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Writer Nicolas Delbanco reads from
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ARTS
TUESDAY
JANUARY 22, 2002
Globes less than
Golden on NBC
'Black Hawk Down'
avoids
trite Hollywood subplots
By Jordan Stein
For the Daily r
By Jeff Dicker
Daily Arts Editor
It's not the
not even the E
59th Annu
Golden Glok
Awar4
N
January 20, 8 p
/
sion.
rson viewed winners during the ceremony
_________________ with his usual "American Bandstand"
charm.
Academy Awards. It's Tragedy struck in the opening min-
Emmys. It's the Golden utes of Sunday evening's 59th annual
Globes, the Hol- Golden Globe awards. NBC rolled
lywood Foreign out the red carpet with an appalling
Press Associa- rendition of J. Lo's hit single "Waiting
tion's self- 'for Tonight," rewritten with kinder-
al d e s e r i b e d garten lyrics describing the stars as
be "biggest Holly- the paraded into the decked out pavil-
ds wood party of lion.
the year." The Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind"
media extrava- was the big winner of Sunday night's
Bc ganza is more 59th annual Golden Globes, taking
iM. about seeing the home four awards including Best
i n d u s t r y 's Motion Picture Drama and Best Actor
biggest and in a Drama for Russell Crowe.
brightest stars In the Musical/Comedy film cate-
having a few gory, "Moulin Rouge" garnered
drinks rather awards for Best Picture and 'Best
than celebrating Actress for leading lady Nicole Kid-
the year's best in man. Wes Anderson's "The Royal
film and televi- Tenenbaums" was overlooked, but
Gene Hackman managed to win the
y Hills Hilton was the Best Actor award.
th annual Box office behemoth "Lord of the
,ony, Rings" failed to win any awards,
stars as did David Lynch's "Mulhol-
small land Dr." and the Coen Broth-
Dick ers film noir "The Man Who
his Wasn't There."
-old The most surprising
ted } moments of the telecast came
in the TV drama categories.
HBO's "Six Feet Under" won
over fellow network juggernaut
"The Sopranos" and NBC's
"The West Wing." Jennifer
Garner won for her role
on the spy action-drama
"Alias," beating the odds
on favorites Edie Falco
and Lorraine Bracco of
"The Sopranos." In
the male depart-
ment, Kiefer
Sutherland took
home the best actor
award for his role on
the critically acclaimed
FOX drama "24."
NBC easily won the all-
important Nielsen ratings Sun-
day night with the Golden
Globes, besting the CBS
made for TV Chuck Norris
vehicle "The President's
Men," and ABC with "Alias,
ourtesy o re mageguest starring Quentin
Kidman scores one for the Aussies. Tarantino.
GOLDEN GLOBES
WINNERS CIRCLE
Best Motion Picture
(Drama)
A BEAUTIFUL MIND
a Best Motion Picture
(Musical or Comedy)
MoULIN RoUGE
Best Television Series
(Drama)
SiX FEET UNDER
Best Televison Series
(Musical or Comedy)
SEX AND THE CITY
0 Best Actor in a
Motion Picture (Drama)
RUSSELL CROWE ("A
BEAUTIFUL MIND")
Best Actress in a
Motion Picture (Drama)
SisSY SPACEK ("IN THE
BEDROOM")
0 Best Actor in a
Motion picture (Musical
or Comedy)
GENE HACKMAN ("THE
ROYAL TENENBAUMS")
S Best Actress in a
Motion Picture (Musical
or Comedy)
NIcOLE l IDMAN ("MOULIN
Rowel)
Best Director (Drama)
RON HOWARD ("A BEAU-
TIFUL MIND")
Best Director (Comedy or
Musical)
ROBERT ALTMAN ("Gos-
FORD PARK")
Black Hawk
Down
Grade: B+
At Showcase
and Quality 16
It's like watching a man drown,
then watching the man trying to save
him drown. Another man comes
along, and soon all three have
drowned. That's how things went in
Mogadishu. A
group of 19
U.S. troops,
close to 1 ,000
Somali troops
and citizens and
two Black
Hawk heli-
copters were
lost in the noto-
rious, 1993 U.S.
Special Forces
raid on the
Somali capital
and its warlord-
g e n e r a l,
Mohammed Farah Aidid. Through
detailed interviews and research,
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mark
Bowden turned the 15 hour blunder
into a blow by blow account of aston-
ishing precision in a book called
"Black Hawk Down: A Story of
Modern War." Blockbuster warlord-
general Jerry Bruckheimer picked it
up.
The "wow the blood, wow the
guts" repetition of "Black Hawk
Down" is sometimes like a bad allit-
eration: The words and images have
something to do with each other, but
add up to a showiness that is counter-
productive to its original and intend-
ed meaning. Perhaps this is how
some would compartmentalize the
'two hours plus of the film.
But perhaps it shouldn't be boxed
and stored as such. Yes, this is a war
movie. And yes, this is a Jerry
Bruckheimer production. And, oh
yes, Ridley Scott made not only
"Gladiator" but also "G.1. Jane" and
"White Squall." "Black Hawk
Down," however, is not any kind of
glamour stage or love story, camou-
flaged or not.
It treats no other subject than what
historically happened. Hollywood
blemishes are minimal. War is every-
thing: There is little talk of Washing-
ton and minimal (and perfectly
excusable) "tell my wife I love her"
jargon, not to mention an intentional
lack of character development.
Visually stunning, the color distor-
tions of hot Somali street scenes
(filmed in Morocco) evoke both a
warm and entirely foreign aesthetic
as the dust swirls and falls like rain,
constantly surrounding the cast of
bewildered soldiers. The red of blood
and orange of fire are even distract-
ing in their luster. In a move that
some might find risqud, the distortion
also makes the seemingly endless
universe of Somali extras loom an
even darker, faceless mass.
