Leaven reviews
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No one would argue that this has been
a terribly good year for film, but it took
the academy awards to show just how
dismal it was. The problem isn't that the
big winner, "Patton," was a slipshod or
foolish movie, though some of the other
nominees were. It's that "Patton" was a
better than average film, no more, and on :
that basis was the best of the academy's
choices. Nor was there a flock ot
excellent films waiting in the
wings acclaimed by the critical public
but not nominated It was a year, a stock. .
broker might say, of profit-taking, of
exploiting the youth market so brilliantly
opened last year, when it was finally
recognized that the college ageroup was
nearly the only one that took . film
seriously.
As part of that "youth 'market, t
hard to say what its significance for film ,
would be, but itH be great. It has taken -close
to seventy years, with periods of ,
boom, bust, and now, again, selective
prosperity but the film industry is finally' '
beginning to mature. As it does, film
more and more ceases to be
"entertainment," and begins to loom as a
dominant mode of cultural
communication in our society. The
theater may be alive and well, but it's also
living in New York and a few civic centers
across the country. Poetry seems to be
flourishing the way diaries and journals
did two hundred years ago, but it's
essentially an avocation of a movie-going
generation. And "Easy Rider" and its
successors have just about appropriated
grounds which once were the preserve of
the "youth novelist." So a discussion of
0m can assume considerable importance.
- Indeed, in an age of cultural transition,
trenchant criticism is. a rarity to be
prized-film criticism especially, for we've
seen modern literature prove incapable of
providing for a large, diverse public.
We've seen movies and television run
poetry right out of the ball park, and seen
modern poetry-the Carolina Quarterly,
for instance-respond in perhaps the only
way possible, by curling itself up like a
sensitive plant and leaving the consumer
to Rod McKuen. The modern poet in the
West is what ; artists never dreamed of
being before alienated. And-?rk ; one
needs - to be told that last i year's
Yackety-Yack notice: With the exception of
seniors graduating this spring, all students not
returning in the fall should send their fall
mailing address (with zip code) to Box 50,
Carolina Union, before exams so their Yack
may be mailed to them.
The controversy over the ',-Antibaliistic
Missile System will be the program topic
tonight when the Central Chapter and the UNC
Student Chapter of the Association of
Computing Machinery meet here at 8 p.m. in
Gerrard Hall. An outspoken computer scientist,
Daniel D. McCracken who organized the group,
Computer Professionals Against the ABM, will
speak on "Why the ABM Computer System "
Won't Work.". ; .
A College Foundation Loan Officer will be
on campus May 5 to meet with all students who
have borrowed at any time from College
Foundation and with those interested in
applying. If you missed the previous meeting,
be sure to attend. There will be two sessions at
4 and 7 p.m. in 104 Howell Hall.
College Life will present Frank Barlow;
current director of the Eastern Carolina Martial '
Arts Academies, .in the fourth floor faculty ",
lounge of Dey Hall, tonight. Mr. Barlow holds
the black belt in Karate, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, and .
Aikido. He will put on a demonstration of some
of fHie "arts," and will then share from - hi! G
personal experiences. The meeting is sponsored "
by Campus Crusade for Christ. Refreshments
and entertainment provided.
The Current Affairs Committee of theiUnion
will sponsor a film, "Chicago-The Seasons
Change," tonight in the Union Coffee House, at
8 pjn. Featured in the film are Mayor Daley,
Tom Hayden, the police and the Yippfes' in
Lincoln Park, and others connected with ' the
Chicago Convention, 1968. . . ..-. j.Lv
The Christian Science Organization willfjVeet
at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Wesley Foundation;
Everyone is welcome to attend. Y?.a'.v;-y-
LOST: -35mm Kodak camera in Argu&?case
with, flash atachment, lens, and imporjatjjfilm
at Jubilee Friday night. Very valuabie'io this
person. Reward offered. Call 929-5921.'
LOST: A brown checked suede pocketbook.
The set of : keys is ; very impartaj?;.
irreplaceable. Return to Union . PesTc."K-$5-j
'.reward. - .;V v- i t- -r"- -s f?Jl I"'
' "-. . . ". I'-.r-
LOST: Pair of brown glasses in a case Nans ,
on case is Dr. J.A. Stoleze. Reward offered,' -Cattv-
933-7063 or sent to 231 Craige Dorm.
best -selling novel was a silly, meaningless
"story." " ' ;1
One can admit this candidly without
envisioning a film "culture" as an end in"
itself. But the difficulty of catering to a
large, uncultivated public cannot re
rnirimized, and it should hardly surprise
us to find serious literature constantly
redefining and limiting its audience, pr
poets writing for a coterie. What js
noteworthy is that at the same time we
see popular film at its best becorning
more honest, more technically proficient, ;
franker, and more intelligent. And it is rib
exaggeration, I think, to argue that its '
from film, not literature, from Fellini,
Bergman, Penn, Bunuel-from "Tristan."
and the film "Women in Love" arid :
"Catch-22"-that the public in the West ,
will develop an appetite to go beybnjd 2
film. "Jl) "
Or so one says, trusting the larger
hope. This much at least is certain and, in
a capitalistic society, more than certain.
Art, Shelley wrote,- "communicates ;-alJ .'
