Page Two

MICHIGAN

Saturday, Morch 9, 1968

PageT .MIC:GA

Alookat..
n Cold Blood'
by Daniel Okrent
WHEN TRUMAN CAPOTE set out for Holcomb, Kansas, eight
years ago to research his chronicle of a cold-blooded, motiveless

Joni Mitchell Yang, Dylan Yin

Stockholm: Thrill of Dorati

t

mass murder, the automatic challenges were evident. Here was a
man who had earned his reputation primarily for fiction, and he
was attempting a basically journalistic effort. The -book that re-
sulted was clearly the product of a man caught up between these
two basic forms of prose-some said that this was, in fact, the
book's distinction and virtue-and never really managed to recon-
cile them.
Richard Brooks' film is no different. Again,, the maker of
In Cold Blood is an individual versed in non-fiction idiom. His film,
like Capote's book, teeters backs and forth on the rope bridge linking
reality and creation. But the connection is generally quite smooth,
and Brooks has actually accomplished more on celluloid than
Capote did in print. What he has done is take the factual evidence
that Capote so earnestly compiled, and weld it together into a glossy
narrative that very effectively speaks a case for the need for solu-
tions to the damage of social neglect. He builds a two-and-a-half
hour metaphor, and only rarely taints it with maudlin effects or
intrusions.
PERRY SMITH and Dick Hickok kill Herbert Clutter, his wife
and their two teenage children for no reason at all. Dick, lacking in
conscience, but more so in mentality, and Perry, the bruised product
of a broken home and broken life, end up dangling from an im-
personal gallows. On their way there, though, director Brooks
vividly paints two personalities with clear psychological problems,
without the heavy-handed reliance on "Perry felt this way be-
cause ..." that marred Capote's book.
Sure, there are points where Brooks belabors the obvious; his
use of flashbacks to spell out the incidents of life that warped Perry
Smith's mind are totally unnecessary. But when he lets his actors
(two absolute unknowns, Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, whom
Brooks picked because he wanted Perry and Dick to be Perry and
Dick, and not movie-star faces in movie-star roles) play out their
lives in conversation and action there is an unobtrusive brilliance
that shines through.
IN FACT, BROOKS has picked up where Arthur Penn left off.
Indeed, he develops sympathy for Perry, at least, so much so that
the poignant hanging scene is really throat-clutching (bad pun,
good description). Actually, Perry and Dick are crude, harsh killers,
just as much as were Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. But we feel
for the protagonists in both because they aren't really guilty; I
am guilty and you are guilty and we all are very, very guilty. And
so we emphathize with the killers, and bemoan the plight of our
distorted society in pure bleeding-heart liberal fashion.
Not that we shouldn't. An artist like Penn or Brooks (both
nominated-and both deserving-for the Best Director Oscar), who
can produce a film that evokes gut reaction to a meaningful prob-
lem, should be lauded. The need for expressive art that transcends
pure aesthetics and approaches editorial commentary is really
clear, especially when this art does not speak to a selective audienec.
This was the ill taint of How I Won the War, that is happily ab-
sent from both In Cold Blood and Bonnie and Clyde. They speak in
pure vernacular, and not just to those tuned in on a specific wave-
length.
Brooks' artistic and commentative talents combine beautifully
just a few minutes before the final'scene, when the doomed Perry
Smith leans against the window of his dingy death row cell, and the
rain that batters the window outside is projected onto his face in
trickles of lighted tears. It tells the whole story that Capote worked
on for six full years.
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See Feature at # 1:00-3:00-5:00-7:05-9:10
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NEXT- "THE WICKED DREAMS
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Feature at 1:15 - 3:50 - 6:30 - 915
4. "
Truman Capote's
IN COLD BLOOD
is "EXCELLENT! SENDS
SHIVERS DOWN THE SPINE!
THE FILM IS ELECTRIFYING!
IT LEAVES ONE CHILLED!"
-Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Written for the screen and directed by Richard Brooks
Positively no one under 16 admitted unless accompanied by a parent or guardian SM A41

By ROBERT FRANKE
Let's get the perhaps obvious
but certainly important state-
ments out of the way first.
Joni Mitchell is playing at the
Canterbury House this weekend.
See her.
Seriously. There is so much
there. She is a beautiful woman
standing alone on stage. Her voice
and heracoustic guitar are free,
pure instruments in themselves:
there is an additional beauty in
the way she uses them to convey
such a full range of idea-emot-
ions. But if she looked like your
grandmother and h e r voice
cracked and she only knew three
chords, her performance would be
justified by her songs alone.
As a songwriter she plays Yang
to Bob Dylan's Yin, equalling him
in richness and profusion of im-
agery and surpassing him (until
"John Wesley Harding," perhaps)
in conciseness and direction. But
the; sterility of analysis into cat-
egories like these (what is "rich-
ness of imagery," anyway?) mis-
ses the prevading undercurrent of
the songs of either Joni or Dylan,
and in Joni's case that undercur-
rent is very immediate.
Perhaps one of the best words
to describe it is joy. Not happi-
ness as such, but the positive
unity of human experience. "He

