THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, February 24, 1970
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, February 24, 1970
arts fe
Joseph Strick and
estival
dam
the
lusty
Tropic
HELD OVER
2nd WEEK!
SHOWS AT:
1 :00-300-5:00-7:00-9:0
03
By NEAL GABLER
had my first exposure to
ry Miller's Tropic of Cancer,
'opriately enough, in a high
ol freshman biology class.
n the teacher would leave
room, out would come the
:rback, and the sniggers
.d begin. Luckily, it was one
hose books you didn't have
earch through to find the
sure; so we could snap it
i and indulge our wicked
minds whenever the op-
unity was afforded us.
therefore, have some fond-
ness for the book. It introduced
me to a world of debauchery I
hadn't known existed and to
four letter words even the guys
in the alley didn't use. And al-
though I didn't realize it at the
time, it also revealed to me a
strange value system which has
since come to be known as the
Playboy Philosophy. In this
'value system, women are living
pleasure machines, devoid of
emotion, driven by sex. Pretty
passionate stuff for a thirteen
year old!
Subtly, this notion has infect-
ed all our lives. Its perpetration,
however, is not the result of a
conspiracy. Men are only follow-
ing tradition, and, looking at
cosmetic sales, it is one the girls
accept as well. If it is crue, as
the sociologists claim, that one's
self-image is in large part mold-
ed by how other people treat
you, it is no wonder that
womankind is divided between
the neurotic and the simple.
Anyone who has searched for a
girl of the golden mean knows
how rare such persons are.
Joseph Strick's film Tropic of
cinema;
ube'
lacks grooviness
- By DREW BOGEMA
There are bright and exciting
oments in Groove Tube, the.
if-Broadway television satire
rported to the Hillel "Video"
oom" and other hip college
61,unties across t h e land.
here.= are also, one is t o I d,
rght and exciting moment on
levison itself. What it ulti-
iately comes down to, then, is
hether. one is willing to endure
le waste with the wealth.
You k n o w about television.
tst of us donated incredible
pounts .,of childhood energy
rid interest to its operation,
n that time when it was
Ph
The Price'
r!ve Pay er,
toplay
By ROBERT A. MARTIN
Daily Guest Writer
Anyone familiar with p 1 a y-
ight Arthur Miller's contin-
Ing exploration of the Ameri-
an social and moral environ-
ient should feel perfectly com-
ortable in the atmosphere of
is most recent play, The Price.
Although Miller has frequent-
i ventured into dramatic terri-
rties as diverse as those found
a A View from the Bridge and
'he Crucible, his stature in the
#erican theatre derives large-
r from All My Sons, Death of
Salesman and After the Fall.
'With the appearance of The
rice, Miller hasadded a fourth
jihis distinguished trio of fam-
y plays, which have as their
iterrelated themes contempor-
ry social values and the con-
Liets that exist between fath-
rs sons and brothers.
Miller tells his tale simply
nd .well. Two brothers, meet
ter a sixteen year separation
n the cluttered attic of their
lildhood home. The long-buried
,elings . of resentment, misun-
erstandings, and implied be-
rayai come to the surface as
be play's focus shifts.
in: The Price, Miller probes
eeply into the emotional and
iychologcal motivations of in-
Ividual man and his reactions
t the demands society places
pon him. As a balance, Miller
nploys the humor, wisdom and
pmpassion of the old junk
ealer, Gregory Solomon, as
iediator and one-man chorus.
or it is Solomon, finally, w h o
Lye: meaning and direction to
11e .play -when he says: "The
ice of used furniture is noth-
g:btt a viewpoint, and if you
'ould't understand the v i e w-
pint, it's impossible to under-
tand the price."
The. Price will play tonight
n d tomnorrow evening at Hill
ud" under the auspices of the
Editor's note: The author is
t, Associate Professor of Eng-
sh in the University's Depart-
ient of Humanities.
given the giant shuck, dusted
off and occasionally brought
back to life only for the late-
movie or latest civil disorder.
At the time, it seemed a won-
derful escape from the horrors
and blight of coercive educa-
tion, but, in the end, one found
that school and TV were one
and the same; that the revenge
it exacted gave you a conscious-
ness which had to be partially
and painfully purged if lives
were to be built and happiness
be more than a Bonanza melo-
drama.
It's power frightens, it's sen-
sitivity frustrates, it's inten-
tions conspire toward plasticity.
Hopefully, one is far past the
point where the device plays
any part in one's life. It's sim-
ply so exhilarating to be bored
and to smash the lethargic state
of mind without relying on the
nefarious, insidious, inhumane
conspiracy that wreaks devas-
tation and despair upon t h e
minds of its addicts.
As to Groove Tube, the pro-
gram consists of a number of
ingeniously desiged s k i ts,
shaped from a variety of per-
spectives, attacking virtually ev-
ery "genre" program that ap-
pears on the tube. Some place
the observer deep inside those
all-too-familiar bourgeois tele-
shit settings, then work out the
unquestioned absurdity of it all
by interjecting that turbulent
and frightening world of s e x
and sin into the logic of the
ending. Others present the sa-
tire through such a distorted
and grotesque lens in order to
re-reveal the terrifying, vapid,
pacifying effect the media cap-
italists impose.
Ko-Ko the Clown does t h e
Bozo bag of giggles and silly an-
tics until it's "Make Believe
Time" and only kids under ten
can stay to watch. Whereupon
he removes his false nose,
speaks in everyday masculine
fashion, and begins to read se-
lected requests from the likes
of Fanny Hill and Lady Chat-
terly's Lover. It's all a front, the
satire subtly tells us, a child-
ren's conspiracy to extend the
generation gap and force the
elders to treat them like indi-
viduals.
