October 29, 1970
A Review
A 'MJOl A/;!j(}
THE CAROLINA JOURNAL
The SAGA Way
Page 11
Motherhood, apple pie, and ‘Joe’
by bill holder
The streets of our country are in
turmoil.
The imiversities are filled with
students
rebelling and rioting.
Communists are seeking to
destroy our country.
Russia is threatening us with her
might,
and the Republic is in danger.
Yes, danger from within and
without.
We need law and order
or our nation can not survive.
-Adolph Hitler
It is too damn easy for us to sit
in our ivory towers and believe
that our generation has created a
subculture of Utopia. The straight
world adopts this generation’s
clothes, music, and language, but
only on its own terms. Straights
want nothing to do with an
idealism that threatens their
ordered economical ratrace. They
only want the icing, not the cake.
The fact is that middle America
must hold the reins of power at all
times.
“Joe” is the scared middle class
American that feigns- protection
of ‘god and country’ from the
internal and external forces that
are threatening its
he feels
existence.
Joe Currin: “The kids today are
fucking up the culture.”
“Joe” is a photograph of
America and what its dreams and
aspirations have become. As valid
and as timely as “Easy Rider” and
“Zabriske Point”, it probes into
the youth culture that is more
myth than reality.
Joe Currin, about whom the
plot revolves, represents that
working class of America that
lives in perpetual fear of waking
up one morning and finding itself
on the bottom rung of society’s
ladder. He must constantly
convince himself that the blacks
and other minority groups are
freeloading off the government. It
is the same type of feeling that
poor whites felt toward slaves in
the South. The whites were not
much better off economically
than the blacks but at least they
had their freedom to fall back on.
The Joes’ of the world have their
whiteness to fall on.
Also present is the deep
resentment, that have renounced
the materialistic world to live
their own lives
Joe Currin: “It’s a fact that
42% of all liberals are queers.”
“Joe” tends to overdramatize
situations for box office appeal.
After weighing through the entire
ninety-odd minutes of film, the
viewer finds that every youth in
the picture is on drugs, been on
drugs or going to get drugs. It is
this form of stereotyping that
warps America’s view of her
youth. It plays on middle
America’s paranoia and makes her
feel she must tighten her grip.
Rather than seeing the positive
goods, one is only exposed to the
tarnished gold. On that count of
honesty the movie must be judged
a partial failure.
“Joe” uses the now old
technique of ‘catching you with
your pants down’ and assaulting
you with what you should feel is
shock But the shock just doen’t
work anymore Everything in
“Joe” has by now become
cliche Still it is a flick well
worth seeing.
(Continued from page 5)
students, three commuters and
Mr. Ernest. The Food Service
Committee has not been formed
as yet this year; according to some
reputable sources, there is some
buck-passing occurring that has
resulted in the delay of the
Committee’s formation and,
naturally, any action on food
complaints.
Consequently, the old limits are
still in effect and since food prices
have risen \2^A% from last year.
Mr. Ernest stated there were many
foods that SAGA can no longer
offer in the University Center
cafeteria without taking a loss.
Mr. Ernest, who was born into
a family that owned a cafeteria,
said that one of the things missed
from the old University-run
cafeteria was the matter of
portions. In that era, nice ladies
would “fill up the plates.” That’s
why, Mr. Ernest claimed, the
University-run service was high on
customer satisfaction but lost so
much money that they couldn’t
keep it going.