----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From: Tony Williams
English
SIUC
 Dear Errol, There are several reasons for Monday night's fiasco which many
correspondents will supply. But, the paramount reason for Gump's success is the
new wave of conservatism sweeping America and Hollywood's whorish tendencies to
jump on any contemporary bandwagon. As one panelist at the Popular Culture
Association mentioned years ago, Hollywood would produce Nazi films if there
was a market for them. It would even stoop into making romantic comedies and
musicals about concentration camps. British television went part of the wayten
years ago by turning an original series about the French Resistance into a
stupid comedy ("Allo, Allo"). Hollywood and the Oscars are merely arenas to be
regarded with the utmost contempt.
 As one correspondent has pointed out, PULP FICTION  was not much of an
alternative but it had some complexity and acknowledgement of the dark side
of American existence that scared away those tuxedoed clowns and dumb smiling
femmes populating a night which is really Cinema's Annual celebration of
Visual Manure.
  The advantage of this network having international input is certainly
valuable in providing a dose of reality to a cinema falling rapidly into
decline. Definitely, "Down Under" has more critical acumen as long as its
directors stay there and not fall into the malaise as New Wave exponents such
as Miller, Beresford, Schepsisi etc have done. Tony Williams