Page Two, THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, March 4, 1969 PaeTw HEMCHGN;AL cinema DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN ---- ":'ii;:;;i:L{:}j^"{,4':r+:i.},:r;..a ( Ben Hur: By DANIEL OKRENT to judge There seems to be no propriety critically whatever in the American film I m e, . industry. It is bad enough that about re Hollywood spends so much of them t its energy on the production of may re thoroughly lousy films; it is which H worse when they realize it, and hero, i have to dip into the film vaults the sea to keep themselves solvent, or's galb - And so, fresh behind the sixth- perhaps time-around for Gone With the Judah B Wind, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer is its num re-releasing Ben-Hur. I saw die of th Charlton Heston paint the ceil- there is ing of t h e Sistine Chapel on of a sr Channel 4 Sunday night; earlier guy wit in the week, I was privileged to wood. N see him beat the hell o u t of shoulder Stephen Boyd as they raced into the around a Cinecitta chariot track gang sw at MGM's big Miami Beach re- Sudde premiere.. side, an There-is no question that Ben- lapsing Iur is the product of an earlier their fa age - not the age of Christ and the Ron chariot races, but the a g e of long dri Eisenhower and the 1950's. Finally, First released in 1959, it closed have ga off a decade which had seen Ce- mission ciJ ,B. DeMille spectacularize prisoner with The Buccaneer and T h e Whereu Ten Comrmandments, and mark- to the d ed William Wyler's attempt to of his sp produce the supreme Epic. Cast "God he of thousands, millions in ex- Belies pense, y e a r s in production, a over an theme and story line exploded that. T to universals and miniaturized from th to The Saga of a Good Family up to H in Hard Times - the compon- him wat ent parts are really no longer in Someth vogue. But just as Gone With happen the Wind. has always appeared There at road show prices and made of this tremendous amounts of money, Hur, a Ben-Hur will more than likely work gr do the same. won't co It is amazing what the pas- ing it sage of -ten y e a r s can do to enough sorneone's conceptions of a film (for son like this. To an eleven-year-old time in junior high school student, Ben- half ho Hur was" eminently more plaus- corn in ible, infinitely more acceptable. have -s _Today, one needn't be too jaded race is Miracle of the Ages returns General Notices Scabbard & Blade Society - Military social area. Labor safety technician, BA Ball - March 15 - 9:00 - 12:00 p.m. in engineering and 2-5 years exper in League. this area. Taylor House, South Quad - A 11 San Diego County, Calif. - Assistant Campus Mixer - February 28 - 9:00 Parks and Beaches Superintendent, de- - 12:00 p.m. gree in park mgmt.. landscape arch., horticulture or related area, and min. Graduate Record Examination: Ap- 1 year admin. exper in similar organ- lication blanks are available in Room ization. American Library Association, Chi- 3014, Rackham Building for the Grad-caoIl~NnrtMteilRvwr e Eamn a for the Booklist and Subscription Books ministration of the test will be on Bulletin. Evaluate 8mm loops, film- Saturday, April 26, andeapplications strips, and other nonprint materials. are due in Princeton, New Jersey be- Degree in Libr. Sci. at MA level or fore April 1.' Masters in audiovisual work. Pennsylvania Department of Public Placem en(Continued on Page 8) GENERL-DIISIO e the film a b it more y. a n, there is something eligious epics that makes ough to reconcile. You- emember the scene in Heston, as the oppressed s bein dragged across to serve in the emper- eys. The chain gang of 15 other infidels plus Ben-Hur is shrinking in bers as various members hirst along the way. Then a soft cut to the inside mall room, where some th long hair is sawing We are looking over his r, and see him gaze out desert, when the chain mings in to view. enly, the camera is out- .d the prisoners are col- and gasping, agonizing tigue and their thirst as man captors indulge in inks from the town well. the townspeople w h o thered are given the per- to give water to t h e rs - all except Ben-Hur. pon Heston collapses in- dust, grimaces with all 64 lendid teeth, and groans, 81lp me!" ve it or not, God comes nd helps him. Just like The long-haired fellow he carpenter shop walks Heston, kneels, and gives ter. Its marvelous, really. ling like this can o n ly in a good of Moovie. e is somewhat too much type of thing in Ben- rnd the religious frame- rates terribly. But I still ondemn MGM for releas- again. The film has to make it worthwhile rfething with a running excess of three and a urs -excluding the pop- termission - it ought to omething). T h e chariot everything it w as ten Free German Measles Vaccine: Tues- day, March 4, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Health