Themes v. Entertainment

Of course, the only valid test of a film is, is it entertaining? It doesn't matter two roubles if it has the noblest and sincerest theme or message in the world; if It doesn't interest, it is worthless. There are, after all, only a handful of themes available for treatment anyway, and probably the most overworked of them all is "the loneliness of the individual" that Is "his inability to communicate" (what?) with the cadet version of the same message, "the inability of the younger to communicate with the older generation."

The distressing thing is that a field of "sociological" criticism has grown up around this ethos; great message equals great film. (A good example of the desire to read a sermon into every film, whether one is intended or not, can be seen in the "Listener" critic's review of Fanny.)

Similarly, the viewer may read whatever he likes into Shadows— a tract on race relations, the emptiness of contemporary city life, its lack of values, the loss of meaning in sex, every man is an island, and so on (even a crack at modern ail if you want it.)