Saturday, September 15, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
}Th e
By BRUCE SHLAIN
In the deluge of anti-heroic
motion picture characters of the
last ten years (post-Bogart), it
is apparent that what really at-
tracts us in these characters is
still being refined, crystallized,
and distilled cinematically.
In Clockwork Orange, Kubrick
allowed us to revel in the ultra-
violence of Alex by making the
victims more repulsive and con-
temptible thankhis droogs, and
the- vibrant look in Alex's eyes
by the end affirmed that he was
no longer the mechanized, moral
robot but the free, human, trium-
phant sadist.
In similar fashion, Arthur Penn
created Clyde Barrow out of a
backdrop of a Midwest delapidat-
ed by the Depression, and Clyde's
robbing of banks could be treat-
ed almost as a legendary tipping
of the scales of justice as well as
the individual's attempted escape
from a constricting and "boring"
cultural era.
Thus Penn and Kubrick create
for us social "excuses," o u t-
moded political. frameworks as
supporting systems for an atti-
tude of nonchalance beyond good
and evil. What is interesting, and
ultimately captivating, about
Fred Zinneman's espionage sus-
pense thriller Day of the Jackal
is that he has stripped away the
cocoon of determinism that guid-
es the assassin to be the assassin.
There is nothing that apparent-
ly has forced the Jackal to be-
come a professional killer, no
motivating childhood psychologi-
cal trauma as in The Conform-
Jackal0
Murder.
as poe
try
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ist. Neither does there appear to
be anything that the Jackal is
reacting, against.
It is surprising, although tot-
ally congruent with Zinneman's
aims, that a film about the at-
tempted assassination of De
Gaulle should be entirely void of
political ideology or principle.
But there is none; this is not a
Costa Gavras film; all that is
laid bare is the naked bureau-
cracy of murder, which is as nak-
ed as a government can get, as
anyone who has followed Water-
gate can guess after collecting
the falling fig, leaves of Ameri-
can spy vs. spy.
The Jackal does not have the
time to think of his actions poli-
tically, let alone emotionally. He
is the quintessential professional
- bland, coldly efficient, and
ruthless. But his ruthlessness does
not carry with it the slightest
taint of sadism, nor of distaste:
it is all a job, pure and simple.
Sure, some of the ways in
which he metes out death are
ironic, even poetic, but this is
obviously the way a man oper-
ates who regards his craft as
an art. In one particularly amaz-
ing sequence, shot in a veil of
bluish darkness, the Jackal kisses
a woman farewell in her bed;
they embrace, and then her hand
slowly falls to rest at her side.
The next we see of the Jackal
he is on the road again, in a new
disguise.;
What we do not know until the
maid discovers the woman dead
is that in that last embrace he
strangled her so as to leave no
trace of where he had been. He
had actually strangled the woman
right in front of our eyes without
us "seeing" the murder, t h e
woman's gesture had not been a
swoon but merely the limpness
of death.
This difficulty in understand-
ing or perceiving events t h a t
take place under our noses re-
calls the poetic ambiguity of An-
tonioni's Blow-up. Indeed, t h e
Jackal is closer to David Hem-
mings' portrayal of a man alone
with his craft than he is to James
Bond.
Edward Fox's characterization
of the Jackal, a lean, blond, ra-
theraordinary man (with the eyes
of a killer, of course) with a
quick, nervous gait is remarkable
in that he remains totally elu-
sivenameless and faceless with-
out making us think that we have
not seen the whole man, without
his performance i seeming shal-
low. He gets at the surface gloss
of an exciting character w h o s e
profession is that mirror-like
quality of being aloof, yet tot-
ally in control, a man who plays
at being a chameleon until he
becomes the chameleon, or at
least convinces the viewer that
he is.
