Dear Mick “The Geezer” LaSalle:You say that the Marvel movies are “a retreat from conscience that invite audiences to escape their humanity and numb themselves.” So let’s take a couple examples from consciousness-raising gangster movies: Sonny’s brutal assassination at the turnstile of a highway, or the shooting of Fredo. I don’t think of this as enhancing my “humanity.” In addition, the films by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese depict horrible acts of violence as though they are real.

Ted “The Marvel” Rucker, Castro Valley

Dear Ted “The Geezer” Rucker:A man of your proven wit need not be so easy on himself — there’s no reason you should let that kind of argument pass for actual thinking. If you spend a minute considering the issue, you’ll see there’s no retreat from conscience and nothing of an audience’s numbing itself in the watching of Fredo or Sonny getting killed in the “Godfather” movies. When Sonny gets killed, the audience feels bad about it — and also a little like he deserves it. The audience is very much involved with that moment in a moral sense, and even more so with Fredo. The guy kills his brother! That’s biblical. That’s a moral disaster. The audience feels that. It’s the climax of the movie.

“The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part II,” “Goodfellas” and“The Irishman”— as well as earlier gangster films, like“Little Caesar” and “The Public Enemy”— are in the American tradition of presenting grand issues of right and wrong and in exploring moral nuances. This is a particularly American thing, a product of an American way of thinking, which is, in turn, the product of our founding by spiritual seekers. Other national cinemas are more interested in presenting observed behavior. American movies are interested in drawing morallessonsfrom behavior.

By the way, depicting horrible acts of violence in a realistic way can be more responsible than depicting violence as a cartoon, in which death and destruction are made to not matter much, so long as it’s happening to somebody besides the dearly departed Iron Man.

Maestro Mick:I remember when you first started doing movie reviews in the Bay Area; you came on like a wildfire, the angry young critic.

Robert Freud Bastin, Petaluma

Maestro Robert:No, I justthought everything was funny.I was never angry. Even when they sent me to the Ice Capades.

Hi Mick:How could you leave out #13 (“12 Things That Are Obviously True … Because Movies Say They Are”)?: You’ll never crash. When you’re driving, but want to talk to the passenger, you can look at them and not at the road, for miles.

Anne Jones, Pacific Grove

Hi Anne:When I first got a driver’s license, I thought there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t able to drive like the people in the movies. It took me a while to realize that the people in the movies are rarely ever driving anything – they’re being towed.

Hey Mick:I just watched “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” and it reaffirmed my belief thatAlan Arkincould express more without saying a word than most others in the history of cinema. Your thoughts?

Tom Hulsey, Walnut Creek

Hey Tom:No, all the good ones can do that, and there are lots of good ones.

Dear Mick LaSalle:Just so I have it right,“The Report” didn’t quite movethe needle because American use of torture tactics is not nearly as grievous as, say, Ukrainegate, because the torture was being carried out in an effortforU.S. interests, not against them?

Daniel Matarozzi, San Francisco

Dear Daniel Matarozzi:Bingo. Exactly. Think of it this way: It’s easy to feel sorry for someone who has the flu. But it’s much harder to feel sorry for someone who has the flu if, at that moment, you’re having a stroke. Now, obviously, your stroke doesn’t make someone else’s flu anybetter— they’re still miserable — yet a stroke in progress would tend to grab your attention as a more pressing area of concern.

Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle atmlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.