OPINION
Page 4
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Saturday, September 13, 1980
The Michigan Daily
T IJK of i 7NRMS
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Vol. XCI, No. 9
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of The Daily's Editorial Board
I
A pre-game score
W ELL, THERE'S no turning back
V V now-the opening of the football
.season today means the school year
has irreversibly started.
: The first home football game is
always a landmark occasion. Fresh-
persons rush eagerly toward the
Michigan Stadium, usually unaware,
,of course, that they will be ducking
iow-flying aircraft in their 100th-row,
'end zone seats. Sophomores look for-
'ward to refined versions of "Oooohhhh,
SHIT!" Juniors and seniors are elated
that they finally have seats somewhere
away from the freshpersons and
sophomores. And alumni, smile
nostalgically at the students from their
50-yard-line perches.
It seems appropriate, however, to
temper some of this first-foot-
ball -Saturday enthusiasm. While the
Wolverines kick off today with a clean
record, the athletic department as a
whole has already been "yellow-
flagged" three times.
The first infraction is the alleged
discrepancy between funding for
men's and women's athletics-a
discrepancy that many believe places
the athletic department in violation of
federal Title IX rules. The Department
of Education is concerned enough
about the allegations to have initiated
an investigation into the athletic
department's secret budgetary
process.
The second penalty has been called
for mishandling the serious problem of
"passing up" at football games. This,
barbarous "tradition" of recent years
involves passing women above the
heads of spectators, frequently
resulting in serious injury and almost
always resulting in great trauma for
the victim.
The athletic department, security
forces, and even the police have
refused to rank passing up as a serious
problem; fortunately, an ad hoc group,
Stop Passing Up Now, has initiated an
extensive anti-passing-up campaign
that could mean the end of this min-
dless practice.
Finally, there is the athletic depar-
tment's intentional grounding of the
Michigan Marching Band.
Unless it receives more funds, the
nationally-acclaimed band can not
travel to any away games this year.
The School of Music has no additional
money to give the band, which in the
last year has relied on private
donations (which now have withered)
for much of its support. The athletic
department, however, could certainly
spare some of its huge football ticket
revenues to help the band-especially
since the band performs for the benefit
of the department.
Certainly today should bring an en-
joyable celebration, and we hope and
expect the Wolverines will defeat the
Wildcats. But as you sit in the
stadium-wherever you sit in the
stadium-try to keep in mind more
than the spectacle on the field.
Go to the aid of any person being
passed up. Consider the woes of the
marching musicians. And think about
the women athletes who may be get-
ting the short shrift to assure the glory
of the gridders.
Michigan football can be fun for
everyone.
)1Ose situation
tabulators, for instance, are com-
missioned government officials, with
stong ties, no doubt, to the rulers in
Santiago.
The voters turned out in con-
siderably greater force than the
American electorate typically does.
This may have had something to do
with the fact that non-voters were sub-
ject to fines of more than $150 and
prison sentences of up to 60 days.
As indicated, however, fixing the
election turned out to be unnecessary.
The junta clearly had indicated its in-
Itent to stay on even without the sup-
'port of the people. How fortunate that
the electorate fell in line.
i/
U come 13ACK
t- A en re
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
'Dressed review rife with error
I
Pinochet' s
y.
.9.
THE PEOPLE of Chile faced an inter-.
esting set of choices in a national
referendum yesterday. If they voted
"yes"' on the referendum, military
strongman President Augusto
Pinochet would continue in office. If,
on the other hand, they voted "no",
on the referendum, military
strongman President Augusto
Pinochet would continue in office.
They voted overwhelmingly "yes."
That's not surprising. Pinochet and
the rest of Chile's ruling junta, which
seized power from Salvador Allende
seven years ago (after assassinating
him, have been juggling things around
a bit to fall in their favor. The vote
To The Daily:
An open letter to Dennis Harvey:
I'm writing to express my ex-
treme disappointment with your
review of Dressed To Kill (Daily,
September 5). As you are ob-
viously knowledgeable about
movies (Prince of the City, Ber-
tolucci, and MacGuffin referen-
ces) and are permitted space
comparable to the more ,ex-
perienced Andrew Sarris and
Pauline Kael, witha readership's
intelligence that is at least the
equivalent of theirs-if not
higher-the sweeping, often un-
substantiated and unfounded
generalizations you made seem
especially abhorrent.