Service. Information at SAB, Health Service or call 764-5483. Sports Building Hours - Spring Re- cess: Wed., Mar. 5, open, 8 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.; Thurs., Mar. 6, open, 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.; Fri., Mar. 7, open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sat., Mar. 8 - closed; Sun., Mar. 9, closed; Mon., Mar. 10 - open, regu- lar hours, 8:00 a.m. - 10 p.m.. Yost Field House Hours - Spring Re- cess: Wed., Mar. 5, open, 8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.; Thurs., Mar. 6, open, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Fri., Mar. 7, open, 10 a.m. - 4 pm.; Sat., Mar. 8, closed; Sun., Mar. 9, closed; Mon., Mar. 10, open, regular hours, 8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., 7 p.m. - 10 P.m. Student Relations Comminttee: Open meeting, Tuesday, March 4, Council Room, SAB' Bldg., 7:30 p.m. Agenda: 1. Consideration of the minutes of Feb- ruary 4 and 18; 2. Announcements; 3. University's relationship to fraternity system (use of land on North Campus). STUDENT GOVERNMENT COUNCIL The approval of the following stu- dent sponsored events becomes effective after the publication of this notice. All publicity for these events must be withheld until the approval has become effective. Approval request rorms for student sponsored events are available in rooms 1001 and 1546 of the Student Activities Building. *f GENFRALS A.ISION 3200 S.A.B. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Vista Week is March 17-21, further details to be announced later. The next FSEE Test should be ap- plied for by March 12, to be given on April 19. Applic. at Career Planning Division, Placement Services. Career planning division has now re- ceived a new supply of applications for the U.S.I.A. examination, applic. due, March 14 for test May 3. Current Position openings received by General Division by mail and phone, not interivews on campus, please call 764-7460 for complete information and application procedures. State of Michigan: Public Welfare Administrator, Bach. or masters in "I ENJOYED'GREETINGS' and good-natured. A whole gallery of new, young talented performers." Pauline Kael. The New Yorker Greetings A ma OA mu RZLIASE ".!N COtOI rfn . STARTS THURSDAY, Vth FORUM PETITION FOR CINEMA II BOARD SGC first bulletin floor board SAB POOR RICHARD'S 331 THOMPSON NEWMAN BASEMENT REOPENING OF BEST FOOD, BEST PRICES IN ANN ARBOR I DIDN'T have the nerve to mention the above in the accompanying story. This was premiere night in Miami Beach, outside the Lincoln Theatre. Besides the locals hired to stand around out- side dressed as ancient Jews and Roman gladiators, who you can see, there also was an immense mob of Miamians behind police lines, all of them craning for a look at the arriving stars. When the buses with the press people arrived, the crowd went frantic with screaming and waving, and when we waved back-jokingly--they started howling for autographs.-D. 0. 7 lb. Chuckburger....... Homemade Chili... . Charcoal Grilled Hot Dog ... Roast Beef Sandwich...... Ham Sandwich . .......... . Tuna Sandwich ... . ........ Egg Salad Sandwich .,.. Potato Salad, Cole Slaw ... Desserts 25c, Drinke 1Oc Daily specials featuring Chinese food 80c-$1.00 45c 30c 30c 45c 40c 35c 25c 20c years ago, and its surprising how much the sea battle has been overlooked since. And even if you're not inter- ested in entertainment, Ben-Hur is commendable as an histori- cal relic. They just don't make movies like this anymore. Charlton Heston fits Ben-Hur. In fact, there probably has nev- er been an actor that has been so well cast during his career. Besides playing the Judean chariot racer, Moses, and Mich- aelangelo, Heston has done his historical bit as St. John the Baptist, Andrew Jackson, Thom- as Jefferson, Franklin D. Roose- velt, Sir Thomas More, and El Cid - not to mention the mili- tary heroes he portrayed in Khartoum, Fifty-Five Days at Peking, andicountless other films. And its wondrous, how well Heston fits. In real life, he is truly n o b 1 e. A serene, severe giant, with shoulders stretching almost to the width of an aver- age man's armspread, he is psy- ically larger than life, but man- ages to be so spiritually as well. His casual conversation is spiced with an accent nuance that evokes the sound of a godly ec- ho, and his simplest greeting takes on the form of a holy pro- nouncement. -He reeks honesty, N dedication, and commitment; his favorite topics of conversa- tion are his membership on the National Council for the Arts,j and his presidency of the Screep Actors Guild. T h e entire image is really very intimidating. MGM had us sitting in the garden plaza of the Hotel Fontainebleau, per- haps 12 of us around a luncheon table