Looking for an Icon (2007)

Name: Looking for an Icon
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2008-12-05T16:32:26-08:00
Rating: 60

TOMATOMETER

60%

Average Rating: 5.9/10

Reviews Counted: 5

Fresh: 3

Rotten: 2

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Tomatometer Not Available...

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AUDIENCE SCORE

No Score Yet

Average Rating: N/A

User Ratings: 26

Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.

Movie Info

"Looking for an Icon" examines the process by which photos become icons, revealing that once a photo is published, social forces are at work beyond the photographer's control. The film focuses on four World Press Photo winners, including Eddie Adams's 1968 photo of the public execution of a Viet Cong prisoner, an anonymous photographer's last image of Salvador Allende during the 1973 coup, Charlie Cole's 1989 photo of a lone student confronting tanks in Tiananmen Square, and David Turnley's 1991 photo of a grieving soldier during the first Gulf War.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Documentary
Directed By:

Hans Pool, Maaik Krijgsman
In Theaters:

May 9, 2007 wide
Runtime:

55 minutes
Studio:

First Run Icarus Films

Cast

David Levi Strauss

Eddie Adams

Charlie Cole

David Turnley

Critic Reviews for Looking for an Icon

All Critics (5) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (2)

The documentary provides an inside look at the dynamics of photojournalism that even I -- a longtime newsman -- found interesting.

May 11, 2007 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Top Critic

Structured like a freewheeling crash course in media studies, Looking for an Icon offers close readings of four famous photographs, each a past winner of the World Press Photo of the Year.

May 10, 2007 | Rating: 3/6 | Full Review…

Tom Beer

Time Out

Top Critic

Made to honor the 50th anniversary of the 'World Press Photo of the Year,' this documentary fails as both birthday present and theoretical inquiry.

May 9, 2007 | Full Review…

Charles Petersen

Village Voice

Top Critic

This documentary about four World Press Photo contest winners defines icon to mean a still image so searing that it supplants memories of the event it was supposed to record.

May 9, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Matt Zoller Seitz

New York Times

Top Critic

If a great photograph is one that is symbolic, inviting us to project our wide-ranging interpretations onto them, then the images selected for deconstruction by Hans Pool and Maaik Krijgsman are almost beyond reproach.

May 10, 2007 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…