# What were the biggest critical reappraisals? (All media) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2019, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324 "2019-11-12T12:16:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/41 "2019-11-13T01:04:11Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “The Searchers” is now a major critical darling; it is often cited as the greatest Western of all time, and one of the best movies ever. > > Absolutely no one thought this when it came out. It was not regarded as an especially good movie by anyone. It was only after a few years when a few French auteurs, primarily Jean Luc Godard, claimed it was great a deep, and American critics who had dismissed it just a few years before rushed to agree and started appending interpretations and nuance to it that anyone suggested it was great. I was under the impression **The Searchers** received generally favorable reviews but was considered par for the course for John Ford–an entertaining western but nothing truly special like his Oscar-winning efforts (e.g., The **Grapes of Wrath** or **The Quiet Man)**. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/42 "2019-11-13T01:26:06Z")
For a video game example, according to metacritic the 3rd Highest Rated Game of All Time based on critic reviews is “Grand Theft Auto IV” released in 2008. When the 10 year anniversary hit and critics started to rereview it, most reviews were very critical of it and nowadays it’s more of a punchline than held in revere like it’s PS2 predecessors. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/43 "2019-11-13T02:16:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > When I was in college, it was just kin of assumed that Jerzy Kozinski would wind up in the Pantheon of Important Writers and that Jim Thompson would not, and pretty much the opposite happened. One data point does not an argument make, but if it makes you feel any better, when I was an English lit undergrad in the late '90s, _Being There_ was assigned reading. I don’t know who the hell Jim Thompson is. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/44 "2019-11-13T02:17:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > The Stones’ _Sticky Fingers_ [was no critical darling](https://slate.com/culture/2015/06/sticky-fingers-by-the-rolling-stones-one-of-the-greatest-albums-in-rock-n-roll-history.html), but now is regarded as one of their best and most defining albums, which means one of the best rock albums of all time. I especially remember having read [Jon Landau’s scathing review](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/sticky-fingers-107725/) from Rolling Stone about 20 years ago and being speechless that a guy I adored as a producer had thought so less of my favorite album. > > ETA: especially this sequence bugs me, because Mick Taylor’s solo at the end of Sway is my all time favorite guitar solo: That review was typically pathetic, even for RS. I would submit Their Satanic Majesties Request as having undergone even more of a critical reappraisal. At the time (1967?) it was dismissed as an imitation of Sgt. Pepper. Hindsight has proven that not to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/45 "2019-11-13T04:13:52Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > “American Beauty” got raked very quickly. I didn’t see it when it was in the theaters, but when I did see it several years later, I understood why so many people didn’t like it, which was why I didn’t pay money to see it while it was in cinematic release. I loved it, but yeah, the reason so many people didn’t like it was because they were LIVING it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/46 "2019-11-13T05:42:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Andy Warhol was reviled throughout his career He was also lauded. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/47 "2019-11-13T06:25:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I imagine _The Birth of a Nation_ is viewed in a very different light by many modern critics… > [@Derleth](#): > > I almost included that one, but from reading the Wikipedia page its reception wasn’t exactly universally rapturous. It was a box office success, but not a huge critical darling. Then maybe it should be included because, as racist as the story is, it’s difficult for a film critic today to deny the importance of its role in cementing film grammar and technique. Critics in 1915 might not have been able to wrap their heads around that aspect without any context. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/48 "2019-11-13T06:30:30Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > There has been a revival of interest in **The Room** by Tommy Wiseau, especially with the release of **The Disaster Artist** a few years ago. It’s still an awful film, but people revel in the awfulness. > > **Rocky Horror Picture Show** was a bomb when released. It’s now a camp classic, even beyond the traditional midnight showings. In this regard, you could also include Plan 9 From Outer Space, but I wouldn’t say the critical response has changed much. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/49 "2019-11-13T06:56:13Z")
Edward Bulwer-Lytton was extremely popular as a novelist in his own lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/50 "2019-11-13T08:31:43Z")
How about Labyrinth, the David Bowie movie? ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/51 "2019-11-13T10:48:31Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > For a video game example, according to metacritic the 3rd Highest Rated Game of All Time based on critic reviews is “Grand Theft Auto IV” released in 2008. > > When the 10 year anniversary hit and critics started to rereview it, most reviews were very critical of it and nowadays it’s more of a punchline than held in revere like it’s PS2 predecessors. Computer Games are different, especially PC ones. They run like crap until the hardware picked up. I gave up on GTA IV on the PC, the driving was horrible except on the top end video cards. Five years later when I played it, it played ok. Game was ok. I always thought III, Vice City and Andreas were the big classics of the GTA franchise. It’s perhaps miscreditation, such as Star Wars getting all the credit, when the best movie was very much more Empire Strikes Back. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/52 "2019-11-13T11:14:38Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > How about Labyrinth, the David Bowie movie? There’s definitely been a reappraisal of it. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/53 "2019-11-13T11:20:21Z")
