Books, Arts & Manners: Who Needs People?

AS WE LOOK at last weekend’s box-office receipts, what were the big sellers? In place one, Die Hard II; in place six, Another 48 Hours; in place seven, RoboCop 2; in place nine, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. What is it that so endears sequels to the public, to the filmmakers, to the producers? And what is it that makes a wary critic so leery of them?

The public, and this is understandable, does not like endings. The familiar characters in beloved novels, plays, or movies have become friends one hates to see go. Falstaff or Mistress Quickly, Tarzan or James Bond, Nancy Drew or the Dragon Lady, we want them back. Their very names elicit a warm glow, and we don’t even like it when another actor takes over as 007 from the chape we’ve gotten used to. Above all, the continuance of Rocky or Don Corleone or Lucien de Rubempré is good for the morale: if these characters can keep going on, so can we perhaps. Perhaps we can remain eternally successful and eternally alive.

JS

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John Simon

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AS WE LOOK at last weekend’s box-office receipts, what were the big sellers? In place one, Die Hard II; in place six, Another 48 Hours; in place seven, RoboCop 2; in place nine, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. What is it that so endears sequels to the public, to the filmmakers, to the producers? And what is it that makes a wary critic so leery of them?

The public, and this is understandable, does not like endings. The familiar characters in beloved novels, plays, or movies have become friends one hates to see go. Falstaff or Mistress Quickly, Tarzan or James Bond, Nancy Drew or the Dragon Lady, we want them back. Their very names elicit a warm glow, and we don’t even like it when another actor takes over as 007 from the chape we’ve gotten used to. Above all, the continuance of Rocky or Don Corleone or Lucien de Rubempré is good for the morale: if these characters can keep going on, so can we perhaps. Perhaps we can remain eternally successful and eternally alive.