Why Do We Suddenly Hate Auteurs?

“au·teur

noun

a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production give a film its personal and unique stamp.”

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Aaron Sorkin’s new show “The Newsroom” premiered on HBO last week to big ratings and a massively polarizing reception. Many of the negative reviews focus on his distinct writing style in particular and cite both characters and plots that are similar to his previous shows like “The West Wing” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

My question is, why is this a bad thing? I thought that writers everywhere aspired to have a unique and instantly recognizable voice in their work. Say what you will about Aaron Sorkin, but if anything he’s ever written comes on television that fact becomes immediately obvious after only a few minutes of watching. This is most certainly not easy to do, and it used to actually mean something.

A similar backlash (albeit a significantly smaller one) happened earlier in the summer with Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers.” While the film broke box office records and got stellar reviews, a certain vocal minority criticized the film for Joss Whedon’s trademark style. Whedon is another writer with an instantly recognizable style. The way his characters speak, particularly to one another, is a style unlike that of any other writer out there. And yet people see this as a negative for some reason.

These are two of my favorite writers for that exact reason. They’re both masters of their craft, and there’s something particularly comforting to know that I’m about to sit down and watch someone who is absolutely wonderful at their job. There are few people out there who are more consistently entertaining than these two.

Other examples of writers with unique voices are people like Joel and Ethan Coen, Kevin Smith, Diablo Cody and William Goldman. It’s perfectly acceptable to say that you didn’t like their particular style, but to say that they’re “bad writers” simply because they have a style is preposterous. They’re supposed to have a style. They’re supposed to have a voice. They’re writers. That’s what writers do.

I’ve heard certain people in the past criticize both Whedon and Sorkin for not writing “the way people talk.” While I certainly can understand this point of view, I absolutely don’t agree that it’s a negative. People in real life may not talk like they were written by Joss Whedon or Aaron Sorkin, but I for one wish they did. People would be a lot smarter, and would certainly be a whole lot more fun to argue with.

A video appeared online recently called “Sorkinisms – A Supercut.” It collects together clips from Aaron Sorkin’s various television shows including “Sports Night,” “The West Wing,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and a few of his movies. The collection is designed to show off reused dialog and thematic elements across his body of work. Though the author of the video claims that it was done out of respect, a lot of people online have jumped on it as if they now suddenly have “proof” that Sorkin is a hack.


My response is a bit different. Every single clip is instantly identifiable as having been written by Sorkin. It’s all in his voice and style, and it’s all immediately recognizable. There’s that “auteur theory” again. And secondly, the man wrote hundreds of hours of television (allegedly) by himself. He was writing the first season of “The West Wing” and the second season of “Sports Night” at the same time. If you want to hate on the man, you’re going to have to try a little harder than just to pull together seven minutes of clips that span hundreds of hours of work.

So what is the problem, exactly? Why, now of all times, do people suddenly hate work that stands out from everything else? Why do we suddenly want more movies and TV shows that blend in with all other movies and TV shows ever made? Does nobody like that feeling they get when they’re watching something wholly unique? Because I do.

And why didn’t anyone bother to tell me? It could have saved me a lot of time.