Fridoy, NoY( mber 2-2, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Foge Fire Friday, November 22, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY rage Five cinema weekend U Pick of the Week: The Savage is Loose The Movies, Briarwood resa has a major role. The Trial of Billy Jack presents a strong argument against nepo- tism in the cinema. At most, this film provides a modestly insightful look into the psyche of the racing-car driver. Otherwise, it simply drones off, i Nothing seems to bring the -icnaezBidy into monotonous montage of masses into movie theaters like zooming cars, faceless crowds a little bit of controversy (re- Taking of Pelham and gritting teeth which makes member The Exorcist?). Per- an Andy Granatelli STP corn- haps that's why GeorgeC . State mercial thrilling by compari- Scott decided to carry his fight As a change of pace from the son. to get Savage is Loose re-rated i now ever-present physical dis- -George Lobsenz from 'R -to PG into the public aster films, we are offered a * arena. It certainly couldn't dose of social disaster. Appar- Owl and Pussycat have been because he thought ently running out of novel loca- O w and u B Savage was a classic movie. tionsrto stage these turmoils, Fri., 7, 9 They maintain a major d p g fIt's the old prostitute-meets-E theme of the movie is incest," his cast and crew into the New the-intellectual trick, and the states Scott in a one-page hand- York subway system, resulting biggest disappointment is that. out distributed by Briarwood E with the mediocre yarn that Streisand never gets to sing. ushers after each showing of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 is. The pussycat is Doris Wav- the film. "We contend that Working from the premise of erly (Barbra Streisand), a stu-{ there is no incest in the picture, a subway car being hijacked pid if genuine New York pro- that it is. about survival and by a foursome who subsequent- stitute and the owl is Felix celebrates the triumph of love ly hold the 17 passengers as (George Segal), a wan Double- And life over despair, hatred hostages for one million dollars, day clerk. Their union has quiteE and death." the movie never really gets out a potential for humor, but un- Well, technically speaking, from under the ground. The fortunately Owl and the Pussy- that's true. There isn't one claustrophobic action consider- cat is never quite a funny film. frame of actual incest in ably hampers any talent Walter It depends too much upon Savage. But the implications of Matthau may attempt to surface sarcasm and insult and on Max Ehrlich and Frank De- and forces him to expound the Doris's stupidity. It's louder and Felitta's screenplay are pretty meat of his dialogue into a brasher than it need have been, clear, I think. S microphone throughout t h e and doesn't give Streisand the Scott plays a circa 1910 na- film. chance to put out the kind of tural science professor travel- Robert Shaw turns in a credi- warmth of which she is capa- ling with his wife (portrayed ble presence as the sinister ble. by Trish Van Devere) and leader of the subway saboteurs, Her acting emits the same young son by boat across the, but the frigid adaptation of John kind of explosive energy, but Pacific Ocean. En route, a Godey's novel reduces the char- she can't seem to solidify it storm grounds the boat on an1 acters to little more than card- without song, and can't become uninhabited island, forcing Scott board caricatures along for the a whole character. and family to fend for them- ride. In the end it's a film with selves in a totally unfamiliar The film does diverge from some nice moments, but it lacks setting. the usual formula that is so dignity. Perhaps director Her-! Well, one day the young boy, often applied to this type of bert Ross didn't .intend such David (played at this point by fare. Screenwriter Peter Stone esoteric things to slip into an Lee Montgomery), discovers mercifully spares us from the otherwise harmless but flimsy two turtles in the sand-and you usual portfolio of personalities effort. know what turtles do in the that inhabit the jeopardized con- .-David Weinberg sand. Having made this brilliant finement, opting rather to sim-* * * scientific conclusion, David de- iFaces c6des to watch his parents, after ply allow everyone their indi- Fcs hi vidual state of frenzy in the fi- CinemaII, Aud.A bedtime one evening-and you nale. Unfortunately, we can on- i., 7,9:15- know what parents do after bed- ly thank director Sargent for Using cinema verte to its time. what he didn't do, and thus theoretical hilt, John Cassa- From this we dissolve to an lies the fault of the entire af- vetes' Faces returns as a stun- 18-year-old David who obviously fair. - "~~~~ ....nn Ysritatin of tha p a t I I i ,E . .