On the Political Potential of Hating Movies

Abstract:Using Hannah Arendt's lectures on aesthetic judgement, this paper asks what it means to dismiss, reject, even hate a film, and how this might be useful to democracy. Through a discussion of the appearance of aesthetic judgment in Pretty Woman (Gary Marshall, 1990), Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), and I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (Patricia Rozema, 1988) this paper explores the repercussions of declaring "I hate this movie"—what it means when this is said and what kinds of projects it allows. Through examinations of these films, this article argues that hatred is a valuable response because it demands that the contours of its rejection be explored and guarded, and it ultimately yields something that might be called "thought." This article contends that hatred always requires explanation, an articulated defense that measures one's own mind against the one responsible for the film—and indeed against those who judge it differently. But the measured response that hatred demands also pushes up against its own contingency, always revealing its unstable grounding and its capacity to be overwritten and reevaluated. In this regard, hatred of a film can serve as a kind of testing ground for participation in democracy.