Page 2
Thursday, July 11, 1968
Harvey Elliott
Newer Radical Perspective:
International Student Revolt
Film Fare
uJrj? &ar fjerl
WILD IN THE STREETS. Now playing at the Varsity.
Have you ever dreamed of being in an empty room where all four
walls seemed to be closing-in on you?
Have you ever felt as if you were behind a glass screen a witness
to some danger, but unable to make a move to prevent it?
This same frozen helplessness and harrowing suffocation is in
store for those who go to see a seemingly-harmless little film called
Wild in the Streets.
And you may accept the fact that a 24-year-old President of the
United States with a cabinet of LSD-babies is sheer fantasy. But, like
Planet of the Apes, the more astute viewer will realize the dead
seriousness behind an obviously ridiculous facade.
Characterized by more originality in technique and style than
American-International Pictures have shown in the last Vincent
Price-Annette Funicello-Gorj Stompers decade, Wild in the Streets
in an exciting and sophisticated film.
Max Frost played by Christopher Jones, a Chapel Hill resident
from Three in the Attic proclaims that over 50 per cent of the
nation is under 25 years of age. The government should be
transferred, therefore, to the hands of this rightful majority.
Backed by tens of thousands of newly-enfranchised
teenagers voting age has been lowered to 15, with the help of a
youthful senator Frost is elected President and proceeds to place all
those over-30 in retirement camps and psych them out on LSD.
The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy. Everyone knows what the
outcome will be. A fear-of waiting, and knowing extends past the
celluloid reels to the trembling audience. Hence, the claustrophobic
response.
The action is supplemented by an appropriately brash musical
score, highlighted by the portentous "Nother Can Stop The Shape of
Things To Come." And it seems, at the end, that even the rulers,
even the kings, are unsafe, as two mini-troublemakers tell President
Frost that "anybody over 10 is dead."
Images are projected in split-screen fashion, a la Expo 67. A
world of hallucinatory drugs and the New Morality is explored
without the traditional purple-and-green swirling lights, so often
overused to represent LSD.
It's a surprisingly good film-one which deserves a better name
that Wild in the Streets and a better audience than that title will
subsequently draw.
THE ODD COUPLE. At the Carolina Theatre.
Barefoot in the Park was a bonanza of guffaws about newlyweds
and lovers' quarrels. The movie version, also scripted by Simon, is
one of the funniest comedies ever on screen.
Consequently, Paramount Pictures bought The Odd Couple from
a one-page outline before Simon even wrote the Broadway play.
The studio hired Barefoot's director and producer, and let Simon
repeat his screenwriting duties.
The situation is a humorous one that of two divorced men (Jack
Lemmon and Walter Matthau) living together in a bachelors' pad.
One of the odd couple is an obsessive neatnik. The other is a slob.
With perfect casting-and the usual inspired performance by
Matthauthe film skips along nicely, but too often on a thin thread
of repetitious jokes.
What looks good on a one-page outline will often cause trouble
when two hours of laughs are squeezed out. That Matthau and
Lemmon can overcome this one-joke situation is a tribute to their
broadly-comic flair.
An example: one of the film's funniest moments comes whn
Lemmon without benefit of script attempts to clear his sinuses
through a self-invented exercise. He makes the most of this moment,
as both actors know the limits to which a joke, or situation, may be
pushed.
It's an entertaining affair, but don't go expecting another
Barefoot. The plotline is too confining and the jokes just too
predictable.
GM Series Features
Campy 'Gold Diggers'
Camp comes to Graham
Memorial next Wednesday night
when Gold Diggers of 1933 is
shown in the air-conditioned
Rendezvous Room.
The second session of G.M.'s
Flicker Classics series (each
Wednesday at 9 p.m.) will open
with the classic Busby Berkeley
musical.
Known for their miles and
miles of chorus cuties, the
Berkeley musicals have been
satirized for their corny
extravagance. For these were the
days before Hollywood forgot
how to make fun of itself.
The 100 girls, sitting on an
airplane wing, kicking in
unison the dancing girls
parading around giant coins
while singing "We're In The
Money" (remember that
sequence from Bonnie and
Clyde?)-ibs is Busby Berkeley.
Gold Diggers of 1933 stars
Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan
Blondell, Ginger Rogers, plus
many more musical names that
have since been forgotten.
