" V - v - ... .... .... .
The Daily Tar Heel
Wednesday, April 28. 1971
i
Bruce Mann
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William Hanky's "Slow Dance pn the Killing
Ground the final production of the Carolina
Haymakers season, presents a desperate dance of
depressing destruction, a dramatic ballet involving
three isolated characters who meet, exchange
experiences, and ultimately reveal to each other
the agonizing torment which plagues them day and
night -the personal anguish each has had to hide.
Thanks to a polished cast, the precisely
choreographed play delivers a worthwhile evening
of humor, introspection, depression, and
reflection.
The setting is a candy store in Brooklyn, late
one summer night in 1962. Shabby, dingy, and
decidedly sombre, the store has a soda fountain, a
magazine rack, a few tables and chairs, a dirty glass
window, merchandise counters, some choice signs
(Sealtest; Pepsi), and a garish, gaudy, pink and
blue-lighted jukebos. This is the figurative dance
floor -a ballroom where Glas (William Hardy), a
Leaven reviews
Nazi Germany refugee, takes inventory.
Randall (Elliott Moffitt), an intelligent,
nineteen-year-old Afro-hair-styled black who is
obviously running away from something,
, agitatingly dives into the store, sporting an outfit
of high hat, flourishing cape, tailored suit,
sunglasses, and white sneakers. Randall jives and
jibes at Glas, coming on strong with attempted
ten-dollar-word usage ("You of European
abstraction, Mr. Glas?"), tell-it-like-it-is lingo, and
literary allusions. Glas is an old man in baggy pants
and socks with holes. He is not used to talking
personally with people and warns Randall: "I
don't want no trouble." Following his own advice,
("Never make a long story short"), Randall probes
and jabs at Glas in an attempt to uncover
something about his past. The discussion heats,
and there are threats with umbrella point, ice-pick,
and gun before the Pas de Deux grinds to an
inconclusive halt and becomes a Pas de Trois with
the arrival of Rosie (Lisa Galloway).
Nineteen, gawking, Bronx-Jewish, and homely
("Homely is homely, any way you slice it"),
Rosie, an NYU student, has (as Randall puts it)
"stubbed her toe while making her way along life's
highway." That is to say, she is pregnant and
unmarried and tonight she has lost her way while
looking for the abortionist. As this new character
two-steps into the revelatory world of Glas's store,
we learn of her student life, of her thesis on
concentration camps, and of the "responsible
party," a 125-pound, CCNY economics major.
The tempo of the dance picks up when Glas
and Randall attempt to dissuade her from the
abortion, and as the three interact, a web of
ghastly confidence is constructed. Each character,
in turn, reveals his personal hell in dramatic,
anguished, intense arias. We learn that Glas was a
war-time concentration camp employee who
abandoned his wife and child. And in the Coda of
the composition, we learn that Randall has
committed murder. The phy ends with Randall
running outside to the "killing ground," but not
before he delivers himself of his hope that he can
escape the power of his personal hell, a state of
"denial of rebirth" in which "the soul is ghost,
adrift. Adrift and aware of life, looking for a new
body to inhabit . . . looking for a way back into
the world and life. And being denied it."
Director Patricia Barnetf s cast is a good one.
Elliott Moffitt plays Randall, and his excellent
portrayal keeps the interest revolving around him.
Whether he is feinting or darting around Glas,
stabbing his umbrella into the floor, telling all
about his genius-talent of photographic memory,
perching like a raven on a ladder over the
proceedings, or prancing across the "dance" floor,
the character of Randall is convincing.
William Hardy's Glas is well-caricatured. His
speech is coarse as if his mouth is filled with
ground glass. His "front" is a barrier, a wall of
filthy glass. And Glas can be scratched only by the'
hardest of materials, a diamond-of-a-character.
Rosie (aided and abetted by Randall).
Lisa Galloway is Rosie, and her verve, sense of
humour, and confidence in the part color the role
convincingly. However, she needs to fully mister
the Brooklynese, Yiddish-style vocal attack in
order to perfect such good lines as "Where did you
get that outfit, Randall? Barney's Boys Town?"
