From Henry James' "The Portrait of a Lady" (1881): "He never speaks of his painting -- to people at large; he is too clever for that. But he has a little girl -- a dear little girl; he does speak of her. He is devoted to her, and if it were a career to be an excellent father he would be very distinguished. But I am afraid that is no better than the snuff-boxes; perhaps not even so good."

From a 1980 Pauline Kael essay in the New Yorker: "Trying to say something big, Coppola got tied up in a big knot of American self-hatred and guilt, and what the picture ["Apocalypse Now"] boiled down to was: White man -- he devil. Since then, I think, people have expected less of movies and have been willing to settle for less. Some have even been willing to settle for 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and other pictures that seem to be made for an audience of over-age flower children. These pictures express the belief that if a man cares about anything besides being at home with the kids, he's corrupt. Parenting ennobles Dustin Hoffman and makes him a better person in every way, while in 'The Seduction of Joe Tynan' we can see that Alan Alda is a weak, corruptible fellow because he wants to be president of the United States more than he wants to stay at home communing with his daughter about her adolescent miseries. Pictures like these should all end with the fathers and the children sitting at home watching TV together."

Hmmm. Two cheers for ambition then?