Letters to the Editor: One movie foreshadowed the U.S.’ current troubles, but is still optimistic

To the editor: This is a fine list of movies that have captured the American experience (“10 must-watch movies that capture America in times of profound change,” June 29). Let me humbly add the Robert Redford-starring “Sneakers.”

This deceptively simple heist comedy came out in 1992, after the Soviet Union collapsed and all of us thought it would usher in a glorious age of liberal values taking hold of the world and leading it, and us, to prosperity and peace forever. The film’s ostensible villain, Cosmo (played by Ben Kingsley), doesn’t buy it. In the movie’s climax, he says, “There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think. It’s all about the information.”

This, of course, is exactly what happened in the following decades. People stopped trusting credible sources of authority and expertise, and started believing their own facts, ones sold to them by bad-actor media moguls who cared nothing for the common good. It’s how Americans became extremely partisan, and how we got Donald Trump elected twice.

And yet “Sneakers” is hopeful and shows the best of this country and its people, too. Our gang of heroes is a diverse lot in race, gender and class who work together with joie de vivre and lots of charming American-style banter to save the day. It shows that we have to take care of each other. The movie, ultimately, is a delight, as America can be and often is.

Zareh Delanchian, Tujunga

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To the editor: While raving about “bug-eyed space invaders [masquerading] as yuppies” (“They Live”) and “a squadron of puppet commandos [blowing] up the planet” (“Team America: World Police”), this list somehow managed not a single reference to “Chinatown,” which many consider the best film about America ever made. Huh?

William D. Wolff, La Cañada Flintridge