Luis Bunuel final film "That Obscure Object of Desire" plays at the Michigan Theater. 7 p.m. michigandaily.com /arts ARTS MONDAY MARCH 4, 2002 'Soldiers' not a The wings of this 'Fly' should be clipped typical war flick By Andy TaylorFabe Daily Film Editor War movies have changed. We have gone from the flood of quasi-propaganda World War II films released in the '40s to critical, psychological studies of Vietnam like "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon" to comi- cally cynical films like "Three Kings." However, many have wondered what Sept. S11 will do to war movies and Hollywood violence in general. Although "We Were Soldiers" is a true story and was written and produced before Sept. 11, it gives us a taste of what we can expect: Movies that focus on the honor and bravery of the soldiers instead of the war itself. With "Saving Private Ryan"-level graphic violence, the film brings us on to the battlefield and into the line of fire. Certain aspects of the film are progressive, but there are definitely parts of the movie that smack the audience * with patriotism. WE "We Were Soldiers," based on Hal Moore's and Joseph SOL Galloway's book "We Were A Soldiers Once ... and Young," At Sho is the tale of the first major battle of the Vietnam War in Para late 1965, in which Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) led 400 American sol- diers of the first battalion of the seventh cavalry (which also happened to be Custer's regiment) via helicopter to the la Drang Val- ley, which soon came to be known as Death Valley. Their regiment number proved to be more than a coincidence, for upon their arrival, they found themselves surrounded by over 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, facing slaughter. This battle was one of the first times that it became clear that the American soldiers, despite their superior training and equip- ment, were unprepared for the style of com- bat they would face, or for the motivation and sheer numbers of the Viet Cong sol- diers. Like many war movies, "Soldiers" intro- duces the few major characters, mostly stars, and follows their actions in battle and their reactions to the chaos around them. Despite the ensemble cast, Moore is the center of the action. He is a family man and a Harvard educated intellectual. He studies war academically, carefully looking at the massacre of the French in Vietnam in the By Todd Weiser Daily Arts Writer '50s and trying to learn from their mistakes. Unfortunate- ly, Gibson's major acting technique, which he also employed in "The Patriot," is pulling a sad face and look- ing contemplative. Moore is backed up by his right hand man, Sgt. Maj. Plumley (Sam Elliot), a sea- soned veteran, who is hard as nails and uncompromising in his decisions and his opin- ions. When Moore ponders their situation, asking, "I wonder what Custer was thinking when he realized he had moved his men into slaughter." Plumley replies, Kevin Costner should have retired years ago after the disappointing "Wyatt Earp." It was a sign of bad, actually awful, things to come. It's very difficult to remember any A- list star hitting a cold streak as blistering chilly as the one that Kevin has gotten him- self into. "The Postman," a flurry. "3000 Miles to Graceland," some snow, some frost. "Dragonfly," full out blizzard. "Waterworld" and "Wyatt Earp" were the meteorologist's warnings of bad weather to come, but we didn't listen, and most importantly, Mr. Costner did not watch his Weather Channel either. * DRAG( At Showc Qualit Unive WERE DIERS "Sir, Custer was I.::: g *. | a pussy." This epito- mizes the dif- Proving once ag ferent between Moore and Plumley and the different approaches toward war that they take. Moore is a compassionate leader who understands the horrors of war from the perspective of a sol- dier and a father. On the other Moore advises Plumley to get wcase and dity 16 mount hand, when an M-16 instead of his usual pistol, Moore grimly replies "By the time I need one, there'll be plenty of them lying around." Some of the other soldiers include ace helicopter pilot Maj. Bruce "Snake-shit" Crandall, played by Greg Kinnear (he flies lower than snake shit), a brave soldier and new father named Jack Geoghegan (Chris Klein) and Joe Galloway (Barry Pepper), a photographer who comes to the battlefield to show the world what is happening but is forced to take up arms and help the soldiers. The movie also shows the perspective of the wives of the soldiers, including Madeleine Stowe and Keri Russell, who must deal with the rush of "We regret to inform you ... " telegrams. One of the major problems that this movie faces is a common problem for films with large casts. It doesn't spend enough time on each character, and the lackluster dialogue, written by Randall Wallace (who also penned "Pearl Harbor" and "Braveheart") Courtesy of Paramount ain that Mel's post-mullet projects don't measure up. that when some them die, you're barely even upset. The focus on the characters is lop- sided, for one of the best actors in the movie, Greg Kinnear, is given barely any screen time at all, whereas Pepper is given more than he deserves. "We Were Soldiers" also deviates from previous Vietnam movies in several ways, some innovative, some disturbing. When the cavalry first goes into battle, the Viet Cong soldiers appear as a faceless mass, but as the story continues, we see the underground command center, and we see the command- er, Ahn (Don Duong), strategizing, inter-cut with scenes of Moore's anticipation of Ahn's strategies. We also see a Viet Cong soldier looking at a picture of a