Can anybody out there explain why Jane Campion's THE PIANO has been so widely acclaimed? I found the picture to be pretentious twaddle and its plot didn't quite add up. For example, in the first scene of the film Holly Hunter and daughter are dropped off on a New Zealand beach by the crew of the ship on which they have come from Scotland. Hunter then makes a shelter out of her hoopskirt. Although this makes an interesting visual image it doesn't make sense. Why were they left on a beach in the first place? Didn't 19th century New Zealand have a port city? Also, why exactly doesn't Hunter's character speak? What's the reason? And if the Harvey Keitel character has "gone native" to the extent that he has tatooed his face, why doesn't he have a native wife and children? There is also no proper motivation for the Sam Neill character to chop off Hunter's fingers. I guess we are just supposed to think that all heterosexual white men are ultimately brutes no matter how they may behave (All this straight, white man bashing is really getting tiresome). It is especially annoying that THE PIANO is getting so much attention and far superior movies like SHADOWLANDS and SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION have been lost in the shuffle. Mary Kalfatovic, Washington, D.C.