' the pleasure which men are capable rpf '
receiving." If we, as an audience, become '
inattentive and nod, if we accept a
"MASH," a "Diary of a Mad Housewife
a "Love Story," or a "Tora, Tora, ToraJ ;
as serious aesthetic and ethical
experiences, then we can be sure next ;
year will bring us more of the same, or
worse.
Nor can we ignore the frightening
rapidity with which the new and exciting
becomes a cliche, in an electronic world.
How quickly did "Easy Rider" generate -"Little
Fauss and Big Halsey" or (a far
better film) "Five Easy Piece's"
"Goodbye, Columbus" brought us"
"Lovers and Other Strangers"; and, of
course, "Getting Straight," "Strawberry
Statement," "RPM," and the rest came1
out of the news.
Again, technical breakthroughs
become cliches as rapidly as new areas of
subject matter. Nearly any film today canj
get an eye-rat ching production. If a grade'!
Z job like "Get Carter" : can have -ridiculously,
inappropriately slickly
tistic,',
Lovers and other Strangers' " score.
no business complaining
001 " has a folk singer, too.
and
they'll have
when "THX
The point to remember is that film
will continue to mature only if the
demands of its audience constantly nudge
it forward. If that audience settles at any
point, there the filmmakers stop, and
their. work ceases to be exploratory and
exciting and becomes repetitive. This is
largely the story of this year. We had a
recapitulation of last year's successes its
frankness, "relevance," imagistic lushness,
its accent on youth-and we found that,
for the most part, we'd seen it all before.
One has only to read the letters to the
editor to see that people take their
movies seriously. If for this reason alone,
the Tar Heel's reviewer can be more
influential and have more interesting
things to say than any editorial columnist
on the paper. For this reason, too, it's of
the utmost importance that this campus
v have two things: a critical public which
does notxonfuse its private predilections
iwith rational discussion and evaluation,
and a responsible, intelligent film
critic who, as doubtless many people
will add, need not be Mr. Leaven.
Patrick Samway
3-
v..
L
1.
Edward G. Robinson makes a rare television appearance to present the prologue
and epilogue in "USA.," John Dos Passos' epic study of America 2nd Americans in
the early twentieth century, tonight at 9 p.m.
A.' worth w
71
MCinmnig-
cinematography, how can a truly artist
controlled film like "Tristana" impress a
lazy audience? If we are all eye and no
brain, filmmakers will conduct themselves
accordingly, and the next year will bring!
. LOST: Have you seen my dog Muskin? She's
white with black eyes like Petey on the Little
-RSs&dsf-Very friendly 'anaUftaehed" tb SanVa
Taylor's G.I. dog tag. 967-1816. .
an audience responds enthusiastically to
"2001," and then finds 'THX 1138" a-.'
"bold, imaginative . . . movie," then theyli
must expect yet another film in the same H
mold. And if they laud 'The Graduate's"2
"score, and then 'The Sterile Cuckoo's" f
score, and 'The Baby Maker's," "RPM V
B - 1
Tonight at 9 p.m., WUNC-TV, Channel 4, will present
Hollywood Television Theatre's adaptation of John Dos
Passos' trilogy U.S.A. with outstanding performances by John
Davidson, James Farentino, and -Joan Hackett. It is a show
worth seeing.
Dos Passos constantly searched for ways of capturing the
historical dimensions of the American imagination. In the
"U.S.A." trilogy, tie j'uxtaposes four techniques: the
biographies of famous public figures; a series of loosely
connected surrealistic images; selections from newspapers,
public documents, and political speeches; and fictional
accounts of "average" citizens who embody uniquely
American traits.
In expressing the speech of the people, Dos Passos did not
limit himself to one literary form. As an architect of history,
he tried to find the artistic forms which would reveal the
enormous diversity of the American psyche. His novels press
upon his reading public the awareness of an historical drift
away from the fundamental ideals of America. The television
adaptation reflects a composite of private and public sectors of
society and highlights the absurd conditions of the first part of
the,2pth,century; ,.v ,
The ,play focuses on J. WardMoorehouse, an ambitious'
executive destined to rise to the heights of the public relations
world. Along the way, other characters, Dick Savage, Eleanpr
Stoddard, and Janey Williams, give him the type of
encouragement he needs to become rich, famous, and empty.
In a manner reminiscent of Wilder's "Our Town," the
actors ' stage their performance. They never become real
persons; Dos Passos would have liked this acting technique. At
times, however, the actors relating the biographies of famous
Americans, such as the Wright Brothers, the Unknown Soldier,
Henry Ford, or Rudolph Valentino, enter the spirit of these
people and give a sense of the times they lived in. Joan
Hackett's presentation of Isadora Duncan is especially
perceptive.
Two events particularly fired Dos Passos' imagination: the
Sacco-Vanzetti trial and the miners' strike in Harlan County,
Kentucky. Unfortunately, neither of these two episodes were
woven into the television play 'as they easily could have. Yet
the play lives on its own merits. Alfred Kazin recently
reminded his New York Times readers of Jean Paul Sartre's
1938 statement: "Dos Passos has invented only one thing, an
art of storytelling. But that is enough. I regard Dos Passos as'-;,
the greatest writer of our time." - . ' . :
91
. k Mkal
3 ;ts s
JENSEN TIF3C
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