Editor:

A movie theater in Sandy has pulled “Brokeback Mountain” from its line-up. As in, it was planning on showing it, but removed it at the last minute.

I won’t pretend to know the legal issues about this sort of thing-a theater can show whatever it wants, I guess, though I don’t know how that idea changes as far as licensing agreements with private versus public theaters. Although most people involved with the theater are taking a “no comment” stance, one person has said that the decision was purely business.

Then why pull a film that has done extremely well up in Salt Lake City and is currently No. 3 in the limited-release box office?

I think we’re dancing around the truth here.

Given the fact that the film was pulled, I’m assuming that the theater felt pressure from certain groups or individuals of varying influence. I can empathize with the theater managers; they were probably under some heavy pressure-but, my God, this is asinine.

I don’t see what the problem is. Unlike the theater scene in “A Clockwork Orange,” no one is being forced to see the film. Given its R rating, only adults will see “Brokeback Mountain” anyway-so that nixes the “Omigod, my child saw ‘Brokeback’ and now he’s gonna catch the gay!” theory.

And in Utah theaters, no worries about lax underage policies-I’m 22 and got carded just a few weeks ago. (Hold the jokes, thanks.)

I found an article on Yahoo that said, “Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said not showing the film set an example for the people of Utah. ‘I just think (pulling the show) tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show.'”

This is funny. The theater has no problem screening “Hostel,” one of the most gruesome horror films to date, which contains a scene in which three people are intentionally run over by a car, and one, a female, is shown while the car is dragging her down the road. What was that about example-setting?

And something being wrong with the film itself? Let movie watchers make their own decisions.

Amy Bronson

Junior, Film Studies