I Am Mystified. I Know Only One

Imagining [the Wizard Of Oz] Without Judy Garland Is A Bit Like Dancing On Wet Cement: You Can Do It, But Why Would You Want To?

Movies, Far More Than The Traditional Arts, Are Tied To Big Money. Without A Few Independent Critics, There's Nothing Between The Public And The Advertisers.

Watching Old Movies Is Like Spending An Evening With Those People Next Door. They Bore Us, And We Wouldn't Go Out Of Our Way To See Them; We Drop In On Them Because They're So Close. If It Took Some Effort To See Old Movies, We Might Try To Find Out Which Were The Good Ones, And If People Saw Only The Good Ones Maybe They Would Still Respect Old Movies. As It Is, People Sit And Watch Movies That Audiences Walked Out On Thirty Years Ago. Like Lot's Wife, We Are Tempted To Take Another Look, Attracted Not By Evil But By Something That Seems Much More Shameful -- Our Own Innocence.

The Movies Have Been So Rank The Last Couple Of Years That When I See People Lining Up To Buy Tickets I Sometimes Think That The Movies Aren't Drawing An Audience - They're Inheriting An Audience. People Just Want To Go To A Movie. They're Stung Repeatedly, Yet Their Desire For A Good Movie - For Any Movie - Is So Strong That All Over The Country They Keep Lining Up.

An Avidity For More Is Built Into The Love Of Movies. Something Else Is Built In: You Have To Be Open To The Idea Of Getting Drunk On Movies. (being Able To Talk About Movies With Someone -- To Share The Giddy High Excitement You Feel -- Is Enough For A Friendship.