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THE MICHIGAN DAILY
I
Friday, January 30, 1970
I
cinema
By BRUCE HENSTELL
:a
Th e odds are that you've seen
at least one Fuller film and the
odds are that you don't remem-
ber it. It was the film where
the Commie officer in North
Vietnam is a former school-
teacher who when asked about
his old ideals responds "do you
know how much money I made
teaching?'" Movin' on up. Or it
was the f i 1 m where an Irish
Southerner joins the Sioux. Far
out.
Samuel Fuller directs film and
there are those that feel he does
it well enough to be considered
one of the greats. This direct-
or's fans include Godard, Truf-
faut and m o s t of the other
young French directors. The
English think enough of him
,to have made him tle guest of
honor at the prestigious Edin-
burgh Film Festival. He is well-
known enough to be asked to
play the archetypical Holly-
wood director in the new Peter
Fonda-Dennis Hopper brouha-
haThe Last Film. And Cinema
Guild is bringing him to Ann
Arbor.
The Guild sponsors events
like the Ann Arbor Film Festi-
val and . smaller mini-topical
festivals. This is the first time
in recent memory, perhaps the
first time since the early 1950's,
that Cinema Guild has been in-
volved with bringing a director
and showing an extended dis-
el Fuller:
play of that director's works.
For one week, Feb. 2 through
Feb. 8, the Guild will present
el'even of Fuller's 16 films "us-
ing not only the home base
Architecture Auditorium, b u t
Cinema II's Aud. A as well.
All for Sam Fuller who makes
what another generation used
to call "B" films. You know the
kin d. Action - packed titles
The
B
movie with punch
A
Steel Helmet, Fixed Bayonets,
Hell and High Water, Forty
Guns maybe with a little touch
of the risque. (The Naked Kiss,
House of Bamboo, Crimson Ki-
mono). Actors you might not
see again until you catch re-
turns of "Wagon Train" with
Ward Bond. The kind of film
that wh.en you saw it at the the-
ater you knew it c o s t under
half-a-mill and that included
the butter-corn.
Still and all, that particular
film, any of Fuller's sixteen,
manages to do it in style. The
camera movements are hardly
standard and include 'fantasticf
little "tricks:" like w h e n' the
camera looks down the barrel
of a gun. The stories aren't any-
thing you've seen before either.
When the bad guy takes refuge
behind the good guy's girl, the
good guy promptly guns. them
both down. After all, that's
what you have to do. His stereo-
types could hardly be any more
stereotypical, nor any more
American. Park Row, Fuller's
pagean American Journalism
has a title which reads "THIS
F I'L M IS DEDICATED TO
AMERICAN JOURNALISM."
You mean people still do
that? It's the same, after all,
as the cardboard push-out and
stand-ups that assailed us from
the screen of Easy Rider. Easy
Rider is one of those films
which Wants To Make A Point
but ends up more Kooler than
cool.
Fuller tries so hard and with
such consumate skill that even
{I
Two hundred rush tickets will
be available for tonight's Joan'
Sutherland concert. These tick-
ets, which are $1.00 each, will
go on sale at 4:00 p.m. today at
the Hill A:d. box office.
All seats which have not been
sold as regular tickets will be
sdld as rush seats. Excellent
seats are still available.
his excesses, unavoidable owing
to Fuller's sheer exurberance,
are informative. His films are
hardly "new" or "fresh" 1i k e
public relations is trying to tell
you Good-By Columbus or Ro-
meo and Juliet ar e. It's the
same old stuff now in Fuller
but there's a difference. Part of
it is skill and style: Fuller turns
your head with the way in
which he uses a camera. Part of
it has to do with Fuller's excep-
tional insight into American so-
ciety. Mostly it has to do with
.i'uller being an outstanding ar-
tist with a cold, clear eye.
Fuller is the last American.
Born in New England, he spent
his youth on newspapers (just
like in the movies!). In t h e
thirty's he ended up in Holly-
wood writing what they called
tilkies and then movies. In the
war he served with the Big Red
One, the first infantry. Like any
artist of the first war he man-
ages to bring this all into his
work. His battle films celebrate
war but only because the devil
needs to be recognized to be ex-
orsized. The cops and the FBI
in. Pick Uip on South Street are
at just the same level as t h e
pimps, pushers and pick-pock-
ets. It's the prostitute who's the
hero in Naked Kiss and the re-
spectable father a, creepo. It's
all the American dream.
Why hasn't Fuller received
the note in this country that
he has abroad? Popular culture,
culture that isn't connected
with the elite, has always been
suspect, or suspect until very
recently. Poe, for instance, or
American gangster films both
have far greater audiences in
France than in Washington,
D.C. At one point in time and
through one man - Walt Dis-
ney in the 30's - critics em-
braced the so-called mass cul-
ture only to be profoundly dis-
illusioned in the McCarthy era.