{ ,I i ;k I , ii 4 fulfillment. It is only with eachI other that the three husbands" experience love, intimacy, and fun, although there is no homo- sexuality. Husbands has been highly ac- claimed as a film which depicts the urgent need for husband and wife to get to know and love each other as people, apart from their roles. As the threesome, John Cassavettes, Ben Gazzara, and Peter Falk are excellent. Despite these strong- points, however, the movie is limited in its appeal, as. unwed viewersC may find, it difficult to identify with the predicament of these married men. -Linda Fidel * * * If Couzens Film Co-op Couzens Cafeteria j Fri., Sat., 8, 10 The metaphor of a revolution taking place in an archaic En- glish boarding schools is what Linsay Anderson develops in the film If. The film traces the lives of a number of students as they become subjected to the anti- quated hierarchy of order that persists in College House. Lead' by Traver (Malcolm McDowell), a group of students and a local barmaid (Christine Noopan), plan an armed insurrection. Interspersed with flashbacks and black and white segments, it sometimes becomes difficult to tell whether events take place or exist in the minds of the stu- dents. Occasionally powerful, the filM never becomes emotion- al since it never takes sides. Anderson's second film, If has been around for awhile and is well worth seeing. -Ray Bergelin Seventh Sepd Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud. Fri., 8:45, 10:30 There is probably no other film director who is able to tell a story as powerfully and asa bea'itif'illv as Inamar Bergman, and The Seventh Seal is prob- ably the finest testimonial to his aH1ity. an effective poetic quality. Out- of Leonard Bernstein which con-, standing are the shots of the notes the most passionate, as setting up of the little circus in well as the more somber over- the rain, close-ups of faces, an- tones of the movie. gle views of disheveled women, The combination of the effec- and twilight silhouettes. tive cast, setting, and photogra- All in all, it is a fine film, phy of On the Waterfront pro- relating its principal themes duces an overwhelming impact through an effective film tech- and will undoubtedly leave a nique and the use of pantomime. lasting impression. -Cinthia Fox -Debby Bienstock * * * * Four Nights of The Groove Tube a Dreamer The Movies, Briarwood Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud. The Groove Tube is much like Sun., 7, 9 Where's Poppa? It contains Four Nights of a Dreamer is something to offend nearly ev- the fourth'Robert Bresson film erybody, no matter who you to be released in the U. S. and are. But it's also wildly funny it confirms the growing recogni- in spaces and is a beautifutI tion accorded this French mas- roasting of the bland dreadful ter. Although this is not his best pap which comprises commer- effort to date by any estima- ^ial television. tion, it does achieve an atmos- The short film is set in a nhere and flow that is absent number. of short skits, many of in the greater portion of today's which parody familiar televi- cinema. s i o n formats. Predictably, Bresson has adapted Dostoy- there's a Sex Olympics skit, evsky's novel, changing it only with, of course, commentary by in respect to the setting. The a former participant describing' story moves from St. Peters- the action. The French Chef etj burg in the 1840's to Paris in alia is blasted by The Kramp the 1970's. Easy Lube Kitchens. The plot of the movie con- Still, if you're not offended by cerns a youne dreamer, who, National Lampoon humor you're one lonely night encounters a bound to find a great deal of suicidally upset girl on the it funny. banks of the Seine. For the next -Stephen Selbst three nights, they meet at the same snot as he tells her about hi-self ,and to hear her story TONIGHT! Friday, Nov. 22nd only! MARLON BRANDO in ELIA KAZAN'S ON THE WATERFRONT Winner of EIGHT Academy Awards with Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb The story of a priest who sets out to smash mob control, over the New York waterfront and of an inarticulate lancq- shoreman who slowly becomes aware of what he could amount to in the world. MODERN LANGUAGES AUDITORIUM 3-7 & 9 p.m. $1.25 BOTH FILMS at 7 p.m. for $2.00! MODERN LANGUAGES AUDITORIUM 4-7 & 9 p.m. $1.25 BARBRA STREISAND and GEORGE SEGAL in The Owl and The Pussycat directed by HERBERT ROSS A comedy about an inhiibted bookstore clerk, hired to be a writer and a part-time prostitute. "Clowinq comedy"-Time Maazine "Bravo for Barbra Streisand and Georqie Secial who play off each other benutifully."-Cue Magazine . n *6 I * I l' Coming TUESDAY-Marx Brothers Double Bill: HORSEFEATHERS and MONKEY BUSINESS Complete at 7, 8:10 & 9:30 p.m.