Page Two 1 HE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, September 12, 1970. Page Two I HE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, September 12, 1970 cenema' f Exploiting By NEAL GABLER When histories of the period are written James Aubrey will 'have probably earned himself at least a paragraph. Aubrey is the fellow who, as CBS prexy, brought television to heretofore unrealized heights of pap. The B e v e r 1 y Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Gilli- gan's Island, and I could go on. As if that isn't enough to en- dear him to elevator operators everywhere, e v e r y o n e from Joyce Haber to Rona Barrett considers him the model f o r T h e Love Machine's Robin Stone. Could one man have meant so much in our cultural life? .- Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on whether your sympathies'lie with television or film, Aubrey w a s fired from CBS and shortly after became top man at MGM. There last year he presidet over a near- 20 million deficit, thanks in art to Antonioni's folly Zabri- skie Point which he reportedly called "one of the greatest mov- les ever made," and which, in light of its disastrous showing at the box office, he was quick to pin on the previous adminis- tration. Aubrey, however, is not easily discouraged. All those sandal-shod students, t h o s e bearded boys, those braless babes, even the teeny-boppers, bless 'em; these -kids have Coin,' dough, moolah, the big green. And presto! Aubrey, creator of and spiritual advisor to Jed Clampett, wraps an arm around James Simon Kunen. Aubrey is radicalized. His contribution to the strug- gle is T h e Strawberry State- ment, a film very loosely based on Kunen's account of the Co- lumbia uprising in Spring 1968. What Aubrey, twenty-eight year old difector Stewart Hagmann a n d scenarist Israel Horovitz have done is neutralize the book's charm and make a kind of extended L&M commercial. Just the two of us and the revo- lution rages on. The locale has been shifted from Columbia to an anonymous little campus somewhere on the West Coast of all places. And James Simon Kunen the Eastern Jew's Jew becomes Simon James (pretty clever) the Western goy's goy complete with blonde hair and blue eyes and a Brownie Insta-' matic. Simon, broadly played by Bruce Davison, is a jock,' , lib- eral jock with ,a Robert Ken- nedy poster hanging on his wall, but a jock , nonetheless; the campus burns and . Si m o n strokes for the crew team. Then, for some inexplicable reason - this film is full of inexplicable reasons -.Simon wanders into t h e occupied Administration Bulldng. where he quickly be- comes resident boor. Until he meets sweet lovely Linda (rock Chinese exhibit- An exhibition, "In Pursuit of Antiquity: Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties," from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Morse of New York, .will be on display at the Museum of Art in Alumni Memorial Hall from Sept. 13 to Oct. 25. In connection with the exhibi- tion, Prof. Richard Edwards, chairman of the department{ of the,history of art, will give a lecture, "Learning and Crea- ' tivity: Wang Hu and 17th Cen- tur~y Chinese Painting," at 3 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 13) in Auditorium B, Angell Hall. The lecture will be open to the public. National Generbi Theatres FOX HVILLa6L 375No. MAPLE RD.-7691300 Mon.-Fri. 7:25-9:45 Sat. 5:10-7:25-9:45 Sun. 1:00-3:00 5:10-7:25-9:45 COLUMBIA PICTURESp..,.,s ELLIOTT CANDICE GOULD- BERGEN GET7G. ffSTR#601=4 music, soft focus, run through park), loses Linda (rock music, sharp focus, walk down crowded streets), regains Linda (rock music . . . oh, the hell with it),, and gets busted. True, Kunen was on the crew team. B u t he wasn't a jock- sti'apped cretin proudly pro- claiming, "I'm a liberal!" Nor did he just happen to wander into Hamilton Hall because he had nothing better to do. Ku- nen was a self-proclaimed radi- cal with a %elf-deprecating wit and an eye for the irony of his predicament. He despised dog- ma and chanting and violence and general stupidity. He