The Michigan Dail arts & entertainment Audience fleeced by 'Train Robbery' y-Thursday, March 29, 1979--Page 7 Join the arts Staff By CHRISTOPHER POTTER Hereby nominated for this year's What-Did-Everyone-See-in-This-Tur- key-That-I-Didn't Award is The Great Train Robbery, an opulently-styled but bloodless, disturbingly amoral caper film that has mystifyingly set a great many critics and audiences agog with adulation. Robbery is the latest product of MD- turned author (the Andromeda Strain) - turned filmmaker Michael Crichton, who jumps from his standard science fiction niche into the more limited mode of the droll larceny genre. The setting is 1850's London, the prize booty a cache of gold bullion shipped from the city by train every week to pay troops fighting in the Crimean War. United to filch the loot is the customary band of debonair professional crooks headed by Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley- Anne Down and a handful of lesser lights, all cavorting with the words "I am with it" practically flashing like neon above their heads. THE PICTURE is supposedly based on an actual criminal case ("the first train robbery in history," the movie's production notes boast), which may only serve to prove that fact isn't necessarily stranger or more in- teresting than fiction. In order to seize the gold carried in a locked safe aboard the train, our thieves must first secure the four separate keys needed to open the safe - keys kept by four .separate persons in separate locations. Th us, before they even commence the actual robbery, our protagonists must engage in some excruciatingly convoluted key-pilfering shenanigans simply to guarantee the main event to follow. It's a strange, patience-con- suming technique to employ, and Crichton displays neither the detective- writer's ingenuity nor the filmmaker's sense of timing to bring it off with any finesse. Still, Train Robbery's laborious pace distracts less than does its surprising mean-spiritedness. Any caper film im- plicitly walks a risky moral tightrope: Since its heroes are all committed criminal types given to fleecing the well-meaning samaritan at least as of- ten as the pompous ass, how is an author to cultivate audience sympathy? The traditional solution is to portray caper characters as lovable rogues, charming, amiable and fallible (as in the current Brinks' Job), sporting a touch of Robin Hood and above all an unswerving disinclination to seriously injure a fly, save in extreme self- defense. CRICHTON seems content to opt for such winsome identification until about two thirds of the way through, when with little warning, Connery quite; brutally, willfully and unlovably. strangles a pint-sized member of his heist team who has turned police in- former. The effect is shocking and drastically disorienting to the standard' caper-genre viewer: Do we keep on rooting for our droll protagonists, or should we now start to hope these un- concealedly cold-blooded thugs will be put away? Crichton never addresses the sudden ethical ambiguity. Instead, he simply pursues the robbery through to its con- clusion, which is carried out in the most time-honored traintop-mayhem tradition (the most exciting section of the film, due entirely to its camerawork). TO MAKE matters worse, Crichton then proceeds to add illogic to amorality. In a four-to-five minute nothing to connect the period with anything else in the film. Crichton makes no attempt at then-vs.-now social commentary, nor does he use his settings to evoke a conscious, visual feeling for history, as did Kubrick in Barry Lyndon or Terence Malick in Days of Heaven. His images are post- card-pretty, but serve no purpose what- soever. For any relevance to the time in which it takes place, The Great Train Robbery might just as well be about present-day Philadelphia and the Penn Central; the film is chronologically rudderless. The picture's cast fares little better than its author. Connery carries out his ber, her perpetual function is to serve as chattel to distract the assorted See 'GREAT', Page 12 NOON LUNCHEON Soup and Sandwich-75C FRIDAY, MAR. 30th Professor Joel Samoff Political Science "Academic Freedom & Radical Faculty" GUILD HOUSE-so2 Monroe U I. ANN ARBOR'S OLDEST & FINEST NATURAL FOODS RESTAURANT presents .. . SUNDAY BRUNCH featuring... - waffles pancakes and omelettes 9 AM-2 PM -. . ~r RECORDS 314 E. Liberty Ann Arbor 662-2019 Vi BY JOHN SINKEVICS Cult followings have traditionally kept rock groups, movie directors, and novelists from