Critic Pauline Kael has said:
"It is the archetype of the
musical of the '30's-fast and
funny and good-natured, the
initiator of all that mad
geometry of patterned chorines,
and a Depression periodpiece as
well ... We expect you to find
the whole affair both charming
and uproarious."
Be a part of Camp.
Wednesday, 9 p.m., in G.M.
By WILSON CLARK JR.
Tar Heel Staff Writer
The New Left, as a significant
social force in America, has
come into its own. However,
there is considerable dispute
within its ranks as to where, if
anywhere, it is going.
The Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS) is
undoubtedly the single most
important group on the New
Left; this organization recently
held the largest convention in its
eight-year history, in East
Lansing, Michigan.
It was attended by over 600
people, ranging in persuasion
from McCarthy liberals to
hard-core members of the
Progressive Labor Party (PLP),
an ultra-radical group
characterized by its affinity for
the precepts of Chairman Mao.
The Michigan SDS
convention gives some clues to
the future development of the
New Left, but it is by no means
the sole barometer of "The
Movement's" growth.
This is due to the essential
disorganization characteristic of
young left-oriented radicals in
America: There are numerous
other groups that represent
factions of the New Left, such as
the newly organized Peace and
Freedom Party ' (PFP) active
both in New York City and
California.
The Peace and Freedom Party
is a recognized political party in
the state of California; radicals,
primarily concentrated in the
San Francisco and Los Angeles
metropolitan areas, worked hard
this spring, and collected enough
petition signatures to place their
party on the California ballot:
both in the primary and the
general election in November.
Peace and Freedom
candidates in California include
both members of the Black
Panther Party of Oakland,
represented by their charismatic
leader, Eldridge Cleaver, and
Paul Jacobs, a respected New
Left intellectual.
The ideological discussions of
previous SDS conventions,
dealing with the problems of
poverty, isolated anti-war
demonstrations, and community
activity, have been replaced, if
not overwhelmed, by demands
for revolutionary planning. SDS
is not only interested in
revolution in the United States,
but is planning for it.
Resurrection City also is
indicative of the new trends of
American radicalism: gone from
the Washington encampment
were the thousands of students
that followed Martin Luther
King to Washington in 1963.
They were not involved to'
such an extent this year for a
number of reasons: The"
foremost being that
Resurrection City was simply
not their fight.
The issues were nebulous and
vague, not clear-cut and vital
such as the dual enemies of
Columbia SDS: the Columbia
University ties with military
research and the University's
construction of the infamous
gym in Mornignside Park (on the
edge of Harlem).
Returning to the Michigan
convention of SDS, the spirit of
rebellion and revolution was
even more obvious.
In California this April,
Bobby Hutton, a teen-aged
leader of the Black Panthers, was
killed by police outside a ghetto
home... he was shot while
leaving a Panther meeting with
hands in the air.
At the same time, Eldridge
Cleaver was areested on a
trumped-up charge of parole
violation.
Even this charge could not be
stomached by the establishment,
for Cleaver was released on
orders of a federal judge two
weeks ago.
Issues- such as this -mobilize
the New Left much more easily
than the vague omnipresence of
widespread national poverty.
The Peace and Freedom Party
makes good use of such
examples of government
violence: They now have over
70,000 active members in the
western state. Not a bad record
for a "way-out" radical
movement!
The international student
demonstrations have had a
profound influence on the
young American radicals: Paris
was where it was at.
The French, German, Belgian
(and other) revolts established
the internationalism of the new
radicals; they also served to
reinforce cross-cultural morale
building.
Perhaps these international
incidents are indicative of the
future of the New Left: At
many European universities this
Spring were seen the flags of
anarchism and communism, the
Red and the Black, flying
hand-in-hand.
These two revolutionary
banners also flew in East
Lansing, Michigan, a few weeks
ago.
JOIN THE
INN
CROWD
ACROSS FROM
UNIVERSITY SQUARE
208 W. FRANKLIN
Visit Chapel Hill's Finest Night Spot
THE RED CARPET
Carpet Time Daily 3-5
Specials
on All Beer, plus EXTRAS
Dancing Cold Beer Wine
Cards Pjzza
Great Food Rocks
LIVE MUSIC THIS WEEKEND!
Friday "Soul Sept"
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OPEN 12-12
Take Outs Too
929-3768