And By the Way You're Ugly

I'm no apologist for Dr. I'm-At-Dinner-John. (I'm not making fun of his name, which is the cheesiest form of insult, I just had to come up with a way to pronounce it.) There's no question that he repeats a lot of blatantly untrue things over and over, just like another world leader whose name I won't mention. And he's eroding the constitutional rights of his people, just like another world leader whose name I won't mention. And he's capable of invading other countries, even though he hasn't done it yet like another world leader whose name I won't mention. No, my problem with the president of Columbia University is more related to my experience as a writer and director. That whole travesty was just bad drama. The denouement was given away in the first five minutes, in the introductory remarks. I've written action movies, and rule number one is you wait until the last reel for the hero to knock off the bad guy. You have to give the villain at least ninety minutes to show us how really dangerous he is before you turn the tables on him. If you can't hold the audience until then it's just plain bad writing.