In discussing Kasdan’s balancing his career between projects like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and more adult films like “The Big Chill”, Kasdan, “does not see himself as an artist who toils in flagrantly commercial enterprises to finance his important work - a defense John Cassavetes offers for some of the roles he takes. A seemingly unprovoked reference to Cassavetes, such as the one made by Ryan here, both serves to indicate the extent to which Cassavetes and his characteristics as an actor and a director have become ingrained in the language of filmmaking, and it serves to confirm his place in film history.  By G. Bond