pre- ferred tits and food and the Red Sox a n d genuine morality, whatever that is. In short, he was a kid who took the cause seriously - though he even had doubts about that - but who took his role in the cause far less seriously. The book's humor relied on this Yossarian-like point of view. Let's face it, most radi- cals aren't this much fun. Thus, when Kunen slaps on Grayson Kirk's after shave, t h e sheer power of his good nature in this up-tight world obviates any of the destructiveness of the act. So it wouldn't have been asking too much of this picture to be a passable comedy if nothing else; the book provides for that. But w I t h the change in the main character from soft-core radical to soft-core liberal jock, the humor loses its basic wit. Hagmann and Horovitz don't seem to realize that actions in themselve s aren't altogether comical; it is the people who act that most often make them funny. I don't want to get hung up here on the essence of com- edy. Suffice it to say that Chap- lin can kick somebody in the pants and get a laugh. A -hard hat can do the same thing and elicit a gasp. In the same way Kunen (who has a small bit in the picture) is funny because he seems to know what he's doing and is so light-heartedly para- noid about it all, while Simon, doing the same things, is dull and even pitiable. - Possibly director Hagmann wants to show us h o w a goy jock, who lives f o r crew, be- comes a stone-throwing, c o p- hating, breast-beating radical. Or perhaps Hagmann was less ambitious, trying merely to strike responsive chords in a y o u n g audience. (Altogether now: Cops are pigs.) He fails on both counts. To view campus disorders through a jock's eyes is legitimate and even neces- sary: But this isn't just a film about a jock; it's a film with a jock's mentality, and when a filmmaker approaches his sub- ject with such simple-minded- ness he levels t h e nuances of student discontent to the same philistine plane of his protag- onist. There is no even remotely plausible reason - s a v e the girl he meets during the occu- pation - for Simon's sudden radicalization. As for the iden- tification that would seem to be inherent in student revolt, Si- mon is so much a lunk of twen- ty year-old flesh, so m u c h a spouter of marshmallow soft cliches and so little a winning personality that the film could- n't even raise my hackles. ME. And I happen to like students. After all, I am a student. n hose a If one considers its origins it would have been a miracle if The Strawberry Statement were intelligent, h a r d - hitting or thought-provoking, a n d this isn't the age of miracles. What The Strawberry Statement is is a pastiche of wow-wow camera work, a pointless rock score with plenty of Semi Obligatory Ly- rical Interludes, swear w o r d s, pot, hair, cops, blood, armbands, placards and Thus Spake Zara- thustra (called by the credits, in an Aubreyan touch, A 1s o Spake Zarathustra). It is a film of tin-eared dialogue ("The university is responsible for racism and war. So we're start- ing a Revolution."), obtuse per- formances, deceptive stereotypes (cops saying they hate niggers) and choreographed riots t h a t look and sound more like Berk- eley than Columbia (Busby Berkeley that is). Getting Straight, now playing at the Fox Village, is another picture touching on campus un- rest, this one an up-against-it f ii m trying desperately to be The Postgraduate. Predictably, here again are the up-tight lit- tle co-eds mouthing the dogma of the Revolution. Here again are the kids saying "man" and "bullshit" and "sucks." Here again are choreographed riots with neatly hand-lettered signs. But t h e r e is another, almost uncanny similarity: a revela- tion and conversion, and you know how rare those- a r e. In The Strawberry Statement it's one of Simon's fellow crew team members who, again inexplic- ably, decides to man the barri- cades and gets a broken leg for his trouble. Getting Straight both reverses a n d accelerates the process. A freaked-out long- hair becomes a flag-waving patriot after a visit to Marine Corps headquarters. He's