To save time, I've listed your
more glaring offenses:
1) The director's name is be
Palma, not de Palma. Only in the
New York Times reviews of The
Wedding Party and Greetings, to
my knowledge, is De Palma
given writing or directing credit
as "de Palma."
2) You call Dressed To Kill a
"delirious crossword puzzle of
movie references." What
movies? For the remainder of the
review, you abstain from
qualifying this statement save for
repeatedly accusing De Palma of
plagiarizing Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho. This is hardly
"delirious."
3) You "don't think anyone is
quite ready" for Dressed to Kill.
Then why review it? Are you ex-
cluding yourself from this com-
ment?
4) You refer to Prince of the
City as a "more ambitious en-
deavor" than Dressed To Kill.
How do you know? For someone
obsessed with portraying De
Palma as a plagiarist, you con-
veniently ignore comments from
both De Palma and Lumet that
Prince of the City is little more
than a remake of Serpico.
5) You call Dressed To Kill
"dotty." What does this mean?
Are you referring to the comic-
style paintings of Roy Lichen-
stein? If so, this is, in my opinion,
remarkably valid and perceptive
criticism (see below). Otherwise
it's confusing.
6) You call Obsession a failure
but never explain how or why.
Financially? Critically? Ar-
tistically? You also contend that
its story was "swiped" from Ver-
tigo. Granted, Obsession does
deal with the same theme as Ver-
tigo (the madness of trying to re-
acquire a lost love), but it is most
obviously not the same story. In
Vertigo, James Stewart's
character is a pawn in an
acquaintence's scheme. In Ob-
session, Cliff Robertson's charac-
ter is the targeted victim. Learn
the difference between plot and,
theme.
7) What does "frantically
baroque" mean?
8) You call Angie Dickinson's
character "a typically Hitch-
victim; in Rear Window she was
James Stewart's girlfriend. Hit-
chcock's turning point regarding
blondes was, of course, Psycho,
but part of the effectiveness of his
use of Janet Leigh depended on
audiences preconditioned to
Kelly and Fontaine. After Leigh
he used Tippi Hedren in Marnie
and The Birds. In the former, she
was a kleptomaniac; in the lat-
ter, she was a bored socialite.
Another blonde does come to
mind: Kim Novak. In Vertigo,
however, the psychological em-
phasis is on James Stewart,
reducing speculations regarding
Novak's mental stability to llittle
more than that. Have you seen
these films? A..
9) If Angie Dickinson went to a
"modern art museum," why are
there baroque and renaissance
paintings these? How do you
know that her mother failed to
show up?
10) You call the cat-and-mouse
museum scene "much-ado-about-
nothing." This simply makes no
sense in light of your comments
regarding Kate Miller as a
"character." For a better under-
standing of the scene, I suggest
reading Jean-Luc Godard's
famous brief essay on montage.
Maybe then you will understand
this sequence better.
11) You draw an analogy bet-
ween the husband and the lover
via sleeping. Her husband is
never "zonked out" in the
film-he never sleeps, either.
12) You refer to dozens of con-
trived scenes, yet detail not one.
13) You call the police detective
"hopelessly" played but never
explain what you mean.
14) How is Kate Miller a "silly"
character?
15) It is "shock," not "schock."
16) How does Dr. Elliott run
around, "Ralph Bellamy-like" to
solve the crime? We never see
any of this.
17) How does De Palma show
contempt for Nancy Allen's
character?
18) You call Obsession and The
Fury works of "sheer"
derivation." Derived from who?
From what? The only sheer
derivation is 'your welding of
Pauline Kael's review with the
one in Time. Maybe you should
trust your own perceptions and
work from there.
19) Calling Donaggio's score
"garish" shows that you entirely
missed the point. The garishness
you speak of works ironically to
reveal the absurdity of the
opening shower sequence.
