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 C~~f1(PA1Ik. r 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 0 .9 T- p9 03 _O~NHI?~ f WHc05 ow BARS? WHAr5 ON ECOND NA I~ weu is. I i L idM E A N WHO.4~u TH I OWA ?NE~ FSLLOWS NAMES 3 4EN, WHc66 PLAh'YIGrFIRST-r? 'fNE FELLOWS NAME D\Wi a N.C., not State, beat U' 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 '7A Ir r v