A RUN TOO LONG
The new Eagles: Mostly a
The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, October 16, 1979-Page 5
Walsh-out
By STEVE HOOK
Watching the Eagles over the week-
end was a little like eating those oysters
two weeks ago in a downtown seafood
restaurant. I was hungry, and willing to
lay down a few extra bucks for
something special (much like my
motive for seeing the Eagles). I or-
dered a plate of oysters, expecting a
rare and delectable treat.
* What I got was about one ounce of
shapeless, colorless, tasteless goo. As
hard as I tried to salvage the doomed
folly, I could not. For five minutes, I sat
back in my chair, drank my last drops
of icewater, and stared at the oyster
shells laughing at me from the plate.
As the Eagles sauntered into their
eighth and ninth tunes at Crisler Arena,
I looked at the musicians much like I
did those gooey oyster shells scattered
across my plate. I was still hungry, and
ithey had not filled me up.
THEIR CONCERT struck me much
the way their last two albums have,
with no clear character or identity, with
no backbone or spine. Although there
are many fine moments in both, you
really can't decide where these guys
are coming from, or where they're
going.
A. bit of historical insight is needed in
reviewing the Eagles. They're really
not the same band they were in the
Desperado days, and this must be un-
derstood. Only two of the five Eagles
(Glenn Frey and Don Henley) remain
from the handpicked four that Linda
Ronstadt manager John Boylan
brought together in 1972. There are
three new kids in town, and they have
made their marks on the evolution of
this band.
The two who have left are Randy
Meisner-the Poco veteran who played
country-rock influence intact.
A SIGNIFICANT THING happened in
1975. After releasing One of These
Nights, Bernie Leadon packed up his
banjo, et al, and left the band, com-
plaining about the "dehumanizing"
conditions on the road. Meisner also
took off, leaving Henley and Frey as
the only original members.
Enter ex-James Ganger Joe Walsh in
the place of Bernie Leadon. Enter Hotel
California. Enter basist Timothy B.
Schmit and The Long Run. Exit the
Eagles of old, and the very soul which
made them famous, replaced by an
ambiguous character that speaks of the
newfound inconsistencies between the
players.
It was precisely these inconsistencies
that made their appearance this
weekend quite disturbing. You could
feel the contrast in personality as the
band alternated from older pieces like
"Doolin' Dalton" or "Already Gone,"
to slick newer ones like "Life in the
Fast Lane" and "In the City."
Joe Walsh and his eccentric guitar
style has drastically changed this band,
and it was Walsh who was most visible
on stage at Crisler. Before Walsh, a
common characteristic of the Eagles
were tight, firmly structured com-
positions like "Take It' Easy" and
"Witchy Woman." Walsh adds a
dramatic shift towards rambling,
repetitive guitar progressions that
never seem to end.
ON STAGE, YOU SEE Walsh enrap-
tured with these silly instrumentals,
and for awhile, you're content. But
eventually, the unambitious nature of
the compositions become disturbing
(considering the substance this band is
capable of), and it all starts to wear
thin. Walsh's fellow lead guitarist, Don
Felder, seemed bored most of the
evening, merely providing the back-
drop for Walsh's idiotic meandering.
Granted, "Desperado" and
"Peaceful Easy Feeling" have lost
nothing over the years, but when mixed
with Schmit's synthesized and slurpy "I
Can't Tell You Why," and the demented
composition "The Greeks Don't Want
No Freaks," you are left stroking your
chin trying to muster a lasting im-
pression of the Eagles, circa 1979.
One thing should be pointed out. The
Eagles were wildly received by their
audiences. Thunderous cheering
brought numerous encores. Saturday
night, after just 90 minutes, the band
disappeared, only to return for three
encores, another half hour.
It seemed as if they were cheering for
more not because they were so glutted
with fulfillment, but because, relatively
unfulfilled, they were still hungry.
Avenue at Liberty St. 71-9700
Forerl FithForum Theater,
Honk if you love Brian.
WED 12:50, 2: 4 , 3 ,W:0
MONTY PYTHON'S
LIFE
OF BRIAN,
TUES, THURS, FRI 6:30, 8:20, 10:10
Adults $2.50 til 7:00
WED 12:50, 2:40, 4:30, 6:30,
8:20, 10:10
Adults $1.50 til 1:30 (or capacity)
Midnite Shows Fri & Sat
Jas _
Joe Walsh ,
base and lead guitars-and Bernie
Leadon, the guitar-banjo-mandolin-
dobro whiz who got tired of the road.
BOTH MEISNER AND LEADON
were vital in incorporating the country-
rock/bluegrass elements to the Eagles'
music with ingenuity and creativity
much like that which earmarked the
Byrds in the 60's. Their first albums
displayed an exciting combination of
unpretentious country influences inter-
playing with hard driving rock and roll.