BACH CLUB
presents
PETER GRIFFITH
playing works of
Bach and other composers
on guitar
Refreshments and FUN
afterwards
WED., FEB. 25-8 P.M.
1236 Washtenaw
(at S. Forest near S. University)
EVERYONE WELCOME!
(no musical knowledge necessary)
Last meeting's attendance was 50
(we haven't degenerated into
nothing yet)
663-2827 663-3819
764-9887 (Jenny)
There is a delightful n e w s
show, in which the commentator
after delivering a trite human-
interest anecdote and wishes his
audience well, finds that t h e
camera continues to focus upon
him while he has nothing ?to do
and nothing to say. There is
Kramp TV' Kitchen in which
the home-maker's dream food is
transformed into a quaddie's
nightmare. There is the deter-
gent commercial for 'Black
Power,' which promises to wipe
out white. As a capper, there is
the Olympic Sex Games, a stag
movie with dubbed in pseudo-
sports commentary.
Unfortunately for G r o o v e
Tube, satire and black humor
a r e extraordinarily delichte
realms of direction and plan-
ning, especially in such a wide-
open medium of television. We
are told that Kenneth Schapiro
and cohorts spent three years
revising and tinkering with
video satire. A lot happens dur-
ing three years. And to be suc-
cessful, as it seems the produc-
ers and distributors urgently
crave, one has to keep up with
the times. Does anybody really
care whether television can be
liberated?
Now, it might be fine for the
younger set who may or may
not have gone through all this
yet. But don't be awed by it's
pretentions as avant-garde art.
It's all quite stale, but t h e n'
again, I'm an out-and-out pur-
ist.
SUPPORT
UNCENSORED TV
Cancer, which he accompanied
to Auditorium A last Sunday,
attempts to picture "the distor-
tion of the male-female rela-
tionship and its destruction by
false values." On the surface,
this is a clever, often hilarious,
monologue liberally sprinkled
with those same four letter
words even the kids in the alley
didn't use. For those of you who
are bored by Playboy, but not
by its philosophy, there is a good
deal of very explicit frontal
nudity along with the humor.
That, however, is only the tip of
the iceburg.
The comic energy of the film's
early parts is indeed exhilerat-
ing. But somewhere toward the
middle, my light-hearted mood
changed. The jokes were still
coming fast and furious, but I
wasn't laughing anymore. The
pubic hair was still prominent-
ly displayed, but I wasn't titil-
lated. It had suffused into my
brain that I was laughing at
the tragic consequences of fol-
lowing a meaningless value sys-
tem; their games of easy sex
were really sick and pitiful, not
funny or exciting. To show how
effective the film is, it had me
wishing that the partners would
leave their boudoir, sit down in
chairs and relate to each other
as human beings instead of ob-
jects.
Henry, played with great wit"
by Rip Torn, goes through the
same process. His recognition of
the sad state of mind is loosely
set within a framework of gain-
ing - losing - mourning - loving -
deciding. He meets his wife after
separation. She forces him to
choose between his writing,
without her, and a higher pay-
ing, less creative job, with her.
He chooses writing, and she
chooses to leave. Dejected, he
seeks through love-making to
regain the love he has lost. The
futility of the task becomes evi-
dent; but instead of seeking re-
demption from his awful life,
he admits that he is just as
much a bastard stud as anyone
else. The carousel keeps going
round, and Henry stafs for the
ride.
I have a fear that Tropic of
Cancer will be thought of as a
daring skin-flick rather than as
an intelligent ,diatribe against
love without beauty. There were
shades of that attitude on Sun-
day. One fellow asked Strick
why he didn't cast Dustin, Hoff-
man or someone similarly
pathetic, if the film's goal was
pathos. What this poor. mis-
guided soul didn't understand
was that a pathetic character,
doesn't make pathos any more
than nudity makes a .nudie
movie.
I don't think that a film like
this can get its proper recog-
nition until the signal system-
happy character signals happy
movie-is destroyed. and feeling
is seen as a chemistry between
film and audience. The good
director can make the viewers'
experience parallel that of the
main character. I was sated by
the endless assault of breast and
vaginas; so was Henry even
though, in the end, he decides
to go back for more. We shared
a common reaction, and his job
as protagonist was to define
what occurred. That's what the
4>
new cinema is all about; films
are relating to our reality, not
keeping within their own tinsel
world.
The reality of Tropic of Can-
cer is the failure of lives. The
Parisian expatriots are sad, im-
potent people. Some, like Henry,
see through the brash boasting.
Others push on in ignorance.
They are the kind of people who
would go to see Tropic of Cancer
and laugh. But in the end, it is
themselves, ourselves, who are
being laughed at.
ENACT
TRANSPORTATI ON
SEM INAR
MR. ROBERT STEVENS
"Transportation and
Land Use"
Ip
GUHILD
FEBRUARY 24-TUESDAY
American Film Studies
GRAND HOTEL
dir. Edmund Goulding
(1952)
A film classic starring
Greta Garbo, John and
Lionel Barrymore, Lewis
Stone, J o a n Crawford,
Wallace Berry.
MR. JOHN ROBBINS
"Transportation Operations
of Ann Arbor"
"
DR. DONALD CLEVELAND
"What's in Store for
Tomorrow"
"
MR. QUY LARCOM, JR.
MR. GEORGE BACALIS
TODAY
7:30 P.M.-10:00 P.M.
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ENDS WEDNESDAY
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MUSKET
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ANlwlqpmpplk
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TODAY AT
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WILL CAPTUREYOUR HEART!
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"BEST ACTRESS" VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
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Having forced him to reveal his interior hate, she stabs and kills him. So the white race,
forever fascinated (sexually) by the Negro, forever forces him to affirm his Negritude
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