6AThe Daily Tar HeelThursday, June 28, 1 990
siinitil F
EA1TMES
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's new film es muy loco
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! "Atame!"
! Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Victorio Abril, Antonio Banderas,
Francisco Rabal, Loles Leon
Varsity
: ooe
Ay yi yi Caramba! Es loco when the
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar fo
cyses his camera at the anxieties of
modern life in Iberia. Those who have
seen his previous works the most
recent being Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown are already
familiar with the black humor of his
social satire. But this time his images
seem a little closer to home.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! means
what it says, although there are no whips
or chains for sado-masochists to drool
over. The story is simple and naive like
the hero, Ricky (Antonio Banderas).
Upon his release from the safe, confined
walls of a sanitarium, this young
Spaniard sets out with 50,000 pesetas
($), a smile on his face and a dream to
marry, settle down and father ninos.
' Ricky chooses an ex-junkie porn
queen named Marina (Victorio Abril)
whom he met during one of his many
Corporate finance fu and
The Art of the Deal, Part 2, by Donald
Trump:
. Many people ask me what a normal
day, in my life is like.
I usually start by giving a quarter to
the doorman at Trump Tower. I used to
give-him a dollar, but now it makes the
guys down at Manufacturers Hanover a
little nervous.
By 8:15 I'm on the phone, doing
deajs. The first call is Randy Simpson,
rrry.'man over at Chase Manhattan. He
h4s:a question about a $20 million in
terest payment.
"Hey, Randy, that's not due till
Tpsday. Check your calendar!"
:I;'ve known Randy for years. We
frequently joke during business deals.
Randy tells me if I don't pay up, he'll
takemy yacht and mansion in Florida.
Iq a "typical Donald Trump day, we call
this 'Banker Talk."
Next, breakfast with three of my
largest investors Bob Samson at First
Fidelity Bancorp, Nick Wallinsky at
Bankers Trust and Fred Ferragamo at
First Fidelity Boston. We're having
what's called a "meeting" to talk about
"money."
At 10: 15 1 excuse myself, turning the
bankers over to my closest adviser,
Vinnie "The Hammer" Margolis. No
sooner do I get back to my desk than
another phone call comes in. It's Stu
Slussman, my personal divorce attor
ney and a pretty fair golfer in his own
right. Stu has a question about Maria.
He wants to know how many times we
"did it." I know it sounds funny, but the
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escapes from the mental institution for
his bride-to-be. However, when he vis
its her on the set where she is working,
she doesn't recognize him. No importa.
Our hero resorts to more drastic mea
sures of persuasion: he decides to kid
nap her and to hold her hostage until she
falls in love with him.
Naturally. Marina is not exactly re
ceptive to this. When she resists, there
are some scenes of violence as well as
some steamy, graphic scenes of pas
sion. Remember, this is the country
where Carmen once danced the Fla
menco and bullfighting is a national
pastime.
Enough typecasting. Almodovar's
film combines a zany script with the
modern-day dilemma of relationships
and the obstacles of commitment. But
don't get your hopes up he doesn't
offer any viable solutions. In fact I left
wondering if his ending was to be taken
at face value or if his humor had passed
me.
Joe Bob Briggs
strangest things can affect corporate
income in a real-estate business as large
as mine.
I have just a few moments after lunch
to prepare for my two o'clock meeting
with the Sultan of Brunei, who wants to
buy the Plaza Hotel. Even though it's
my favorite property, I'm never ashamed
of taking a profit when the opportunity
presents itself. Unfortunately, I get a
call at 1 :45 from three Japanese banks
informing me that they will be meeting
with the Sultan and that, if I try to horn
in on the meeting, they'll foreclose on
$100 million worth of high-rise condo
properties on the west side of Manhat
tan. Vinnie The Hammer advises me to
stay in my office, and I always do what
Vinnie says.
John Mahoney calls from the Taj
Mahal, my casino, and tells me a Japa
nese businessman had won $400,000 at
the bacarrat tabl. Then he had a terrible
run of luck and now owes the casino
$600,000. 1 make my decision quickly.
"Take his money and kick him out."
I find that it's always best to speak
briefly when it comes to business.
