Cinema’s Treatment of the Apartheid Issue

In response to Sheila Benson’s Oct. 15 comparison of “A Dry White Season” and “Mapantsula”: Once again an L.A. Times critic has hurt a noble effort. By comparing one film to another, Benson has, in the process, reduced “A Dry White Season” to the role of “political night letters” (her words) while “Mapantsula,” which has no distributor, is more “politically correct” (my words). Any imperfect movie about apartheid deserves more consideration than condemnation.

The fact that “Season” is in distribution, peopled with stars who draw audiences, is one of its biggest victories in a Hollywood system that pays too little attention to such subjects.

It should be obvious that white people in America with all their investment capital and racial biases need their consciousness raised. And the predicament of Donald Sutherland’s character in “Season” brilliantly portrays the courageous path to political and humanistic awakening. (“The Official Story” and “Romero” are also on the list.)

So much for esoteric reviews from critics who spend more time commenting on the subtlety of a candle while the house burns down.

MICHAEL MINER, (Co-writer of “RoboCop”)

Los Angeles

“Mapantsula” has gained a distributor, Ray Waves Productions, and will play at Laemmle’s Royal in West Los Angeles starting Nov. 22.