Marlyn Robinson- Your points re "dumbing down" are interesting, but they overlook some historical facts. 1) In terms of audiences surveys and the changing of films: Traditionally, studios held "sneak previews" (true "sneaks", not the promotional frauds of today) to determine audience reaction to films. Many, many films were changed drastically because of audience response. MGM was known as "Retake Valley" because of its reshooting endings and adding material to films in response to the comparatively crude audience surveys of the day. The Marx Bros. took film scripts on the road and perfected them before live audiences before making the films! 2) Yes, indeed star power is an old story. But, remember - stars were developed in the old days in a very deliberate way so that the audience would get used to certain people and then seek out their films. Also remember that stars made many, many more films then than today. James Cagney made dozens of films in his first two or three years at Warner Brothers. Today a star is lucky to get a film every other year. And stars can be created almost out of thin air today. No training, no B-pictures, no experience with a variety of roles and directors. A star has one hit and becomes a corporation with a virtual fiefdom of representatives and hangers-on - a creature who can dictate script approval, director approval, advertising, etc. I certainly don't want to defend the chattel slavery of the studio system, but name me a star of those days who (sometimes ruefully, its true) did not lament the end of the traditional studio system. 3) Certainly the past has a high turkey quotient, but the point is that there was a sense of variety, even given the crippling censorship, even given the factory atmosphere of the studios - an enormous range and variety of material was produced that cannot be matched today. For all our freedoms, we have been trapped into a deadening cycle of remakes, "hommages" and copies of better films, rather than the originality and, yes, daring, of the past. Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC