IN the BEN of July 14, Damon Smith reviews another questionable Hollywood film, The Patriot, and he begins by saying that state barbarism and lack of compassion shown by British officers "are almost enough to make you feel ashamed of belonging to this island." Quite. But then again -- well, no!

Discerning moviegoers have known all along that Hollywood, that, "moral cesspool", has been forever churning out pernicious films spiked with historical inaccuracies at the expense of non-U.S. peoples.

Not that the depicted cruelties were always lies, but the nauseatingly biased viewpoints were, most of the time. Few self-critical films were ever made, and those were often the best. As long as this holier-than-thou approach was directed against, say, Red Indians, Mexicans, Germans, Japanese, Russians, aliens even, it was all right with us. No protests there. On the contrary, we quite enjoyed it. It is only now, when our "friend and ally" turns on us, that we feel compelled to challenge Hollywood's, i.e. U.S. America's, dishonesty.

Like other countries, we also may have hoisted some "heroes" on too high pedestals, and historical scrutiny may now suggest their lowering or replacing by other, hitherto neglected benevolent women and men of our country. But this painful task is best tackled by ourselves, certainly not by the U.S., and even more certainly not by Hollywood.

They could use ample material from their own brutal history to fill more than 200 years worth of celluloid. It was US authorities who offered up to 200 dollars for Red Indian scalps; it was they who introduced to modern history the merciless treatment of losers in the aftermath of the American Civil War, and they made unbearable cynicism part of their 20th century warfare. The naming of a nuclear bomb dropped on Japan "Little Boy" and a plane dropping the other, "The Great Artiste", or the display, during the Gulf War, of posters on their tanks with messages like "Killing is our Business, and Business is Booming" should be suitable enough material to show the unacceptable face of war.

On the rare occasion, when we read "alternative history", i.e. the history written on behalf of the losers, it becomes ever less convincing that all war criminals should always be found on their side, and never a single one on the victors' side.

Disregarding thoughts like these though, there will again be plenty of British people ready to part with their pounds to watch in awe another example of the stuff Hollywood is good at producing -- sugar-coated sentimentality alternating with perverted violence -- and, what it is even better at -- making lots of money out of human tragedies.

B Stuart

Lord's Stile Lane

Bromley Cross

Bolton