"Slow Dance on the Killing Ground" is a
sombre play due to D. Nardi's scenery, Glenn
Dunn's lighting, and Mary Davis's naturalistic
costumes. It does not promise a light and frivolous
evening of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
(innocence), but because of its careful structure,
its more-than-melancholic quality mixed with '
comedy, and its steady flow of passion and
compassion, "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground"
is one dance you will want to cut in on.
PI
ot comes apart in
THX
113
A few years ago, George Lucas won a
national amateur competition for a film
called "THX 1 138." The "THX 1138"
currently playing in Chapel Hill is an
elaborated version of that film, which
demonstrates that the -virtues of a good
short won't necessarily carry a full-length
feature not all the way to the end,
anyhow.
'THX 1138" is a heady mixture of
Orwell, Huxley, H.G. Wells, and Apollo
Mission Control It depicts the by now
conventionally imagined world of the
future (compare it with one . of the
episodes in the disastrous "Illustrated
Man"), which will be clothed in hospital
white and run largely by robot and
computer. The great crime of the
future brace yourself will be love. Men
will live beneath the surface of the earth,
closed artifical environment, under
round-the-clock sedation. Yet, for reasons
not too difficult to guess, this vision of the
future, though we've seen it all before,
has a peculiar, unpleasant fascination.
Because Lucas is a talented director, he
managed, within his limitations, to
produce half an hour or so of compelling
cinema; and though interest begins to fall
off thereafter, the director's camera
pushes and prods us into paying attention
liiiiiy " Girl "
Tonight i. the last night to see "Funny
Girl, the third movie in this year's Four
Bit series.
The movie will be shown at 7 and 9:30
p.m. Admission is 50 cents.
almost to the last, when 'THX" finally
deteriorates into an old-fashioned chase.
The interest in 'THX" lies in its
camera-work and special effects. The plot
is negligible and, except in its broad
outlines, choppy and hard to follow.
Neither THX 1138, the film's
protagonist, nor his "mate," nor anyone
else in the film stirs up the slightest
interest in characterization. We are left,
then, with the world of the future, with
its automation,, functionalism-gone-mad,
and dehumanization. And some of
Lucas's images for this world are striking
indeed. A shot of THX overwrought,
feeling confined, is neatly juxtaposed
with one of a malfunctioning robot
policeman trying to walk through a wall.
The eye is constantly assaulted by white
light -floors, clothes, walls, everything is
white. And the viewer is half dizzied by a
barrage of multiple television screens, in
which Big Brother scans every aspect of
life; and by the computerized, Apollo-like
communication, with its feeble wit and . .
courtesy, between various functionaries
in this world.
Yet, what , strikes one about 'THX
1138", is technique, and this can interest
only so long before the viewer starts
getting .weary,, or . worse i for the film,
starts questioning the, logic of the. images.! ,;r;
What' concept of. functional architecture,, , . t
for instance, eliminates all furniture but
one chair? What vision of simplicity
builds houses without furniture, and cars
with more dials and meters than the
cockpit of a jet plane? What possible
logical world has a computer to
administer pills and hypodermic needles,
and yet, for work with radioactive
materials, an assembly line of menials
under radio instruction from innumerable
human supervisors?
These questions are only the
beginning. We are told that everyone in
Lucas' future is compelled to take drugs.
Only when THX gets his head straight
does he find it impossible to function in
bis world, and then he is arrested for
''criminal drug evasion." Yet, neither in
the dialogue nor in the action is there
evidence that anyone is truly drugged. It
may be that Lucas counted on getting his
effects merely from turning accepted
meanings upside-down. But this device
requires consummate skill. If we have
learned anything from the ecologists, it is
that all parts of a complex environment
are ' interconnected. Even a minute
adjustment must be compensated for
throughout the structure. Lucas's device
of switching labels, of alternately
exaggerating and diminishing aspects of
our world in order to construct his own,"
finally undermines the tremendously'
powerful short an image. The version;
playing in town still has plenty of energy,"
but and I think this is a legitimate,
criticism it is more entertaining to watch
then it is to think about.
