Smoke and Fire
In response to Jack Mathews’ Film Comment “Nothing Left but Smoke” (Feb. 14):
Will the laudation of directors never cease? I myself hugely admire many of them, but it seems that according to Mathews, “through the ‘70s, film’s brightest political minds”--Ashby, Lumet, Penn, Altman, Coppola, Russell, Cassavetes--belonged solely to directors.
And several films Mathews references--”Carnal Knowledge,” “The Last Picture Show” and “The Exorcist”--he credits possessively to Mike Nichols, Peter Bogdanovich and William Friedkin. Does he not know, or respect, that each was originally created by Jules Feiffer, Larry McMurtry and William Peter Blatty?
Is it soon to be Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Eroica” Symphony?
LAWRENCE TURMAN
Los Angeles
Turman is director of the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the USC School of Cinema-Television.
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