Tracy’s Villains

Recently, I was the unfortunate witness to a travesty of American entertainment that is guaranteed to affect the youth of the United States for years to come. The travesty was “Dick Tracy,” that wonderful exploitation film by Warren Beatty.

Now I’m certain that Beatty’s overall purpose in the film was to capture the essence of the comic strip. That it did, but in doing so he overstepped the bounds of taste and common sense. The look of the villains (e.g., Big Boy Caprice, Flattop, Pruneface, Little Face, etc.) was great in that it really helped to separate the “bad guys” from the “good guys.” Did it ever occur to anyone involved with the production that this separation is actually based more in real life than in fantasy?

What is this film teaching America’s youth? That physically deformed people are essentially evil, while at the same time you can be “good” only if you are normal? Considering the lack of sensitivity in all children of impressionable ages, I pity any deformed person that those children might run into. Will the children run screaming, or will they behave properly and treat the disfigured person with respect?

I sincerely hope for the latter, yet with “Dick Tracy” running around torturing and killing the disfigured “bad guys,” who knows?

WIL SIMPSON

Woodland Hills