-$1.25 AUDITORIUM "A" ANGELL HAIL December: December! December December December" 3 & 4-THE WAY WE WERE 5-MIDNIGHT COWBOY 10 & 1II-FIDDLER ON THE ROOF 12-FELLINI'S 81/% 17 & 18-THE KING OF HEARTS of "nrerniitpd love. On the final night, the girl rmtri-e- h-r lost loier, ahan- rl'ni'n the drear r, who is now dr-Pmhv in love with her, to his hnnoles arloration. The '"ncorn- nlirated f"' cus of this film is love, its beauty, its passinns, and maybe above all, its illu- Tt is Ifi-;tlv a m'o-i hfr the rommnti'- the whole air' of the m o ip is t it of a fnntasv. Per- li-ns this is the main anneal of this mo-ie: it disdains the sledmhaemmer annroach of so nr'-h of or modern cinema, ontina' instaad for a aoiet nrob- ing Wuhich is both forcef-l and to""ing, -Georg-e Lobsenz * IC * On tho Wortprfront Ann Arbor Film Co-op MTR, And. 3 i Fri., 7, 9 On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kagan, is a powerfil t PS. shows the effects of having learned about s-e-x several years earlier and living on a deserted island with just . his mother and father. (Or, as his mother succinctly puts it, "We've got a lusting male on our hands.") Not satisfied with a pseudo- female substitute he constructs from cocoanut shells, David de- cides to go 'after the only true female on the island: his mother. And ifdthat's not im- plied incest, I don't know what is. Scott's direction of this sexed- up Swiss Family Robinson tale is adequate, if definitely influ- enced by the J. Lee Thompson school of directing: "When in doubt, move the camera." Vanj Devere and company turn in fair performances, if hampered by the inadequacies of Ehrlich and De Felitta's script. But in the end, I felt cheated by Savage. I' got too much jungle and too little of the "microcosm of society" film I had been promised. I'm afraid the best film about sex and the tropics is still Lord of the Flies. -David Blomquist * *4 * Trial of Billy Jack Fifth Forum Four years ago, an unheralded low-budget film called Billy Jack was released to American theaters. Originally ignored by critics, Billy Jack went. on to become one of the most enor- mous "sleeper" successes of cinema history. Now, Tom Laughlin, who wrote, produced, directed, and' starred in Billy Jack, returns in the sequel, The Trial of Billy' Jack. Unfortunately, the modi- cum of simplistic charm and strength which was evident inI the original is now lacking in! the sequel. At just under three hours, The Trial of Billy Jack is justI one long, simple - minded, pre- tentious ego trip staged by Laughlin. The pace is excruciat-, ingly slow and only picks up; when Billy Jack practices his karate on the local baddies. Laughlin and his wife, De- lores Taylor, who returns in her role as the leader of the Free- dom School, once again are re- sponsible for an amateurish screenplay which lacks any plot devejopment and structure. References to Kent State and My Lai only add to the ridicu-! lousness of the film's message of non-violence. The Laughlins' son Frank di- rected, and their daughter The-! -Jim Valk Acapdco Gold Campus ning exppliation ei ne me- dium. Where Shadows set his artistic pace, Faces elaborates both technique and aesthetics. At times crude in presentation and appearances, Faces is nev- If interminable shots of ma- erthels a disturbing intru- sinte talents some o Usine thes tadistsrbins intru juana fields could entertain you, sion into the semblance of frus- his stock favorites like Max von you might like Acapulco Gold, a tration. Svdow and Gunnar Biornstrand, documentary about the cultiva- Cassavetes' film concerns one lereman has part together a film tion and smuggling of that weed. night spent by a middle-aged which will remain a classic nor- R e e f e r Madness exploit- couple after an argument. Each traval of the human condition ed the current interest in mari- take their own road:ehe with for quite a while. juana but was legitimate as a an expensive prostitute, she The story takes nlace in 14th film meant purely for enter- ivth a stud picked up at a bar. century medieval Europe where tainment. Acapulco Gold doesn't The next morning the husband the Plague is striking every- seem to have any point besides nretus ho nd the bleak: where. A knight and his sauire. making money and making fools mutual existence of the two is. recently returned from csad- of those who go to see it. again predicated. sng, Journey through the strick- The only entertaining mom- The real thrust of the film en countryside on their way ents in the film are during a lies in the combination in which' home. cartoon of a car on a street all the elements of the film neone who are reacting to what made of bricks of Acapulco mesh. Starting out with a rela- they feel is the upcoming Judg- Gold, and even that is an at- tively slow pace, the film, ment Day. Death is everywhere. tempt to capitalize on the suc- once loose, runs rampant. John and in one of the finest series of cess of the cartoons in Yellow Marley and Lynn Carlin accept sc'enes in cinema. Death person-s Submarine, Between Time and Cassavetes' style in chain- ified nlavs a game of chess Timbuktu, Fantasia, and other pion form, displaying a deli- with the knight for his life. films. cate balance of eliced resnonses Bergman wrote the screenplay There is one scene in which and emotional improvisation. for this movie and expresses one man considers buying mari- Cassavettes' unique direc- some of his own feelings and juana from another that seems itorial style allows for, what doubts about mhan and God in rehearsed. If it was rehearsed, may only be termed "control- this film. the film isn't really a documen- I led spontaneity", resulting in a This is not a movie that should tary. film of gritty realism. Yes, '-be passed un, but if you can't If you smoked all the mai- channel.4, this is the real "Slice I get to see the film it will be juana from all the fields in this 0' Life". nlaving on your TV screen the film while watching it, you still' -Jim Valk same night for a much better would probably be bored..