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November 10, 1981 - Image 6

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1981-11-10

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6

Tuesday, November 10, 1981

The Michigan Daily

Z0g &
immy performs nicenicenice
RJ JSmth few years (varied material, yes, and ny Bruce" and "In the Beginning" the try," and "The Times They
Smith__ _ some tunes better than others, but all of one which says "You want to see bad Changin' ." Nobody was hangix
it garbanzo spread) and unleashes taste, 'wait until you see the cover of edge of his rope onstage Sunda
THERE ARE - ONLY two some kind of racket the universe Saved, wait until you hear my next in- nothing- was half as desper
possibilities for a great Bob Dylan doesn't know about yet, and B) the terview with Jonathan Cott!!" over- moving as what's recorded on
w anymore. A) The man who cuts weird voice inside Dylan, the one that comes our hero and creates some ex- After the Flood from the '74 tou
ugh the punchless fluff of the past tells him to write nutty stuff like "Len- travagantly deranged theatre.

Are A-
ng on the
ay night,
ate and
the live
r.

S375 N. MAPLE No such luck with the show I saw
769-1300 Sunday -night at Hill Auditorium. As

~MON
John Cleese
Shelley Duvall
Soon Cannery
Katherine Helmond
David Warner
Peter Vaughan
music by
GEORGE
HARRISON

FRI S2 tI 6PM
1:45
4:001
7:001
9:20

SAT- SUN S2 ti 3 PM
WIAM HURT
KA THLEEN TURNER
BODY0 ( cues .
HERT,. : .

-I

1:45
4:001
7001

ROBERT DE NIRO
ROBERT DUVALL
UtIE ATSS

E! Tv:.k

~415I

FRI.
SAT.
MID-
WITE

ti

Two hours of
non stop thrls-
1:30 -Rex Reed
415 APf $ I
720 OfFHE
940 LOST ARK Tues.
S® AP#CTURE '

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with no other artist around, there can
be no middle ground for Dylan. I don't
want to hash over all the jagged curves
he's been around in his career, and how
every twist has eventually been coun-
tered with some kind of historical
record or song that, in some way or
another, has changed all the music that
followed it. The last four or five albums
don't do much for his career, but they
don't deal any mortal wbunds either. It
still seems sensible to hope that he isn't
sailing through the rest of his career on
lazy breezes.
If we have to expect Tatoo You from
the Rolling Stones for the rest of their
career (and I think we do), then let's
get on with it, let's pretend this is some
new band, one which never made
"Going Home" or Exile on Main Street.
But who wants another Shot of Love
when the weirdness and the inspiration
seem just around the corner?
Could there be another context in
which "in-between" was the ultimate
condemnation? Dylan is singing very
honestly now, not pumping up his words
with pre-fab drama as he often has on
his past few albums, And he's putting
mteeth into the lyrics, leaning hard
on even the dopey lines about the good
book.
The band has all the soul of Gumby
and.Poky, but they know how to churn.
out that Blond on Blond-ish swirl when
appropos, and they lay down all the
proper grooves.They make for a thank-
fully harder edge to new tunes .like
"Gotta Serve Somebody" and "When
You Gonna Wake Up," and with two
drummers and three guitarists (Zimmy
noddling semi-seriously throughout)
they give most everything a necessary
fullness.
The better parts 6f the show were all
the older tunes, things like "Forever
Young," "Girl From the North Coun-

DEC. 26th 1981
thru
JAN. 3rd 1982
Limited Seats

ONLY $246
Complete Per Person
Based 4 to a Room.
Credit Cards Accepted

But something funny has happened to
the old "folk" songs: lines and phrases
that once seemed to matter most have
receded, and time has granted the new
significance to many other parts. The
electrified tunes by and large still seem
titanic, and any serious and honest
treatment by Dylan is worth hearing.
That said, let me- also say that
listening Sunday was occasionally like
a stint in the dentist's windup chair.
Bad craziness we can hope for from a
Dylan show, even brazen self-
absorption can be fascinating,
but ... what benefit it a man if he sells
his obsessions for a couple of hours wor-
th of nicenicenice? I much prefer Prin-
ce in the shower with this crucifix to
Dylan's proselytizing-he's muct better
to look at and I like his ideas about holy
communion a lot more.
Like the gospel tunes, Dylan's new
love songs just don't go anywhere, and
capable musicianship onstage doesn't
hide their paucity of ideas or
sophistication.
As I write this, a dj on the radio
finished up a Dylan song by calling it
"Visions of Joanna." You might say it's
been a long time since he heard that
song for the first time; so it has been for
many of us. Some, of course, have
never heard it. Toward the end of the
show, Dylan offered to play any song
the audience wanted. "Subterranean
Homesick Blues," someone behind me
shouted; I was hoping for "Desolation
Row."
But what did those in the front row
get Dylan to play? "Senor," a song
which a friend had to remind me was
from Street Legal. These kids looked to
be in high school, and for all anyone
else knew, Dylan began with Street
Legal to them. We can only hope that
they'll have their own rejuvenated
Dylan canon sometime in the future.
There are worse bets you could make.:
"I must have been here 20 years ago, a
lot has happened to me in the mean-
time," Dylan said near the end of his
show. (It hasn't been that long at all.)
"Next time I'll come back and tell you
all about it." He certainly didn't tell us
this time. It's the fact that one of these
days, he just might follow through on
that promise, and not the details of
' Sunday's show, that compels one to see
him the next time around.,

