Crowning ‘Kings’

I take vigorous exception with Paul Junger Witt attempting to justify the gratuitous violence in his movie “Three Kings” (“Is Hollywood Pulling Punches?” by Amy Wallace, Dec. 26).

Had I have known at the onset that (1) I would have to see a cow blown apart with its entrails splashed on a jeep’s windshield; (2) a child forced to witness the execution of her mother; (3) heads being blown off of enemy soldiers; (4) bullets tearing apart the body’s interior (in slo-mo yet). Had I have known this, I would have avoided this repugnant movie and created my own blacklist for all concerned, with George Clooney, who should have known better, at the very top.

However, the real culprit is Warner Bros., who distributed this picture and flagrantly misrepresented its tone. I expected a comedy, for the trailer preceding it was right out of the Three Stooges, as in blowing up a milk tanker and sliding about in the ensuing flood, and the wisecracking Clooney chasing half-naked Iraqis across the desert.

ALAN A. ROSS

Los Angeles