Editing ‘Beloved’ for TV

Some of the people involved in making the movie “Beloved” are crying foul that NBC is editing the film for content for its network premiere (“A Toned-Down ‘Beloved,’” Dec. 22). Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton suggests racism is afoot, pointing out that neither “Schindler’s List” nor “Saving Private Ryan” was edited for network TV.

To compare “Beloved” to those two great films is outrageous. “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” are American classics. The public, even the many fans of the book on which it’s based, stayed away from “Beloved” in droves. If “Beloved” has done anything “important,” it has united Americans of all races, religions, and ethnicities, in their shared desire not to sit through this overwrought turkey.

DAVID J. LYMAN

Los Angeles