20) You refer to "obvious" split
screen effects. When is split
screen not obvious? In fact,
weren't De Palma's uses of the
screen to depict Kate Miller's
recollections a rather subtle use
of that device?
21) You say that the camera
calls "attention to. . . usually in-
significant" objects. Like what?
Moonie attack unfair
To The Daily:
Howard Witt's opinions on
cheerleading probably offended a
- number of cheerleaders in
labelling their activities as
pitiful, exploitative, worthless,
and degrading. But cheerleaders
are not the only people he offen-
ded in his column on September
9.
Witt used a Unification Prin-
ciple seminar, which he labelled
a "Moonie indoctrination
session," as an analogy to the
high school cheerleaders'
,training session. He revealed the
level of his thinking when he ad-
mitted that the only thing he saw
in their activities was sex. We
strongly agree that exploiting
cheerleaders and using them as
sex objects is to be condemned,
but this problem is in the minds of
the spectators. The cheerleaders
don't come to be exploited, they
are there to support the team.
I observe a few serious flaws in
Witt's judgement. Why was he
"nauseated" by the good
qualities of the cheerleaders,
such as their enthusiastic unity,
spirited cheers, and overall ex-
citement about what they were
doing? What is the problem, Mr.
Witt? Can't young people have
fun without making you
nauseous? I believe Mr. Witt was
timulated to make such a stron-
g accusation because he thinks
the poor cheerleaders are being
exploited. He fails to consider
that there might be a good pur-
pose for cheerleading. I ap-
preciate the moral of the story,
but I think his analogy and his
judgement of cheerleading are
rather narrow-minded.
When Mr. Witt writes of the
lusting of the men (including
himself) watching the
cheerleaders and the temptations
some of the girls offer to the fans;
he hits- the, nail on the head. The
University of Michigan
Collegiate Association for the
Research of Principle (UM-
CARP) is absolutely opposed to
this kind of self-centered ex-
ploitive sexuality. One of our
greatest values is sexual purity.
Part of Mr. Witt's analogy with
our movement is correct. Our
seminars are enthusiastic, high-
spirited, and energetic. We sing
cheers, get very excited about
what we are doing, and we are
very united. Although Mr. Witt
observed. the cheerleading ac-
tivity first-hand, he decided t®
refer to us after reading some
books about what he labelled "the
Moonie cult" in a discussion with
me. He admitted his disrespect
for our group and said that he
may include more such commen-
ts about our group in the future..
I hope Mr. Witt will be more
responsible about what he says
regarding our movement. -To
make my point, we are not a bun-
ch of high school mentality kids
naively being controlled. I laugh
when I hear such things said.-He
is in error about the dedication,
motivation, purpose, and goal of
the members of our movement.
Any cheerleader would take of-
fense at being characterized as a,
mindless, naive, exploited,
airhead, and so do I. Our motto is
"Light, Bright, and Exciting! ,"
but we are serious about what we
are doing.
-William Hilbert
President UM-CARP
September 12
De Palmaicharacterizes his film
as entertainment for adults. On-
ce one understands the influence
of Godard and different ex-
pressive media - comic strips,
paintings-one can better under-
stand and appreciate De Palma
as something more than a
derivative director.
To conclude, with the con-
clusion, I can't help wondering
what you meant when you wrote
about the thunderstorm "injected
for no apparent purpose." Must
weather be motivated? Also,
haven't you seen any horror
films? You write that De Palma
''works up so much steam that
hysteria becomes an end in it-
self." What about your review?
-Hans Lucas
September 8
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To The Daily:
Regarding your article of Sep-
tember 9, "Three down and coun-
ting" in the TODAY section of
The Michigan Daily: Wouldn't
most U of M students be upset if
newspapers were unable to
distinguish between Michigan
and Michigan State?
Why then are you unable to
distinguish between North
Carolina and North Carolina
State? North Carolina finished
fifth in football in the Atlantic
Coast Conference in 1979, while
North Carolina State finished fir
st. Both could have beate
Michigan in the Gator Bowl, but
North Carolina was the school
charged with the task.
The ACC is far superior.
-Herb Smith
September 9
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