Poetry

Enshrining The Trees (except for an index). John Simon, for instance, surely deserves to have been represented by more than two pieces, but had I been the editor of American Movie Critics, I would have made sure to include, as Lopate does, his reviews of The Last Picture Show and Chinatown: The final question is whether a mystery film, however concerned with moral climate and psychological overtones, can transcend its genre. . . . These people are much more vulnerable than their genre antecedents, which is what ultimately makes for Chinatown’s originality and distinction. Still, the hold of the genre is so strong that, even with sensational plot twists kept at a minimum, there simply isn’t room enough for full character development – for the richer humanity required by art.

This acute observation might well serve as an epigraph for American Movie Critics. Likewise this one: “I should like to inquire why we as the nation that produces the movies should never have developed any sound school of movie criticism.” Otis Ferguson, the first working film critic to achieve high distinction, wrote those words 65 years ago, and Lopate cites them in his excellent introduction, asserting in reply that “we have developed a sound school of American movie criticism – thanks to Ferguson himself, James Agee, Robert Warshow, Manny Farber, Parker Tyler, Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, and those who have followed in their wake.”

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Enshrining The Trees (except for an index). John Simon, for instance, surely deserves to have been represented by more than two pieces, but had I been the editor of American Movie Critics, I would have made sure to include, as Lopate does, his reviews of The Last Picture Show and Chinatown: The final question is whether a mystery film, however concerned with moral climate and psychological overtones, can transcend its genre. . . . These people are much more vulnerable than their genre antecedents, which is what ultimately makes for Chinatown’s originality and distinction. Still, the hold of the genre is so strong that, even with sensational plot twists kept at a minimum, there simply isn’t room enough for full character development – for the richer humanity required by art.

This acute observation might well serve as an epigraph for American Movie Critics. Likewise this one: “I should like to inquire why we as the nation that produces the movies should never have developed any sound school of movie criticism.” Otis Ferguson, the first working film critic to achieve high distinction, wrote those words 65 years ago, and Lopate cites them in his excellent introduction, asserting in reply that “we have developed a sound school of American movie criticism – thanks to Ferguson himself, James Agee, Robert Warshow, Manny Farber, Parker Tyler, Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, and those who have followed in their wake.”