The necessary, but somewhat
ridiculous, beginning follows various
cinematic pawns hawking 20 minutes
of "Aidid is a bad warlord, let's take
him out" discussion. The fact that
there aren't any overwhelmingly
famous stars in the film makes this
more neutral and passable. The con-
science of the viewer is established in
the form of Sergeant Matt Evers-
mann (Josh Hartnett), who 'is
checked by his humanitarian aware-
ness and concern that 300,000 have
either been killed or starved in Soma-
lia under Aidid.
The troops jog and board the ready
choppers to the Stevie Ray Vaughn
cover of the Hendrix classic "Voodoo
Child." The psychedelic soundtrack
to the '60s,' and moreover, Vietnam,
is revisited and recast. However,
Eversmann brings this historical
reenactment a sense of purpose in
national unity. By the time the credits
roll, there is certainly the sunken
feeling of futility and failure, but
there is no tremendous exclamation
point that usually surrounds Vietnam.
The film was originally slated for a
summer 2002 release date and was
pushed up post Sept. I1. The mes-
sage that we're doing the right thing
in a foreign land and at a potentially,
great cost, comes through a little
jaded, but honest.
The repetition is instrumental to
the film's integrity. The gunshots
and explosions get old then new
again. Endless missing limbs, back-
up units and bandages do not deny
this story a moral, although it ulti-
mately comes through in words, not
images, at the end of the film. The
two soliloquies involving honest
heroics don't exactly clou'd eyes,' but
do succeed in getting across a less-
than-sappy idea of what this film is
about.
The appreciation for the visceral
nature of "Black Hawk Down"
should not be lost on the viewer. The
film projects a sense of urgency by
sustaining such brutality in the face
of an industry and audience that
feeds on steamy sub-plots and
intense protagonist identification
even in historical reenactments.,
What "Black Hawk Down' does well
is the opposite of glorification,
which should neither be overlooked
nor undermined ... if you can take
the drowning.
Thomas Guiry decides not to open up the door with all of the bullets coming through.
'The BoundedSelf Exhibition'
explores broad social bounderies
By Christine Lasek
Daily Arts Writer
"The BoundedSelf Exhibition," a study on the fluidity
and the fixity of
The
BoundedSelf
Exhibition
Media Union
Thru Sun.
human identity, is being held at the
Media Union Gallery until this Sun-
day. The exhibit consists of five
separate stations set up in a
labyrinthine structure, with each
station exploring a different aspect
of societies' ideas on and the
boundaries of "self."
The five members of the Bound-
edSelf group all participated in an
interdisciplinary seminar this past
summer called the Rackham Sum-
mer Interdisciplinary Institute
(RSII), which brings together grad-
uate students, post-doctoral students
and professors at the university to
share ideas and methods of inquiry
across disciplinary divides while
discussing a particular theme. With
genetic engineering and body-manipulation. Based on
their answers, which are then compared with the answers
of other respondents, participants are given the opportu-
nity to discover their "Fluidity-Fixity Index Score," illus-
trating how the participant feels about the increasingly
modifiable human body and the instability of human
forms.
Another interesting station, "Dispensing Identities:
Physical Appearance and the Self," created by Laura Cit-
rin, offers a glance at the paradoxical language of choice,
freedom and individuality. The station examines ways in
which societal forces such as racism, classism and
ageism have shaped cultural notions of attractiveness.
Participants are able to see how a language of uniqueness
is utilized, through a sample of advertisements collected
throughout the 20th century. This sample was actually
aimed at convincing the consumer that there is a correct
or most beautiful way to look. Also, because the sample
of advertisements spans an entire century, participants
are able to see how advertisers manipulated language in
order to appeal to the times, yet still sell the same prod-
ucts as before.
It seems possible that every participant who walks
through the BoundedSelf labyrinth could have a different
experience. The exhibit is altogether disturbing, joyful,
bewildering, melancholy and dark. It also seems possible
that some participants will walk away from "The Bound-
edSelf Exhibition" without a full understanding of what
they just experienced. Citrin, however, believes that this
reaction is acceptable. "We didn't want every part of the
exhibition to be opaque. We didn't want to spoon feed, or
worse, force-feed, these ideas on anyone. We wanted to
leave some work to the viewer to come to his or her own
conclusions." In this goal, the BoundedSelf team suc-
ceeded.
their varied backgrounds in natural science, social sci-
ence and the humanities, the members of BoundedSelf
explored the idea of "the boundaries of the individual,"
from which grew this elaborate exhibit to display their
ideas.
The first station of "BoundedSelf" is the "Bounded-
ness Computer Kiosk," created by Christopher DeFay.
Participants take an anonymous online survey game,
which is a series of questions pertaining to self-defini-
tion through gender, sexuality and race. The survey then
goes beyond these standard forms of identity, raising
questions on species-identity, as well as opinions about
a
Bizarre'Chair'hardly compelling
By Rohith Thumati
Daily Arts Writer
This show does not even deserve
the title of "show." Shows are sup-
target before they answer questions,
or else they lose money from their
total for every second over that tar-
get. Making it even more interesting
(supposedly) are random surprises
called "heart stoppers" designed to
boost the contestant's heart rate over
make "You may not answer the ques-
tion" the next "Is that your final
answer?" just make it even more
grating.
To make this even worse is the
fact that FOX has its own show
called "The Chamber" airing Fridays
R E~E W
posed to be
entertaining.
This one is not.
I
a