Like too many other films this year, it
asks the viewer itQL step intofit and do the"
work of the scriptwriter-We are jnadetQ4r
understand our cultural frame of
reference stipulates that we
understand that the mechanized world
of the future is the villain. Given this
premise we, not Lucas, are asked to keep
the plot coherent. We must imagine
THX's love affair, and we must root for
him as he tries to make his way out of his
world, flat and uninteresting as he is. This
' I did, but grudgingly. The reader may
disagree, but I cannot convince myself
that a film that throws its arm around its
young audience's collective shoulder,
laughs heartily, and says, "We're on the
same side, Friend" I cannot convince
myself that this is honest art, or that
anything it has to say is truly worth
listening to.
SOMEHOW, THOUGH IT has been
in town for nearly three weeks, I've failed
to comment on 'The Great White Hope."
For anyone who has been waiting with
baited breath for my judgment: see it.
Curiously, "Hope" is so hammy that it's
hard to take much of it seriously, in the
spirit in which it is offered. Howard
; Sackler's script is weak and in some
places downright corny. But he and
V James Earl Jones collaborate in creating
t the character of Jack Jones, the first
black heavyweight boxing champion, and
Jones makes the. film. Whenever he is on
! screen 'and i tie" 1 generally is, "Hope"
- 'moves: Whenever He'sff, 'it falters.
The acting is excellent.
C
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Cainnipes caleedair
Professor George Schlesinger of the UNC
Philosophy Department will talk on "The
Argument from Design" Thursday, April 29, at
8 pjn. in 213 Caldwell. According to
Schlesinger, "The argument from design for the
existence of God has been refuted many times
in the last few hundred years. Yet it has proved
to be a surprisingly resilient form of argument
full of hidden subtleties."
There will be a meeting of the UNC Polo and
Riding Club tonight at seven o'clock in the
Student Union.
People planning to go to Washington for
May Day non-violent civil disobedience should
come to Student Union today or Thursday at 4
p.m. Buses will leave for Washington May Day
non-violent civil disobedience on Sunday at 1 1
a.m. and return Wednesday afternoon. Sign up
at the Pit.
Applications for Order of the Old Well are
available in the Dean of Men's office, 01 Steele
from 8 to 5. Deadline for applying is today.
The Order of the Old Well recognizes
outstanding achievement in twelve campus
areas.
Tired of same old Nixon doubletalk?
Disgusted with Laird and the Pentagon?
Stupefied at Spiro? Interested in turning this
country around? Help make the US of A what
we always used to think it was. UNC Students
for McGovern organizational meeting tonight at
seven in 103 Hanes.
Good Old-Fashioned Sex: Morehead
Residence College's biannual Sex Day picnic
will be held from 4-6 Thurs., April 29, in the
Lower Quad. Dinner is $.50. Through the
courtesy of the Carolina Union, the music will
be a preview of Jubilee. Everyone is welcomed
to attend.
Lost: One Danish bent briar pipe. (Probably in
the Arb.) Reward offered. Call 966-2353.
Orange County Association for Retarded
Children wants you! Parents, teachers, student,
administrators and all others interested id
working in areas related to Mental Retardation
come at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 4 to the
Wesley Foundation located at 214 Pittsboro
Street. Elections are going to be held. Cair
967-4271 for information.
Placement Service has announced the
following organizations who will be recruiting
on campus this week. Thurs., April 29: Corp
Hall Adjustment Bureau and Friday, April 30:
The Upper French Broad Economic
Development Commission.
Lost: A pair of brown horn-rim glasses (without
case), probably at A.P.O. Carnival. Call
929-4508.
Lost: Half-grown black, white and brown part
Persian cat. Lost near Planetarium. Please call ;
Stewart Lambda Chi Alpha at 968-9094..,
Reward. ; ' '
Lost or Stolen: Two oil paintings from Lenoir
Hall; one, a silhouette on bricks; the other, a
scene of construction work. These paintings are
my favorites and mean a lot to me personally. I
really want them back. No questions asked
when they're returned. Call 933-8031 or bring
to Lenoir Hall. Reward.
Lost: A Bell and Howell, Dial 35 camera from
out of a '67 red Corvette convertible parked
behind Rathskellar. Camera and film are
valuable and a reward is offered. Call 933-7383
or write 229 E. Cobb.
Lost: A fluffy brown and white kitten. 4
months old. Brown patch on his face and a
bushy brown tail. Reward. 929-241 2.
Found: Puppy, part German Shepherted
collar; found on Cameron Avenue and Merrif? ;
Mill Roads; call Garry, 968-8283. . ;
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