To the editor: The movie enterprise is struggling for a lot of causes, however tariffs would make it worse (“Trump announces 100% tariffs on movies made overseas, surprising studios,” Could 4). Incentives are what the movie trade wants. Movies are shot the place the situation is known as for within the script and the place there are incentives to make it value efficient.
President Trump’s sort of reckless decision-making is the hallmark of his administration — he has uninformed bootlickers making coverage they don’t perceive. As a substitute of consulting in a accountable method with the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, studios and unbiased filmmakers, Trump appointed actors Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone as his “particular ambassadors” to Hollywood. He stated these three would assist deliver again Hollywood enterprise misplaced to overseas international locations. The outcomes converse for themselves.
Lisa Kaas Boyle, Santa Monica
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To the editor: The scariest factor about Trump’s proposed movie tariff is its attainable function as censorship of viewpoints from outdoors the U.S. As his maintain on home media continues to escalate by means of punitive lawsuits and whereas deportations proceed, our entry to alternate viewpoints turns into all of the extra vital.
David Lutness, Valencia
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To the editor: Trump says that movies made abroad might be tariffed, which might in all probability imply filmmakers can not take their arduous drives abroad and are available again with digital sequencing that constitutes a film with out being taxed. Ought to we cease there? What about different artists and writers? Shouldn’t we be inspecting sketch pads and journals at customs for drawings and sentences that will have been composed abroad? What about philosophers and thinkers who journey? Maybe we are able to scan their brains coming and going to quantify what abroad ideating ought to be tariffed.
I rewatched “Judgment at Nuremberg,” a lot of which was filmed in Germany, final night time (with no overseas movie surcharge). It’s an interesting research on how commonplace folks accepted or ignored the markedly unusual that was occurring round them.
Robert Fox, Los Angeles
