Driven to extremes

I start to worry about my judgment when I see that the things I like about some films rouse people to litigation and rioting.

For example, in Michigan a woman is taking the makers of "Drive" to court because she claims they misrepresented the film in the trailers, and instead of the mindless "Fast and Furious"- like car crashes and noisy action sequences that she was expecting, she instead saw a brilliant transformation of a genre film into a masterpiece of mood, narrative, and subtle characterization that explores the nature of violence, love, loyalty, and, well, driving.

She also claimed the movie was anti-Semitic, which is something I definitely don't like. According to her complaint, "Drive" "substantially contained extreme, gratuitous, dehumanising racism directed at members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith."

I don't see it. True, one Jewish character describes how he has been called anti-Semitic epithets by vicious mobsters, but I don't believe the mobsters are presented as admirable or that their behavior is shown to be something that should be imitated. But I guess a jury can decide that.

Meanwhile, in Tunisia, which recently took to the streets to overthrow a despotic government, demonstrators have shown their disapproval of a screening of  "Persepolis," the animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel, by attempting to burn down the television station that broadcast it. According to the "Guardian," "Protesters said the film denigrated Islam and were particularly outraged by a scene in which God appears before Satrapi to teach her about forgiveness."

Isn't forgiveness a virtue? I feel like David Bowie's Andy Warhol in "Basquiat:" I don't know what's good anymore.