He has taken the assignment
to assassinate De Gaulle as a
culmination of his successful ca-
reer as a professional killer. And
even after he gets word that the
French government has tortured
a leader of the underground to
death and found out his inten-
tions, he refuses to back out,
pressing on into Paris even in
the knowledge that the whole net-
work of police is lying in wait for in the film, when the tortured not assassinated, that the Jackal
him. Valensky uttered the code-word will fail. Midway in the narra
He does not laugh at death, nor "Jackal" before he died, the tor- tive we are introduced to In
gloat over his skill. He is only turers had to figure out whether spector Leber (Michael Lons-
dead serious, as if knowing that he meant the word as an obscen- dale), who gives a typically quir-
what remains is the vortex of ity. ky and eccentric flavor to his rol
death that his movements w i11 What certainly is obscene in as the master detective.
create as his mission becomes the world of espionage is that He begins to "get a feel" for
more difficult. the key to success is the per- the Jackal, and is just the man
verse ability to invade the pri- to find him, being totally alienat
After his uick decision to carry vacy of others to ferret out in- ed from the government official
through his objective, he revs his formation, through tapped phones, who hire him.
sportscar through the hills of beautiful women who are not Leber's eventual victory has all
southernFdrance, and, erod really lovers but informers, hid- the aspects of a fate working it
ao bend driea m aksoffte ro den cameras, etc. self out, as the Jackal's victory
to his death. He walks over to In this treatment of spy work, has all the aspects of a fate
eck on theman slumpe er Zinneman allows the Jackal's working itself out, as the Jack
the wheel, and finds in the car ruthless secrecy to stand as a al's final disguise is that of an
a German shepherd barking gro- vital survival mechanism, until old Frenchmen, an invalid who
tesquely in the back seat. we are almost glad for his de- fought in the war, a disguise don
The dog, of course, is remini- tachment, even if it is at the ned by an assassin preparing for
scent of the jackal as an animal, expense of human feeling. his own death, acting out his o
presiding over a senseless death Watching the film, we know age as if knowing this was his
in a paroxysm of fury. Earlier historically that DeGaulle was last assignment.
A i
Audio ..Room:MN.Plug In
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ANN ARBOR
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A moving experience in sound and light
The ADVENTURE of 'LostHorizon'
is as breathless as it is spectacular
Columbia Pictures presents
ROSS HUNTERS f
Musical Production of ..
Music by Lyrics by
BURTBACHARACH HAL DAVID
'awlLARRY KRAMER ROSS HUNTER {" w CHARLFSJARRO
NOW
SHOWING!
By STEPHANIE LEHRER
In these times of soaring con-
cert prices, there's a place on
campus which still offers free
entertainment. Believe it or not,
it's the Audio Room of the
UGLI
And all you need to get in is
some form of identification, such
as your infamous yellow plastic
card. Just walk on in and plug in
some earphones for anything
from Anglo - American ballads
to the music of Oceania.
Or, you can choose from any
of the 6,500 records available.
If you have nothing particular
in mind, look through the card
catalogue which lists albums.
Considering the wide variety of
offerings, something just might
catch your eye.
The Audio Room's musical re-
cordings include Western clas-
sical music, American Indian
music, folk, jazz, and rock. Alice
Cooper, Leonard Cohen, Crosby,
Stills and Nash, -- even the
Electric Prunes!
Thetcard catalogue lists spoken
word recordings (plays, stories,
poems( separately. Such note-
worthy actors as Richard Bur-
ton, Laurence Olivier and Paul
Scofield are there to perform for
you and you alone.
A collection of Broadway mu-
sical comedies is another. list-
tening alternative. There are
some old goodies like Camelot
and Peter Pan and some new
hits such as Godspell and No, No,
Nanette.
Some new additions to the re-
cord collection includes: Archi-
bald Macleish reading Emerson's
"Essay on Education and Self-
Reliance," Ezra Pound reading
his own "Cantos", and Ralph
Richardson reading Plato's The
Apology.
According to one student, the
Audio Room is "a nice place,
whether you use it for your own
enjoyment or as a resource."
So, when you don't have the
recordings you want to hear or
you find that you really wish you
could hear Hamlet saying, "To
be or not to be . . ." come on
downto the Audio room, grab
a pair of headphones, and let
the tapes roll on.
