Not nearly so much under the studio system. The movies Walsh praises come from a time when Hollywood was flush. Movies did have to make a reasonable return, but one misfire did not kill a career or shutter a studio (that came in the 1960's). At one point, the returns made by the Freed Unit alone supported MGM's entire output: a studio could produce some radical films under such circumstances. Nowadays, most films are independent productions of some sort that must fully support themselves.
> He's locating the problem more at the level of consciousness - there's just much less in the way of a critical impulse around than there used to be.
My problem is that he comes to this conclusion by looking at the current crop of Hollywood movies and concluding that there is not much of a critical impulse in most of them. I agree so far.
What I disagree with is the broadening of this conclusion to embrace the entire population. Fewer films are made today, and the ones that do get made are done under more rigid systems of oversight than existed during the Classical Hollywood period. John Ford's philosophy of "one for them, one for me" cannot be practiced any more (Van Sant being possibly the only exception). There very well might be thousands of filmmakers around who have the consciousness Walsh wants to see in an artist, but if they cannot get funding for their films, Walsh will never know about them. From a very small, skewed sample, Walsh wants to draw a very large conclusion.
> Like I said, I'm usually allergic to these implied Golden Age narratives, but I think he's got a point.
He does, but he fails to give enough weight to the tremendously changed circumstances and methods of film production. It can take years for a filmmaker to find financing for her work. Years ago, Douglas Sirk finished one film Friday and started a new one the following Monday. In fact, a director could complete a new film before his previous one was even released.
> It's fiction too, isn't it?
I don't know. It's been a long time since I have read contemporary fiction.