KIRK PALMER
kmpalmer51@yahoo.com.sg
Singapore
In the Line of Fire
How can you be so shortsighted and vulgar as to create a list of best movie quotes of the last 50 years? Great lines are for advertisements and politicians. As someone who loves and studies film, I'm appalled that you'd be so apathetic to the writers of the lines, who created the contexts in which the lines are spoken. Cutting the line off from the movie and pasting it in black and white is like saying ''To be or not to be'' is all that is worth knowing from ''Hamlet,'' even though it isn't a complete thought. It's one thing to make lists of great movies, but those who haven't seen these films are going to be lost when they read the quotes in your article, and they aren't going to run out and buy a film if they think you've told them the only part worth knowing. How can people respect movies if the ones considered the best can be summed up in one line? Your article doesn't celebrate great films and screenwriters, it betrays them.
J.M. SIMPKINS
scarletprojectionist@yahoo.com
Worcester, Mass.
CORRECTION: Rapper Nelly made his film acting debut in 2002's Snipes (Music).
