Robin Wood

I forget to mention a couple weeks ago that film critic Robin Wood died. It's odd The New York Times' headline mentions he wrote on Hitchcock. Certainly he's noted for his Hitchcock work, but I'd say his most fascinating and lasting achievement was one of the first and best books on Howard Hawks.

Not that I agree with all his opinions. He didn't think much of The Big Sleep, felt Rio Bravo justifed Hollywood's existence, and believed Scarface was a comedy. But just treating Hawks as a subject for serious, book-length analysis (as well as Hitchcock) was a major statement.

Wood realized that just because a film was entertaining it didn't mean you couldn't take it seriously. He was able to spread this idea so far that now it's dominant in film criticism (to the chagrin of a Teutonic few).

And for Hawks, more than any other director he wrote about, Wood, as the publicity correctly has it: "set the terms for virtually all subsequent discussions of the director."