Good film?

Good film?

I was dismayed to read in a letter to The Jakarta Post,
Hypocrisy is stark (June 15, 1994), that a little group of your
correspondents think that the absolutely appalling film The Piano
is, and I quote, "intellectual and artistically strong film."

They have to be joking! I am one of those who had the fortune
to see this film, however, I don't consider it good fortune. No,
I consider it waste of good money and more importantly, a waste
of good time.

This horrid little piece of celluloid documents how a married
woman deceives and cheats her husband so that she can prostitute
herself to buy a piano. She uses her body as an instrument of
barter. Falsehood and double dealing permeate the story line as
do lasciviousness, lust and a complete disregard for morals.
Frankly speaking, what the unfortunate feminist director has
achieved here is to create something that celebrates and
glorifies adultery.

Now to describe this product (of a twisted mind) as
"intellectually strong" is an indication of intellectual
weakness. There's little of intellectual value in the film at
all. What there is, is old hat. It is banal and naive in its
major theme which is the promotion of unfettered individual
freedom. If you want to see where that intellectual theme leads
try taking a walk down the streets of any major Western city
after dark alone, try New York.

So why, you may ask, has this film received so much acclaim in
the West? Simple, because it's a politically correct film made by
a feminist. Consider the anti-heroin: she's middle class, clever,
female, white, disabled and she has complete disregard for the
generally accepted social norms of behavior.

I congratulate the Indonesian Board of Censors decision to
prohibit the showing of the film here. The members of the Board
are not "hypocrites" as your correspondents say, but rather
decent and sensible people who do care about weak Western
intellectual fashion being promoted here under the banner of
"art."

JOHN THOMAS

Jakarta