People sometimes ask me, "Do you
ever guarantee loans with your personal
money?" And of course, most real es
tate investors would tell you "No" or
perhaps "Never" or perhaps "Are you
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Almodovar uses many of the same
people who were in Women on the Verge.
His female characters run the show while
the handicapped males seem out of touch
with reality. A modern Don Quixote,
the idealistic Ricky chases after tradi
tional rainbows, while Marina's aged,
wheelchair-ridden director is tormented
by an inflated libido which unfortunately
overwhelms his deflated testosterone.
The images hint at a nostalgic long
ing for the past when tradition was
predictable. While modern Spain may
be liberated from Franco's rule, the
streets are infested with drugs, violence,
larceny and porn. These disturbing im
ages run hand-in-hand with
Almodovar's glimpses at human desire
that defies logic and reason. For those
of you who plan to see the film, I won't
divulge the end; much of its strength
lies in its outlandish conclusion.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down is enter
taining and will even allow for some
self-examination if you let it. You'll
leave the theater asking yourself how to
handle a modern-day relationship and
how to come to terms with desire. As for
Spain, the film shows they've come a
long way, baby, or have they?
an old coot retired sheriff
crazy?"
Not me! I have $2 billion in bank
debt, and $500 million of that is guar
anteed by me personally. That's why I
have to go meet with eight more bank
ers right now. It's funny what bankers
will do when you personally guarantee
loans. They'll take your yacht, they'll
take your luxury vacation homes, they'll
take your airline, they'll take your ho
tel, they'll take the royalties from your
books, they'll take your game show
I suppose if they could, they would take
this new book I'm writing, but there are
certain privileges you have when your
name is Donald Trump, and there's no
way they can take away "The Art of the
Deal, Part 2" unless they actually walked
into my office and starting carting away
furniture and then they walked up to me
and took my paper away and my
dictaphone and then took the pen out
my... (manuscript ends here)
Speaking of time running out, they
finally made the movie version of the
hit song Big Bad John. I know it might
seem like it took a long time, since the
song went to number one on the charts
in 1961, but think of it this way. The
people who have been waiting for the
movie are starting to develop brain tu
mors. They released this sucker just in
time.
Jimmy Dean, the king of pure-pork
sausage, stars in the movie, but here's
the weird part: They don't use his ver
sion of the song Big Bad John. I don't
know who it is singing it, but he doesn't
have near the pipes Jimbo does. (Or did.
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Victoria Abril and
Jimmy 's 62 years old.) Anyhow, except
for that, and except for a lot of the plot
not making sense, it's a pretty decent
flick about an old coot retired sheriff
living with his beer-drinking dog Cat
fish in a Louisiana swamp cabin until
Jack Elam and Ned Beatty come find
him and convince him to go find Big
Bad John, who killed a man and ran off
with the sheriff's daughter.
Jimmy Dean plays the sheriff who
goes trucking up through Colorado and
New Mexico in search of BBJ, and he
decides to take along the only friend
he'll need "Gator" a quadruple-barreled
shotgun. It's kind of one of those
action swamp western mining love
stories. Kinda grows on you.
We've got zero breasts. Two dead
bodies. One excellent rocket-propelled
dope-smuggler's monster truck. Pool
cue head-cracking. Exploding target.
Exploding bar. Exploding coal mine.
Three brawls. Convenience store Fu.
Drive-In Academy Awards for Doug
English, the All-Pro defensive tackle
for the Detroit Lions, as Big Bad John,
who's so sweet it makes you sick; Ned
Beatty, for being such a perfect
slimeball; Bo Hopkins, as Lester, the
town ex -con who wants to waste the
sheriff; Jake, as Catfish the Sarcastic
Dog; Jimmy Dean, Mr. Sausage, for
working on this sucker for 29 years; and
Burt Kennedy, the veteran director of
westerns, for making another western
but disguising it so nobody '11 know.
Three stars. Joe Bob says check it
out.
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Antonio Banderas from a scene in 'Tie
Racing wear company
hopes to ride in with
Cruise and Thunder'
From Associated Press reports
CHARLOTTE Even before the
new Tom Cruise movie, Days of
Thunder, makes its national debut to
morrow, several North Carolina com
panies were running all out to market
T-shirts, toys and other souvenirs from
the much-hyped film about stock car
racing.
