A number of film critics have been rendered red-faced by this movie, practically forced into issuing revisionist statements to their reviews published at the time of the film's release.  Whether the change of heart is due to improved understanding of the text or to the pressures of popular canonization, this Holy Grail has proven one of the most commonly shared quests of followers separated by as much as 3 generations.  Film teachers are often disappointed to discover that young viewers no longer respond with interest let alone animation to Chaplin and Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers and W. C. Fields.  The reasons are often attributed to the desensiticizing effects of fast-food modern culture, or to the postmodern amnesia that insures satire can not possibly work with an audience unfamiliar with the original objects of satire.  All interesting, if not compelling, theories--until you come to this film.  For a singular 90 minutes, the generations unite, erasing the boundaries of high and low culture, the informed and the uninformed, the old and the young.  There aren't many such grails left.  Long may this one continue to reside in viewers' consciousness, inspiring us to our individual and collective pursuits.