Roger & Reality

Peter Rainer’s piece on Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me” raises more questions than it answers, especially about the art of film editing. Anyone who has ever done it knows how manipulative it is. If, for example, you juxtapose Roger Smith giving a Dickensian message of Christmas good cheer with shots of people being tossed out of their homes, what is the emotional impact likely to be?

And anyone in film or television knows that if you try to interview a tycoon without an appointment you are likely to be hedged off by flacks--and that if you throw sociological questions at a beauty queen as she comes off a parade the answers are likely to be less than profound.

The biggest questions remain unanswered. Does a corporation or an industry have any ethical responsibility to the community in which it locates? Does it have the right to move elsewhere if it can get a better deal? Perhaps these can be answered with another question: Is Warner Bros. distributing this film out of idealism or because it thinks there is profit in it?

TONY THOMAS

Burbank