Crossing the Wild River: R.I.P. Robin Wood (1931-2009)

Last updated on June 4, 2010

'If I were asked to choose a film that would justify the existence of Hollywood, I think it would be Rio Bravo.' Robin Wood

Film Studies For Free briefly emerges from an enforced absence due to illness (back properly soon, it hopes), to mark the sad passing, on December 18, of Robin Wood, one of the true giants of the difficult endeavour of film criticism and also of the discipline of film studies.

FSFF's own special-favourite Wood works are the talk on 'Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic', his books on Hitchcock (especially the Vertigo chapter), the book he co-authored with Michael Walker on Claude Chabrol's films, his incredibly enlightening study of Hawk's Rio Bravo and the other BFI book on The Wings of a Dove. Each of these was paradigm-shifting in their own ways, as was much of Wood's other writing on cinema.

As online tributes to this major film writer appear in the next days they will be added to the list of online and freely accessible works by or about Wood given below.

May this hugely prolific, influential, and talented writer, film-thinker, and teacher rest in peace.

Posthumous online tributes to Robin Wood:

• Mark Asch, 'Robin Wood, Film Critic, 1931-2009', The L Magazine, December 22, 2009 
• Charles Barr, 'Robin Wood Obituary', The Guardian, January 4, 2010
  
• David Bordwell, 'Robin Wood', Observations on Film Art, December 19, 2009
• New Gregory A. Burris, 'Farewell, Robin Wood (1931-2009): The Relevance of a Radical Film Critic', MRZine [Monthly Review online], June 2, 2010
• Robert Cashill, 'RIP Robin Wood',  Between Productions,December 18, 2009
• Matthew Cheney, 'Robin Wood: 1931-2009', The Mumpsimus, December 21, 2009
• Dennis Cozzalio, 'Robin Wood and Rio Bravo', Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, January 6, 2010
  
• Jim Emerson, 'Robin Wood: He was as good as they say', Scanners, January 7, 2010
  
• William Grimes, 'Robin Wood, Film Critic Who Wrote on Hitchcock, Dies at 78', New York Times, December 22, 2009 
• Liz Helfgott, 'Robin Wood: 1931-2009', Criterion.com, December 21, 2009
  
• David Hudson, 'Robin Wood, 1931-2009', The Auteurs Notebook, December 19, 2009 
• Dave Kehr, 'Robin Wood, 1931-2009', davekehr.com, December 19, 2009 (also see the comments strand at Kehr's blog here for many more brief tributes --scroll down -- on December 18, 2009)
  
• Glenn Kenny, 'Robin Wood, 1931-2009', Some Came Running, December 18, 2009
  
• C. Jerry Kutner, 'Robin Wood (1931-2009)', Bright Lights After Dark, December 19, 2009
• James MacDowell, 'Robin Wood: 1931-2009', The Lesser Feat, December 20, 2009
• Janine Marchessault, 'Robin Wood - In Memoriam',  Film Studies Association of Canada, December 2009
  
• Stuart Ross, 'Robin Wood — off to the Big Screen in the Sky', Bloggamooga, December 24, 2009
  
• Girish Shambu, 'Robin Wood, 1931-2009', girish, December 19, 2009
• Michael Tapper, 'In Memoriam: Robin Wood', Film International, December 2009
  
• Donato Totaro, 'Robin Wood: 23 February 1931 - 18 December 2009, December 20, 2009 to March 31, 2010', Offscreen Journal, December 2009
• Keith Uhlich, 'Robin Wood: February 23, 1931 - December 18, 2009', The House Next Door, December 19, 2009
  
• David Walsh, 'Film Critic Robin Wood Dies at 78', World Socialist Web Site, December 21, 2009
• James Zborowski, 'Robin Wood', Between Sympathy and Detachment, December 31, 2009

Online works by or about Robin Wood:

• Robin Wood A descriptive, illustrated bibliography of the work of the noted film critic, Compiled by D. K. Holm and Brad Steven, October 2005 
• Armen Svadjian, 'A Life in Film Criticism: Robin Wood at 75', YOURflesh Magazine, November 9, 2006 (via Jim Emerson) 
• CineAction's 'A tribute to Robin Wood', CineAction, Summer 2007 
•  Robin Wood, 'Only (Dis)Connect; and Never Relaxez-Vous; or, "I Can’t Sleep"', Film International, Issue 11
• Robin Wood, 'Revenge is Sweet: The Bitterness of "Audition"', Film International, Issue 7
• Robin Wood, 'A BETTER TOMORROW: Lee Isaac Chung’s astonishing debut, Munyurangabo, finds life after death in the killing fields of Rwanda', Film Comment, International, Volume 44, Issue No. 2, March/April 2008
• Robin Wood, 'Fresh Meat', Film Comment, Volume 44, Issue No. 1, January - February, 2008
• Robin Wood, 'What Lies Beneath?', Senses of Cinema, Issue 15, 2001
• Robin Wood, 'Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic',  Film Comment, Issue No. 1, January - February, 1978
• Robin Wood, 'Michael Haneke: beyond compromise', CineAction, Summer 2007
  
• Joe McElhaney, 'Review of Hitchcock's Films Revisited by Robin Wood, revised edition, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002)', Senses of Cinema, Issue 24, January 2003
• Frances Pheasant-Kelly, 'Review of Hitchcock’s Films Revisited: Revised Edition by Robin Wood, New York: Columba University Press, 2002', Scope, Issue 1, February 2005 
• Arthur M. Eckstein, 'Review of Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan… and Beyond by Robin Wood', Film International, Issue 7  
• Bill Krohn, 'Friedkin Out', Rouge, 3, 2004
  
• Christiane Gerblinger, '"Fiery the Angels Fell": America, Regeneration, and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner', Australasian Journal of American Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, July 2002