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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Glatzer: a remembrance

Dan Webster

Longtime Spokane Public Radio film reviewer Bob Glatzer died on Oct. 15. Following is a rememberance of Glatzer that I wrote for the station, which broadcast it this morning:

Bob Glatzer came to Spokane in 1973 as part of that phenomenon called Expo 74. It's only fitting that Bob be identified with Expo, which anyone with a sense of Spokane history remembers as the singular event that pulled the Lilac City out of its 1950s slumber and pointed it toward the modern age.

There were movies in Spokane pre-Bob Glatzer. There may even have been a movie critic or two. But there was no ongoing movie voice, no identifiable resource that urged Spokane movie fans to raise their expectations. Then Bob came along, Bob who didn't just suggest that movie fans seek out great cinema. He insisted on it.

I met Bob sometime in the mid-'80s. I had begun writing movie reviews for The Spokesman-Review in late 1984, and Bob dropped me the occasional note when he thought I'd said something particularly bright. He was also not shy about telling me when he thought I'd said something stupid.

I remember the night, it must have been in 1989, when Bob, Terry Trueman and I shared a stage at the old Cheney Cowles Museum. The program involved each of us talking about great movie endings. This was perfect for Bob, who never met a movie whose ending he wasn't ready to reveal in the name of professional film criticism.

His choice, I recall, was "The Godfather," one of a handful of movie classics — along with "Jules and Jim," "Pulp Fiction" and anything by Buster Keaton — that Bob considered among the best ever made. I can't remember what film Trueman picked: "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" or something equally offbeat. Mine was "Raising Arizona," a Coen Brothers comedy that Bob, not to put too fine a spin on things, detested.

And he didn't hesitate to say so, which left me, unused to public speaking as I was in those days, stammering — something I've done more than once in my career — to explain why I thought, and still do think, that the closing of "Raising Arizona" is one of the most perfect movie endings ever conceived.

Yeah, Bob could be irascible. As someone who had developed his sense of cinema in New York, both as a filmmaker and a critic, he had tastes that were as uncompromising as they were discerning. He could be irritating, especially when he would go off on a political rant (he was an unapologetic old-school liberal, refreshing this era of Fox News glory) or take pleasure in explaining why "The Sound of Music" — a film beloved by millions — was such a ridiculous exercise in triteness.

But regardless of whether you agreed with Bob's opinions, or even how he sometimes expressed those opinions, you could never argue with one obvious fact: The man knew what he was talking about.

That should be apparent to readers of his book, "Beyond Popcorn: A Critic's Guide to Looking at Films." It should be apparent to readers of his film reviews, which can still be found online. It's certainly apparent to all you Spokane Public Radio listeners, who have been the focus of Bob's reviews for the past 20-odd years. And it's no doubt apparent to anyone who has heard Bob hold his own in discussions with me, Mary Pat Treuthart and others on our weekly show, "Movies 101."

It was obvious to me the time, years ago, I heard Bob, with just the barest of prompting, give a spontaneous lecture on the origins, meaning and significance of Film Noir. That short talk remains the most succinct, and intelligent, summary of the hardboiled genre I have ever read, seen or heard.

I'll miss Bob's opinions, even the ones I disagreed with. I'll miss running into him at the movies, typically at the weekend matinees, where even the worst of mainstream Hollywood seems endurable when the cost is only $5. I’ll miss him keenly during next year’s Spokane International Film Festival, the event he helped shape and once was the artistic heart of.

Most of all, I'll miss Bob himself. I was particularly touched when, in 1999, he asked me to join him in starting the radio show that would eventually become "Movies 101." I'll never forget the supportive letters-to-the-editor he wrote over the years, defending my Spokesman-Review film criticism.

I can't repay Bob for these kindnesses. But I can remember him. And I can continue to pay tribute to his never-dying love of great film.

This is a start.