'Trash' Language

Published: Sunday, February 21, 1999

A friend and I watched public television the other night (last week in January) to see Hollywood directors and actors give the pros and cons of using "trash" language (my term) in their movies.

Most of them felt there would be no sale to the public, if the movie rating wasn't close to/or an "R" rating. They said all people talk that way now, using "trash" words and calling people "trash" names.

There may have been others, but Norman Lear, Richard Dreyfus and Rob Reiner were the names we remembered who did not agree with that main theme. We, too, don't believe it. We don't know any people who use that kind of language and we love movies.

We really love movies! Last year, we were playing catch-up and saw 30 movies, plus some videos, too. One of them was "Grumpy Old Men" with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. It was a funny movie, but a big disappointment to us with the language that was written to come out of those two distinguished actors' mouths.

Thinking of some of the most enjoyable movies that didn't insult us with four-letter words and crude names, we remembered "Sleepless in Seattle," "My Best Friend's Wedding," "You've Got Mail," "Working Girl," and so many more.

Do others agree with us? Or are we wrong? Are we the dated ones, like the directors think? Incidentally, in Denver, you can still go to the movies for $1.50.