dear tony One film worth thinking about in this regard is ALIEN -- explicitly, the crew treated as expendable commodities in aid of getting the creature back to the "Company"'s Weapons Section; implicitly, the audience treated as "thing-like", knowingly manipulated towards the accretion of mega-profit. There's an escalating propensity in this direction from PSYCHO onwards (Hitch another such knowing archmanipulator). You may want to take a look at "Re-imagining the Gargoyle" and "On The McMovie: Less Is Less At The Simplex" in SCREEN MEMORIES: HOLLYWOOD CINEMA ON THE PSYCHOANALYTIC COUCH ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]