Defining the Western

Sadly, Jane and Michael Stern are able to recite facts but unable to construct coherent conclusions based on those facts (“Why We So Love Those Oaters,” Dec. 5).

“Thelma & Louise” was a Western story; Clint Eastwood’s astoundingly overrated “Unforgiven” and the delightful “City Slickers” were not. To maintain that the latter two movies are properly in the Western genre is as valid as saying the “Francis the Talking Mule” pictures were half-Westerns because they featured half a horse. Horses and six-guns do not a Western make.

The writers do put forth a good, broadly applicable theme of the Western genre--”the theme of every Western . . . is being free.” That is correct.

That is also not the theme of “City Slickers” (a road buddy picture about growing up and facing responsibility, with horses instead of cars); “Unforgiven” (which would have worked better as a gangster noir picture); and “Dances With Wolves” (a traditional fantasy--the hero travels, grows and defeats the bad guys for the love of his princess).

What we need is a critical forum in which the aesthetics of Hollywood are accurately examined and intelligently discussed. Ill-conceived articles simply clutter up the field.

ROBERT J. CANTOR

Hermosa Beach