Building 'Howards End'

I loved the film Howards End, but some of the commentary in Building 'Howards End' was twisted given what the film was about, mainly the class system in England during the early 1900's.

First Merchant, states that All American Film companies are basically ignorant because none would cough up 8 million dollars to make the film. Stating: "They have blinkers on their eyes ...they never see anything beyond the form and that kind of a thing." ... "With the exception of there are some sensible people like Sony classic's. They were at that time with Orion Pictures." Then later on, Merchant attacks the American Judicial system because Howard's End gets stuck in the Chapter 11 process of Orion Pictures. Stating: "Chapter 11 is the most dreadful thing that America has" and "Judicial System is a terrible thing in America."

If Orion Pictures was "sensible" as pointed out by Merchant, then perhaps they would not have ended up in Chapter 11. When a company ends up in Chapter 11 it is typically because they have more debt than assets or are unable to meet the payments of debt they have. Who usually gets screwed when a company goes into Chapter 11? The little guy or the lower class. The Judicial System is the only place that some relief can be found for those owed $$$. Many times the wealthy have already escaped with funds and left the 'lower class' holding the bill.

I confess I have no details of the Orion Chapter 11 situation and am most likely jaded by the Enron Scandal and others like it but found the comments terribly short sited and selfish. Perhaps there are a few other folks that walk around with 'blinkers' on. Maybe they can make a movie about that some day.