
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200553
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DICK MALLEN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOVIE'S FILTH, GORE DISGUSTING

I WENT TO see "Diehard II" the other night. I go to the movies a couple of times a year. I have, in the course of my life, sailed the lakes as coal-passer; as a bilge rat, frequented many poolrooms; been in my share of locker rooms and bars; spent a number of years in the military. But never in one year did I ever hear such fithy language as in that two-hour movie. Absolutely disgusting!

Also, much to my chagrin, there were a couple of hundred airline passengers disintegrated in a ball of fire before my eyes, plus a few dozen more people bludgeoned to death, stabbed, crushed and just plain shot or hurtled to their deaths from high places.

I guess it was your "average" movie: prostituting actors; over-enthusiastic stunt and special-effects people; a director recently furloughed from an insane asylum, plus a few more worms that crawled out of the woodwork. The plot? What's that?

Just what is the norm today? One has to look to the animal world; they have changed little since their creation, which can't be said of man. His regression is reported every day in bold newspaper headlines.

I like movies where the good guys win; it doesn't happen in real life very often! And why did I stay to see this entire movie? I had paid $5 and had to finish my bag of popcorn.

Why do people watch and listen to such filth? It has to be ignorance, lack of vocabulary, a sickness. Since the origin of movies people, especially young ones, have emulated the actors. I sincerely believe Bette Davis, with her flippant smoking, caused as much cancer in women as did anything else. As for today's violent world, don't discount what is portrayed on the screen as one of the greatest contributors.

There was a very flowery critique on this disgusting movie in the paper, but I'll bet this letter helps at the box office even more. My letter may please many, but offend as well. As Rhett Butler said in that great American classic, "Gone With the Wind," that awful oath: "Frankly, I don't give a damn."

by CNB