Intellectuals, the men w h o
write film criticism, always
thought the movies were great-
school-houses and never liked
what was being taught. Adult
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
aged by students at the University of
Michigan. News phone: ?64-O 952. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
gan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
day thrcugh Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier, $10 by mail.
Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
tian rates: $3.00 by carrier, $3.00 by
mail,
extension was always the Euro-
pean film. The native American
product was so close-in on the
culture that, these critics" reas-
oned, the kids could only be
reading behind the gym, or roll-
ing and smoking it at the sock-
hop. Fuller was part of the low- .
est common - denominator, a
concept Americans have always
distasted.
Street theater, participatory
democracy, Chicago, t h e con-
spiracy, all of which have now
thoroughly diffused o u t in
American Society have, what-
ever else their effect, m a d e
more people aware of the cul-
tural environment. The increas-
ed notice that Fuller has re-
ceived is in part owing to this
new awareness .If this were all
that was up with Fuller it
might be enough, but there is a I
I , iI
--auy-Jay Cassiay
pleasant surprise. He is an ex-
cellent artist.
The Fuller Retrospective Feb.
2-10 will brizzle with action-
packed excitement. Who knows,
it may even spill out into the
streets.
f
MICHIGAN UNION
Noon to Midnite
Voiriety Show 3:00, 7:00, 9:30 p.m.
Admission $1.00
Variety Show 50c
evE
UNI and
TED
TODAY
and
TOMORROW
-READ AND USE DAILY CLASSIFIEDS- ,
DAlLY OFFICIA L BUL LETIN
The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of the Univer-
sity of Michigan. Notices should be
sent in TYPEWRITTEN f o r m to
Room 3528 L. S. A BI d g ., before
2 p.m., of the day preceding pub-
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Saturday andSurnday. Items ap-
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tion notices a r e not accepted for
p"blication. F o r more informa-
ti 'ii, phone 7 64-9270.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 30
Day Calendar
Wrestling: U-M vs. Illinois: Events
Building, 4:00 p.m.
- Astronomy Colloquium: C. K. Kumar,
"Isotopic Abundance of Magnesium in
the Sun", P&A Colloq. Im. (296), 4:00
p.m.
Geography Seminar: F. E. Ian Hamil-
ton, Northwestern, "Regional Economic
Analysis in Britain", 4050 LSA, 4:10 p.m.
Slavic Department Russian F i I m
Series: Farewell, Doves: Multipurpose
IRoom, Undergraduate Library, 7:00 and
9:00 p.m.
Professional Theatre Program (Phoen-
ix Theatre): The Criminals (U. S. Pro-
fessional Premiere): Lydia Mendels-
sohn Theatre, 8:00 p.m.
University Players (Department of
Speech): Dark of the Moon: Trueblood
Theater, 8:00 p.m.
Choral Union Series: Joan Sutherland,
soprano and Richard Bonynge, pianist:
Limited number of tickets still avail.,
Hill Auditorium, 8:30 p.m.
Placement Service
GENERAL DIVISION
3200 s.A.B.
Current openings are received by gen-
eral division fromemployers through-
out the country, coem in and browse
through these:
Servomation of Ypsilanti seeks Food
Manager, degree not specific require-
meni, but require 1 yearin food mgmt,
preparation, or handling.
SUMMER PiACEMENT SERVICE
ping, dramatics, dance, music; unit
and asst. unit supv caseworker, truck-
bus driver, nurses, couns. with emo-
tionally disturbedand Marionette thea-
tre, kitcher-porter.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Standard Oil Company, Cleveland,
openings for Cleveland area residents
in Travel Bureau Dept.
ORGANIZATION
BECAUSE OF THE OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
TO THIS PROGRAM WE ARE BRINGING BACK
THE BEATLES MOVIES FOR SATURDAY AND
SUNDAY ONLY
BEATLES DOUBLE FEATURE
FAREW ELL,
DOES
SOVIET FILM (1960)
about the conflict
between generations
FRIDAY, JIAN. 3
1 and 9 P.M.
Multipurpose Room, UGLI
75C DONATION
II
Michigan Nationality Clubs Presentation
NOTICES
Department of Aerospace Engineering
-AIAA undergraduate seminar, 4:00
p.m. January 28 1970, room 1042 East
Engineering. "Research on Gaseous
Core Nuclear Rockets", by James W.
Clark and Thomas W. Latham, United
Aircraft Research Labs.
U of M Bahai Club fireside, Jan. 30,
8:00 p.m., 1474 Jewett, topic: "Action for
Humanity".
STOP WORRiYING I
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