THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, April 9, 1969 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, April 9, 1969 cinema Horse opera of a different genre Imagination flies Only so high By BRUCE HENSTELL Support Your Local Sheriff is mistitled: as played by James Garner this sheriff needs no support at all. He possesses two invaluable qualities: a simple and unadorned intelligence and the experience of having seen a lot of Westerns. Sheriff, now showing at the State, is in everysense a Holly- wood genre film with that par- ticular insight on the part of the director that genre films have in fact progressed just so far. James Garner plays the tall stranger who wanders into town and accepts the job of sheriff justIto get a poke together. He is, familiarly enough, just pass- ing through. But he is on his' way to Australia. Why? the townsfolknask, because its the frontier and he plans to do bit of pioneering. This is the central irony of this film, which, like The. Wrecking Crew, is sustained by the ability of the director and writer. Insofaras they develop this irony, casting it again and again in stock situations, the film succeeds. And, encourag- ingly, Support Your Local Sher- iff does pretty well. Burt Kennedy, the director, repeatedly throws his characters into traditional Western situa- tions, but allows them to realize the irony of their situation. Garner, for instance, is the fastest gun around, for abso- lutely no reason at all. When asked why he doesn't have a reputation he replies simply, who would want one? It makes sense. When a series of hired killers come into town chasing him, and after he has bumped off a few, he becomes bored. When the next one wants to draw on him, he simply starts throwing rocks,- expressing the, whole absurdity of the situation but thereby revealing a new and more sophisticated insight. The gunfighter is forced to run away because, after all, no one throws rocks in gun fights. Meanwhile, the sheriff really has no desire to clean up the town. As he tells the people again and again, he is just pass- ing through. He knows damn well that the town, no matter how wild now, is a natural scene for law and order. But he understands law and order will simply settle in of its own ac- cord since law and order is also basic to the genre film. Thgre- fore, and almost despite them- selves, even the badmen start responding tohthe conventions of old movies and almost' vol- The Michigan Daily, edited and man- aged by students of the University of Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues- day through Sunday morning Univer- sity year. Subscription rates: $9 by carrier, $10 by mail. untarily hand in their guns. Of course, the bad guys could not have yielded logically to John Wayne; but they were forced by the campy conventions of the present genre film to bow to the lawmen of Support Your Local Sheriff. The new wave of genre films must also take on the problem of the sheriff and his woman. Here, the woman is Joan Hac- kett, a perfect genre actress whose strengths are all physical and whose acting remains on the surface. The sheriff tries to pass the womanby, but, of course, he makes it out West with her and never makes it to Australia. But the coup de grace is the conclusion. The sheriff's deputy -(once the town bum)-ex- plains that Garner becomes the governor (natch) and that he becomes one of the greatest myths the West has ever known. The End. NOTICE NON-NATIVE SPEAKERSOF ENGLISH All speakers of English as a second language* are invited to take'part in an experimental test of English language proficiency to be given in AUDITORIUM A, ANGELL HALL AT 7:15 P.M. ON THE 9th OF APRIL. You will receive $5.OQ for approximately; 1 to 2 hours of your time. If you are interested you mist call and register at the following number 764-2416 on or before April 8th. *NO ELI STUDENTS CURRENTLY ENROLLED IN THE IN- TENSIVE ENGLISH COURSES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR 'THE TEST AT THIS TIME. Il theatre AIMA plans 3 fall. productions ir m.ri i By LARRY RUSS David Young, who gave a, poetry reading at the UGLI yes- terday, is a teacher at Oberlin, and a poet whose first book, Sweating