Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, Dctaber 23 f 1971 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY - -Saturday, October 23~ 1971 I', U 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 I Nwr l M *i I 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 A WDIAL 8-6416 I 4 4 I HELLSTROM CHRONICLEI Friday and Saturday GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) based on JOHN STEINBECK'S novel, directed by JOHN FORD with HENRY FONDA, JANE DARWELL and JOHN CARRADINE Merle Haggard's favorite movie SHOWN AT 7 & 9 Aud. A, Angell Hall DIAL 662-6264 COLORGP IA" OPEN 12:45 At State and Liberty SHOWS AT 1, 3, 5, 7, 9:05 HELD OVER-2nd Hit Week! EVERY WEDNESDAY, 1-6 p.m., Ladies Pay only 75c VANESSA REDGRAVE OLIVER REED in KEN RUSSELL'S Controversial Masterpiece THE DEVILS IFTH Forum PWTYM"*UN " l'LIBERTY COWN1'0WN ANN ARBOR MNFO0R4MATION 76"1-3700 Saturday & Sunday L SH*W 7A. ",".M LATE SHOW SAT. 11] P.M. NEWSPAPERS 23= Friend of the CONSUMERS SAT & SUN. MATINEE at 2 p.m. (OVER 4:30 P.M.) "Epic battle of the sexes!"-Vincent Canby, N.Y. Times RICHARDJ BURTON aHENRY VIII GENEVIEVE BUJOLD as ANNE BOLEYN N THE HALWALLIS PRODUCTION eAn je Ioe74e-ousan Ve,' M A UNIVERSAL PICTURE 1 in *. -1 1 a pqm M moollma- rnc IAzoirY7 ZIZ Lk r II r-- - -- - 1 ill Ii rya: ? :a4:: ::ciy,;;: U.. :. ,. ,*v, '" "*1!Sy 5 :. r fir. ':i" ,fir, :iiC'a. :l, ''' '' .. :{,. }} YL y ::;:{. 1: i , h :. : ,. 4: 4. t.}; .;: j ' if "} .. .. .r .a . n. w Iowa Scottish Highlanders* Michigan Men's Glee Club** in JOINT CONCERT 1* II 11 ~dIII r+ . - 1 r ^ ^U 11 II h .