There’s much more to westerns these days than guns and horses

I hate to wake Mark Bedor out of his peaceful slumber (“Evil and More Evil Make ‘Deadwood’ Dreadful,” March 29), but he should know that the days of the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy ended almost 50 years ago.

In his Counterpunch article, Bedor attacks David Milch for concocting a western “told with a never-ending stream of profanity.” He further characterizes “Deadwood” as “sewage” and “a celebration of evil.” Not only does it seem rather precipitate to condemn a multipart series based on a single episode, but one wonders what the author might think of such acknowledged classics, containing similar characters, situations, language, violence, etc., as “The Wild Bunch,” “Once Upon a Time in the West,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” and “Unforgiven.”

While Bedor was doing his Rip Van Winkle impersonation, the western grew up, becoming more realistic, more complex and much more interesting than it had been during its “classical” days. I love films like “My Darling Clementine” and “Shane” too, but to limit the genre to narratives that “celebrate courage, friendship, family, horses and history” is the quickest way to write its epitaph.

Rick Jewell

Los Angeles

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I find it ironic that Bedor feels it’s all right to expose children to images of brutality and murder, as depicted in “The Missing,” “Open Range” and “Lonesome Dove,” but not to graphic language or images of prostitution. Personally, I am sick to death of people judging works of art and/or fiction by the sensibilities of a child. “Deadwood” is intended for adult audiences -- not children -- otherwise it wouldn’t air at 10 p.m. on Sunday night.

Cindy Mediavilla

Culver City