Out the Winter, won the U.S. Award of the Inter- national Poetry Forum. He has, a very good sense of humor and a very good imagination. But his imagination is not a terribly forceful one, it even seems to be partly borrowed. One of the problems with Young's poetry is that it is con- stantly haunted by the voices and imaginations of better con- temporary poets. There are echoes of Wright, Hall, and Stafford in both the imagery and the way of speaking. "Oh, Salmon-colored Edsel" is pure (or rather, impure) Robert Bly. This is too bad not only be-' cause it means Young is not finding his own voice, but be- cause even when he is very good our enjoyment Is watered down when we get hints of the voices of better poets. Also, many of the best poems work by stringing evocative images and lines, shifting quick- ly, but, unfortunately, do not have that cohesive under-cur- rent of strong emotion, the cumulative force -that a Bly or Wright poem has. And a few poems like "The Reapers" and "Summer, A Far-off War" are really banal. I think Young was off-base when he suggested that the bi- plane that appears in many of his poems is a good image for the poet's imagination. It would not fit the force and penetra- tion of Kinnell or the stark drama of Hecht. But it is a very apt image of Young's imagina- tion: casual, light, floating, slightly humorous. This is not Sto say that he doesn't come up with marvelous images 'of the violence, the darker parts of our lives. He does. But usually the poems are lighter, like the biplane, doing curves and sweeps, looking down from a short distance with gaiety and poignance. Young does have a delightful sense of humor. There are fun- ny lines and poems, like "Will Tarzan Swing in Time." Some of the poems in which the bi- plane gets highest for me are:. "Journal," "Evasions," "Dreams of the Wars," "The Small-Town' Poets," "Oh, Salmon-coldred Edsel." To close, here are some really good lines: ". .This empty field Dreams of the farm in every *furrow As the body dreams the mind, The windmill dreams the wind." "Sunday morning at the Dis- count Center, entrance to the kingdom of the dead. They have a new machine here. Put a quarter in this large white horse, and he'll paw you to death." "The plane floats away, struts Quivering in the still noon, Like a leaf or a dazed bat. It ;will only land when The sun turns chrysanthe- mum, A stiff, mad ornament." The APA Repertory Company has planned its eighth annual season at the University from Sept. 15 to Oct. 26. Three new productions, including two mod- ern classics and one American premiere, will be presented un-, der the artistic direction of the APA's Ellis Rabb. The APA season will open with a revival of William Sa- royan's The Time of Your Life. APA's earlier revivals of You' Can't Take It With You, The Show-Off and The Time of Your Life have gained the re- pertory company a solid reputa- tion for its revivals of Amer- ican drama and comedy. In fact, The Show-Off, with Helen Hayes, was taken on national road tour this year to bolster the APA's lagging income and federal support. The second production will be the American premiere of The Chronicles of Hell, by celebrated Belgian avant-garde dramatist Michel de Ghelderode. De Ghel' derode's Pantagleize, premiered by the APA two years ago, was well received both in Ann Arbor and New York. "Chronicles" will be staged by John Houseman, co-director of Pantagleize. Houseman is the head of the Juilliard Theatre School, a noted Broadway and Hollywood producer and director, and for- mer artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut. Closing the 1969 fall season will be Nicholas Gogol's satire, The Inspector General. The famed Russian's barbs at bum- bling bureaucrats will be staged by Stephan Porter, director of top APA hits, including The Show-Off and last season's The Misanthrope. CINEMA II April 11-12 KING OF Tickets for the fall season go on sale 'immediately from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Discounts are available for students and subscribers. Individual ticket sales will not begin until the fall. Following the production here, the company will begin its first national tour, bringing Ionesco's