* * price. -Joan Ruhela - -Mark DeBoisky * * * VT 1 1* * * i a-d moving drama of stark re- alism, vividly depicting man's inhumanity to man in the New. York docks of 1954. The very effective photogranhy of the Hoboken dock area keenly pene- t i { f i 3 3 3 trates the shocking labor condi- tions and the racketeering in the New York dock areas. Marlon Brando characterizes a confused, illiterate citizen who is a victim of the terrifying lower depths of this social struc- ture. He learns to accept mur- der and mayhem as the code of ethics that is rigidly main- tained in this merciless world. Violenceand ultimate death are extolled as a response to re- bellion and defiance of the au- thority of the union. A relief from the glaring bar- barity of the interactions of the characters is provided by the tender love scenes between Mar- lon 'Brando and Eva Marie Saint. The moods of the drama are further enhanced by the score Le Mans Mediatrics, Nat. Sci. Aud. Fri., Sat., 7:30, 9:30 Does the thought of shiny, glinting chrome give you tingly little sensations all up and down your spine? Does the throaty growl of a monstrous turbo - engine revving up give you goosepirmples? Do scads of screeching wheels tickle your fancy? If you answered yes to all the above, the movie of your wildest dreams has ar- rived - Le Mans. This is a sort of semi-docu- mentary on that famous race that occurs annually in that small French village. Most of the strength of this picture lies in its vivid photography which intermittently puts you right in the driver's seat, a somewhat disconcerting experience at times. Steve McQueen is about the only familiar face in the cast as he stars as an obsessed rac- ing-car driver. The facsimile of a plot revolves around him and despite a reasonable per- formance, McQueen just can't coax this flimsy story into the winner's circle. I usifmqcrs Cinema I, Aud. A { Sat., 7, 9:15 "Except for sex, and my wife's very good at sex, I like you guys better," says Harry, one of the trio of men in John; Cassavetes' Husbands. His state- ment epitomizes the message of this meaningful film - the rap- port between men borne out of a lack of rapport with their wives. Upon the death of their close friend, the three men, Harry, Gus and Archie go on a rowdy drunken binge. But there is an underlying tension revealing their fear that they, too, will die without complete emotional Naked Night Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud. Sat., 7, 9 The Naked Night, another Swedish film (English subtitles) written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, is representative of his other intriguing art films.x This particular work concerns a smal circus owner who is constantly tormented by an un- faithful, youthful bareback rid- er, played by Harriet Anderson. The circus owner, Albert, is humiliated by the girl's seducer, an act unparalleled by the aged clown and his woman. The photography, the distin- guishing trait of Bergman, has . -. / .. _. Everything you wonted to know about ... Mon., Tues., Thurs. at 7:30 & 9,p.m. Friday at 7:30, 9 & 11 p.m. Sat. at 1-2:30-4-5:30-7:30 & 9 p.m. Sun. at 1-2:30-4-5:30- 7:30 & 9 p.m. r P 4 Wed. at 1-2:30-4-5:30- 7:30 & 9 p.n. ACAPULCO GOLD-The ulti- mate documentary on Harvest- inq, cultivation and SmuqqIinq of mariiuona on the North American Continent. Filmed in color in the Kow Valley of Kansas, the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, t h e Blueqrass Fields of Kentucky, Southern Mexico, and California. Music by Santana, Leo Kottke, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Heads, Hands and Feet, The Rainy Doze, Tonto's Expanding Head- band, and Billy Baker. THE 603 E. LIBERTY 0 DIAL 665-6290 Shows Tonight at 7 & 9 p.m. only; Open at 6:45 IT'S THE SAME GUY.. BUT A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME! "THE LONGEST YARD" is a movie that cracks a lot of iokes. And a lot of bones. Burt Reynolds stars-tough, sassy- and always that fire. ii METCO with the suppart of ART WORLDS and the MICHIGAN COUNCIL for the ARTS PRESENTS THEATRE AND DANCE Reynolds is at his most virile The wrath of a woman scorned {}' starts his trouble. However, he's got some wrath of his own. And the last 45 minutes of the film is unlike anything You . :4 have ever seen. It will have you howling and cheering like no movie ever has. "THE LONGEST YARD" is a fierce, funny movie. For men for women, for everyone. "RANKS WITH THE BEST . . A GEM OF A PICTURE." Detroit News THIS IS THE ONE YOUR FRIENDS ARE Couzens Film Co-op PRESENTS LINDSAY ANDERSON'S{ every Friday & Saturday evening at 9:00 AT ART WORLDS' 213 1/ S. Main-Ann Arbor Tel: 668-6244 or 668-6222 I III { I I I