Reviewing the Reviewers

In his review of “Angela’s Ashes,” Kenneth Turan refers to Frank McCourt’s father, Malachy, as a Protestant from Northern Ireland (“A Vital Voice Is Missing in ‘Ashes,’ ” Dec. 24).

Unless the film version has drastically altered the book, Malachy McCourt’s Roman Catholic religion was central to the story. The prejudice he experienced in Limerick was because his Northern Irish accent was so evident, not because of his religion.

JOAN MORRISON

Costa Mesa

I saw “Titus” and then read Kevin Thomas’ review (“Taymor’s ‘Titus’ Revels in the Grisly,” Dec. 24). His remark about the role of Tamora being better suited to Monique van Vooren or Mamie Van Doren because they would have been “lots more fun” than Jessica Lange was just plain stupid, considering that those actresses could not have handled the language that Lange handled magnificently.

As an actor often kept from acting Shakespeare because of my being American, I’m terribly upset by Thomas’ foolish remark.

MICHAEL DE GAINSBOROUGH

Hollywood

*

Harold Bloom, the preeminent Shakespearean scholar of our time, once wrote that “Titus Andronicus” is Shakespeare’s joke on Marlowe, his predecessor. Bloom said he’d only watch it again produced by “Mel Brooks and his gang of zanies.”

With respect to “Titus” director Julie Taymor, her band of zanies doesn’t cut it. Anthony Hopkins, who seldom puts a foot wrong, does all that can be done with Titus, in both Roman armor and a chef’s cap, baking his enemies in a pie for their mother to eat. So do Jessica Lange (her first Shakespearean role?) and Harry Lennix. Even so, cross-cutting between Augustan Rome and Mussolini bully boys is unhelpful. “The center will not hold.”

Several years ago, I was approached about doing the play in England. I’d worked with Olivier; we lunched to discuss “Titus,” which I knew he’d done. “It’s a horrible piece!” he said. “For God’s sake, leave it alone. I wish I had!”

I followed his advice.

CHARLTON HESTON

Beverly Hills

*

Kenneth Turan’s review was fair (“Prejudice, Unexplained Death in ‘Snow Falling on Cedars,’ ” Dec. 22). However, I take exception to his simplification of the accused man’s problems as simply stemming from “the local custom that made it unheard of for Japanese to own the local strawberry-growing land they often worked on.”

This shows Turan’s ignorance of the federal exclusion laws and state alien land laws against Asians at that time. The exclusion laws were applied to Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Japanese immigrants, who were barred from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. Since the Asians were “aliens ineligible for citizenship,” they were not allowed to own land. The alien land laws were passed in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and other states.

Hence, the inability of Japanese to own land was not simply a “local custom,” but a widespread discriminatory practice in the U.S.

H. KOBAYASHI

San Diego

*

In the spirit of the giving season, I thought that I would pass along a few lessons to Kenneth Turan:

The ability to intertwine the dream world and the “real” world are qualities many of us enjoy being proud of. Some of us, like Andy Kaufman, still believe in magic. Personally, I believe in movie magic. Please don’t deliberately reveal the entire opening punch line of a film in the third paragraph of your review, completely without any warning (“Mocking Reality With Andy,” Dec. 22).

That’s not being a critic--that’s being a Grinch.

POLLY WALTER

Los Angeles

*

To say that Kaufman was “fueled by contempt for his audience” is far from the truth. In reality, he loved his audiences dearly and so much wanted them to be lifted out of the doldrums of everyday life. His performances were, by design, interactive--he wanted the audience to think and participate. I believe his ultimate goal was to make the audience the star of the show.

Perhaps Kaufman’s greatest fault was that he overestimated the intelligence of many people. He thought that most would understand. Most didn’t.

KEN McMEANS

El Monte