----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Two quick points on a complex subject. One of the major critical writers on film (whose name escapes me for the moment, I'm afraid) points out that film genres tend to evolve cyclically through four phases: from "experimental" through "classical" and "refinement" to "baroque", in which it reflects back on itself. But old genres never die. They may go dormant for a time only to reemerge, or just transform without disappearing. One of the people on this net noted a couple of silent movie parodies that did not kill the genres they mocked. Another is _Sherlock, Jr._ (Keaton again) which parodies the detective thriller. That genre didn't die, either, but transformed and branched, submerged and reemerged, with or without the detective as such. The other, somewhat ill-formed thought I'd like to share has to do with the posts about imitation and heroes and non-heroes. I think we can all agree that the effect of violence on the screen on mature, thoughtful, well-balanced adults is not the evocation of imitation. However, they are not the people we all worry about. The imitation of movie characters and stars is hardly new nor very controvertible. Even Sherlock, Jr., in fact, reflcts this. The protagonist of the film, a lowly movie projectionist, dreams of himself as the great detective, Sherlock, Jr., and he even directly imitates what he sees on the screen at film's end. The off-the-rack fashion industry has depended on it (though TV has taken over that function largely). Certainly violence is nothing new, either, nor, arguably, the presence of non-heroes (using the term heroes in the sense of perfect and idealized characters who behave in "heroic" ways--whatever those are--as opposed to merely protagonists). There may be a fine point of distinction between protagonists who are anti-heroes and those who are non-heroes, but we've had them around for a long time. Aristotle , himself said that the hero of a tragedy should not be perfect, nor should he be all bad. Apart from that, however, the protagonists' imperfections do not make them less emulatable. Perhaps for those who are a little screwed up or immature themselves, they merely make these guys easier to relate to. ?? One last note and then I'll shut up: I agree with David Smith that (probably) neither Hitchcock nor Truffault equated suspense with violence. In fact when Truffault interviewed Hitchcock, the latter made a point of saying that suspense was about anticipation and that danger or harm did not have to be involved. The anticipation of the answer to a question like: "Will the young man pop the question? (likely followed by, if so, how will she respond?) is as valid for suspense as "will the bomb explode?" The actual explosion of the bomb is not suspenseful at all. (Obviously, I'm not directly quoting Hitch here--don't have the book in front of me--but that's the gist and tenor of what he said) Sorry to go on so long on "two quick points." Meredith McMinn