woman shortly before going into battle, and it is one of the first times in a Vietnam film that we see a Vietnamese soldier as anything more than a shadowy creeping figure with branches covering his helmet. On the flip side of that coin, we seldom get any sense that maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't have been there in the first place. There is a sense of futility regarding war in general, when, after killing hundreds of Viet Cong, the Americans just pick up and leave, making you wonder what the point of the battle was other than just a high body count. However, except for the details of the battle, this movie could have been about any war. Normally, a film like "Drag- onfly" would not deserve such a harsh exami- nation, but given Costner's track record, it is hard, actually impossible, to walk into an empty theater screening his latest bomb with anything but low expectations. This would explain the "ka-boom" heard last fall with Costner's "Thirteen Days." Even when Cost- ner makes a superior film, like that one, no one goes anymore because the faith audi- ences once had in the star of "Field of Dreams" and "Dances with Wolves" is gone. Now, here comes the saddest part. The unpleasantness of "Dragonfly" can not be totally placed on Kevin's shoulders. Yes, he made the mistake of signing onto this mun- dane, nonsensical piece of spiritual hokum made by the director of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and "The Nutty Professor," but we have to give him a break, for it appears that there was probably no screenplay when he signed the contract or even when they pro- duced the film. Costner was, in all likelihood, informed of the plot and not told that all the hackneyed dialogue and supporting characters still had to be ironed out on the set. Yet, he still will shoulder the blame, because this is his vehi- cle and he is the star. It's sad, but "Dragon- fly" almost makes you yearn for the good old days when Costner was one of the filmmak- ers, even if that means sitting through the three-week duration of "The Postman" or the real-time biography of "Wyatt Earp." At least Costner aimed at the stars, and you could laugh or snore when he crashed into Earth. In this reality, Costner plays Dr. Joe Dar- row, whose doctor wife Emily (Susanna Thompson, of TV's "Once and Again") was recently killed in a tragic bus accident in Venezuela. Darrow is not able to let go of his wife, partially because her body was never found. Now, Emily's old love of dragonflies is haunting Joe everywhere he goes, and Emily may be sending posthumous messages to Joe through her near-death young patients back at the Oncology ward in Chicago. Joe pretends to not want any help with his grief, but he then searches everywhere for the answers to these "Sixth Sense"-like questions. He turns to his widowed, lesbian law pro- fessor of a neighbor (Kathy )NFLY Bates, "Misery") and to a diminutive nun (Linda Hunt, :ase and "The Year of Living Dangerous- y 16 ly") who collects stories from rsal the beyond. While they help Joe on his journey, they do not pro- vide proof, so he must make the all-too-pre- dictable journey to Venezuela, full of half-naked, outsider-hating tribesmen. Then, "Dragonfly" completes its supernatural genre requirements by providing a not-so-shocking shocker of an ending. The message coming through all of this is something about faith and never giving up, or that no matter how many people call you "crazy" and tell you stop your foolish quests, you will always find your answers some- where in the beautiful jungles of Central America. Either way, Joe is happy in the end, and the audience learns a lesson it has already known from countless other films and books. Be smart; do not chase this "Dragonfly," for you will be sorry - not as sorry as Kevin Costner is for constantly disappointing his ever-decreasing amount of fans, but sorry enough to long for the days of the understood brilliance of "The Bodvyuard." doesn't help us to connect thin characters. This effect to the already is so profound courts.y of -C u 0rsP.tures "I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone..." \ \ II Courtesy of UMMA Cavafy In Alexandria. Cav s hidden world Mindless Self Indulgence brings antics and offensive lyrics to the State Theater By Sonya Sutherland Daily Arts Writer Rock 'n' roll is music meant to piss off your parents. From Elvis' gyrating hips to KISS' alleged service to Satan, rock has sustained itself simply by getting people up in arms. Rock is rebellion. Every generation redefines it, pushing one step forward and challenging the mainstream. With a skip, jump and leap into limelight come Mindless Self Indulgence, the next act guaranteed to piss off anyone that catches the smallest dose of them. Elektra, a label notorious for dropping success- By Jim Schiff Daily Fine/Performing Arts Editor The aptly titled, "Cavafy's World: Hid- den Things," takes us to Alexandria, Egypt, in the opening decades of the 20th century. Alexandria was a city divided into two dis- tinct halves, one marked CAX by upper-class sophistica- tion and the other by low- WORLD: S rent bars and shops. TH Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy wrote about the At Michi latter half, a place where ot he took pains to hide his Thru homosexuality. His F: poems discuss secret, UN fleeting sexual encounters with numerous men, as well as his ongoing struggle to suppress his inner desires. British artist David Hockney, an avid enthusiast of Cavafy's, composed a series of 13 sketches based on his poems, all of which are featured in this exhibit. Hockney's