ARTS *he Michigan Daily Tuesday, December 8, 1981 Page 5 Warren Beatty's 'Reds' perfect By Richard Campbell HE BEST movie of the year has arrived. The movie is Reds and is destined to not only garner many of this year's Academy Awards, but to become one of the most significant films of the decade. Reds is a vast, awe-inspiring portrait of the writer and revolutionary, John (Jack) Reed. and his wife, Louise Bryant. The film is a love story and a historical pageant with the kind of epic proportions that rarely make it to the screen. Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia are the only recent movies that can be compared with the scope and majesty (not to mention the three and a half hour length) of Reds. Director, writer, producer, and star Warren Beatty, who conceived of making this film several yeara ago, has put forth an enormous amount of time and money into getting his idea onto the screen. As a producer, Beatty has assembled a fantastic array of talent around the work, including a cast of prodigious ex- perience and a crew of incomparable technicians. He took'the effort to build sets, shoot on location, and work out the tangled logistical requirements of a film of this size.k As a director, Beatty has inspired his cast and crew to give their best to the production. All the work put into pre- production pays off in the realization of the film. Every dollar spent (somewhere above $30 million), can be seen on the screen. As a co-writer, Beatty (along with Trevor Griffiths) has fashioned a movie of unusual depth, exploring not only Reed's love with Bryant, but also his radical beliefs. The personal story is handsomely balanced with the history of the communist movement in America, and the Russian Revolution. Beatty as a star, ultimately is the for- ce behind the film. With his naturally charming style, the audience is im- mediately rooting for his progressive struggles. Our identification with Reed See 'REDS', Page 9 If INDIVIDUAL THEATRES 5+n 4,..e flby, ' 76.-40oe BowWowWow will perform at the Second Chance tonight. Go ape crazy over 3owWowWow show By Mark Dighton ALL THE BowWowWow fans that A complain that See Jungle! See Jungle! is nowhere near as incen- diary as their impact singles are simply laying elitist ... even if there is a grain of truth in their objections. But as an album, See Jungle! See Jungle! is brilliant, despite its flaws, and no doubt BowWowWow will be ready to prove that at Second Chance this evening. For me, a far more serious charge that BowowWow must answer is the ac- cusations of fabrication. As the newest in a line of Malcolm McLaren fashions (the most notable recent display being The Sex Pistols show, which seemed for a while to be in a state of perpetual Oreruns), BowWowWow need to dispel the stench of pre-packaged commercial plotting that has come to surround their mentor. But even if one would dare claim that Bowwowwow's sound & image are purely calculated, one would also have to admit that it is a brillaint calculation. In Bow WowWow, the best of several. unrealized musical trends have been *synthesized into a sound that instantly. surpasses its inspirations. The double-. time, plucky bass runs circles around its Britfunk competitors. The tribal drumming is integral to the sound, not just tacked on as with Adam and the An- ts. As for the vocalizing of nymphet An- nabella Lwin ... well, Annabella may be the sole patentable aspect of BowWowWow. Certainly, she has a few predecessors in a similar style (Poly Styrne of X-Ray Spex comes to mind), but never before has so fine a singer been sufficiently confident with her technique to half-shout so many of her lines. To be sure, calling Annabella merely a "singer" is somewhat limited; her real mark on this album as a vocalist is her unmistakeable personality. Her unquenchable exuberance is like nothing less than the unreal happy people that populate TV commercials. However, the sensuality that she com- municates and the near-obscenities that she mouths would certainly count her out of the cheerleading squad, a group in which her youthful enthusiasm would otherwise be more than welcome. There's little doubt that Annabella has won her place in BowWowWow par- tially due to her youth and the lecherous potential that affords Svengali McLaren ("I'm a rock and roll pup- pet," she admits in this afe of pubescent sex symbols forced prematurely into a womanly sexuality), but the distinct mark of LcLaren's creations is that their talents are always too vast to be limited by McLaren's obvious scheming. Annabella is just that sort of transcendent personality. So, even if she is saddled with the embarrassing "King Kong," she also gets the chance to strut her stuff on the joyous war-hoop "(I'm a) TV Savage." Jfw the impression so far is that An- nabella is BowWowWow, I apologize. Although the musiciansare an equally essential part of what makes BowWowWow so undeniable unique, they come off as nearly faceless on this disc. The drunmner (Dave Barbarossa) could be synthetic rhythm box (albeit with an uncharacteristically African sensibility), the bass (Leroy Gorman) could come from any super-funk session bassist, the male background chants could enanate from any old Big Ten backfield. . . almost. Matthew Ashman's twangy Ventures guitar sounds lifted from any old spaghetti western. Despite their shadowy iden- tities, the players on this record come across as too unique and powerful to. be just anybodies. But we'll have to wait for their show at Second Chance tonight to see them put across any personality. But then, of course, they'll still have to compete with Annabella. No mean feat there, boys. You better be up to it. WARREN BEATTY DIANE KEATON s JACK NICHOLSON MAUREEN STAPLETON DAILY-8:30 WED-1:00, 4:55, 8:30 (PG) ADULTS $2.50- :00 p.m. Show Only TUESDAY $ 00ALL SEATS + ALL NIGHTI S$1.00 (Except "REDS") LAST 10 DAYS! Li helknfCh 1AeutnaI -'Ivo 1981's MOST CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ACTRESS ... MERYL STREEP 4:00 ITRIES ABOUT LOVE - a COLUMBA EAND SURVIVAL 420 I:>}"..}..::