ARTS Friday, October 19, 1990 fThe Michigan Daily Page 17 War, what is it good for? Memphis Belle dir. Michael Caton- jones iy Jon Rosenthal irector Michael Caton-Jones' Memphis Belle follows the crew of a B-17 bomber named, of course, the Memphis Belle, through the final raid of their combat tour. In every s war movie, a tendency exists to make the heroes either impossible ;illing machines or gut-wrenched humanists. The crew of the Memphis Belle are neither and their 'heroism never exceeds their human limitations. The film also avoids creating a feeling that war is one of the grandest of human spectacles and , that the risk of dying would be' outweighed by the gain of becoming a real man under fire. Memphis Belle, like Das Boot, leaves the audience a little paranoid and looking jforward to returning to comfortable surroundings, not searching for a recruiting office. Controlled camera work and ex- cellent cinematography make the ex- periences of the crews who flew . these missions real to an audience, the majority of whom only know World War II through movies and television. The tightly framed inte- rior shots of the bomber, for exam- le, lock the viewer into the claus- _ trophobic fuselage with the crew. At the same time, the film avoids the expected but unwanted shots that ,X shift the viewers' focus from the ,center of the action, in this case the crew of the Memphis Belle. The au- -dience never sees the enemy pilots squinting into their gun-sights as they prepare to shoot the heroic crew out of the sky. , Although Mathew Modine bril- liantly plays his part of the humor- less commander haunted by shadows of insecurity, both Harry Connick Jr.'s down-home, country singing tail-gunner and Billy Zane's Gable- Sloan colection is true to the subject by Ingrid Truemper The works of George Bellows and Richard Diebenkorn embody the one ruling principle in art: honesty in the portrayal of the subject. Their works together compose the Sloan Collection, on display at the University Museum of Art. George Bellows' black and white lithographs depict American society in the years from World War I to the early 1920s. His subjects range from portraits to illustrations of typical city and town life to macabre murder scenes. Bellows' accuracy brings his scenes to life, even those which depict often sentimentally-portrayed subject matter such as a little girl or children in the park. It is in his portraits of the darker side of life, however, that this accuracy really hits home. These lithographs include the morbidly fascinating "Murder of Edith Cavell," which illustrates the moments leading up to the young English nurse's murder by German troops, and the grotesque "Dance in a Madhouse." Two of the most compelling lithographs depict boxing rings: in one, "Counted Out (First Stone )," a leering crowd cheers as a referee, with an. arm raised as if to execute his victim, counts out a fallen boxer, who lies in a fetal position with one hand over his face. In the second, "Between Rounds No.1," a boxer with a featureless doll face matched with a powerful body rests in one corner of the ring, while the other boxer strains against the ropes as a man extracts a broken tooth from his mouth with a pair of tongs. Another man fans the semi-conscious boxer with a palm fan that resembles an axe blade. The crowd, a mass of piglike figures, grins and points. These lithographs do strongly resemble the works of 16th-century surrealist painter Goya, with whom Bellows is often compared. The second artist contributing to the Sloan Collection is Richard Diebenkorn, best known for his Ocean Park series of paintings, which explore the light and landscape of his native northern California. Diebenkorn's lithographs, intaglio prints and woodcuts are notable for their simplicity, spareness of line and striking composition. These features are exhibited in "Blue," an original design of Diebenkorn's that was prepared and printed by Japanese master woodblock carvers and printers. The design is strikingly simple; this, combined with the interplay of colors such as an extraordinarily glowing shade of blue, make this work unforgettable. "Ocean Park No. 52," another Diebenkorn work on permanent display at the museum, continues this theme. THE SLOAN COLLECTION is on display at the University Museum of Art through Nov. 11. Matthew Modine again takes to the air in his latest flick, Mephis Belle. This time, however, he does it from inside a plane rather than from off of a rooftop. like, suave bombardier upstage him. Monte Merrick's script evenly di- vides the limelight between all the team members and cleverly hints that team work and not luck brought the Memphis Belle home from its previous missions. At the same time he does not underrate the perceptual and real importance of luck in mech- anized warfare. Although much of the movie takes place in the air, it moves quickly and avoids the uncomfortable feeling imparted by such movies as Midway that splice real air combat footage with Hollywood footage. The real combat footage shown in Memphis Belle is undisguised and effectively displayed all at once in a horrifying montage of B-17's break- ing up and spinning out of control. The film also acknowledges its pre- decessors with the nervous comman- der on the control tower anxiously counting each returning plane from Twelve O'clock High or the white- out reminiscent of Snowden's Secret from Catch-22. The B-17 becomes an important character in the film and the produc- ers exploit its strengths and weak- nesses to the same degree as the other characters. Every opening in the fuselage becomes a potential pit threatening to leave the character quite literally in mid-air. They also use the viewer's recently acquired knowledge about the B-17 to in-, crease the tension. When the lead bomber's nose evaporates in a spray of superimposed wreckage the audi- ence knows that the bombardier from that plane has gone with it. The film is a timely one, the B-17's shown in the film are the last in existence and this month, after 40 years, the reuni- fication of Germany finally brings World War II to an end. MEMPHIS BELLE is Showcase. showing at IN ,i - t '1 William M. Mercer. Incorporated, a worldwide employee benefits consulting firm cordially invites you to an OPEN HOUSE I "OF THE GREAT WALL__ RESTAURANT Specializing in " DINNERS & LUNCHES Szechuan, Hunan CARRY-OUTS ' Rated AnnArbor's best new restau- and Cantonese rant of 1988 and best oriental res- taurant of 1989 by The Michigan Daily Weekend Magazine. 747-7006 Monday -Sunday 11 a -1p 1220 S. UNIVERSITY - AT S. FOREST ® ANN ARBOR £ -. NEXT TO CITY PARKING STRUCTURE FREE PARKING AFTER 6 P.M. 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