Hearing on Films

* The entertainment moguls should have been joined in Congress by theater owners and bad parents (“Movie Executives Offer to Curb Some Marketing to Kids,” Sept. 28). Many movie theater owners have no problem allowing underage children into films aimed toward adults, and there are more than a few misguided parents who bring their children to these movies. There seems to be enough blame to go around. Why direct all the hostility Hollywood’s way?

PAT TOMCHECK

Culver City

*

As a parent long frustrated by Motion Picture Assn. President Jack Valenti’s lubricious film rating system, I look forward to Congress securing some straight answers about movie ratings. According to the system’s general guidelines, a single use of the F-word as an expletive automatically guarantees a film a PG-13 rating. Two uses of this “harsh” and “sexually derived” word require an R rating. Require? Perhaps Valenti could explain how films such as “Entrapment,” “As Good as It Gets” and “A Family Thing” each got away with multiple (two, three and four, respectively) uses of the F-word, yet each managed to still retain a PG-13 rating?

The present film rating system is far from being the parental advisory aid that Valenti has claimed it is. It is an imprecise and selective marketing tool that allows the film industry to masquerade R-rated material behind the guise of the more profit-friendly PG-13 rating.

GREGG MILLETT

Fountain Valley

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Isn’t it curious that the government that gave us oral sex on the 6 p.m. news is now threatening unconstitutional regulation over R-rated movies, none of which anybody is forced to attend? What arrogance! If we don’t get some Libertarians elected soon, we won’t be able to step outside our own homes without a permit.

DON HULL

Costa Mesa

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Many parents go to the movies with their children. The entertainment business shows trailers for R-rated movies to get the parents to watch these movies. If your kids want to see a movie, you find out what it is rated. If it is rated R, then you simply say no. It works for me.

OWEN BRENNAN

Valencia