Where’s the Subtlety?

Re “Movies Ad Nauseam” (by Amy Wallace, May 12): If any Hollywood big shots are reading this, here’s a word to the wise: The last thing people want or need is more on-screen vomiting.

Believe me, movie audiences are quite capable of leaping the gap from the character who looks sickened to his or her off-screen retching, and figuring out what exactly is happening, without your having to show us every last viscous drop. What’s next, on-screen defecation?

Of course, sometimes in-your-face heaving serves a legitimate artistic purpose, as did Linda Blair’s memorable pea soup geyser in “The Exorcist.” Such moments are the exception, however, and rightly so. If the Hollywood film industry really wants to shock audiences, it ought to skip the high-tech vomiting and deliver something really unexpected: intelligent movies.

Given smart, original films that don’t rely on explosions or spewing body fluids to hold our interest, audiences will flock to the theaters. The bottom line is, you don’t need gross to gross a gross.

MICHAEL GURWITZ

Washington

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I wasn’t offended by Scarlett O’Hara regurgitating the radish she ate on an empty stomach. There was a legitimate reason for it, and it was done discreetly, but “discreet” is an ingredient long gone from today’s screen.

Movies today are nauseating, gross and disgusting, and not a bit amusing or entertaining.

MEREDITH LINDSEY

Manhattan Beach