sup- posed to be crazy I guess. But what's the jock's excuse? The hirsute students, the swear words, the hand-lettered signs give both pictures the feel of canned revolution. And it. oc- curred to me as I watched them that if I were making a "youth" movie the radicals would at least sound like real live radi- cals. Then it occurred to me that this drivel does sound like the stuff that comes out of the mouths of the real live radicals I've seen and heard on the Diag. It is symptomatic of the times that both films defang the is- sues. Simon, in shades of Morn- ingside Heights, protests against a gymnasium being built by the univ'ersity in a neighborhood park, but the issue is diffused into a number of canned issues: war, racism, brutality etc. For its part Getting Straight never even bothers to define AN is- sue. Indiscriminate demonstration is the public's view of disorders; ki1ds like to riot and they'll riot for anything, the nogoodniks. I fear there may be a grain of truth in this. We may be ap- proaching or we may have al- ready arrived at an era of plas- tic revolution where talking and walking about issues become ends in themselves, words and gainst symbols disconnected from the real injustices of society. What did the people who bombed Wisconsin's science center gain except the right to call them- selves revolutionaries? Maybe it's just that the s a n e ones among us have prematurely be- come like Diego in La Guerre Est Finle, tired of losing the battles and cynical t h a t the outcome will ever go our way. All of this is to say that in the patent dishonesty of The Straw- berry Statement and Getting Straight there is too much ver- acity for comfort. -There may be some veracity too (although my experiences say otherwise) in Harry's (El- liott Gould) exclamation in Getting Straight t h a t, "Riots are sexy." Simon goes out on food patrol with Linda, falls in love and gets radicalized as far as I can gather through sex, which would make revolution a hell of a lot more popular than it is. Harry scores w i t h Jan right after she is bloodied in a campus fracas, and there is even a hint of the ecstacies awaiting anyone who has the bravado (I should say "balls") to s c r e w smack dab in the middle of a demonstration. Become a revo- lutionary and win a gir . And what girls they are! Kim Darby, w h o plays Simon's heart-throb, is the kind of a. fe- male day-dreams are made of. Sweet and gentle and innocent. Candice Bergan, Harry's Jan, is the kind of female wet dreams are made of. Blonde and stat- uesque and finely chisled fea- tures. When she stands there she's absolutely great. It's only when she starts talking t h a t you begin to wince and say to yourself, "This is Charlie Mc- Carthy's sister." Not that screenwriter Robert Kaufman gives her or anyone else much to say that we haven't already heard in scores of other pictures. Kaufman though has the awful knack of having his characters say the wrong Thing, in the wrong way, at the wrong time, in the wrong place. I don't mind dialogue that isses the clear ring of truth; but I do mind dialogue that. embarrasses the actors. A sample is Gould's shouting indictment of suburbia delivered at a party 'io less. "What you want is .the join- the-PTA, have-two-kids, take- a-pill-every-Saturday, no-dear- I-have-a-headache . . ." "OK Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mr. J. D. Salinger, Mr. Philip Roth ...' But Getting Straight does have a point of view. Its hero is Harry Bailey, a guy who has "done it already": early sixties civil rights crusader, Vietnam vet, English grad student and TV RENTALS $10.50 per month NO DEPOSIT FREE DELIVERY AND SERVICE CALL: NEJAC TV RENTALS 662-5671 exploitation wearer of brown corduroy jack- ets. Harry can stare down an upstart black radical with "I've been to Selma," or turn on a remedial reading class to the similitude between Batman and Don Quixote, or discuss the epic sweep of Beowulf with the Eng- lish profs. The character how- ever is poorly drawn, and Hariy needs a big assist from the low- key insouciance of Elliott Gould, who