Letters from our readers
Into the Army
I'd planned to skip Jarhead, since I'm not a war-movie fan, but the
photos of Jake Gyllenhaal — especially the one where he's wearing a Santa
hat, dog tags, a weapon, and not much else — changed my mind. Ho ho ho and
merry Christmas to you, too!
DARLEEN MICHAEL-BAKER
darleenmb@darleenmb.com
Sheridan, Wyo.
Regarding Steve Daly's article about Jarhead in the Nov. 4 issue
(''Ready. Aim. Wait.''), Stanley Kubrick did not turn R. Lee Ermey into
the ''archetypal drill instructor from hell'' in 1987. In fact, Ermey's
performance in Full Metal Jacket was almost the same as his portrayal of
a drill instructor in the 1978 film The Boys in Company C, directed by
Sidney J. Furie. Boys seems to get left off of the list when it comes to
war movies, but at least give credit to Furie for bringing this great,
often-copied character to life.
DONALD L. SPARKS
ginsparks@earthlink.net
Altadena, Calif.
Out of the Dark
Thank you for the fine article on Anne Rice (''Once Upon a Time, There
Was a Boy Named Jesus...''). After I read her vampire novel Memnoch the Devil in 1995, I said farewell to Lestat, took off the Goth attire, and
got rid of the nihilist attitude. It's good to know Rice has done the
same. Here is one devotee who can't wait to read her new novel and who
is glad she opted to ''do violence'' to her career.
KEEFE ROYAL
keeferoyal@comcast.net
Sacramento
Scary Stuff
I couldn't believe you left out the scariest of the new thrillers on TV
this season: Supernatural (''Cheers for Fears''). It is well written, well
acted, and should be viewed with the lights on! And as for including
Ghost Whisperer in your list, I can see highlighting it as a weeper, but
not as a spooky show. Supernatural is where the chills are!
BONNIE L. UHLENBROCK
ubrock@mail3.newnanutilities.org
Sharpsburg, Ga.
Your list of TV's scariest had one glaring omission. Beginning its
seventh season on British TV, and on Fridays for the past few months on
the Travel Channel, Most Haunted easily surpasses network-cloned sci-fi
with a combination of eeriness, humor, intrigue, and chills. For me, if
it's a choice between actors playing scared and watching a terrified
solitary soul sitting in a pitch-black cellar of a haunted 13th-century
castle, I'll take Most Haunted every time.
SUSAN STEFANSKI
Chicago
Film Forum
My wife and I used to go to the movies at least once a week. But an
article in EW a few months ago summed up why we would rather wait for
DVDs. And your recent article ''Bad B.O.'' (News & Notes) says it all. The
moviegoing experience stinks. Why pay $19 so we can sit next to people
who think it's okay to talk during movies? One might think all of those
announcements about turning off cell phones would cause people to take
the hint. And don't get me started on the commercials. In the last year
we've decided to go to the theater only for films we can't wait to see
and those that have to be seen on the big screen. We're now at the point
where there isn't much we won't wait on the DVD for.
PAUL YESKEL
paul@aimstrategies.com
Old Bridge, N.J.
A good article, but everyone in Hollywood seems to be overlooking one
major reason for the dip in box office that is obvious to those of us in
Tumbleweed, USA. Maybe studio execs can afford to see the films they
make, but if people want to take a date to the movies, they need a
second mortgage. Recently I've had to split up the sacred coupling of
dinner and a movie. Dinner always wins (and I was a film student!). If
ticket prices were $6.50, I would have seen four times as many movies
this month.
CHRISTOPHER STOUT
Talos16@aol.com
Wilmington, Del.