During their first world tour back in
1973, the Eagles seemed determined to
become the countrified Bad Boys,
kicking convention in the ass with their
pointed boots, and acquiring the
nickname in England, the "misan-
thropes of rock'."
Their third album, On the Border,
blew them into the stratosphere of con-
temporary music. The third album in
history to go platinum upon release, the
Eagles, with the addition of slide
guitarist Don Felder, had deeply en-
trenched themselves in the - bat-
tleground of the international record
industry. They had done so with the
10'
7A tedious Death i n Acapulco'
Ih Ann Arbor Film COOpeWtNe Presents at Aud. A: $1.50
Tuesday, October 16
STOLEN KISSES
(Francois Truffaut, 1968) 7 & 10:20-AUD. A
Perhaps Truffaut's best film, it is certainly the one most evokes all we love
about him: his lyricism, tenderness and poetry. The story of Antoine Doinel
is continued here, from being booted out of the army, through countless jobs
and his continuous search for the ultimate treasure of every Truffaut film-his
goddess woman. JEAN-PIERRE LEAUD, DELPHINE SEYRIG, CLAUDE JADE. -In
French, with subtitles.
BED AND BOARD
(Francois Truffaut, 1970) 8:40 only-AUD. A
The fluid second-to-last chapter of the Antoine Doinel story finds Jean-Pierre
Leaud married to the woman of his dreams and disillusioned, as he finds that
marriage can be as much of a trap as school or work. Truffaut holds Antoine
up to a harsh but fair light in a film that has some of the funniest scenes in
any of his films. Claude Jade steals the show in a smashing performance as
Mrs. Doinel. French with subtitles.
Tomorrow: Truffaut's LOVE ON THE RUN at Aud A
Wed. Oct. 17 at 4:00 p.m.-Aud A
Free preview screening of "TILL MARRIAGE DO US PART" star-
ring Laura Antonelli
By ERIC ZORN
Blake Edwards' 10 pretends-to be a
philosophical sex-comedy, but it is
really nothing of the sort: It's
philosophy is feeble, sex tepid, and
comedy predictable and adolescent.
Sounds like television, doesn't it?
Well, you'd be surprised: 10 has big
stars (Julie Andrews), bare breasts
(Bo Derek's) and blue language (fuck).
This is not the least of it. Director Ed-
.wards of Pink Panther fame-treats us
to scenes that even home screen
.audiences would reject out of hand.
How's this:
George (Dudley Moore), our
protagonist, is a merry little
Hol1yvood type 'wh'F4das -'4n
rejected by his ladylove Saman-
tha (prim Julie Andrews). To
break out of his funk, he looks
through a telescope at the sexual
antics of his next-door neighbor,
a recurrent gag that gets less
amusing as time goes on.
Swinging the telescope around,
George bashes himself on the
head, reels backward through a
hedge, and falls down a long,
steep hill. Boom! Crash! Head
over heels he tumbles. Oh, this
sort of slapstick really slays us.
Now he starts to climb back up
the hill, and the phone begins to
ring. Why, it's Samantha, calling
to attempt a reconciliation!
Hurry George. Ha ha. He falls
back, rips his clothing, climbs up
a bit. Stop! Stop! This is killing,
us! She's going to hang up just as
he gets to the phone, isn't she? Up
again, George falls on his face.
Help! The phone's ringing still!
Ah, and just 'as we thought,
when he picks up the receiver,
she hangs up on the other end. Ho
ha.
ALAS, 10 is chock full of comedy at
this level. Both the slapstick and the
leering, sexual jubes are consistently
more embarrassing than humorous,
and it is a shame that this film is rated
R and restricted to most people under
18, for surely only minors are enter-
tained by such shennanigans.
What is left, behind the comedy, is a
muddled and ambiguous treatment of a
mAn's fear of growing old. George, the
spoiled, mercurial 42-year-old
songwriter at the top of his field,
gracelessly staggers through his "male
menopause" and grand obsession with
becoming young again..
His quest is symbolically futile: tie
chases after Youth, represented by a
tawny, ripe, just-married California
poster gal named Jenny (Bo Derek).
She's supposedly at the very top of the
time-honored scale from one to ten, and
she sets George's hormones to per-
colating afresh.
IN A PECULIAR WAY, 10 is a poor
man's Death in Venice. Jenny is Tadzio
to George's Aschenbach, and his ob-
session takes on a grand, consuming
scope that threatens to be his ruin.
However, George is such a consum-
mate boob and his thoughts so far from
spiritual that there is absolutely
nothing poignant about what happens.
He is simply one of those tortured souls
who flagellates himself because misery
Mnakes the days more interesting.
