Clinton Morgan, thanks for the well considered reply.
I definitely don’t endorse a sort of reverse idol worship - putting down great artists just because they’re well regarded. What I do endorse is trusting wholeheartedly one’s personal reaction to an artist’s work. Seeing art honestly (or hearing it in the case of music) is important, because we can’t pick our inspirations. No matter how much praise is heaped upon the likes of Mozart, a musician gains nothing by listening to his work over and over, or acknowledging it as the pinnacle of musical achievment if he doesn’t actually feel it. Instead he becomes the most useless of artist and critic - an advocate for a cause he doesn’t believe in his heart.
And I do think Hitchcock was revolutionary. I consider Hitch one of the first truly modern filmmakers, moving the form away from its theatrical roots and closer to the form we have today, which stands on its own. I also enjoy the sheer ubiquity of Hitchcock’s influence. When we say a movie like “Duel” is “Hitchcockian”, everyone understands. Hitchcock, like Shakespeare, is in the air.
But there is work that we appreciate and work that we enjoy, and only sometimes do they intersect. Obviously Eisenstein and Griffith, in many peoples’ eyes, fall into the first category. Their work practically isn’t watched for enjoyment anymore, for one basic reason: it’s obsolete. The techniques they pioneered have long since been assimilated into the collective and are basic today. It’s like that scene in “Little Shop Of Horrors” where the dentist pulls out the antique drill, "They don’t make 'em like this anymore. Sturdy. Heavy. Dull."
I feel the same way about Hitch. A pioneer? Yes. Enjoyable? Sometimes. The most enjoyable? Not by a long shot IMO. And what is the measure of a movie, if not the enjoyment? But that’s just my two cents.
P.S.: Kilgore Trout, since you asked, we are talking about Hitchcock because, though Hitchcock was regarded as a technically savvy filmmaker in his day, he wasn’t acknowledged as a true artist until the French New Wave rediscovered him after WWII. The New Hollywood, heavily influenced by the French, took their recommendation to heart and rediscovered Hitchcock too. The New Hollywood are the generation right before us, our cinematic fathers. Essentially, they put Hitchcock in the books.