Exit the King and Moliere's The Misanthrope to major U.S. cities. The APA has been forced to take to the road in an effort to increase their annual revenue. The company, which has been called the finest Americanre- pertory theatre, lost a large government grant last year, and must now rely solely on support of sympathizers, subscribers and individual ticket sales. New York's Mayor John Lind- say gathered several New York philanthropists who saved the APA this year and allowed it to conclude its run at its per- mament home in the Lyceum Theatre. In another effort to raise the money and to test his talents on Broadway, Ellis Rabb will direct a new Broadway musical based on Truman Capote's The Grass Harp. DIAL 5-6290 ENDS THURSDAY ENTERTAINMENT . . . "a re- markable story . .. an experience. C I if f . Robertson's performance could not be better." -WINSTED, N.Y. POST ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE BEST ACTOR- CLIFF ROBERTSON TECHNICOLOR '. TECHNISCOPE' "SO ABSORBING AND SO GOOD THAT ONE IS HELD FROM BEGINNING TO END." --COMMONWEAL TONIGHT 1st set at 8:30 FRIDAY and SATURDAY Traditional and Original Music JON SUNDELL 0 4 44 1421 Hill St. 8:30 P.M. 4 Wednesday, April 9 POINT -OF OIRDER Incredible documentary of the.Army-McCarthy hearings. wFascism-American Style PETITION NOW FOR CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSIONS COMMITTEE Help Bring Good Speakers to Campus. Be a Treas- urer, Publicity Chairman, Symposium Chairman, Winter Lecture Series, and Individual Programs, and Campus Coordnator. IAW Pick Up Petitions 3rd Floor Lepgue, H-ender- son Room, Sign Up for Interview When You ,Pick Up the Petition. Petitions Due Thursday Morning. U STARTING FRIDAY " Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell" Try Daily Classifieds Phone 764-0558 I I 7-9 ARCHITECTURE 1662-8871 AUDITORIUM HEARTS Alan Bates Hysterically funny satire FRI., SAT.-7-9 P.M. Aud. A-Angell 75c I I " I Now Showing NATIONAL GENERAL CORPORATION FOX EASTERN THEATRES R IL aG F5o VILL6E 375 No. MAPLE RD.-.769.1300 MON. thru FRI. 6:30 & 9:15 SAT.-SUN. 1:00-3:45 6:30-9 15 DIAL 8-6416 Wednesday Is LADIES DAY FACES 1s "ONE OF THE YEAR'S 10 BEST!" -Judith Crist --iNew York Times r lam* -!9,m , I ;EPTEMBER 16-28 SAR'0 YAN'S V Beit Midrash at Ann Arbor These Nazis aren't for real! They are Allied agents who must win World War 11 . 'oU I-. Sponsored by the College Cooperation with the B'nai University of Michigan of Jewish Studies in Detroit in B'rith Hillel Foundation at the I PRE-REGISTRATION-Spring, Summer, Fall 1969 Name ... .. ... ....................... ........ Address on June 1.................Phone......... Address on August 28 ...... i............Phone ....... University of Michigan year .......Major.. ........... Will be at Ann Arbor: spring (llA)'........summer (lIB ... ... fall... Please check -those courses you would like to take and return this form to: 1429 Hill St., Ann Arbor. Courses are described in the Beit-Mid- rash Catalogue. More information will be made available upon pre-registration. -Spring-Summer semester .... 1. Hebrew for Beginners (intensive, 2-3 meetings a week) ...2. Intermediate or Advanced Hebrew ... 3. A Survey for Judaism 11 (for those taking No. 2 Can be taken independently immediately) Fall semester, 1969 4. Basic Judaism-Jewish Ethics ....5. A Comparative Study of Biblical Literature 11 I "FACES" Is "A PHENOMENALLY GOOD PICTURE!" -Newsweek " FACES Is "A MILESTONE! A FINE ACHIEVEMENT!" -Judith Crist SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 12 -J Another delightful APA revival of an American clasic! Ghelderode 's "A whiff of satanical sulphur" I by the author of the APA hit "Pantagleize" I' f ryu Directed by John Houseman JOHN CASSAVETES FAC ES' 0 1 L 7 - OCTOBER 14-26 Gogol's a I;I L I I MUST WE ALWAYS ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH PREVAILING CUSTOM? WITH SET PRECEDENT? NO! (ALMOST) THIS WEEKEND (ALMOST) WE BREAK ANOTHER MOLD (ALMOST) The U1Un- CTO Directed by Stephen Porter A .. . .6. ..7. A History of Zionism in America Introduction to Jewish-Arab Relations 1936-1969 Q. _A,. At.,,...... ,J c ................ c,.,..,. cs..,J:,,, ...C e, h II t' u.e II III I I