A reader first

In response to my column today on the Daniel Pearl murder:

"You ought to write more bluntly."

Then he says I should have seen Ann Coulter's "extremely detailed review (of "A Mighty Heart")... which was long enough to delve into some of the more sleazy themes." Natch! Well, truth be told I don't read Coulter and have no desire to be another Coulter. I don't believe in writing something inflammatory just to anger your ideological opponents; but I've never been accused of not being blunt enough!

I know there's been a lot of picking at the movie over its portrayal of the Pearl murder, and for frankly not being as graphic and bloody as the actual murder was. For good or bad, the movie has a sharp focus on the people looking for Pearl, and we share the fear of the unknown that they all felt about not knowing what was happening to Pearl from hour to hour. To me, that seems the clear reason for not showing more, though they did have the option of replicating more of the beheading video at the end. Yet a good point I saw last night from a conservative writer: The movie was dedicated to Pearl's young son, and he'll be seeing it someday. Plus, with a few taps of the Google, viewers can watch the real Pearl beheading video -- and it ain't pretty.