James Bowman

Resident Scholar

Mr. Bowman is well known for his writing on honor, including his book, Honor: A History and “Whatever Happened to Honor,” originally delivered as one of the prestigious Bradley Lectures at the American Enterprise Institute in 2002, and republished (under the title “The Lost Sense of Honor”) in The Public Interest.

Read full bio.

James Bowman is a Resident Scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Mr. Bowman is well known for his writing on honor, including his book, Honor: A History and “Whatever Happened to Honor,” originally delivered as one of the prestigious Bradley Lectures at the American Enterprise Institute in 2002, and republished (under the title “The Lost Sense of Honor”) in The Public Interest.

Among the other publications to which he has contributed are Harper’sThe Public InterestThe Washington PostThe Wall Street JournalThe Daily and Sunday Telegraph of London, The Weekly Standard and National Review.

He has worked as a freelance journalist, serving as American editor of the Times Literary Supplement of London from 1991 to 2002, as movie critic of The American Spectator since 1990 and as media critic of The New Criterion since 1993. He has also been a weekly movie reviewer for The New York Sun since the newspaper’s re-foundation in 2002.

Mr. Bowman received B.A. degrees from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and the University of Cambridge in England, where he also did graduate study and received an M.A. in 1979.

Close bio

Ulee’s Gold

James Bowman

Ulee’s Gold, written and directed by Victor Nunez is a film so slow-paced that even the exciting parts look as…

Uncategorized

 

Angel Baby

James Bowman

One ought, I think, to be suspicious of films about mental illness. They nearly always call on us to pity…

Uncategorized

 

Daytrippers, The

James Bowman

The Daytrippers by Greg Mottola is quite a pleasant little film. An actor’s film. There are excellent performances from Liev…

Uncategorized

 

Devil’s Own, The

James Bowman

The Devil’s Own by Alan J. Pakula is a dishonest film in the way that we have come to expect…

Uncategorized

 

Inventing the Abbotts

James Bowman

Inventing the Abbotts directed by Pat O’Connor from a story by Sue Miller is set in the 1950s and runs…

Uncategorized

 

Murder at 1600

James Bowman

It’s too bad that the people in Dwight Little’s Murder at 1600 don’t know, postmodern style, that they are in…

Uncategorized

 

Paradise Road

James Bowman

Bruce Beresford does so many things so well that he should by rights be one of the best directors of…

Uncategorized

 

Pillow Book, The

James Bowman

The Pillow Book by Peter Greenaway is a typical Greenaway blend of the bizarre, the disgusting and the boring. Especially…

Uncategorized

 

Pink Flamingos

James Bowman

Pink Flamingos by John Waters (1972), now re-released, is not a film which it is really possible to review. It…

Uncategorized

 

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion

James Bowman

Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion by David Mirkin seems to be a sort of female version of Dumb and…

Uncategorized

 

Saint, The

James Bowman

The Saint, starring Val Kilmer and Elizabeth Shue and directed by Phillip Noyce is simply one more Hollywood wish-fulfilment fantasy…

Uncategorized

 

That Old Feeling

James Bowman

That Old Feeling, directed by Carl Reiner, is a vehicle for Bette Midler to do her First Wives’ Club schtick…

Uncategorized