makes even some of Kauf- man's lines sound decent. With his boyish grin and slur- py speech that makes him sound as if his words are rolling down the lower lip in a ball of saliva, Gould is a lucky victim of nor- mality, an anti-star in a day of antis. He is the Jewish boy-man we've all known. The average face with the average manner, a living parody of Gable, Coo- per, Bogie and Newman. Gould's Bailey finds himself a man in the middle. He under- stands the students but with age has come some distance. He loves Jan but abhors her WASP- ish, sterile, suburbia-oriented existence. He dislikes the Sys- tem but realizes he must go along to get along toward his goal of teaching high school. He is, in essence, a man trying to come to terms with life and avoid the pitfalls that might keep him from his dream. He is willing to meet them halfway by going to their school, by tak- ing their tests, by earning money from their payroll and hoping for their approval on his teaching certificate. You can't have it both ways and when the System threatens to anesthetize him or chew him up and spit him out, Harry rebels. And it is only then that the film approaches any real truth about students and their environment. The scene is Har- ry's master's oral where he is confronted, in the person of an F. Scott Fitzgerald scholar, with the banality, obscurity and stupidity of what passes for education. Mr. Bailey, don't you see the homosexual core of The Great Gatsby? And Harry sweats and stutters and finally leaps to the table to yell his The Michigan Daily, edited and man- ages: by "students at the University of Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich- igan, 420 Maynard St.. Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues- day through Sunday morning Univer- sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by carrier, $10 by mail. Summer Session published Tuesday through Saturday morning. Subscrip- tion rates: $5. by carrier, $5 by mail. defiance at Them and their Sys- tem. Up until that point Getting Straight like The Strawberry Statement seems content with showing the manifestations of revolt and not the causes behind the manifestations.'We all know that students get gassed andj beaten up and chased and ar- rested and sometimes even kill-f ed. We all know that and a filmC that offers no more than blood- letting isn't much of a film. The Strawberry Statement never deals with causes and motives though Heaven knows there are plenty of causes and motives around. (Of course, it may be that Mr. Douglas Hallett is wrong, as I think he is, and that the cameras pointing toward the campus are looking only at the receiving end, missing the sour- ces of malaise that lie beyond the campus.) Instead State- ment opts for an innocuous little love story and a mystifying Kama Sutra of radicalization. Getting Straight does have a message, though it's bungled in _ delivery, and it does hit almost by accident upon a very real campus problem: University education is very often a lot of pure, unadulterated bullshit. CINEMA II CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS "It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry" Aud.AAngel Hall I 1 0. C+1 Kunstier's Cunning! , ____ ._ TV RENTALS $10.50 per month NO DEPOSIT FREE DELIVERY AND SERVICE CALL: NEJAC TV RENTALS 662-5671 f C E i t I E G CIIIU. IILD Sat.-Sun., Sept. 12-13 Lonesome Cowboy dir ANDY WARHOL (1967) Real modern art from the modern West- with all your favorites-Machismo--King Joe D'Allesandro, Viva Superstar and Rav- ing Taylor Mead. Sept. 14-MANDABI 7& 9:05Architecture 675cA WORSHIP 1 # ... ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 306 N. Division 8:00 a.m.-Holy Communion. 10:00 a.m.--Morning Prayer and Sermon. 7:00 p.m.-Evening Prayer. FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH AND WESLEY FOUNDATION State at Huron and Washington Church-662-4536 Wesley-668-6881 Dr. Hoover Rupert, Minister Bartlett Beavin, Campus Minister R. Edward McCracken, Campus Minister 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.