10 Times Film Critics Actually Changed Their Mind
7. Joe Morgenstern Published A Second Review Of Bonnie & Clyde, Calling His First "Grossly Unfair"
There's perhaps no more famous example of a film critic retracting their previous opinion on a film than Joe Morgenstern and Bonnie and Clyde.
While working as a critic for Newsweek in the 1960s, Morgenstern published an emphatic pan of the later-Oscar-winning crime thriller, flatly dismissing it as a "squalid shoot-'em-up for the moron trade."
Morgenstern later noted that the press screening was also attended by star Warren Beatty himself, which no doubt made the viewing experience less-than-pleasant for any critic trying to maintain objective focus. He said:
"I don't know if it made me nervous or not... But it certainly was unusual, especially since Warren spent the whole time trying to read my notes."
The whole experience didn't sit well with the critic, however, and he decided to go see the film again on general release day with his wife where he realised his mistake:
"I got it wrong. I was not ready for the violence and kind of shrank from it."
Though Morgenstern's first review was already prepped for print, he was allowed to publish a follow-up piece that called his initial review "grossly unfair and regrettably inaccurate."
The turnaround from Morgenstern was fully capitalised upon by Warner Bros., who used it as a ringing endorsement of the film's quality, that it could inspire even a well-minted critic-of-note to change his opinion.
The rest, as they say, is history.