The music of the Carpenters, with a focus on Karen Carpenter’s singing. I was just a kid when they were first popular, but I can remember how older kids and young adults thought they were the dullest thing imaginable. A review I can’t find at the moment (in _Rolling Stone_ I think) of a live show spent more time criticizing their clothes and haircuts than than the performance. In _High Weirdness by Mail_, the Subgenius Church founder Ivan Stang listed a Karen Carpenter fan club as one of the nut groups, marveling that “these people (were) serious, trying to convince us that ‘Skinny’ was the greatest singer of all time”. The Carpenters image as perfectly content youngsters (in contrast with the anger of much of the era’s music) seemed to make critics overlook the depth and suffering beneath some of their best material, which got another look following Karen’s sad death. As Johnny Marr put it (not the British musician, but the California author of the zine “Murder Can Be Fun”), “‘Rainy Days and Mondays’ never sounded the same again”. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > \*Same for Yoko Ono. Has anyone garnered more hate than her? But feminist critics have re-examined her work and found it original and meaningful. Again, I happened to see a retrospective of her work at the San Francisco MOMA and it converted me. I don’t know much about art, but her musical performances still make me cringe. But don’t take my word, take [Chuck’s.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgZiPO9V_aQ) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/54 "2019-11-13T14:17:23Z")
Jack Kerouac’s _On The Road_ was initially dismissed as “beatnik drivel.” In his initial Annotated Alice, Martin Gardner referred to it as “Jack Kerouac’s Forgettable novel.” So forgetable people still talk about it 70 years later. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/55 "2019-11-13T19:01:47Z")
My father was very surprised, and somewhat chagrined, that I never read _The Song of Hiawatha_. When he was in high school and college (1930s), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the giant figures in American literature, and “Paul Revere’s Ride” and _The Song of Hiawatha_ were required reading for every student. When I was in high school and college (1980s), Longfellow was marginal. We were expected to know the name, but I don’t think we were required to read any of his works. “Paul Revere’s Ride” was a footnote, and _The Song of Hiawatha_ had gone down the Memory Hole. In 1997, there was a TV movie of the story, with all of the major roles played by Native American actors. Russell Means played Hiawatha’s father. Which leads me to believe that actual Native Americans don’t hate the poem as much as white political activists think they should. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/56 "2019-11-13T19:08:00Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > My father was very surprised, and somewhat chagrined, that I never read _The Song of Hiawatha_. When he was in high school and college (1930s), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the giant figures in American literature, and “Paul Revere’s Ride” and _The Song of Hiawatha_ were required reading for every student. > > When I was in high school and college (1980s), Longfellow was marginal. We were expected to know the name, but I don’t think we were required to read any of his works. “Paul Revere’s Ride” was a footnote, and _The Song of Hiawatha_ had gone down the Memory Hole. I’m familiar with the opening of Hiawatha, because a) my grandfather had a copy which I think I read parts of, b) I’ve heard the parody ([The Modern Hiawatha - Collection at Bartleby.com](https://www.bartleby.com/360/9/144.html)), and most importantly c) in an episode of “I Love Lucy” Lucy repeatedly recites the opening of the poem (which she memorized in high school, about the time your father was in high school, probably). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/57 "2019-11-13T19:09:38Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > He was also lauded. I can say with absolute confidence that every artist and work of art mentioned in this thread was lauded by someone. What’s your point? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/58 "2019-11-13T19:26:11Z")
Two words: Bob Dylan. From folk music iconoclast to Nobel Prize winner. You can’t get a bigger reappraisal than that. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/59 "2019-11-13T19:27:02Z")
I think Warhol is sort of in the declining end of the fame bell curve: the summit is when they’re so popular you can’t get away from an artist or work, so everyone is forced to have an opinion on it, so ironically, at the peak, they seem to be pretty unpopular because people who don’t like them get tired of them. Nowadays, people are more likely to be exposed to Warhol if they are already inclined to be positive. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324/60 "2019-11-13T19:41:48Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I’m familiar with the opening of Hiawatha, because a) my grandfather had a copy which I think I read parts of, b) I’ve heard the parody ([The Modern Hiawatha - Collection at Bartleby.com](https://www.bartleby.com/360/9/144.html)), and most importantly c) in an episode of “I Love Lucy” Lucy repeatedly recites the opening of the poem (which she memorized in high school, about the time your father was in high school, probably). Actually, what you probably think of as the opening of _The Song of Hiawatha_ isn’t. That “By the shores of Gitchee-goomi” part comes well into the poem, which is itself pretty long – it’s book-length. People who think they had to read all of _The Song of Hiawatha_ in school have almost certainly only read a relatively short excerpt from it. Here’s how it really begins: > [@](#): > > SHOULD you ask me, whence these stories ? > Whence these legends and traditions, > "With the odours of the forest, > With the dew and damp of meadows, > With the curling smoke of wigwams, > With the rushing of great rivers, > With their frequent repetitions, > And their wild reverberations, > As of thunder in the mountains ? > > I should answer, I should tell you, > " From the forests and the prairies, > From the great lakes of the Northland, > **[The song of Hiawatha : Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882 : Free...](https://archive.org/stream/songhiawathathe00longrich/songhiawathathe00longrich_djvu.txt)** > > iv, 316 p [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-biggest-critical-reappraisals-all-media/843324.md?page=4)