drawings are an ambitious interpretation of Cavafy's poetry - one that effectively conveys his sensual, emo- tional language. The artist's style is remarkably simple, using only black ink to draw the rough outlines of his figures. Hockney does, however, give consider- able detail to certain aspects of his sub- JA Frei MIS them betrays what kind of bed they've just been laying on."In the accompanying sketch, the blank stares on Hockney's men show their feelings of regret for hav- ing committed a homosexual act. At the time, homosexuality was largely condemned in Egypt and the sorrow in Cavafy's characters reflects his own FY'S personal struggles with it. HIDDEN Cavafy lives vicariously 4GS through his subjects, gen- erally choosing young, n Museum attractive men to act out 'rt his stories. It's unclear Aay 5 whether Cavafy experi- e enced some of the anec- OA dotes himself, but each tale seems authentic and intimate. One particular poem, titled "He Asked About the Quali- ty," describes a meeting between a shop- keeper and a man in a handkerchief store. They pretend to be appraising the differ- ent cloths, but it is only a disguise for a subtle flirtation between them. Hockney provides us with two portraits of Cavafy, one of him as a young man and the other near the end of his life. In both drawings, Cavafy appears as an out- sider, with the Alexandrian skyline in the background. These representations con- vey the poet's feelings of being unwanted and unwelcome by this city that served as bound signees (try Destiny's Child, Moby, Prodigy), and the coed quartet from New York have already parted ways due to the group's refusal to compromise quality of their less than pop friendly presentation for quanti- ty of records sold. Although their last trip to Detroit, opening for Korn and Soulfly, landed frontman Urine (known to his closer MINDLE INDUL( At State' Detroit, Saturday Feb. less Self Indulgence's set as "time that we waste trying to postpone when we get off the stage" arrived for the occasion formally dressed in a black wrap skirt, black trenchcoat (the back read- ing "Full of Shit" in stenciled white letters) and a half of a tie. The time that Mindless Self Indul- gence fritter mixing garage rock with an "urban jungle pussy beat" is certainly wasted, if not enter- taining the audience, then entertaining itself. Without so much as a strand of his red mohawkesque hair style out of place and not giv- ing the confused audience a second to absorb his unusual (at best) visual appearance, Urine imme- diately started the show rhyming offensive words. Putting together verses in a fashion that challenges only the best of MCs, SS SELF Urine made his own case as the GENCE poster-child for Ritalin, certainly not harming his reputation as one of the Theater most intense up-and-coming front Mich. men as he paced, hopped and danced about the stage. 23 at 8 p.m. The rest of the band, who also appeared as if they took the Franken- stein fork on the Candyland road, seemed limited by the presence of their instruments. But they exerted an enthusiasm that matched little jimmy urine, who preoccupied himself shoving paparazzi out of the way of his direct verbal assault on the audience. Unable to settle down or stand in one position for more than a single syllable, the singer weaved his way around stage while Lyn and Steve convincingly demonstrated that guitars have a greater entertainment value when played with an intense and amusing approach rather than the sim- ple stand, strum and pick technique favoured by the more boring bands of TRL land. As for Kitty, with the help of her simpler, downsized kit, she proved that a girl drummer plays more than a min- imal role in being "eye-candy." After a half an hour of offending just about everyone with his onstage antics, reciting lyrics like "I hate Jimmy Page/Get that faggot off the stage," ripping off his shirt while requesting "all the 15 year-old girls in the crowd scream 'ike they are watching N'SYNC" and launching small stuffed animals into the audience, Urine decided he had enough of performing and in turn launched himself into the crowd. Surfing away from the security guards, and des- perately trying to avoid the girls attempting to rip out locks of the MC with the "punk rawk good looks" hair, Urine made his way to the back of the State Theater and exited via a side door. Following lil' jimmy's lead, Lyn dove into the pit behind him. Unfortunately not getting as much air as her band mate, she met the barricade headfirst. Seeing the error of their playmates' ways and the potential for danger, Kitty and Steve Righ abandoned their positions in the more traditional, safer method of exit stage left. The audience, still gawking at the blur of lyrics and rock that had transpired from such an odd source, took a minute to gather their wits, and attempted to absorb the rock show that had just occurred. As the confused looks diminished and focus returned to their faces, Clutch and in turn System of a Down received the name chanting and moshing the temporarily distracted crowd had came to Detroit to give. comrades as little jimmy) in jail for indecent expo- sure, the weekend spent behind bars did not damp- en his or the rest of the band's attitude toward Michigan. Urine, Steve Righ, Kitty and Lyn braved the date in the state with the highest per- formance-to-arrestation ratio to bring their offen- sive and interactive performance to a sold-out crowd of unsuspecting System of a Down fans at the State Theater in Detroit. Leading the spectacle that is known as their stage show, frontman Urine, who describes Mind- ;. ;, x: ,.