COMING NEXT
CONRAD ROOK'S
FILM OF
Hermann Hesse's
"SIDDHARTHA"
Due to length
feature, phone
show times
of
for
C14 ULT URE'I C.ALE N D AR
MOVIES--Cinema Guild shows Curt McDowell's Quick Billy
in Arch. Aud. at 7, 9:05 tonight; Couzens Film Co-op pre-
sents A Night at the Opera at 8, 10 tonight in Couzens
Cafeteria; Cinema II shows The Man in the White Suit
tonight at 7, 9 in Aud. A and tomorrow Gervaise in Aud.
A at 7, 9; Friends of Newsreel sponsor Sunday, Bloody
Sunday and The Music Lovers at 7, 9:30 tonight in MLB
Aud. 3 & 4 and tomorrow Sunday, Bloody Sunday and
Women in Love at 7, 9:30 in MLB aud. 3 & 4.
MUSIC-Jack Crotty plays piano at 2:30 today in SM Recital
Hall, tomorrow James Wihelmsen plays piano at 4:30 in
SM Recital Hall and George Lamphere plays organ at 8
at Hill; Steve Goodman performs at the Ark tonight and
tomorrow at 8:30.
Doily Photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
German children dancing at. Ethnic Fair
The Multi-Ethnic Alliance and the DBDA in co-operation with the city of Ann Arbor are sponsoring an
Ethnic Fair representing 19 different cultures. Closing tonight, entertainment for the evening includes
folk and belly dances, ethnic bands, folk singers, a f ashion show, and a bazooki player.
New.
tonight
6:00 2 4 News
9 Movie
"Good Day for a Hanging."
50 Star Trek
6:30 4 NBC News
56 Narukami the Thunder God
7:00 2 CBS News
4 Democratic Telethon
7 Town Meeting
50 Lawrence Welk
7:30 2 Dusty's Trail
7 Dating Game
9 Norm Cash
8:00 2 All in the Family
7 24 Partridge Family
9 Pro Football
56 The Session
50 That Good Ole Nashville Music
8:30 M*A*S*H
7 Movie
"Irma La Douce" (1963)
56 Playhouse New York: The
1940s
50 Wacky World of Jonathan
Winters
9:00 2 Mary Tyler Moore
50 Perry Mason
9:30 2 Bob Newhart
10:00 2 Carol Burnett
56 Cry Sorrow, Cry Hope-Drama
50 Lou Gordon
10:30 9 Document
11:00 2 4 News
9 CBC News
56 Skating Spectacular
AND NOW
A WORD
FROM OUR
CREATOR:
yyvr~
11:15 7 News
9 Look Back
11:30 2 Movie
"Day of the Wolves" (1911)
4 Democratic Telethon
7 ABC News
9 Movie
"Shane" (1953)
50 Movie
"Between Two Worlds." (1944)
11:45 7 Movie
"The Rack." (1956)
1:30 2 Movie
"Black Friday." (1940)
1:45 "r Movie
"The Hook." (1963)
2:00 4 News
3:00 2 Divorce Court
3:15 7 News
3:30 2 News
W b n
Lord of Light Canterbury House
(Lutheran) (Episcopal)
801 S. FOREST AT HILL 218 N. DIVISION
668-7622 665-0606
WORSHIP SERVICE: Sunday, 10:30 a.m. HOLY EUCHARIST at Noon
KICK-OFF BANQUET in St. Andrew's Church
September 16th at 6:15 p.m. CANTERBURY COOK-OUT
September 16th at 6:00 p.m.
914
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Wesley Foundation (Roman Catholic)
(United Methodist) 331 T HOMPSON AT WILLIAM
STAT E & H URON 663-0557
668-6881SUNDAY MASSES: 7:45, 9:00,
-10:30, 12:00, 5:00
KICK-OFF DINNER
September 16th at 6:00 p.m.
OPEIN DA I NON424: I'.WASHI ' HYSLAt
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6:30
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Maranatha Music
Progressive Rock
Future Worlds with William
Douglas
News - Shorts - Comment
New Releases
Radio Free Ghetto
The Potato Show
NOW SHOWING
Evenings 7 & 9:15
Saturday & Sunday Matinee 2 & 4:15
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Open 12:45
Shows at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M.
Feature 15 minutes later
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--Shalit, NBC-TV4
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PORNOGRA FOLLIES
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