total destitution as well as emotional disintegration. George Romero (Night of the. Living Dead), Kurt Vonnegut, and Iggy Pop have en- ticed enthusiastic groups of loyal fans across the country to watch bizarre movies, devour books, and gobble up inventive albums. But few "cult" stars have succeeded in attracting great numbers of devotees to their cause. Certainly there are some exceptions in the rock world. The Grateful Dead, Peter Frampton, and more recently, Elvis Costello succeed where countless others have failed. The same is true, or will be, of Supertramp. The group's latest release, Breakfast in America, is destined for success among discerning rock listeners, not because it is their best album (Crime of the Century is their penultimate work), but because it is spiced with remarkably unique instrumentation - the trademark of Supertramp. But there is yet another reason - the album provides so much of what is lacking in rock today. A subtle vacuum is slowly forming in rock and roll. Even while Elvis Costello ignites one part of the rock world with sparks once thought forever doused, Bruce Springsteen and friends have captured the vitality of the East, and Lou Reed and David Bowie hold their own in their own way, a question remains: What is there of a "Seventies" sound? A POTENTIALLY dangerous pit of refurbished heavy music and conver- sely mellow filler melodies is too often the answer. Groups like Styx, Boston, and ELO are trading punches at the top by spewing forth a barrage of less-than- original, standard-beat tunes - creating a crumbling cake without so much as a taste of creative frosting. And that's where Supertramp comes in. Led by the band's two original mem- bers, Roger Hodson and Rick Davies, Breakfast in America does little to touch the sentiment of staunch patriots, but rather drags the listener through the mud of the States in perhaps.the most original and hypnotic manner 'in years. Not since Neil Young's American Stars and Bars, or David Bowie's single, "Young Americans," has a group captured so well the evasive character of the country. In "Gone Hollywood," the LP's introductory cut, Davies describes the city with dreani- shattering lyrics: It's such a shame about it, I used to think it would feel so good But ichose to blame about it So many creeps in Hollywood I'm in this dumb hotel, Near the 'Taco Bell' Without a hope in hell I can't believe I'm still around And while the lyrics are short of genius - at times devastating, at times nothing more than playfully trite - they are ceriainly pertinent. This perhaps is most vividly portrayed in the "Logical Song," the cut on the album which best characterizes the biting melodies and vocals of the band: But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical. And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical.. . Now watch what you ay or they'll be calling you a radical, liberal, fanatical, criminal. Won't you sign up your name, uwe'd like to feel you're acceptable, respect- able, presentable, a vegetable! Melodically, Supertramp is inescap- able: they don't allow the listener to ignore them - whether in love or hatred - because they are so atypical. Revolving unmistakably around the delightful keyboard work of Davies and Hodgson, the music is accented by drums and bass which rise to fierce crescendoes - highlighted by John Helliwell's searing saxophone. THE LISTENER is teased by many songs into thinking a sonic explosion will take place. The drums begin win- ding up, the bass begins to thump, and then, unexpectedly the atmosphere subsides into a relative, worrisome calm. It is only then that the group plays its ace by whirling into a calculated blast of energy. But perhaps the group has begun to sacrifice the provocativeness with which it attracted its original cult following. Senseless meanderings into tedium occur twice on the album: "Lord is it Mine?" and "Casual Con- versations." These songs are not merely incredibly boring - they seem not to be Supertramp. Nevertheless, the group's forceful message is there gracing the cover of their latest release. A portly waitress - right arm outstretched in a Statue of Liberty pose - is shown standing in front of an arrangement of salt shakers and silverware unmistakably taking the'shape of the New York skyline. It's Breakfast in America: the stars and stripes on a plate served up by Super- tramp - with a grain of.salt, naturally. 'Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland. . . and a han- dful of lesser lights, all