Oh, the poor fellow! No one around
understands how badly he wants to be
young again. It is, indeed, a curious
desire on his part considering that he
enjoys all the privileges of youth-a
handsome appearance, scads of free
time, few commitments, and the in-
dulgence of his friends to behave like an
idiot-with none of the poverty. Indeed,
the rich boy acts' and thinks, by all
measures, like the 25-year-old people he
envies.
What is he missing? He lives in a
slick, Beverly Hills ranch house, drives
a Mercedes with personalized plates, is
successful, very famous, and loved by
Samantha, a good woman. This is a lot.
He doesn't want just a lot. He wants'
everything, and dammit, he's one of the
beautiful people, and he ought to have
everything.
His protracted campaign to capture
Jenny-slightly funny, a bit pathetic,
but mostly dull-occupies 90% of the
film. Sleek and tall as a forward, she
appears to be the prototypical
pneumatic bed partner of the seven-
ties: Speaks little, screws much. The
camera plays lovingly on her loins and
the contents of her swim suit, and often
pictures her face in an eyes-closed ex-
pression of enraptured sensual
pleasure.
AS GEORGE FOLLOWS JENNY and
her slab-of-beef husband along on their
honeymoon to Acapulco, the plot begins
to betray definite symptoms of rigor
mortis. We squirm through extended,
scarcely amusing scenes of his bum-
bling pathos along with ponderous
digressions into the "deeper meanings"
of the film ("What's fair about a man
getting older and looking distinguished
and worldly and a woman getting older
and looking older?"). It is only Moore's
charming, lip-quivering portrayal of
the declining bachelor that saves the
tedious buildup from being a total loss.
Unfortunately, at the end, when
George finally does end up between the
sheets with the beauteous Jenny, he
discovers that he doesn't want what she
offers at all: Her approach to passion is
rather flakey and matter-of-fact, put-
ting George on the defensive rather
than the offensive and making him
realize that he can only stand so much
liberation.
In that she is not quite the blushing
animal-innocent object of lust, Jenny
turns George's morality back in his
face. He wants to be an old time
conquering master, but when the
seducer becomes the seduced, George's
true sexism and neuroticism come to
the fore. His inability to accept Jenny's
"masculine" role in the sex act (she
doesn't care about cheating on her
brand new husband, and, tee-hee, she
wants to be on top) gives bald evidence
of his somewhat crippled,. hidebound
mentality.
Though the sympathies of the film-
makers evidently are with George,
there is little question that Jenny-ap-
proprietly aerosol-brained-
outclasses him in the bedroom.
Though she is a very vapid, mech-
anized little squeezable with an
appeal on the order of a pro football
cheerleader, she stillhserves to stick
George's leering, childish attitude
toward sex (represented by the
voyeur's telescope on his balcony) right
back in his face. She asks: "Can-you be
casual?"
FACT IS, SEX is anything but casual
for Edwards and everybody else in-
volved in this film: It is naughty, funny,
occasionally intimate, usually an inter-
personal weapon, and always of primal,
obsessive, overriding significance. It is
what makes good men go wrong.
George decides he doesn't want to
sleep with Jenny because, he cannot
sweep her off her feet in a rare,
dominating moment of exquisite sen-
siality. Though he wants his youth,
George can't adapt to the new roles he
has to play, so he runs away.
This is the second time he has run
away in the film. Earlier he ran away
from the semi-liberated Samantha and
the confines of the 40-ish crowd back in
Beverly Hills. it is there that he returns
after his follies in Acapulco. Back he
comes to reaffirm the values of the
past: Total liberation is bad, but some
liberation he can live with.
Here is the major philosophical pearl
of 10: Don't try to be what you can't be.
Accept yourself and don't fight your lot
in life. "To each his own," as a chubby
bartender espouses to George
somewhere in the somnolent middle
moments of the film.
It doesn't seem to matter that the
moral and social values reaffirmed,
while extremely ambiguous, definitely
shade toward unenlightened. George's
childish, klutzy passion is only an em-
barrassing manifestation of the
weaknesses of the Me Mentality.
The execution leaves little doubt that,
in spite of intentions and protestations
to the contrary, those responsible for
10 are the sort who still do rate women
from one to ten. They deserve a grade
of, oh, B-.
I
Come Celebrate The
Union's 75th Birthday
AND The World Series
The Michigan Theatre Presents
RICK NELSON.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23
in the University Club of
the Michigan Union-
October 10, 11, 12, 13 and
then next week too!!
"See the Pirates and the
Orioles battle to the thrill
of victory and the agony of
defeat."
New-
6
S S c
NEW
FOOT
T.V.
REEN
at
the
University Club!!
CELEBRATION
i