The most important question that all this stuff about Mel and his dad has raised is whether the Pope is, in fact, Catholic, because this is not just a religious question, but one on which many other questions and issues are often hung. If Brother Bear had the same kind of courage to address the controversial issue of bears pooping in the woods, the effect would be like dna testing. Many cases could be overturned, cleared, the truth discovered.

   I don't mind violence in movies, but I'm not very interested in this one. Maybe eventually I'll see it. I don't mind things that people call "depressing" or "disturbing" but I could never get in the mood to watch Pollock, for example, and The Hours bored me out of my skull--might as well see the play Night Mother for the fifteenth time. Die already, please. Somebody shoot that woman. Prolonged death scenes are almost always inherently cheesy, whether it's Jesus or the bad guy who keeps getting up again. Or the good guy who keeps being dead, then not dead, like in the Lord of the Rings, jesus. Early Shakespeare is pretty gross violent, but at least it's in english.

    I had mixed feelings about Private Ryan--enjoyed it, but the true story issues make me queasy about whether an artist is exploiting material to sell their bag of tricks. It bothered me how similar the bridge tank-shot scene was to the scene in Jaws with the oxygen tank shot. But it was clearly an invented story, which helps a little.