Cultural Historian and Film Critic Neal Gabler

I’m a Dodger Fan Because of Sandy Koufax

Photo by Aaron Salcido.

Neal Gabler is a cultural historian and film critic, and the author of books including Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity (1994) and An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (1988). Before taking part in a Zócalo/Getty panel discussion titled “Can We Appreciate the Great Art of Bad People?” at The Getty Center, he spoke in the green room about his favorite films, what he said at his daughter’s wedding, and the time when Americans dreamed big.

Q:

What was one of your most powerful emotional encounters with an artwork?


A:

I had an amazing emotional and aesthetic experience with four films. I limit it to American films. They reward re-viewing again and again, and I’ve seen them all a number of times: Citizen Kane, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Godfather, and The Deer Hunter.


Q:

If you could time-travel, where and when would you go?


A:

I’m afraid of the future right now. I just had a grandchild and, I tell you, it’s really terrifying. I’m absolutely certain that this will not end well. A period of the past that is sort of exciting to me, and it may sound rather contrarian, is the Great Depression. It was a time of anxiety and displacement and obviously all sorts of awful things. But Americans pulled together, and we had a great leader, and we had a sense of vitality. Our art was exciting, and when it wasn’t exciting it was still communitarian, like the WPA. That’s not great art, but it’s art with great feeling. There’s a line in Portnoy’s Complaint where Portnoy says that his parents lit a candle for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That was my parents; they loved him. To have that sense that we’re all in this together, and that we’re going to get through it together. Now we dream so small, and there was a time when we dreamed so large.


Q:

Was there a teacher or professor who especially influenced you?


A:

I had an English professor, Robert Wilson, at the University of Michigan, who taught Shakespeare. Shakespeare doesn’t need a whole lot of help, but [Professor Wilson] was just really brilliant in guiding us through the plays and illuminating them. I had another professor who is still teaching, Hubert Cohen, a film professor, who was also the best man at my wedding. He was starting an introductory course in film, and he wanted me to take a year-long sabbatical from law school to be one of his first teaching fellows. At the time I was the film critic for the Michigan Daily newspaper, and my life revolved around film. I misspent my youth watching movies from morning until night. So I did that, and as a result I didn’t go back to law school, much to my parents’ chagrin. Jews either become doctors or, if you’re afraid of blood, you become a lawyer.


Q:

What do you do to unwind?


A:

I don’t unwind very much, I have to admit it. Now that my family is grown—I have two daughters, and when they were there, they were my unwinding, I adore them so much. Secondarily, I’m a huge sports fan. I’m the biggest NBA fan in the world. Tonight is the first big game I’m missing in a really long time. When my younger daughter got married it was bizarre because that day was the first time in the history of the NBA that there were four game sevens in the playoffs. And when I gave my toast to my daughter I said, “Do you know how much I love you? There are four game sevens today, and I’m here with you! That’s how much I love you!”

And I’m a Dodger fan because of Sandy Koufax. Every Jewish boy in America was a Dodger fan because of Sandy Koufax.


Q:

Do you have any pop-culture or artistic guilty pleasures?


A:

I don’t feel that way about anything. I know that there are censorious folks on the outside, but I’ve never been one of those people. I’m very pluralistic in the things I enjoy. I enjoy rock music, I listen to Justin Bieber—I’m not supposed to. There are all sorts of things I enjoy that I think are really good. There are movies that I know are stupid and contemptible in some people’s eyes, but not in mine. I don’t have guilty pleasures. I only have pleasures.