I first read it in 1969, and didn't find it difficult. Maybe because I was in high school (though I read it on my own) and word hadn't filtered down that it was supposed to be unreadable. And I got it, had no trouble with the tonal shifts and the Ouroboros-like narrative line. I had trouble with Ulysses, and later…

I read Catch-22 twice, and enjoyed it. Not hard work. Not unreadable. Of course different people have different standards of readability. "I do not like … green … what?"

Every woman adores a fascist / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you.

Er, that's "back-pedal," not "back-peddle." Just saying.

What's the "actual science" of a Youtube video? What do you think that proves? I'm gay, and I could not have "absolutely KILLED it" in a video of a dance routine to Lady Gaga (or Judy Garland) at the age of 7, or any age. I think there's some idiotic stereotyping going on there.

"But seriously, the people who don't like this movie are so resentful of it's success." This is the kind of thing idiots say whenever someone else doesn't like a popular entertainment that they like. They have no evidence for the claim, of course. As Guywhothinksstuff says in the his reply, commercial success…

You're right about the paucity of songs in the latter of half of the movie, but I'd never actually noticed it before, and I don't think it hurts anything.

"Obviously, the American capitalist class is just fear-mongering because it wants to keep everyone on a Cold War footing." If you think this is obvious foolishness, it doesn't speak well for you.

Diem would never have come to power, nor held it, had it not been for the US. We installed him to prevent elections that would have reunited the country after 1956. He was an extraordinarily brutal dictator and there was a broad-based rebellion against him in the South before the North Vietnamese ever got involved.

"Nothing the United States did or allowed to happen excuses what North Vietnam did." Oh, really? It's normal for winners of wars to pick on the losers. The US killed or exiled many "loyalists" during and after the Revolution, the French executed reprisals against those who'd collaborated with the Germans after…

I don't think so. The ordinary Vietnamese were those who rebelled against the US "client" dictators in the south, as they'd earlier rebelled against the Japanese and the French. Of course they suffered terribly under our dictators and our horrific war — something like 2 to 3 million died, and many more were maimed. …

Along with Truman and Eisenhower. It's a consistent pattern, and a triumph of bipartisanship.

"… thirty-odd years of military dictatorships there after we left." What is this? We haven't "left" yet. There are 28,000 or so US troops stationed in South Korea. And South Korea is building a big naval base on Jeju Island so that US ships can continue to menace the North and threaten China. Of course, if…

Congratulations, you finally wrote a halfway witty comment, instead of halfwitted, as you've done up to now. Rest on your laurels, go jerk off or something.

Yes.

I suspect that you refer to the director throughout as Joon-ho because you think that's his surname. (You refer to the NR critic by his surname, for example.) If you're going to write about Asian films and filmmakers, you should be aware that in most cases a person's surname comes first, and his or her given name…

Why buy Dachau when you can get the milk for free? as my great-aunt Ilse used to say.

"all the signage is subtitled in French." Or is it the other way around"?

I think you have only half the story there. As I remember it, the Weinsteins did (as is their wont) require a recut of Hero and then (as is their wont) let it hang in the wind. After the success of Kill Bill, Tarantino had enough clout to get Wong's original cut released, and it did better. So Tarantino is the good…

Gay men and lesbian women who dress in drag were there first. It could be argued as sensibly that trans people are making life more difficult for drag kings and queens. (By which I mean, not very sensibly at all.)