Part of growing up is developing a bullshit detector, and kids usually do a pretty fair job of wising each other up. - Pauline Kael

Ice Station Zebra is terrible in such a familiar way that at some level it's pleasant. We learn to settle for so little, we moviegoers.

It tackles a wonderful subject without preening, and brings it off unassertively — so unassertively that the movie is in danger of being overlooked. (Variety has already dismissed it as something "for a very limited audience.") We're getting to the point where the press assumes that movie audiences won't be willing to bring anything to a picture, and warns them off.

An artist must either give up art or develop.