[dsc]

"Paul Schrader wrote one of the top five screenplays of all time (Taxi Driver)"

Winston Churchill and Douglas MacArthur both thought Charles Dickens was a hack.

Seems to me public esteem is no guarantor of artistic merit.

I never saw anything special in Taxi Driver. Or any of the others on the list.

[Borges]

By the current definition, Dickens was a hack. So was Shakespeare. They were just brilliant hacks who produced great work in spite of the way they worked. And the best of Hollywood cinema is among this country's greatest cultural achievements.