-Sermon by Dr. Hoover Rupert - "You Can't Go Home Again!" Broadcast WNRS 1290 am, WNRZ 103 fm, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. WESLEY FOUNDATION ITEMS: Sunday, Sept. 13, 5:30 p.m.- Celebration (Worship) ; 6:15 Dinner, 7:00 Where Are You? Wesley Lounge and Pine Room. Monday, Sept. 14 - Luncheon Discussions at- noon, Pine Room. Christianity and Foreign Policy. (Through Nov. 2). Leader, Bart Beavin. Wednesday, Sept. 16, 9-11 p.m.-Personal En- counter Groups. Orientation. Leader, Ed McCracken. Thursday, Sept. 17-Luncheon Discussiohs at noon. Does the Church Keep the Poor? (Through Nov. 5). Leader, Bart Beavin. Pine Room. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1432 Washtenaw Ave. Ministers: Robert E. Sanders, John R. Waser, Donald A. Drew, Brewster H. Gere Worship at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. Preaching: Mr. Sanders. UNITY CENTER OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY 310 S. State St. Phone 663-4314 Mrs. Eleonore Krafft, Minister Mrs. Viola Mattern, Associate 11:00 a.m.-Sunday Service-Mrs. Mattern. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Study and Prayer Class -Mrs. Krafft. 11 :00- a.m. to 12 noon Wednesday-Prayer and Counseling, also, 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. -Healing Service-Mrs. Mattern. Center Open: Mon., Wed., and Fri.-11:00 a m. to 2:00 p.m.; Tuesday-3:00 to 5:00 pm. CANTERBURY HOUSE 330 Maynard 11:00 a.m.-Holy Communion, Hippolytus Rite-bring bread, cheese, fruits, vege- tables, or some such thing for you and your neighbor. ,4:00 p.m.-Open House (for a somewhat more freaky and more informative an- nouncement check the Sunday Daily) P.S.: You may have to look hard. We can't afford a very big ad. UNIVERSITY LUTHERAN CHAPEL (The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) 1511 Washtenaw Ave. Alfred T. Scheios. Pastor Sunday at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.-Services, Communion at 9:30 (Nursery and Tots Sunday School at 9:30). Sunday at 11:00 a.m.-Bible Class. Sunday at 6:00 p.m.-Gamma Delta, Lutheran Student Organization, Supper - Program. Speaker, Mr. Moby Benedict, Head Basket- ball Coach. Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.-Married Couples' Pot- luck Supper. Phone 663-5560. Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.-First meeting of week- ly Church Membership Class for fall term. Wednesday at 8:30 p.m-Chanel ,Assmbly FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST 1833 Washtenaw Ave. SUNDAY 10:30 a m.-Worship Services, Sunday School (2-20 years).r WEDNESDAY 8:00 a m.-TestimonvMeeting. Infants room available Sunday and Wednesday Public Reading Room, 306 E. Liberty St. - Mon., 10-9; Tues.-Sat., 10-5. Closed Sun- days and Holidays. "The Bible Speaks to You," Radio WAAM, 1600, Sunday, 8:45 a.m. For transportation call 662-0813. UNIVERSITY REFORMED CHURCH 1001 East Huron Phone 662-3153 Ministers: Calvin S. Malefyt and Paul Swets 10:3,0 a.m.-Sermon Title: "Change Agents." 6:30' p.m.-Sermon Title: "'Changing Men, Changing Society. BETHLEHEM UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST 423 S. Fourth Ave. Telephone 665-6149 Ministers: T. L. Trost, Jr., R. E. Simonson Worship Services-8:00 and 9:30 a.m. Church School-9:30 a.m. FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH 1917 Washtenaw Ave. Erwin A. Goede, Minister 10:00 a m.-Sermon-"Reprtions: Charity and Morality." Nurseryavailable. HURON HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH 3150 Glacier Way Pastor: Charles Johnson *. Rosalie Sorrels TODAY Doors Open 12:45 DIAL 8-6416 TODAY Shows at, 1, 3,5, 7, 9 P.M. ... exquisite.. . from a birdlike chirp, to a high country music howl." -NEW YORK TIMES Saturday 1 P.M. -Workshop "EXTRAVAGANTLY F U N N Y performances by Wilder, Griffith, and especially Sutherland!" TIME MAGAZINE "WHAT A PLEASURE TO LAUGH! The acting to a man is wildly funny!" .1 0 "JUST FUNNY! JUST GREAT!" CHICAGO TRIBUNE. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES AVAILABLE AT "VERY FUNNY . . . lush and lavish!" JUDITH CRIST I I NEXT WEEKEND- I B Pn 1'; i ,I 11 E