cavorting with the words 'I am with it' practically flashing like neon above their heads. ' The Ann Arbor Film Cooperative presents at Aud A Thursday, March 29 THE FURY (Brian DePalmo, 1978) 7T& 9-AUD A This time DePalma (SISTERS, CARRIE) did the impossible. He took a witless story with cardboard characters and transformed it into an instant classic. This thriller of telepathy, telekinesis, and the C.I.A. has more memorable sequences in it than any other three films you can think of. Beginning with a spectacular terrorist attack on an ocean resort, DePalria keeps topping himself with a car chase through a junkyard drowned in fog, a telekinetic attack against a ferris wheel, and two of the. most gripping, gruesome murders ever puft on the screen. Bravura filmmaking. KIRK DOUGLAS, CARRIE SNODGRASS, AMY IRVING, and an incredible JOHN CASSAVETTES as the most malevolent, screwed-up villain since lago. span, the director has Connery cap- tured by the police (all the others ap- pear to get off scot free), put on trial, convicted, then freed in an absurd last- minute rescue that seems to have been slapped on as a sloppy afterthought. While we ponder the debatable joy of the buckaroo-style deliverance of a calculating murderer, we may also notice that it's never made clear whether out intrepid gang succeeded in capturing any of the golden loot they labored so fervently to secure. For all its flashy posturing, The Great Train Robbery remains a singularly dour, charmless work; at no point can you feel the film making con- nections with itself. The key-heists - which occupy the bulk of the picture - are carried out with little tension and a total, humorless lack of imaginative flair. As the gang members go through their constricted skullduggeries, the film embarrassingly becomes a living textbook of don'ts for would-be thriller directors - you find yourself counting off the times and ways this moment could have been terrifying, that moment could have been hilarious. Like a blind marksman, Crichton fires off target with a masochistic unanimity. THE DIRECTOR conjures up daz- zling, atmospheric re-creations of the London of a century ago, but does gangleader duties with a somber, churlish demeanor that contrasts ap- pallingly with the style and grace this splendid actor almost automatically brings to a film. The 'lovely, talented Lesley-Anne Down labors as spiritedly as she can with a dubious, distasteful role (as the gang's lone female mem- Jh is preserved on 5mmMMHRORLFUO The Michigan Daily 420 Maynard Street AND Graduate Library ., Tomorrow:I'M ALL RIGHT JACK & A SHOT IN THE DARK + .4 El TEA TOPDEIA ESPERANJA (Theatre of Hope) From Santa Barbara, California Performs the play "HIJOS" (Children) TMORROW, fri., AMarcb 30, 197T9 Schorling Auditorium, sSchool of Education Building 8:00 p.m. SPONSORED BY: Minority Student Services-Chicanos at Mich- igan-Community Services-Office of the Vice President for Student Services-Office of Ethics and Religion-UAC-Rack- ham Office of Student Affairs and Fellowships. FREE * OPEN TO THE PUBLIC .*..o. .. . Now Showing, Campus Area lu"erfieid " ..r...w....rq s "New Music for Psalms and Other Jewish Songs" A Performance and Talk on Jewish Music by JANE MYERS, Director LaeiOr School Cambridge, Massachusetts Thursday, March 29 8 p.m. at Hillel Foundation 1429 Hill Street WEDNESDA YIS MONDAY IS "BARGAIN DAY" "GUEST NIGHT" $1.50 until 5:30 I 2Adultsfor $3.00 Except Wayside & State Except Wayside ADULTS M., SAT., SUN. I VE. & HOlIDAYS $3.51 MON.-THURS. [Vt. $3.01 ALL MATINSS 52.54 CHILD TO 14 $13.4 a- MEN #I-HAIR THE FILM ST ATEFri.+& Sat. #2-CONCERT FOR Liate ShawBANGLADESH TONITE at 7:00 pm Only FRI 7 & 9:25-SAT 1-3-5-7-9:25 SUN & WED 1-3-5-7-9 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE "BEST FOREIGN FILM" BEST FILM OF THE YEAR -National Society of Film Critics A GEM! -Rex Reed MedlatriCS presents MON., TUES., THURS. 7 & 9 FRI 7 & 9:25--SAT. 1-3-5-7.9:25 SUN 5:15-7-9, WED 1-3-5-7-9} 4 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST ACTRESS BEST SCREENPLAY BEST SONG Ellen Alan Burstyn Alda P E O A E RI G , Next Var" PIPE RGAN EVERY NIGHT LOLITA (Stanely Kubrick) Kubrick's brilliant adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's contro- versial novel about a middle-aged man's (James Mason) strange passion for a young nymphet (Sue Lyon) which cannily shifts from social satire to tragic farce. Thurs March 29 Assembly Hall Mich Union 7:00, 9:30 GET OUT YOUR HANDKERCHIEFS MAntlHealth Research Institute I w r r I s.