Tribe’s Last Laugh

It’s rare that I read a film review so hostile, venomous and baseless as Kevin Thomas’ review of “Krippendorf’s Tribe” (Feb. 27).

Where Thomas derides the filmmakers’ very intentions as racist and backward, I found that it was the native New Guineans who had the last laugh. What we see are not the dated “Out of Africa” images Thomas describes but an advanced culture whose members manage to dupe countless Americans into thinking that there are still lost tribes somewhere on this planet. Clearly Thomas, like Lily Tomlin’s character, didn’t get the joke.

Thanks for the politically correct act, Kevin, but it would be better to save it for films more deserving of the venom, where the Americans really are made out to be heroes and the Africans, New Guineans, etc., are portrayed as brutish savages (“Amistad,” anyone?).

NIKOLAS TRENDOWSKI

Los Angeles