Sept. 27, 2001
Arts & Entertainment
Page 15
Music videos help us
communicate in the
electronic age
Manuel Mendoza
The Dallas Morning News
The late JefFBuckley’s rendition
of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”
and Live’s recent song “Overcome”
have been turned into the first mu
sic videos about the desolation
caused by the terrorist attacks.
Both videos have been airing on
VHl since l^t week, but they’re not
the only examples of montages
about the tragedy that have been set
to music. From early on, the news
networks have used songs to under
score their video summations.
Music videos are one of the ways
we communicate in the electronic
age, and even an event of such over
whelming proportion has inmiedi-
ately found its place in this pop-cul-
ture form. In fact, if it didn’t actu
ally motivate the perpetrators, the
pervasiveness of our visual culture
_ with TV as the primary tool _ has
been key in shaping our view of
what happened.
The repeated images of the
planes hitting the World Trade Cen
ter became an assault themselves.
It’s how we live now, besieged by
an overload of televised images. Hie
music videos _ neither of which fea
tures any shots of the crashes _ and
all the edited segments set to music
that the news stations have been run
ning may even aid the healing pro
cess.
Steve Rosenbaum, whose com
pany Broadcast News Network
makes news documentaries for
cable and had crews out shooting
immediately after the attacks, put
together the “Overcome” video af
ter waking up two days later “unbe
lievably overcome with emotion.”
“I felt like for all the access we
have to media, I wasn’t convinced
any of the stories that were going to
be told m the conventional way were
going to reach people other than on
the surface,” Rosenbaum says.
After downloading the song from
a Live-related Web site at his office,
“I sat at my desk and cried.” In the
song, the emotional singer desper
ately wails the phrase, “I am over
come.” The pictures in the video fo
cus on the wreckage at ground zero.
“It’s like there’s a fire in your liv
ing room, and you’re looking
around for something to put it out
with,” Rosenbaum says of his mo
tivation for making the video.
“There’s a bucket of water, there’s
a ham sandwich, there’s a fire ex
tinguisher, there’s a rug, there’s a
bucket of sand, and you’re trying to
figure out what tool is the most ef
fective.
© 2001, The Dallas Morning
News.
Visit The Dallas Morning News
on the Worid Wide Web at http://
www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/
Tribune Information Services.
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Deep plot-holes sink otherwise
masterfuUy acted ‘Hearts in Atlantis’
Kevin Krout
Reporter
Reading the novel, “Hearts
in Atlantis,” beforehand can
sure skew the reaction to the
screen version upon release.
Many screen adaptations have
been able to capture the spirit
and even, but not always,
heighten the experience of its
source material. It may discard
the fatty portions, but cutting
too much meat from the plot
can result in the short box of
fice run of an otherwise bril
liant premise for a film. Sadly,
screenwriter Williain Goldman
and director Scott Hicks cut a
hearty chunk out of “Hearts In
Atlantis,” Stephen King’s ode
to growing up in the sixties.
The film opens with aging
photographer Bobby Garfield
(David Morse) receiving news
that his boyhood friend, Sully
John, has passed away. Return
ing home for the funeral,
Bobby receives yet another
devastating blow when he
learns of the death of his child
hood sweetheart, Carol.
Standing in the dilapidated
remains of what used to be his
boarding home, Bobby begins
to reflect back on his eleventh
summer in Connecticut when a
mysterious stranger named Ted
Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins)
moves in as the upstairs tenant.
Much to the chagrin of his
vacant yet well-meaning
mother (Hope Davis), the
young Bobby (Anton Yelchin)
and his two buddies, Carol
(Mika Boorem) and Sully John
(Will Rothhaar), befriend
the literate old man. Not
surprisingly for a Kingian
yarn, Ted starts to display
psychic abilities that all
together scare and fasci
nate Bobby. In light of
these abilities, Ted tells
Bobby to keep an “eye out
for signs of low-men,”
those that would take him
away.
Like his last film,
“Snow Falling On Ce
dars,” director Hicks
seems too preoccupied
with recreating the mood
of the novel rather than
providing the audience
with an appropriate back-
story, something he was
able to effectively pull off
with his Academy Award
winning sleeper “Shine.” ■■
Though the chemistry
between Bobby, Carol
and Ted is magical, we
learn mere bits and pieces of
their past. The relationship be
tween Bobby and Sully is cru
cial to the film’s beginning
when adult Bobby hears the
news of his friend’s death. Yet,
instead of providing the audi
ence with a moment that sums
up the emotional bond between
these two, Hicks rushes
through it with scenes of the
kids riding bikes and jumping
in lakes.
Not all is* lost, however.
Hopkins, once again, proves he
can pull off something huge
like Hannibal Lecter and still
be effective in a role as quiet
as Ted Brautigan. His chemis
try with Yelchin’s Bobby is one
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“Don’t Say A Word”
“Hearts in Atlantis”
“Zoolander”
REVIEW
of the film’s high points along
side the late Piotr Sobocinski’s
cinematography. Capturing the
green and gold hues of the
flashbacks, Sobocinski effec
tively blends this with the
moody blacks and blues of the
present day.
Yet despite high marks in
acting and technical aspects,
“Hearts In Atlantis” falls short
of being worth anything more
than a semi-satisfying video
rental. It is a mystery for the
viewer trying to figure out why
such good talent was wasted on
something that could have been
and should have been some
thing more.
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