In a critique of the film theory of André Bazin that is both penetrating in its logic and devastating to Bazin's theoretical argument and yet seems somehow nearly irrelevant to what most of us would agree is the importance of Bazin to film studies, Noël Carroll proposes a distinction between film theory and film criticism. Redefining Bazin's theory of cinematic realism, Carroll claims it is best approached as an argument in favor of a particular film style rather than definition of the essence of cinema. Instead of a coherent argument about the nature of the film image, Bazin offers, as Carroll puts it, “an astute appreciation of an important stylistic shift.” Acknowledging that the weakness of Bazin's theoretical metalogic does not gainsay his deep insight into a stylistic change in film history, Carroll admits, with the sort of disarming candor that so often strikes one in his work, “What fails as theory may excel as criticism.”