Changing the Script

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/31/opinion/men-women-movies.html

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To the Editor:

Salma Hayek’s desire for equality in the movie industry (“Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too,” Sunday Review, Dec. 17) will be realized only when screenwriters stop writing scripts in which men control the narrative.

In “Casablanca” (1942), Humphrey Bogart has to make up Ingrid Bergman’s mind for her when she is torn between staying with him and going off with her freedom fighter husband.

Not that much has changed. In “La La Land” (2016), Emma Stone has given up on an acting career until Ryan Gosling persuades her to return to Los Angeles and drives her to an audition that impresses the producer, and she becomes a star.

For starters, someone, preferably a woman, should revise the “star is born” template so that a famous actress makes it possible for a talented man who is languishing as a movie extra to achieve stardom. That would really be a breakthrough.

BERNARD F. DICK, TEANECK, N.J.

The writer is professor emeritus of English and communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University.