In reading Pauline Kael's “Deeper Into Movies,” I realized that she includes the cosmos, but with no strain at all. I don't think she could keep it out, and I hope she never tries. Her typical piece not only evaluates the movie itself: It also presents you with A theory of film‐making, of acting, directing, shooting, script writing, everything. It tells you how these and other aspects of film are influenced by, or cater to, the quality and condition of life in America today. Reading a Pauline Kael review gives you a pretty good idea of the current state of our morality, our esthetics, our politics—and, yes, I might as well say it: our souls...

The author is a formidable literary critic when she defends books like “Women in Love” and “Tropic of Cancer” from oversimplification or flattening for cheap effects. Generally, she finds the “new” movies most sentimental about youth and most despairing about America. “Austere mortification of the audience” is so, well established by now as a sign of “seriousness” that the most gratuitous attack will stretch a masochistic line around the block. Among her personal dislikes, Miss Kael lists “brain‐damaged heroes; virgins driven mad (particularly when played by. Sandy Dennis); aging virgins (particularly when played by Joanne Woodward); anything with Anthony Quinn as a peasant; and Christ figures.”