The American Way

George Lucas rose to his present eminence with the help of home-grown talent, from the early “American Graffiti” to his later film blockbusters. And now, for his new series “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” (ABC), he is having the music taped in Germany to save money. While it may not be against musician union laws, it does seem immoral, considering that U.S. talent will be deprived of these music jobs.

In light of the budgets that Mr. Lucas can command, what kind of saving can justify not only cutting out American musicians, but cloning, via computer, whole armies of people in order to cut the costs of crowd scenes? Using real, live actors and musicians is hardly “feather bedding”; up until now it was elementary, a given cost of doing business in the industry.

H.L. Ray, Los Angeles