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Re:It ain't yer commas, Victor, it's yer apostrophes!

I guess I stayed on the soapbox a little too long. But when someone comes out with guns a'blazin', blasting someone not only for what they are saying, but also the way that they say it, then t's had better be crossed and i's dotted. Repeating (because nothing RGA posted was an original or even interpretive thought) one sentence (!) ad hominem attacks on someone because he or she chooses to critique films in, gasp, one or two sentences, sure doesn't provide a lot of critical insight into a different position.

And I'll admit the idea of someone who writes "alla", or thinks that Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" was based on "the great American novel," suggesting someone else take a literature class....
Wow!

As I wrote before, RGA makes some good points: There doesn't have to be "good" in a character for that character to be human or for that character to be interesting in a work of art. Iago, anyone? And the first "Godfather" film did romantize the familial aspect of the Mafia. But who, walking out of the theatre after seeing "The Godfather, Part II" would have wanted to join the mob? (I won't discuss "Part III" because IMHO that film never should have been made. It allows RGA to call the series a "Mob Soap opera" in a way that the first two films alone do not deserve.) And RGA demonstates knowlege of current teaching pedagogy when he discusses using, say, films about a historical subject in a history class (I think his specific example was the Holocaust). I won't even discuss the use of "Star Wars" or "E.T." as films that have withstood the test of time (and I love both films and think they both will be around for a long, long time!). Well, okay, one comment: will the re-release in 1000 theatres of "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" in a year or two prove IT has withstood the test of time?

But just because someone waxes effusively about "The Age of Innocence" (a Scorcese film I'll admit I don't care for), or suggests that films need characters with some amount of "good," does not mean that they deserve an attack along the lines of "another wannabe art-house poster," etc., etc.

So I guess my point is (no "little one snippet comment" here!) that while I agree with some of RGA's criticisms of tinear's comments, the personal criticism wasn't justified. When RGA really wants to sit down and write, he can add to the critical discussion. But the personal attacks do not shed any light on tinear's post. They only shows things about RGA that are perhaps not so flattering. It's one thing when Pauline Kael and Norman Mailer mixed it up, or Vladimir Nabakov and Edmund Wilson, but c'mon RGA!


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