Letters

Re the death of Fess Parker [“A Hero When We Needed One,” by Neal Gabler, March 20]: Who cares how many raccoons died? It was worth it to wear those coonskin caps.

What red-blooded American kid could forget Davy Crockett and his adventures, as well as Tarzan, Superman, Sky King, the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and so many others? Their strength, courage and high morals were something every boy wanted to emulate.

Those men shaped so many lives. Now what do kids have? Ninja turtles and cartoon characters?

Kurt Sipolski

Casting the right ‘Wimpy Kid’

Thanks for the excellent article about the “Wimpy Kid” movie [“Fear the Wimp,” by Rachel Abramowitz, March 17]. The search for the right Greg did indeed take six months and involve seeing 5,000 candidates. Thank goodness producers Nina Jacobson and Bradford Simpson had the foresight to hire casting director Ronna Kress to handle the search.

It was my good fortune to be on Ronna’s staff during the process. Ronna’s team contacted agents and acting schools around the country, held hundreds (if not thousands) of live auditions and filtered countless online auditions to ensure that the producers saw the top talent available.

Actors don’t get cast by studios and producers alone; it takes a highly organized, hard-working, discerning casting director to guide the process.

Elizabeth Barnes

A way to silence Chris Matthews

James Rainey has it exactly right when he criticizes Chris Matthews, the talking machine gun without ears [“D.C. Insiders Drop the Ball,” March 24].

I found myself some months ago shouting at the television set as Matthews interrupted his guest over and over again -- “Shut up, Chris! Shut up, Chris! Shut up, Chris!” -- and then clicking off the “Hardball” program.

Matthews is nothing more than a midway carnival barker who loves the sound of his own voice.

Patrick O’Brien

Mistreated by ‘Bounty Hunter’

Re “Mediocrity on the ‘Bounty,’ ” by Betsy Sharkey, March 19: As an avid moviegoer (over 50 years experience), I saw the opening of “The Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler.

Watching two great actors for almost two hours is usually a pleasure, but in this case either having a root canal with no anesthetic or being waterboarded would have been more acceptable.

Michael L. Friedman

Artists need not be historians too

Re “Iraq on Screen and in Reality,” by Marjorie Miller, March 20: Your article made me quite angry. Since when is historical accuracy a requirement for a work of art? If that were so, you could throw out all the history plays of Shakespeare, not to mention Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”

Art based on historical events is always a blend of fact and fiction. It aims at a higher truth.

To say that “The Ghost Writer” and “Green Zone” “fall short in trying to answer” why we went to war in Iraq is not a valid criticism. In many, many great works of art, the artist strives not to provide answers but to ask all the right questions.

In essence, you are criticizing the artist for failing to live up to the standards of the historian. That is just not valid.

Alex Burke