The Beckman Blog

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One of today’s Deseret Morning News editorials (yes, I still read them from time to time) is squarely a rant against Hollywood. It treads a lot of familiar ground, but it makes an interesting point:

“[T]he leading candidate for best film this year, “No Country for Old Men,” is so gruesome and graphically violent that a good half of the film would have been banned by the Motion Picture Industry a generation ago.

That’s scary.

Is this who we are now — people who sit in the dark eating popcorn with our wives and husbands while unbearable mayhem plays out before our eyes — complete with buckets of blood and severed limbs?

Apparently it is.

Apparently, being a sophisticated moviegoer in 2008 means being able to take a body punch and — without wincing — appreciate the acting and effects. It’s the spook-alley code of honor now — tough guys don’t blink when the going gets gory. And a person who thinks the whole enterprise seems to teeter on madness is automatically dismissed as provincial.

It’s a brazen new world. Until a majority of people are willing to stand up and tell Emperor Hollywood about his so-called clothes, the future promises films even more stark and graphic.

Barring such a backlash, it is the American movie that will remain ‘no country for old men.'”

Now, I’m not going to comment on the film in question, simply because I haven’t seen it. I doubt the writer of the editorial has either, so the phrase regarding “buckets of blood and severed limbs” may be a slight exaggeration. I just don’t know.

[More after the break.]

Following the tragic incident involving Stephen Anderson and Utah prison inmate Curtis Allgier, various readers of The Deseret Morning News have weighed in with several over-the-top, reactionary responses to both the News‘ coverage of the story and the steps that should be taken to prevent an event like this from happening again. Here’s one mother’s […]

Squarely fitting into the "Are You Serious?" category comes one of the most jaw-droppingly outrageous letters to the editor I’ve read in a long, long time. I actually can’t believe the writer actually signed his name to it: Why is there so much interest and support for Hillary Clinton for president? According to Article II […]

This story originally appeared in The New York Times, but it was reprinted in its entirely (albeit without pictures of some of the individuals involved) by the Deseret Morning News the very next day (04/02/07), and the Times is a bit stingier about offering extended online access to its articles than the News. Apparently, there […]

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending one of the very best Devotionals or Forums I’ve ever experienced in the seven and a half years I’ve attended BYU. Ken Burns, arguably the greatest documentary filmmaker of this or any generation, came to campus and spoke about history (in general) and the making of his new […]

It seems that everybody has an opinion on the appropriateness of Dick Cheney’s invitation to speak at BYU’s April commencement. A few prominent professors voiced their concerns in a Daily Herald (Provo’s newspaper) article yesterday (03/27/07), and four others wrote a Viewpoint in today’s (03/28/07) Daily Universe (BYU’s paper) calling on people to flood local […]

The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday (03/22/07) that Vice President Dick Cheney was scheduled to speak at BYU’s campus-wide commencement ceremony in April.  Today that story was confirmed by spokespersons for both Cheney and the university: "An invitation for Vice President Cheney to speak at BYU’s April commencement was extended by members of the First […]

Thanks to Cassia for bringing this article to my attention this morning. A story in the Deseret Morning News tackles the issue of smart boys who nonetheless struggle to maintain good grades in middle and high school. Two authors, William Draves and Julie Coates, have recently published a book, Smart Boys, Bad Grades, in which […]

Those wily movie sanitizers just won’t take "no" for an answer. According to the Deseret Morning News, some of them continue to do business under an "educational use" loophole in the law. Flix Club owner Daniel Thompson says the ruling isn’t a law yet Oh sorry, my bad. An "educational use" loophole in the ruling […]

I’ve stated in an earlier blog post that just because you read the newspaper doesn’t mean you’re smart.  I’ve read some pretty outrageous statements in the Readers’ Forum of the Deseret Morning News over the last few years, and no one emerges unscathed: liberal, conservative, LDS or not, I’ve seen some fairly prejudicial and just […]