sposfore

Italian
Dining
Casual
Atmosphere
Now

With "Reindeer Games,"
director John Frankenheimer
brings another plot-twisting
thriller to the big screen.

JN: The Manchurian Candidate has
become such a cult film that even
Republican presidential candidate John
McCain has been using it as a refer-
ence in his campaign. He has repeated-
ly used the phrase, 'Angela Lansbury
turned over the Queen of Hearts," to
explain his unusual voting record. Now
some of his opponents are even accus-
ing McCain of having been brain-
washed. Is life imitating art?
JF: If I had to vote tomorrow, I would
vote for the guy.

JN: Would you?
JF: What I mean is ... his candor and his
honesty in this age of spin doctors and
image is everything. I think he's very,
very refreshing. I'm not for everything
he says, but he's got my vote right now
At least, I think he's a real human being
and believable. I mean, I don't know
about you, but do you know anybody
who really wants to vote for Al Gore?

JN: Like many of your films, Reindeer
Games is heavily laced with violence.
Do you think that Jewish directors —
particularly those of German heritage
— are more inclined.to use violence
as a motif in film?
JF: I'm half-German-Jewish, but my
father was fifth-generation American.
And I'm half-Irish. My mother was
first-generation American. I was
brought up Catholic. I went to Catholic
school. I'm very proud of the fact that
I'm half-Jewish. But I don't think it
really influenced my upbringing.
I am well aware that my father's
family that was left in Germany was
wiped out. I have visited Dachau. I.
have studied the Holocaust. I would
have been gassed if I had lived in
Germany, not only because I was half-
Jewish but because I would have been
a member of the intellectual elite.
I don't know if I would have had the
sense to get out of there. I can't go to
Germany without thinking about it, and
yet I love Germany. It's a great country,

Alan Abrams is a Toledo-based

freelance writer.

[yet] I have mixed feelings about it.
JN: For better or worse, The
Manchurian Candidate is one of the
first major mainstream films to
graphically depict violence. Your last
film, Ronin, like Reindeer Games, had
violent elements. Does film violence
affect societal violence?
JF: You've got to face the fact that vio-
lence is part of our lives. And it always
has been. You [journalists] should stop
blaming us for all this [violence in
America].
How many violent films did the
Germans see under Hider? Not very
many, and yet it was probably one of
the most violent countries in the his-
tory of mankind. And how many vio-
lent films did the Russians see under
Stalin? Or the Chinese under Mao —
who murdered 40 million people.
I don't think that film is responsible
for the violence in this country. These
films [under attack] are seen in
Germany, they're seen in France,
they're seen in Italy, they're seen in
Canada, they're seen all over the
world, sometimes in more violent ver-
sions than you see them here.
And yet, there's very little violence in
those countries. Why? Because [these
countries have] gun-control laws. And
you have all these opportunistic, hypo-
critical politicians [in America] who
can't pass a damn gun-control law that
stops people from buying Uzis at the
local gun store two blocks away hypo-
critically trying to blame movies. I
won't have it; I won't have it.
And having said that, I think that
we, the film directors, do have a
responsibility for what we do. And I
feel very responsible about that. I
don't think that I have ever used exces-
sive violence in movies.

JN: You were one of the major contrib-
utors to the Golden Age of television
and have had a lot of success recently
with Emmy Award-winning films for
cable television, including The Burning
Season, Andersonville and George
Wallace. Do you have any plans to
GAME on page 88

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