Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Ebert notes how the film uses physical appearance and leisure culture to mask economic hardship, suggesting aesthetics can temporarily obscure social class.
In plain terms
Looks and style can hide poverty.
What can you take from it?
Appearance can mask reality.

Where it applies

  • analyzing films
  • discussing class
  • media literacy

Putting it to work

  • reviewing movies
  • teaching media
  • studying culture

Questions to consider

  • Can style ever truly erase class?

Another view

The quote oversimplifies how class operates beyond surface visuals.

More from Roger Ebert

  1. Censors feel they are safe from objectionable material but must protect others who are not as smart or moral. The same impulse tempts the reviewer of 'The Beli…

    Permalink to quote #65
  2. I read all the movie reviews, especially those of Ebert, a graceful and witty prose stylist with profound erudition, whose reviews are worth reading just for t…

    Permalink to quote #67
  3. The R rating for this film, based on a few four-letter words, is entirely unjustified. It is an ideal film for teenagers.

    Permalink to quote #64

Related quotes

  1. This is a nature-boy movie, a kid's daydream of being an Indian. When Dunbar has become a Sioux named Dances with Wolves, he writes in his journal that he know…

    Pauline KaelPauline Kael quote #48
  2. 'The movie Clueless was really big in the '90s, because it was superficial AND deep, like liposuction, which was also really big in the '90s.'

    Julie BrownJulie Brown quote #3
  3. John Osborne spoke out in a vein of ebullient, free-wheeling rancour that betokened the arrival of something new in the theatre - a sophisticated, articulate l…

    John OsborneJohn Osborne quote #8