Letters: Debbie, Carrie, loss and ‘Hidden Figures’

Feeling a double loss in Hollywood

I was saddened to learn of the deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Fisher’s talents in particular were never fully appreciated. I once met Reynolds when I was a child. She smiled, shook my hand and said: “Hi, I’m Princess Leia’s mother” — a remarkable tribute by the costar of “Singin’ in the Rain” to the iconic status her daughter had achieved in “Star Wars.”

Stephen A. Silver

San Francisco

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Hollywood has lost two legends from two different eras from the same family.

The first movie I ever saw, according to my older sisters, was “Susan Slept Here,” starring Reynolds. She was woven into our lives as a wonderful and talented actress who sang and danced with her whole heart and made it look effortless.

The image of her tap dancing between Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain” will always make me smile and be grateful for such lovely memories of Reynolds. Those films are timeless gems.

Frances Terrell Lippman

Sherman Oaks

Grief in film, and on the page

Writer Emily Zemler pointed out that individuals can grow by experiencing grief, which was the intent of the filmmakers who made “Manchester by the Sea,” “Collateral Beauty” and “Arrival” [“A Year of Good Grief in Movies,” Jan. 2]. By choosing the death of a child as their central narratives, they take grief to its deepest level. Having experienced the loss of my parents as a teenager, my guardian a few years afterward and my brother and younger son more recently, I agree that people can grow through grief. However, so many losses can also cause cumulative grief, especially if they occur within a short time. This type of grief can be overwhelming and may never end. We live, we love, we grieve, and somehow we go on. Thank you for a well-written article that explains how and why these films focus on our humanity.

Libby J. Atwater

Ventura

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I can’t believe you revealed pivotal information about “Manchester by the Sea” in the opening paragraph. Are you kidding me? I stopped reading because I figured you were going to blow plot lines of any movie you included in your piece. The main newspaper in this movie town doesn’t feel it’s necessary to post a spoiler-alert warning? I shake my head in utter disappointment. Shame on you.

Jan Furutani

Los Angeles

How about just more substance

Regarding “What 2017 Needs Is One Big Book” [Jan. 1]: Actually, what 2017 needs is substantive, meaningful, thought-provoking literature. “Gone Girl,” “The Girl on the Train,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” et al., are formulaic books packaged and written for TV and movies.

There are a plethora of these kinds of fluffy books written every year exclusively for entertainment and profit but never for cognitive development. Do we really need “a new” E.L. James, whose “Fifty Shades of Grey” was mocked by many for being a meaninglessly infantile and badly written book? I don’t think so. What we really need is a new Kurt Vonnegut, Harper Lee, Carson McCullers, J.D. Salinger — writers who take your imagination everywhere rather than in just one direction.

Giuseppe Mirelli

Los Angeles

A salute to the ‘Rocket Girls’

I have been reading the articles in The Times about the new movie “Hidden Figures” [“It Adds Up to a Real Crowd-Pleaser,” Dec. 23, and “The Feminine Side of This Equation,” Dec. 26] and am disappointed that none I have seen have mentioned these women’s predecessors at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to the recent book “Rise of the Rocket Girls” by Nathalia Holt, one of the very first employees of what became JPL was a female “computer,” in 1939. During the 1940s and into the ‘50s, all the calculations there were done by women. I believe that the women were initially all white, then about 1953 a Chinese woman and a black woman were hired as the department was expanding. Certainly, the experiences of the women in “Hidden Figures” is an important story to be told, and I am looking forward to seeing the movie. I think that anyone who enjoys “Hidden Figures” will enjoy reading about our Southern California “Rocket Girls” — I know I have.

John Strawway

Encino

Movie picks lack conviction

I’ve lost respect and trust in Kenneth Turan as a film critic after reading his year-end selections [“Best of the Year — Movies: Stories That Took Us Deep,” Dec. 18]. He cheapens the honor and integrity of his selections with his absurd ties for first, second and third places. It shows a lack of courage on his part and a lack of conviction in his selections. He shows disrespect for those selections by not telling us more about why he made the top three (actually seven) picks, like his fellow reviewers did, and he displays a childlike “Oh, whatever” attitude by selecting 16 movies for a top 10.

Anthony Givhan

Bellflower

By any other name …

Thank you for publishing my letter regarding “A Rich Banquet of Productions Honoring Bard” [Dec. 26]. I appreciate the platform you afforded me. One quick editing point, however: In the second paragraph of my letter, the term “affect,” as in “feeling,” was changed to “effect.” I did mean to say “affect.” The line was: Great dramatists — with Shakespeare at the top of that list — provide the emotional through-line connecting the affect of times past with the emotion of the here and now.

Nonetheless, I am grateful for all the good work you do.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach

Expanding the diversity net

Diversity in Hollywood seems to be about more blacks [“Globes Blaze a Golden Path to Oscars Diversity,” Dec. 13]. What about all the other minority groups and ethnic cultures? Just sayin’.

Sylvia Sanchez

Fullerton