Joni Mitchell

Daily Classifieds Get Results
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Comes for Conversation" is as By H. F. KEUPER
good an example as any. It com- It had been eleven years since
ae chee rings, and I had last watched and listened
a first-person feminine viewpoint to the work of Antal Dorati con-
with an irony that is delicate, yetducting a major concert perfor-
near-sociological in its exactness, mance. I anticipated the coming
to describe a frustrating drawn- of Friday evening with no small
out relationship. But all through measure of excitement - and
the song the listener is thinking just a little fear. After all, the
things like "my God, that's the current vogue is toward the
way it is, but why didn't I realize younger generation of conductors,
before that it was beautiful?" Her and Mr. Dorati is by no means as
songs are the best of strange youthful as he once was.
Zexperiences because they make
you realize that human reality is My fears, I am happy to re-
the best of strange experiences port, have proved groundless, for
S o a e Capern l in the past decade Mr. Dorati
Someone at the Canterbury appears to have lost none of the
House wrote upon an advertising vigor, the bounce, and the drive
sign for a radio show, "God is which has characterized his tech-
alive in Joni Mitchell." I wouldn't nique on the podium.
know, myself; I don't know the Before him lay the extremely
woman. I suspect very strongly well-drilled and uncommonly pre-
that God likes her for what she cise Stockholm Philharn-
does in taking aspects of her own ic Orchestra; behind him a
person-her voice, musical abil- onz
ity, charm (a word from the ear- fairly respectful, albeit scanty,
ly fifties, but it fits) and aes- Ann Arbor concert audience. The
thetic sense, and using them to evening's work, as it turned out,
formalize a tremendously insight- was pleasure for most present.
ful vision of how it is to expe- Following the playing of. the
rience this human time and place, American and Swedish national
to formalize it into an immediate anthems, Mr. Dorati led his band
and affecting popular medium. of visitors in Hector Berlioz'
The vision comes from Joni overture to "Benvenuto Cellini."
Mitchell, it is readily accessible, to No great concert fare this par-
you this weekend, and in terms of ticular work, but the thrill lay
human experience, at least, it is in the delivery by the orchestra.
a free gift. I for one accept with From the opening strains, it was
thanks. apparent that here was a group
CINEMVA I
SEAN CONN ERY
MICHAEL REDGRAVE
in
THE I,
"Stark realism portrayed against a back-
ground of naked reality-a classic" ..
S.P.B.Q.S.A.
Also: Chapter Nine "FLASH GORDON"
Aud. A.-Angell Hall
7:00 and 9:15 P.M. Friday, March 9
Seventy-Five CentsS

pompous, temperament so com-
mon among several of our con-
temporary American orcnestras
~- the New York Philharmonic
and the Philadelphia Symphony
to mention but two.
Bela Bartok's "Two Images"
("In Blossom" and "Village
Dance") led us down yet another
musical road. The first of the
two almost unrelated pieces is
sweetness and tranquility person-
ified, particularly as Bartok per-
sonified. The dance piece is really:
a set of developed variations on'
a single theme. Invigorating in its
style, it bears resemblance to the,
former image only in that the
dance ceases momentarily to re-
turn to the tranquility of "In
\Blossom" before reaching its ra-
ther folksy finale.
The highlight of the perfor-
mance for me was the choreo-
graphic suite "Sisyphus" by the
contemporary Swedish composer,
Karl-Birger Blomdahl. This work:
is chiefly an exploration in sound
and rhythm and, in addition to
the breathless quality already at-
tributed to the Berlioz work, lift
me at times almost sighless as
well.
From an essentially calm in-
troductory passage, the compo-

plexity. Punctuated as it is by
the efforts of what appeared to
be full platoon of percussionists,
there is almost as much to watch
as to listen to.
The finalDance of Life tcnp
tains so many fascinating com-
binations of rhythm and tone
that I almost began . to fear
whether or not Mr. Dorati could
actually hold his charges back as
they approached the smashing
climax. This was as close to what
I might refer to as incite-to-rio
music as I have ever heard
The work is along a different
path of contemporary develop-
ment of sonic experimentation
than the one begun by Bartok.
CIVIL

ENGINEERING
Opportunities
Dept. of Transportation
Bureau of Public Roads

6

ON CAMPUS

MARCH 12

of musicians who possessed none sition gradually, gathers mornen*
of the heavy-handed, almost turm, intensity. and musical com-


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