'This is the biggest thing ever to hit
us," said Jim Coble of Hendrick
Sportswear, a Charlotte firm which is
marketing Days of Thunder T-shirts
and caps. "We hope it will be the
launching pad for this company to
introduce a complete line of racing
wear."
The company is owned by Charlotte
businessman Rick Hendrick, who
owns four racing teams and built most
of the cars used in the $60 million
movie.
Cruise, one of the top draws in
Hollywood after starring in such pic
tures as Rain Man and Top Gun, has
credited Hendrick with planting the
seed for the movie about a young
driver trying to break in on NASCAR's
tough Winston Cup circuit.
Cruise first became interested in
racing when he starred in The Color of
Money with racing enthusiast Paul
Newman. Once he took a ride with
Hendrick, he became hooked on stock
car racing.
Many fans of the traditionally
Southern sport are hoping the movie
will help give stock car racing a na
tional following.
"Tom Cruise should give a whole
lot more respectability to the sport,"
said Jane Gossage, who owns a sports
marketing company in Charlotte. "It
will come into its own."
The movie, to be released nation
wide by Paramount Pictures, also stars
Robert Duvall and Randy Quaid.
Australian actress Nicole Kidman will
co-star as Dr. Claire Lewicki, Cruise's
romantic interest.
"I hope when a person sees the
movie they'll care about the NASCAR
people and feel they're on a journey
with them," Cruise told the Charlotte
Observer in an storyprinted Tuesday.
One of those people is Hendrick,
who Cruise described as irreplacable.
"We couldn't have made this film
without Rick's help," he said.
Hendrick fields such drivers as
three-time champion Darrell Waltrip,
Ken Schrader, Ricky Rudd and Greg
Sacks, who runs a limited schedule.
Other field no more than one team.
In Charlotte, considered to be the
heart of NASCAR country, stock car
racing fans have been awaiting the
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Me Up! Tie Me Down!'
release of the movie for months. Parts
of the movie were filmed at Charlotte
Motor Speedway. Filming also was
done at five different Winston Cup
races, including the Daytona 500.
The movie is so hot in Charlotte
that there were two special screenings
Tuesday night.
One was hosted by Coca-Cola
the maker of Mello Yello, which
"sponsors" one of the cars driven by
Cruise's character, driver Cole
Trickle. Defending Winston Cup
champion Rusty Wallace and fellow
drivers Kyle Petty and Alan Kulwicki
also were invited.
A second screening was hosted by
Hendrick and his City Chevrolet car
dealership along with WBTV, the
local CBS affiliate, and two of the
movie's sponsors, Exxon and
Hardee's. Waltrip, Schrader, Rudd
and Sacks who was Cruise's stunt
double for the film were invited to
the screening.
Hardee's, North Carolina's home
grown fast-food chain that ranks third
in the nation in sales, has jumped on
the DaysofThunder promotional tour
in a big way.
"We think Tom Cruise will do for
NASCAR what he did forjet planes,"
said Hardee's spokesman Jerry
Singer. He was referring to the success
of Top Gun, which also was directed
by Tony Scott of Days ofT hunder. Top
Gun producers Jerry Bruckheimer and
Don Simpson also were reunited with
Cruise for the project.
Last week, the Hardee's restaurant
chain began selling toy race cars
patterned after the ones that appear in
the movie. The chain has already or
dered 7 million of the cars.
Hardee's also will sell a kid's meal
package in the shape of a racing ga
rage, as well as other promotional
items.
"We think it will direct traffic to us
in the summer, which is the most
competitive time of the year," Singer
said Tuesday. "We don't think it's
going to be another California Raisins
(the chain's hugely successful pro
motion) but it will help us hold our
own this summer."
At Exxon service stations, cus
tomers can get a free Days of Thunder
family fun book with a fill-up. The oil
company has reportedly ordered 30
million of the books.
"We've given a lot of them away,"
said Donna Sullins, a cashier at the
Exxon station at the intersection of
Woodlawn and Park in southeast
Charlotte. "There's a lot of interest,
especially with the kids."
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