0 N IU w v " l MICH.ELLANY FILM Theaters threaten movie paradise 'Hail! Hail!' celebrates Chuck Berr; Ann Arbor is often hailed as movie-goer's paradise, but these days that reputation is in jeopardy. The University's "renovation" of the Angell Hall auditoriums has seriously damaged campus cinema groups, and some of them may not make it until current problems are rectified. Things are also bad around town, thanks in large part to the Kerasotes organization. A couple of years ago, Kerasotes bought the Campus and State Theaters. At present, the Campus is a goner, scheduled to be replaced by a "Galleria" shopping center which looks like it's going to be every bit as popular as Tally Liberty Square Hall. And, based on a recent trip to the State, this theater is only a few reels away from being replaced by an eight story food-court/wave-o shop-o-rama. Every time I visit the State I am overcome with a desire to know what the theater was like back when movies were big. The lobby, restrooms, and stairwells still resonate with the faded gaudy grandeur of a former movie palace. But the romance evaporates if I'm forced to take a seat in one of the second-floor theaters. Each theater Amiri Baraka Writer turned revolutionary speaks about imperialism, reform, and Black music INTERVIEW Amiri Baraka has published 28 works of fiction-plays, poetry, and prose- and 11 works of non-fiction. Baraka, then LeRoi Jones, first established his reputation as a New York City jazz critic. His 1963 'Blues People,' a sociological essay on the importance of music on the development of Afro-American culture is still highly regarded and widely read. As his interests moved towards theatre and social concerns, his dramas were also highly praised. In 1964 he received an Obie award, and in 1965 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1968, Jones changed his name to Imamu Amiri Baraka and began his withdrawl from a white society he viewed as "corrupt and morally bankrupt." Baraka, 53, continues to write and publish but devotes most of his time to revolutionary Marxism and Black nationalism. He lives in Newark and is heavily involved in local politics. Baraka recently spoke on campus and talked afterwards with WEEKEND Editor Alan Paul. Daily: A big problem in the Black community now is essentially Blacks killing Blacks. What can be done to immediately deal with that problem? Baraka: In any period of declining struggle, all the violence becomes inner-directed. The only thing that can help that is organizing, and making sure that the violence is focused on what it needs to be focused on. If it doesn't get organized, then it becomes self-destructive. If people have to submit to colonialism all day, when another oppressed person steps on them, they swing and kill him. It's from repressed rage. D: Being involved in city politics, what is the first step that you could take to reorganize this energy? B: In any community, the most important thing is to find out what is the key issue, what it is that motivates, what most people are focused on, the issue they think needs some action. That's what you have to organize around. You find out what people want to do about it, what the state of it is, and how you can go about moving people around it. When we first began to organize people around the issue of political power, the question was that we were in a majority Black city, and we should constitute the political infrastructure. Now we are moving people specifically on education - the question of how we should elect the school board. When you organize around such a broad issue as education, you have to find out what people want to do, what is the cutting edge of the issue, what are the leading forces, and move on it in that way. But it always has to be based upon what people want to do, what they think is the most pressing need. D: Do you feel that if you can accomplish these immediate needs that perhaps, then maybe the next step will be psychologically easier? See INTERVIEW, Page was once half of a balcony. The open space from the end of the balcony to the screen has been filled in with a cheap, oddly shaped black mass, which destroys my sense of horizon and leaves me dizzy and irritable. Fortunately (or so I thought), on a recent trip I was in one of the lower theaters, where t h e asymmetry isn't so startling. I had forgotten, in the many months since I had sworn (after an out-of- focus showing of Fantasia) never to go to the State again, just how nasty this theater can be. Many seats were broken. The floor was apparently covered with rubber cement, which is a forgivable theater sin when everything else is tolerable.. Worst of all, there was no heat. Later that week the theater posted a sign warning prospective patrons of this deficiency, but I received no such warning, and consequently I was unwillingly extraordinarily sympathetic to the young protagonist of My Life as a Dog who spends a goodly chunk of the movie in a snow-covered summer- house. The Kerasotes corporation spent a lot of money on a sparkly "welcome" reel which encouraged me to notify the management if anything about the theater did not meet my expectations. Well, here's the notification, gang. After paying $4.50 to see a movie, I think I'm entitled to see the movie, rather than acttassthe theater's quality control supervisor. Moreover, I question the value of telling the three underpaid teenagers who were working at the theater about the myriad problems interfering with my enjoyment of the movie. They appear to be too busy taking tickets, 'selling overpriced Raisinets, and showing movies to worry about the nasty floor, the absence of heat, and the poor sound and focus for the first five minutes of the movie. The sparkly "welcome" reel is also irritatingly present at The See LOGIE, Page 13 By Alan Paul "If they didn't call it rock and roll, they would have called it Chuck Berry." -John Lennon As the true father of rock, Berry has had a cultural impact which extends far beyond his obvious musical legacy and has never been fully realized by the mainstream media. Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll sets out to rectify this situation. The film is a celebration of Berry's 60th birthday party concert, filmed live last year at St. Louis's Fox Theater. But Hail! Hail! is much more than a concert film. Through interviews with such rock luminaries as Bo Diddley, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Keith Richards, and Bruce Springsteen, director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds) succeeds at painting a picture of Berry's tremendous influence on the music. Conversations with Diddley, and Little Richard in which they discuss the racism and rip-offs of early rock are particularly insightful, and Richard's imitation of Pat Boone's version of "Tutti-Fruiti" is both hilarious and somehow sad, reminding everyone of how many white musicians got rich and famous recording inferior versions of black artists' songs. Berry was determined to avoid this and other other financial pitfalls of the music business. We get a picture of Berry as a highly calculating, articulate, and shrewd musician and businessman. He claims to have chosen his song topics- cars, school, and love- based around demographics, choosing the three subjects almost everyone could relate to. "Kids usually hate school, everyone has been, or wants to be, in love, and cars are just part of America," Berry says. "I majored in money, and I learned; never let the same dog bite you twice." He took this cliche to heart. After being ripped off on some of his early publishing royalties, Berry became a sort of one man act, touring alone and hiring backup bands in each town. He was willing to sacrifice the quality of the music for financial rewards. This attitude led to confrontations with Keith Richards, who organized the backing band for the birthday concert and produced the film's music. The footage of the rehearsals at Berry Park is very revealing; Se' ha the tha thz go Cl rep ba Ri hi. ill ab wi th dr ca gi to cc dr S1 K LE Jc hi re re __________________________________________________________ r OFF THE WALL Engineering students build bombs, but LSA students have the guts to use them. s-Graduate Library Great books are not great. -Graduate Library Virgins make better lovers. (in reply) HOW WOULD THEY KNOW? -Graduate Library Get back to work. - -Graduate Library Prosecutors will be shoplifted. -East Quad The worst things in the world... (in reply) SUCKING THE BRAIN FLUID OUT OF THE ELEPHANT MAN'S BRAIN. (in reply) Irrational, uninformed zealotry. (in reply) SORORITY SISTERS GREETING EACH OTHER. -Law Quad -IV, A IF.ZINN -Ab. gfS A L T OF SEW9JTY A4"b ?rH 5 W*K. Chuck Berry stars in 'Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll' Cryer comes out of 'Hiding'77 .w W/ ar r\V. 4 /1 yl 1 t i s 1 WOAT too YOV &Wf1OSE MI~S FoQV? -THF, PScDrn1? t1 9' I 'I- It1.. 'I C.I .1 TN WS R-e5 f4 (,r,;Mt-NT o9 I S NAG, -R' ToocN rc , ADD N 'oa -7 4 PuNiG. t L G? G n G7 f By John Shea In the final analysis, Hiding Out is yet another run-of-the-mill teen- age flick, with the usual complement of high school gags and high-jinx. It should not have been this way. It should have been so much more. But the producers shoot themselves in the foot by masquerading to be something they are not. The story revolves around Andrew Morenski (Jon Cryer), a 29 year-old stockbroker from Boston who, along with two of his business associates, unknowingly trade counterfeit bonds-a criminal transaction which makes Morenski and his friends key witnesses against the mafia. They agree to testify, and when one associate is hit, Morenski is taken into custody by the FBI. The FBI agents are unable to provide adequate protection, and when Morenski is almost h.it himself, he runs off and takes refuge in a faraway small town where his Aunt Lucy (Gretchen Cryer, Jon's real life mother) and 17 year-old cousin Patrick (Keith Coogan) live. He "hides out" from the mafia, as it were, by shedding his beard and business clothes and going undercover as a student. He attends Patrick's high school and, in short, becomes a teen-ager once again. On the surface, things are easy for Morenski. He makes friends fast, and has his affections sought after by the pretty Ryan Campbell (Annabeth Gish). But problems develop: his new peers want him to run -for class president, a position he does not want, and he struggles with the thought of falling in love with a 16 year-old girl. Oh, yeah; he's also being pursued by an assassin from the mafia, who's closing in on his target fast. It is clear that screenwriters Jeff Rothberg and Joe Menosky don't want a film full of car chases and tired cliches. One senses at times a definite feeling of freshness: when asked for his name at the high school, Cryer sees a coffee can nearby and blurts out "Maxwell Hauser"; a group of thugs run Cryer into the school bathroom and instead of beating him up, they ask him to run for class president. Some nice touches, indeed. But these few fragment, these few bits ,and pieces of good moments that sug ge st H iding Out could be special, are all for nought. The biggest problem with the film is it's dishonest. As the story is set up, we are led to believe we are in for some good suspense and action, as Cryer runs for his life from the mafia. But it becomes apparent a third of the way into the film, that the mafia story will become secondary; used as if it is just an excuse to get Cryer back into high school. Director Bob Giraldi, known for his work in videos and television, manipulates the material. He teases us, dangling the possibilities of some real suspense in front of us, and instead giving the usual high school garbage. The ending is merely stapled on, without much care or thought. Cryer clearly is a talented actor, although strangely enough his best work is not when he is loud or obnoxious, but in his quieter scenes. He had a wonderful scene with Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink , where he explained to her that they couldn't be friends anymore if she went out with rich- kid Andrew McCarthy Here, he gently tells Gish of his crisis, and See HIDIpG, Page 7 Jon Cryer stars in 'Hiding Out' PAGE 12 WEEKEND/NOVEMBER 6, 1987 WEEKEND/NOVEMBER 6, 1987