1970s movies

Tony Macklin (Letters, Aug 31) accuses Manohla Dargis of “snide, easy posturing” for having the temerity to question the apparently sacred notion that the ‘70s were a “Golden Age” of filmmaking. After making sure to plug his book dealing with that era, he informs us that “No one who wasn’t involved can understand it.”

Well, I wasn’t “involved” in filmmaking back in those glorious days, but I certainly saw a lot of movies then. And a lot of celluloid garbage came out, too. (Along, to be sure, with some genuine classics.) The fact is that great movies, bad movies and in-between movies are made in all eras. It seems to me that a critic who writes beautifully about the movies coming out in the present, such as Dargis does, is more valuable than one who condescendingly tells us that we have no ability to understand how great it used to be.

Steve Omlid

Upland