Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Ray, Satyajit - Judith Crist

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JUDITH CRIST

[The Hero is] a witty and ironic film Ray made in 1966. It is quintessential Ray, a simple story moving at what has been so aptly described as "the pace of a majestic snail," its protagonist projected on a broad canvas so subtly crammed with insights, perceptions, and wry comment that its compassionate awareness of the human comedy sticks to the mind's ribs with surprising persistency….

Ray provides a worldliness and sophistication to break the journey, with the tiniest of moments becoming significant drama, and gestures—like the quick, firm restoration of the hornrims—providing the breadth of character. We might, in fact, be riding the Twentieth Century again, a little less fliply and a lot more satisfyingly. It makes the erratic sound track and recurrence of white-on-white (but markedly literate) subtitles worth enduring.

Judith Crist, "Star's Trek," in New York Magazine (copyright © 1974 by News...

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1. Introduction
2. Guido Aristarco
3. DOUGLAS McVAY
4. Jonathan Harker
5. Arlene Croce
6. Cynthia Grenier
7. John Burgess
8. John Gillett
9. Eric Rhode
10. Gordon Gow
11. Tony Mallerman
12. Eric Rhode
13. Peter Cowie
14. Penelope Houston
15. Richard Schickel
16. Richard Schickel
17. Chidananda Das Gupta
18. Ernest Callenbach
19. Elizabeth Sussex
20. William S. Pechter
21. Tom Milne
22. Robin Wood
23. Pauline Kael
24. Stanley Kauffmann
25. Alan Ross
26. Tom Milne
27. John Coleman
28. Penelope Gilliatt
29. Penelope Gilliatt
30. Judith Crist
31. Tom Milne
32. Pauline Kael
33. John Simon
34. John Russell Taylor
35. Chris Schemering
36. William S. Pechter
37. Geoff Brown
38. Tom Milne
39. J. Hoberman
40. Copyright