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The Silence of the L...

From: Jerry Roberts, Birmingham, AL

Years ago I remember either you or Gene making the comment that watching a movie on an airplane was the worst way to watch a movie. I take exception to that, I think basic cable is now the worst way to watch a movie. Commercials I can deal with but I hate the scrolling ads for other programming, the station ID tag in the corner and ESPECIALLY the habit of stations to hack off the last 2 minutes of the movie, squashing them down to the bottom or shoving them over to the side so they can advertise their new shows.

The worst case: When A&E showed back-to-back airings of "Silence of the Lambs", at the end when Starling is talking to Dr. Lecter, they pushed down to the bottom quarter of the screen while the top three quarters showed the movie starting over again.

Why do these people spend money to show these movies and then thoughtlessly chop them up, speed them up, shove them around and more to the point, why does the studio put up with this?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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