Letters To The Editor

Sun., March 10, 1996

Webster omitted ‘Braveheart’

What is Dan Webster’s and The Spokesman-Review’s problem with the movie “Braveheart”?

The Sunday, March 3 issue just spent an entire 51 column inches of space decrying what Webster feels are omissions in the Oscar nominations, while extolling the virtues of his personal favorites. How can so much space be used and yet not even mention one of the most nominated pictures in history?

“Braveheart” has earned 10 nominations and is good enough to be a winner in every nominated category. It is head and shoulders above every other picture in 1995 and possibly the last several years.

If we want to worry about omissions, how about Mel Gibson, actor; Patrick McGoohan, supporting actor; Angus McFadyen, supporting actor. These are as welldeserved as any of Dan’s omissions.

While on the issue of omissions, what of the Life-Affirming Films story in the Spotlight column of the same issue? How could this list omit “Braveheart” when the main theme of the movie was life itself and how life without freedom is no life at all. Someone please relay to Sir William Wallace (Braveheart) that his personal sacrifice and suffering was not life-affirming enough to even make a 10-best list in a small-city newspaper. Pity. Michael W. Bowler Spokane

Editor’s note: The top 10 film list cited in Spotlight was from a poll of American movie critics taken by the Heartland Film Institute.

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