the outset, he was convinced that film's essential feature was also a defining American trait. This was its ability to capture "movement, and that happen[ed] to be the one dominant characteristic of all American history". He, therefore, believed that film was vital to America's cultural identity.

Alongside film's proliferation, Seldes promulgated the democratization of cultural criticism. He proposed that critical opinion needed to support film's reach to a mass audience, and applauded the rise of film criticism from the 1920s. For all