Prospect

[edit] As director of Revolver

[edit] Chris Tookey’s opinions quoted by others

[edit] Others on Chris Tookey (mostly attacking him)


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Former Guardian editor Peter Preston, writing in the Observer, April 2, 2006

[edit] External links