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.

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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.

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Metro

James Bowman

We might call Metro by Tom Carter a palimpsest movie—one where you can read another text beneath the one on…

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Albino Alligator

James Bowman

It was an interesting experience to go to see Kevin Spacey’s Albino Alligator with Jackie Chan’s First Strike fresh in…

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Beverly Hills Ninja

James Bowman

Beverly Hills Ninja by Dennis Dugan tries yet again to make Chris Farley’s brand of physical comedy, which consists of…

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In the Realm of the Senses (Ai No Corrida)

James Bowman

In the Realm of the Senses is a Japanese film made twenty years ago by Nagisa Oshima. At the time…

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Ai No Corrida (In the Realm of the Senses)

James Bowman

In the Realm of the Senses is a Japanese film made twenty years ago by Nagisa Oshima. At the time…

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Hamlet

James Bowman

Now we know who put the “Ham” in “Hamlet.” Who else but Kenneth Branagh, whose new, four hour movie of…

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I’m Not Rappaport

James Bowman

I’m Not Rappaport, written and directed by Herb Gardner from his stage play, takes its title from the old vaudeville…

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Citizen Ruth

James Bowman

Citizen Ruth by Alexander Payne is not so good a movie as it ought to be, given its materials and…

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Portrait of a Lady

James Bowman

Portrait of a Lady by Jane Campion has a very strange beginning. A bunch of contemporary girls, photographed in black…

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Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet)

James Bowman

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a good example of Shakespeare killed by terminal hipness. It is remarkably clever, and…

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