0

Sean Connery: King Agamemnon in 'Time Bandits'
Substance of story,
stolen from -'Ban dits'*.

INCLUDES
9 DAY VACATION * ROUND TRIP DELUXE MOTOR
COACH TO DAYTONA BEACH (NON-STOP)..
" 6 Nights and 5 Days on the Ocean Front
* 6 Complete Breakfasts All taxes/tips. AND MORE!

* DO IT THIS WAY: JUST PAY $41.00 weekly for
weeks and you're on your way
TO A 9 DAY VACATION TO SUNNY FLORIDAI

only 6

By Richard Campbell
MAGINATION IS the cornerstone of
Time Bandits. Every scene is
packed with the most bizarre twists and
fantastic events: Covering ancient
Greece, the Middle Ages, and the For-
tress of Ultimate Evil, the film creates
an incredibly detailed fantasy world.
But as wonderful as the detail is, its
relationship to the plot is ultimately un-
successful.
Although it was written by Michael
Palin and Terry Gilliam and stars Palin
and John Cleese, Time Bandits is not a
Monty Python movie. The Python style
of insanity, at its best in Monty Python
and the Holy Grailwas simply never
intended to be a feature of the work.
The Holy Grail made fun of everything,
including itself. When the actors came
upon a grand castle, one of them
remarked, "It's only a model! " Time
Bandits takes itself much more

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Student Newspaper at The University of Michigan
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C
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(

VI r

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SDu
The Detroit Institute of Arts

seriously, and this approach just
doesn't work. t
The attention to detail is the film's
only interesting aspect. When King
Agamemnon, played strongly by Sean
Connery, enters his royal city, we see
an almost perfect recreation of Athens.
Scene after scene is meticulously eon-
structed, fully realizing ;the
imagination of the writers. .
The plot concerns six bumblig@
dwarves, assistants tosthe Supreme
Being, who steal a map of time-doors,
through which they hope to travel
through time and space plundering the
world. The story begins when the dwar-
vesstumbleinto a young boy's bedroom
and involve him in their escapades..
This fanciful legend-making is the
vehicle used by Palin and Gilliam to
show off their ability at make-believe.
But while two hours of enchanting
scenes hold some interest, there is
something missing. If there had been
one really strong element tying the
novietogether-a theme, a character,
some kind of conclusion-the result
could have been stupendous instead of
average.
David Warner turns in a fine perfor-
mance as Evil, constantly attempting
to steal the map and use it to control all
of creation. The one social point attem-
pted in the film is Evil's wish to fill the
world with nasty things like computers
and fast breeder reactors. Luckily, in a
cataclysmic final battle, the Supreme
Being (Ralph Richardson) is vic-
torious; he zaps Evil into a million
pieces and locks the pieces in a post of-
fice box, making the world safe again.
But the young boy, played innocently
by Craig Warnock, returns to his home
only to discover that a forgotten
fragment of Evil has accompanied him.
What follows is the most worthless, in-
conclusive endings since The Empire
Strikes Back. The fragment blows up
the boy's parents and while we're still
reeling from the explosion, the credits
roll. The only character that holds the
audience's attention at all has been left
orphaned.
If the existence of the fragment im-
plies a sequel to Time Bandits, then the'
writers had better 'concentrate on
developing characters with substance,
in a plot with a real narrative drive.
The've already shown that they can
make it absurd and mythical.
INDIVIDUALTHEATRES
ENDS THURSI
JACQULIEUNEBISSE
'>. CANDICE BERGEN
eRIRIH and.
;FAMOUSA
DAILY-7:20, 9:40
u WED-1:20, 3:40, 7:20, 9:40
00 o TUESDAY
ALL SEATS ALL NIGHI
ONLY $1.00
a irII 1VIr fII_

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Special admission $2, Students/Seniors $1
Children under 12 with adults: Free

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