Violence Shapes the Children

Michael R. Perry says movies don’t influence people. Right. All those millions that advertisers spend on product placement and product tie-ins are just charitable contributions to the arts.

And Perry doesn’t want outside corporations censoring movies. I detest censorship too, but it’s hard to see how the Carnegie Foundation could be any worse than the rigid and prejudiced censorship Hollywood has imposed on itself, telling the audience what it can and cannot see.

For instance, Hollywood doesn’t even want to know what people older than 50 think about movies. Those who work movie lines, handing out preview invitations, are specifically told not to pass them out to people older than 50. If this isn’t censorship, I don’t know what is.

STANTON J. PRICE

Santa Monica