Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Saturday, Dctaber 23 f 1971
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY - -Saturday, October 23~ 1971
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Omega Man: Charlton Heston Superstar
Rosalie Sorrels:.
Sotgentle vibrance
By ABBY MILLER
She used to be a housewife from Utah, "aprons and dustpans
and such;" now she's a traveling lady. Rosalie Sorrels sang last
night to a packed and attentive audieice at the Ark. But Rosa-
lie doesn't just sing, she brings her own high to you with her
whole self.
Rosalie's entire performance is suffused with a remarkable
vibrance. Her eyes glisten and her laugh ripples. Her voice is an
extension of her vibrance. It's clear and shimmering. She can hold
your heart with a sustained flutter midway to a note.
Bruce Phillips is one of Rosalie's favorite people and she sang
a lot of his songs last night-train songs, songs of people on the
move and maybe down and out. But, like the songs Rosalie writes,
they have a gentle sympathy, a perceptiveness, and also a warm
optimism. Rosalie's own songs are as beautiful and gentle:
I'm afraid to sleep
I'm afraid to look inside too deep
Friends and lovers keep me afloat
Keep on rockin', it's a beautiful boat.
With a soft twiang in her voice, she talks with her audience.
She tells her famous snake story. Excitedly she talks about her
new album "Traveling Lady." Anecdotes about her hippie uncle
Bill, her grandmother, her children, make you laugh. It's all part
of her, of what she's bringing to the audience.
Rosalie was accompanied by the sensitive guitar playing of
Daniel Erlewine. With his hearty and mellow hillbilly sound he
managed to include sweet runs and strange configurations of jazz
chords in the ,simple format of Rosalie's-songs. It was a pleasure
to hear such an accomplished and subtle supporting artist.
By RICHARD GLATZER
About 12 years ago, Rod Ser-
ling created The Twilight Zone,
an all-time great T. V. series.
Bepause Serling felt no compul-
sion to elucidatescharacters or
moralize, the best episodes de-
livered pure tensions and often
a mind-boggling twist end-
ing but not anything to inter-
fere with the narrative.
Feature film producers, how-
ever, did not pick up the cue.
Though they did give us Planet
of the Apes, ,with a Serling
script, the average sci-fi direc-
tor seemed to believe that a
scaly creature or two could sub-
stitute for a good plot or crea-
tivity. A Rodan or some Green
Slime, however, just won't make
a movie.
John Frankenheimer tried
something in the Twilight Zone
mold in Seconds, a tale of an
unhappy businessman who is
remade into a new person, but
the movie got bogged down with
character details and the like.
Maybe the Serling imagination"
is better suited to a half-hour.
T.V. show (the series =did go
downhill once it was expanded
to an hour), but I still yearn
for the large-scale film a la
Twilight Zone.
Thus, I was naturally some-
what interested when I heard
the premise of The Omega Man.
The last man on Earth hiding
from 'a band of crazed, blood-
thirsty ghouls? Not bad-and
there would even be room for a
final twist. You know, the guy's
really in an insane asylum and
the ghouls are his psychia-
trists . . .
The main thing to remember
,in making this fantasy is to
keep the characters and setting
from being overly defined. After
all, if Moorehead had spoken
in that episode, if we were ever
shown what the planet she in-
habited looked like, Serling
wouldn't have been free to give
us that devastating surprise
ending.
The Omega Man's director,
however, is Boris Sagal, a veter-
an of such groovy flicks as Girl
Happy and Made in Paris, and
he doesn't know too much about
good fantasy adventure. He's
not content to leave the setting
vague: right off we're hit with
the date, (1977), the cause of
the present situation (germ
warfare has killed or mutated
most of humanity), and the fact
that the last man, Robert Ne-
ville (Charlton Heston), is a
scientist.
This isn't any abstract or
mysterious world: our hero even
goes into a theater to watch
Woodstock (another Warner
Bros, release, amazingly enough
-and don't ask me where the
electricity comes from to run
the projector). By limiting the
story with these mundane and
unimaginative details, Sagal
loses the element of fantasy and
must rely solely on adventure.
Sagal is not, however, content
to give us a simple action film:
he feels he's got to comment
on technology since the world of
The Omega Man has been de-
stroyed by it. So what we get in
place of vampires or Living
Dead is a band of Luddites,
known as the Family, that has
reacted to the catastrophe by
attempting to destroy all ves-
tiges of civilization. They even
say things like, "Definition of a
scientist: a man who under-
stood nothing until there was
nothing left to. understand."
But who wants philosophy in
an adventure movie?
Because of Sagal, I could sym-
pathize more easily with the
villains than I could with our
muzak-loving, computer-mind-
ed protagonist.
Sagal, having tossed off the
problems technology presents
with a wave of his hand, next
tackles religion. The Family,
continually mumbling things
about good, evil, and the Devil,
carries on its crusade in the
name of God. But in case we
might fear Sagal is an atheist,
he hits us with some very heavy
symbolism: Charlton Heston as
Christ. Yes folks, Ben Hur has
left his chariot to die for hu-
manity. And it's not my imagi-
nation. With lines like, "Christ,
you could save the world," with
our hero croaking, arms spread
in that ever popular pose, in or-
der to do just that, it's vir-
tually impossible to ignore Sa-
gal's intent though I certainly
would like to.
Hence, The Omega Man is not
merely bad fantasy, its preten-
tions make it lousy adventure.
I find this film indicative of a
general decline of interest in
producing pure escapism. Direc-
tors of westerns and comedies,
once prime forms for action and
enjoyment movies, now opt for
great depth - occasionally suc-
cessfully, more often not. And
most of the recent escapist fare
is made either for the pre-teens
or the over 50's: John Wayne,
Airport, Hello Dolly, and Dis-
ney is about all there is.
But Hollywood and its pro-
duct Sagal should not be blam-
ed entirely. After all, technology
and Jesus ARE popular, contro-
versial issues. In theytradition
of Getting Straight and The
Strawberry Statement,sT h e
Omega Man's pretentions are
what the director thinks we
want to see.
I
01
G.B. SHAW
Caesar and
Cleopaura
OCTOBER 20=23; Curtain at 8 P.M.-!
Box Office opens at 12:30
UNIVERSITY PLAYERS-POWER CENTER
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ENDS TUESDAY!
"'THE DEVILS 'is an incredibly am-
bitious film, conceived not simply as
a historical document but as a vision-
ary work. Russell's terrifying, fantas-
tical nightmare images have astonish-
ing psychological power. Russell re-
fuses to be intimidated by official
pieties. His audacity is what makes his
work original; he breaks the rules of
good taste, obliterates the tired natu-
ralistic conventions that most film-
makers cling to. 'THE DEVILS' is an
allegory for our time. Reed creates a
character of tremendous stature and
dignity, one of the few con-
vincingly heroic figures in re-
cent movies ... it is filled with energy,
passion and imagination that make
Ken Russell one of the most exciting
and important filmmakers working
today."
-STEPHEN FARBER in The New Yor Times
I
0
AT 1-3-5-7-9
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Friday and Saturday
GRAPES OF WRATH
(1940) based on JOHN STEINBECK'S
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with HENRY FONDA, JANE
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Merle Haggard's favorite movie
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aHENRY VIII
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eAn je Ioe74e-ousan Ve,' M
A UNIVERSAL PICTURE
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