One Of The Surest Signs Of The

Watching Old Movies Is Like Spending An Evening With Those People Next Door. They Bore Us, And We Wouldn't Go Out Of Our Way To See Them; We Drop In On Them Because They're So Close. If It Took Some Effort To See Old Movies, We Might Try To Find Out Which Were The Good Ones, And If People Saw Only The Good Ones Maybe They Would Still Respect Old Movies. As It Is, People Sit And Watch Movies That Audiences Walked Out On Thirty Years Ago. Like Lot's Wife, We Are Tempted To Take Another Look, Attracted Not By Evil But By Something That Seems Much More Shameful -- Our Own Innocence.

What's Disgusting About The Dirty Harry Movies Is That Eastwood Plays This Angry Tension As Righteous Indignation.

There Seems To Be An Assumption That If You're Offended By Movie Brutality, You Are Somehow Playing Into The Hands Of The People Who Want Censorship. But This Would Deny Those Of Us Who Don't Believe In Censorship The Use Of The Only Counter-balance: The Freedom Of The Press To Say That There's Anything Conceivably Damaging In These Films - The Freedom To Analyze Their Implications. How Can People Go On Talking About The Dazzling Brilliance Of Movies And Not Notice That The Directors Are Sucking Up To The Thugs In The Audience?

If It Took Some Effort To See Old Movies, We Might Try To Find Out Which Were The Good Ones, And If People Saw Only The Good Ones Maybe They Would Still Respect Old Movies. As It Is, People Sit And Watch Movies That Audiences Walked Out On Thirty Years Ago.

Sex Is The Great Leveler, Taste The Great Divider.