On 18 July 1994 J. Metz wrote:
>On Mon, 18 Jul 1994 11:21:43 -0500 Richard J. Leskosky said:
>>>TRUE LIVES--POSSIBLE SPOILERS
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Bill Paxton was also in ALIENS, playing, as I
>>recall, a soldier who cracks under the pressure of the alien attacks but
>>winds up redeems (?) himself by committing suicide with tough space marine
>>Jenette Goldstein before the aliens can reach them and use their bodies to
>>create more aliens.  In any case, his reappearance at the end of TL does
>>let Helen get some sort of personal revenge on him, but it seems like a
>>cheap shot nonetheless.
>
>  Why?  Do we have to feel compassion for *everyone* in *every* film?
>Simon was a slimeball!  That was the point.  Aside from being comic relief,
>which is not a crime, should we have let Simon off the hook just because he
>had to admit to some shortcomings (pardon the pun)?
>
>  I'll tell you what.  Let's make a film where every person is a nice guy,
>looks good, does good things, does nothing wrong, and has no flaws whatsoever.
>Let's see how entertaining it is.
 
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I was not arguing that one should feel sorry for Simon or that he was
anything but a slimeball.  I was just saying that the gag with him at the
end was a cheap way to get a laugh--something on the order of having an
unsympathetic character in a POLICE ACADEMY film or a PORKY'S step in
dogshit.
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Richard J. Leskosky                     Only the ephemeral is of lasting value.
Unit for Cinema Studies, UIUC                   --Ionesco