Gene Stavis comments: "It seems to me that most discussions of a director's "pacing" are generally smokescreens for an inchoate dislike of a film. It is such a vague and indefinable term that it is a favorite scapegoat. Pacing involves almost every aspect of a film from the most obvious - the rate of edits within a scene,... to the more obscure - the style of the dialogue, the amount of dialogue, the lack of or style of the musical score, the style of the camerawork, the acting style of the performers, etc. Complaints about pacing are akin to critics' comments about a film's "poor" or "superb" editing -- things which most critics have no knowledge about. Or, the condemnation or praise of a film's "photography" which likewise is far more subtle and harder to categorize than the popular press would like you to believe." Nicely put. Sometimes, one element or another can be pinned down in a particular scene, but there are so many variables that the specifics can get lost. A good case is point is a continuing motif in Bob Fosse's ALL THAT JAZZ. Within this film, the autobiographical self-destructive choreographer-director played by Roy Scheider is editing a new film (clearly modeled on Fosse's LENNY, about Lenny Bruce). The comedian's monologue about Death is edited and re-edited by Scheider, who tightens it every time. Then when the film is released, the movie is panned by a critic, who claims Scheider failed as a director and the only scene worth watching was saved by the actor who delivered the monologue about Death! A good illustration of the power of editing and the vapidity of some critics. --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN