Shocked, Titillated and Disgusted

Sir / Your cover story on Last Tango [Jan. 22] terrified me. A society that spends so much time thinking about, filming and writing about sex obviously does not have much else it considers important enough to occupy it.

We are now nearly ready for the takeover, from wherever it may come. We have not the mental vigor left to resist, and someone will walk off with the house while we are preoccupied in the bedroom.

THOMAS S. LOEBER Coos Bay, Ore.

Sir / I recognize that you are not responsible for the fact that Last Tango was produced, and that as a modern, sophisticated and wide-ranging magazine you cannot ignore it. But you certainly are responsible for giving it such supremely prominent, sickeningly detailed coverage.

What image of life is this to present to our children and young people? True, they will not be allowed to see the film, but with your graphic reporting they will have no need to.

(MRS.) SUE M. MANGAN Arlington, Va.

Sir / Has TIME gone mad?

BLANCHE DERR Bellerose, N.Y.

Sir / Since you have stooped to pimping for B-rated peep-show-type movies, this is my last tango with TIME.

JOHN F. SYTSMA Medina, Ohio

Sir / I was shocked, titillated, disgusted, fascinated, delighted and angered just by reading your story on Last Tango in Paris. I can't wait to see the movie!

LEA AINSWORTH Lubbock, Texas

Sir / Minutes after my TIME came, I threw it in the refuse can, whereupon the rest of the garbage got out and walked away.

FRED W. RAAB Bayonne, N.J.

Sir / Those of us who are awaiting the reformation must be grateful to Marlon Brando and Director Bertolucci.

Only after respectable folk embrace the excesses of an era can a return to decency begin.

VIRGINIA FREAS Richland, Mich.

Sir / Your taste and self-esteem as a publication are apparently as debased as are Mr. Bertolucci's and Mr. Brando's. And don't tell us we're not qualified to judge artistic film.

We're so sophisticated that we always know when we're about to throw up.

SHIRLEY AND BOWDEN ATHERTON Galveston, Texas

Sir / Where have all the flowers gone?

They have wilted into a stinking pile of compost nurtured by irresponsibility, disrespect, laziness, greed and moral decay, exemplified by TIME's feature story on Last Tango.

EDWARD WALKER N. Syracuse, N.Y.

Sir / I know there will be thousands of moviegoers standing in endless lines up to their hips in lascivious drool to see Last Tango, but please use the space in your magazine for better fare than degenerate films. Where will our younger generation find some older group to admire? Standing in line to watch Last Tango?

MRS. R.W. MACGREGOR Syosset, N.Y.

Sir / Having heard previous accounts of Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, I had already resolved that its explicitness would be a bit too much to take.

Thanks to your well-written article, my mind is at least a bit more open to Tango and all its elements. Bertolucci will have my price of admission.

VENTURA L. DIROCCO New York City

Sir / It is interesting to note that the so-called intellectuals of this world usually find artistic merit and true brilliance where the dumb masses only recognize trash as trash.

JILL LEVENHAGEN Wauwatosa, Wis.

Sir / My God! What kind of people must we be who are "mature, capable of grasping the idea underneath this movie"?

Underneath is an apt word for a sick, degenerate society that must turn to a film such as this to rationalize and project its philosophic values.

(MRS.) HANNAH J. SMITH Cincinnati

Sir / For the sake of brevity, couldn't you have just put the description of Last Tango under PEOPLE, and said, "Marlon Brando is making a real dirty movie with Maria Schneider, and it is called Last Tango in Paris. It's a real must if you like that sort of thing."

MRS. FRANCIS X. MCGRATH Potomac, Md.

Sir / I am listening to a local radio station and am astounded by a barrage of phone calls to the station condemning your cover story on Last Tango in Paris. While I realize that tastes vary, and thank heavens for that, I am continually appalled by America's attitudes toward sex and violence. A harmless newsmagazine article like yours is regarded as filthy, sinful and unfit for viewing by "decent" women and children. And yet children are packed off to Saturday matinees featuring war and/or gore films. Please, please tell me where society's values became confused. When did violence cease to shock and sex lose its beauty? I really don't understand. Something is terribly wrong.

ALICIA CRAWFORD St. Louis

Congress Is Outdated

Sir / TIME's cover story on the crisis in Congress [Jan. 15] is fascinating, but it unfortunately never quite comes out with what needs to be said: our Constitution, now almost two centuries old, prescribes a Government that no longer functions.

The separation of Executive and Legislative branches was designed to distribute and limit power, to prevent its concentration. However, the division also guarantees competition and conflict, which frequently expand to the point where they immobilize the system. The checks and balances make it possible to shift responsibility and avoid accountability, but they no longer effectively restrain power. The system is artificial and arbitrary.

We must have a new constitutional system, a parliamentary system on the British model, one that enforces cooperation, limits competition and provides better mechanisms for ensuring openness and, very important, accountability.

CHRISTINE HOY El Sobrante, Calif.

Sir / If Nixon is in fact ignoring the Congress, I say "Yea!"

Our distinguished Congressmen might learn what it is like to be ignored. They have been doing the same thing to their constituents for years.

HELEN PETERS St. Clair Shores, Mich.

Sir / You should have had the late baseball star and Puerto Rican hero Roberto Clemente on your cover.

He is surely more relevant to your readers than those slothful, self-indulgent Congressmen.

KAREN P. KRALL Morgantown, W. Va.

Bonus Arrests

Sir / Re "The Right Not to Fly" [Jan. 15]: I applaud Judge Ferguson's decision that bonus arrests for possession of narcotics or other contraband unrelated to the reason for a skyjack search are unconstitutional. The only possible justification for mass skyjack searches is to look for weapons, in order to protect the passengers and airline property from the dangers inherent in aircraft piracy.

The decision to limit the scope of these searches is correct.

WILLIAM J.O. HOLMES San Francisco

Sir / Laymen should have the right to expect two things of the law: justice and logic. Judge Ferguson's decision in the Meulener case is plainly unjust and illogical. If it is legally correct, then there is something wrong with the law. Ours may be the first society to founder on an overdose of freedom.

DON JOHNSON Morris. Ill.

Inherited Addiction

Sir / Thank you for your article "The Youngest Addicts" [Jan. 22]. As the mother of a normal, healthy baby. I'll probably never understand girls who can pass on an addiction to their babies. I think the picture, indescribably moving, should hang everywhere, so that girls can see what may happen to the tiny human being they might bring into this world.

(MRS.) SALLY SANDLER Maiden, Mass.

Within the Order

Sir / We were understandably shocked to see TIME's misleading and disparaging reference to Alcoa in the Phase III article [Jan. 29]. TIME's linking of comment on the enforcement aspects of Phase III controls with the assertion that "Alcoa decided to risk raising its prices" implies that we took calculated advantage of the new, less stringent regulations.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Alcoa's news release, which TIME received, specifically stated that the price changes were well within the order issued to Alcoa by the Price Commission under Phase II on Dec. 15, 1971. As a matter of fact, even with the recent increase, Alcoa's aggregate price level is still significantly below the base prices established under Phase I, much less the increase above that base granted to Alcoa in 1971 under Phase II.

JOHN D. HARPER Chairman of the Board Aluminum Company of America Pittsburgh

Generosity

Sir / You report Variety's report of the gross of Ben-Hur at $40,750,000 [Jan. 15]. My participant statement from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., dated July 29, 1972, reports a gross of $78,821,678, almost double your figure.

Since both TIME and Variety are regarded as Holy Writ, I can only conclude that MGM is padding my statement in order to be generous and pay me more than I'm entitled to receive.

WILLIAM WYLER

Beverly Hills, Calif.

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