Greatness isn’t a one-time deal

MICHAEL SRAGOW’s piece, “Sometimes, a Standard May Be Too High” [Dec. 22], is completely wrong-headed. He implies that a director is “great” if he makes one or two great films, and that the fact that he fails to again attain greatness should not detract from that greatness.

Earth to Mr. Sragow: The truly great directors, such as Billy Wilder, Steven Spielberg and John Ford, reached that lofty status because they create brilliant films over a sustained period of time (say, 30 years). Robert Altman may have been an iconoclast and a risk taker, but he was not a great director. He followed the brilliance of such films as “MASH” and “Nashville” with more than 30 years of misses and mediocrity.

Greatness, whether it’s in film, music or sports, is only measured through excellence over time. Altman, and Christopher Guest, fall way short of greatness by any reasonable yardstick.

JACK WOLF

Westwood