waiting for a Heston in- terview. He strides up, everyone rises for introductions, and ev- eryone shrinks back from the grip of his massive hand and his excruciatingly polite "How do you do?" The interview is not really an interview at all. Rather, Heston will respond to a fairly innoc- uous question on the changes in Hollywood for young filmmak- ers by launching into a 20-min- ute p.r. piece on the Guild's ef- forts to provide room for new people and the National Coun- cil for the Arts' provisions of funds to finance struggling be- ginners. But it is not a flack- like p.r. job - Heston is filled with such messianic fervor . that the listener feels thatGod 'him self is setting down the laws of the artistic universe, incorrupt- ible and indisputable. He will talk on a hundred dif- ferent subjects and in every speech he is uniformly sure and perfectly fluent. On pornography in films: "As a film maker" - he considers everyone who has any part in t h e production of a movie a film-maker - "I have a desire for as much elbow room as pos- sible. But the freedom of an ar- tist does not divest the artist of responsibility. As a result of the directors' carelessness, the free- dom is often self-defeating. The extreme detail deprives sex of its eroticism a n d violence of its impact. It becomes clinical and instructive." All this entirely off-the-cuff, with barely a stop for breath. The quotes are perfect, t h e type that can be lifted out of context and made to sound like a sermon. For an hour, Heston went on and on, totally serious. "Communication is integral to film," he said. "Van Gogh's brother could support Vincent's work f o r a lifetime;, but today, a director's brother could barely raise t h e money for one film," he said. "The only successful art by a committee we have seen is the St. James Bible," he said. "One of the advantages of the film, as opposed to the stage, is that there is an extant body of work," he said. But he also said, immediately .after waving to a Fontainebleau guest from New York who in- terrupted t h e interview by shouting out her love for him, "You need every one of them." And.that brought things back to a framework we could under- stand. SEVENTH ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL' MARCH 11-16 Tuesday-Sunday ARCHITECTURE AUDITORIUM sir HELD OVER!IZ SHOWS AT: 1:00-3:00-5:00-7:00 & 9:05 Info: 662-6264 Student 198200624 Was Officially Designated Missing ... PITY POOR PAXTON OUIOLEYA 11 I I WELCOME I STUDENTS! * DISTINCTIVE COLLEGIATE HAIRSTYLING for Men ari Women - 0 8 Hairstylists THE DASCOLA BARBERS Near .Michigan Theatre -A ..he had: MIUXq too much 4SPE of a good -N thin TA C r.'N N a PME .OT * 1 *1 I XNATIONAL SE RA CTERPORAT IO HELD OVER 4TH WEEK FOX VILLaGE 375 No. MAPLE RD.-769-1300 The Theatre Will Be Emptied After 7:00 P.M. Showing Fri.-Sat. Nominated for 2 Academy Awards BEST Picture * BEST Director A friend of Christ U OF 0 CARNy :.March 14-T Rides-Games-Movies - Side Shows-Midway AND FREE LIVE SHOWS BOB SEGER SYSTEM 8 P.M., Friday, Mar. 14 - ROTARY CONNECTION 8 P.M., Saturday, Mar. 15 Red, White & Blues Band .. . Poor Richard's Almanac U of D Corny Opens Fri., 6; Sot., 1; Sun., 1:30 State Fair Coliseum Join The Daily Sports Staff T = S~lECUES? f 1I~ NOW 2 SPECIALS I WINNER OF 6 ACADEMY AWARDS including BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR! COLUMBIA PICTURES prsnts FRED ZINNEMANN'S FiLMi OF MKIL FOR ALL u From the pImy by . I oday wI' a I' ECN I.OIi' L'J Today showing at 9 p m. only I * UNCLASSIFIED * "LUSTY, GUSTY, COMEDY!" -Washington Evening Star i Il'-M II 7IYID HEID SPONay IwNC aIE TI Gm.U14U ofIRIE SHHE1.I Today shown at 7 p m. only PARAMOUNT PICTURESpeents A SHE FIL%6 FRANco ZEFFIRELLI ProductioI ET ROMEO ejuLIET Showings Daily 1:30 4:00 7:00 9:35 I I - -- I DOUBLE FEATURE-ENDS TOMORROW THURSDAY I 2 ACADEMY AWARDI "RACHEL, RACHEL" Best Picturd * Best Actress Joanne Woodward Best Supporting Actress Estelle Parsens Best Screenplay from a Book NOMINATED FEATURES A "HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER" Best Actor Alan Arkin Best Supporting Actress Sandra Locke J . ...- I 3020 Washtenaw, Ph. 434-1782 Btween Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor NOW SHOWING Feature Wed., Sat., Sun. 1:30-3:45-6:15=8:30 Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri. 6:30-9:00 JOIN-IN THE DISNEY FUN-IN! . Program InformationJ665-6290 TODAY-Shows at 1:00- 3:00-5:00-7:00-9:05 P.M. Rates "X"-no one under 18 admitted "BENJAMIN"-7:15 only r AWL Awnwe IM Iy FlNrsl COi'pOfytrM .. ALSO ROD STEIGER ACADEMY AWARD WINNER "BEST ACTOR" for "In the Heat of the Night" "NO OTHER MAJOR LEGE AMERICAN ACTOR COULD HAVE BROUGHT OFF TH IS KIND OF MULTI-FACETED b TOUR I-DE-FO)RCE ... II ,*Z-VLFJ V06 l "I, I ~APPLE; 1l .............I.....,T.lR - .wt . i\ i .