The defence The Prestige Tourist
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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The Magnificent Ambersons
Drama · Romance · 1942
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Movie details
The Magnificent Ambersons
“Real life screened more daringly than it’s ever been before!”
1942 Drama · Romance 1h 28m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.6 / 10
28.1K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
89 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
93 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
7.3 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Magnificent Ambersons?
For the defence
The Prestige Tourist
“You like your greatness pre-approved.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Orson Welles
Written by
Orson Welles
Joseph Cotten
Eugene Morgan
Dolores Costello
Isabel Amberson Minafer
Anne Baxter
Lucy Morgan
Tim Holt
George Minafer
Agnes Moorehead
Fanny Minafer
Ray Collins
Jack Amberson
Erskine Sanford
Roger Bronson
Court is in session
Put The Magnificent Ambersons on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.