Dear all American subscribers.
For a few years now I have been steadily more interested in the view of your
 fair
nation posited in the cinema. I am but of tender years (18 of them to be
 pedantic) and
so I do not possess the greatest library of cinematic knowledge, but after
 watching
films such as JFK, Blue Collar, Mississippi Burning, Salvador, Taxi Driver, the
recent spate of 'hood' films and even Forrest Gump,(perhaps one of the finest
anti-American films of recent times) to name but a few, I find that the
 popularized
cinematic view of your nation is far from kind.  We in the U.K exist in a
 strange
paradox, whilst lapping up a million-fold American culture and product, we have
 a
general mentality of somehow being superior, and a feeling of smugness when we
look at your supposed shortcomings.  What we fail to see is that the
 shortcomings of
America today are Britain's tomorrow.  We are fast placing capitalism ahead of
heritage, and the now legalized mass homophobia present in the corridors of
 power
in America is seeping through to us.  Yet why do we still possess this
 ridiculous
attitude? Purely through the cinema.  Nobody loves America more than the
Americans, yet it seems that nobody hates America like the Americans.  What is
going on? America is without a doubt the most powerful nation in the world, and
 yet it
makes one anxious to say the least when we are shown its problems again and
again.  Everyone has their problems, the British one has been in power for the
 last
seventeen years, but America's come across as a tad prominent. Please, ease my
anxiety!  Defend yourself !
  Chris Taylor.
  Sheffield, U.K.
 
----
To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L
in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]