8A - Friday, November 14, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.cam
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Jest and commentary
all in good 'Measure'
That's what you get for freeing Willy.
Catch of the day
Modern buccaneer
saves the whales in
new mini-series
By MARK SCHULTZ
Daily TV/New Media Editor
Paul Watson is a modern-day
pirate.Asilver-haired curmudgeon
with a walrus
mustache and ***
protruding belly,
he navigates his Whale Wars
ship, the Steve
Irwin, through Fridays at
frigid arctic 9 p.m.
waters in search Animal Planet
of the fishing
freighter Nisshin Maru. But Wat-
son isn't after treasure or weapons.
As the subject of Animal Planet's
seven-part documentary 'Whale
Wars," Watson wants nothing but
safety for his best friends: three
three-ton whales.
Fighting on the side of ethics,
not legality, Watson's merry band
of activists, the Sea Shepherds,
ambush whale-shellacking Japa-
nese ships and pelt them with
stink-bombs. Watson's crew, a
multinational band of inexplicably
eager twenty-somethings, sleep in
poster-sized beds and subsist on
three vegan meals a day. They have
mixed motives - ranging from
a desire for adventure to a vague
sense of indignation - and little
experience.
As members of, to paraphrase
Watson, the whores of the conser-
vation movement, the Shepherds
constantly struggle against Green-
peace, who won't cooperate with
them, and against federal authori-
ties, who insist that boats like the
Maru operate well within legal
parameters. Searching for another
boat, Watson and company get a
false tip that leads them tragically
- and a little comically - to a giant
iceberg. A lot of drama could be,
mined from the ennui that accom-
panies the members of the mar-
ginalized activist group living in
cramped quarters. Unfortunately,
a tense phone callwith Greenpeace
and a few minutes of Watson bitch-
ing are all we hear of these emo-
tional predicaments.
"Wars" also fails to make the
most of the existential questions
it raises. Most of the Steve Irwin's
crew say they'd give their life to
save awhale.Whatleadsoneto love
animals so voraciously that they'd
go kamikaze for an aquatic mam-
mal? We'll never know, because
Watson's constant reminders that
anyone could die are met with only
short nods from the crew, as if they
were reminders to pick up dry-
cleaning. Either the Irwin's crew is
emotionally hollow, or, more likely,
"Wars" found it more convenient
and palatable to gloss over the mor-
bidity.
Instead, "Wars" focuses on tan-
gible, physical problems. A bout of
crew seasickness gets an extended
sequence. A capsized dinghy and a
See WHALE WARS, Page 10A
By MOLLY MCGUIRE
DailyArts Writer
As an opus on sex, corruption
and hypocrisy all wrapped up in
a chocolatey
comedy shell,
"Measure for "Measure for
Measure" is Measure"
clearly one of
Shakespeare's Through Nov.16
darkest com- At the Lydia
edies. The Mendelssohn
student-run Theatre
theater group.
"The Rude
Mechanicals"
is tackling the famously difficult
work for their annual Shakespeare
production. Premiering tonight,
the play is set in a seedy, medi-
eval Vienna occupied by unsavory
malefactors and moralists.
With mistaken identity and a
Duke in disguise, "Measure for
Measure" is full of those impracti-
cal but delightful tricks that pep-
perclassicShakespeareancomedy.
But it's not all funand games; the
play wavers between comedy and
tragedy in a striking portrayal of
power, corruption, righteousness
and sin.
"In terms of the rest of Shake-
speare, 'Measure for Measure' is
one of the most morally.tangled
and ambiguous plays," LSA Senior
Jim Manganello, the play's direc-
tor, said.
The plot centers on Angelo, a
young deputy left to rule Vienna
by the Duke, who pretends to
leave the city on business. In the
Duke's absence, the deputy takes
it upon himself to clean up Vien-
na's streets by hook or by crook.
Enforcing strict laws on illegal
sexual activity, he goes on a moral
rampage and ends up condemning
a man to death for impregnating a
woman out of wedlock. The con-
demned's sister, Isabella, pleads
to Angelo for her brother's life.
In return, Angelo hypocritically
demands her virginity, setting up
an intense conflict for the hyper-
virtuous leading lady. "More than
our brother is our chastity," Isa-
bella says in an unsettling solilo-
quy.
"Measure for Measure" has
been classified a "problem play"
by many scholars, partly due to
Shakespeare's prowess in con-
fronting
society.
"The
plays) t
way tha
don't,"
nitely it
there is,
ruption,
(and) m
Becat
tions be
matter.
"Measu
consider
sense th
Butit's n
tion: Th
to high
and Sha
in emph
"Then
and alt
refers 1
said. "Y
a seriou
debate,
two clo
drums
on a moc
scene is
issues a
A
mu]i
ac(
of those
ping bac
Ther
play: we
madams
verse pr
tawdrin
sure" coj
ing wor
the pla
underbe
ethicall)
"Astl
ize that
ing thes
never rE
ganello
encodes
ToE
Mangan
than on
from
the problems plaguing ground double as their foil from
the official world. Angelo's jilted
idea is that (the problem lover Mariana (LSA senior Lara
ackle social issues in a Vanderheiden) is often viewed by
t other Shakespeare plays scholars as the image of chastity.
Manganello said. "Defi- Yet Vanderheiden also plays. the
n 'Measure for Measure,' aptly named Mistress Overdone,
discussion of political cor- a veteran bordello keeper. LSA
sexual politics, hypocrisy sophomore Dan Rubensplays both
eaty social issues." Angelo and the repellent prisoner
use of its peculiar transi- Barnardine.
tween, disquieting subject "Angelo and Barnardine are
and bouts of jolly jesting, very different, but in away they're
re for Measure" is also very similar. They're both kind of
red a problem play in the leaders of their worlds," Rubens
rat it's difficult to perform. said.
to problem forthis produc- Whether they're putting gang-
e jarring shifts only serve ster fairies into "A Midsummer
light the actors' abilities Night's Dream" or turning Pros-
kespeare's craftsmanship pero from "The Tempest" into The
asizing the main themes. Godfather, many directors have
re's a nucleus to this play, reached beyond the bonds of time
most every single scene and place when adapting Shake-
back to it," Manganello speare's plays, sometimes with
ou'll go from a scene that's ridiculous or outrageous results.
s trial, or a serious legal While the sexual repression
and immediately these inherent in "Measure for Mea-
wns will march in with sure" almost led Manganello to
and tambourines and put set it in Freud's Vienna, he decid-
ck trial. So even the clown ed against updating it to a modern
s dealing with the same time. Instead, he moved the play
s everything else. It's sort back two centuries before it was
written. Set in 1300s Vienna, The
Rude Mechanicals's production
actors play of "Measure for Measure" has
meticulously researched inspira-
Itiple roles to tions, from Boccaccio's "Decam-
eron" to a 12th-century festival
cent duality called "The Feast of the Ass."
"You choose a historical era
and you view it through a modern
lens," Manganello said, detailing
two worlds that keep flip- the vision for the set: a modern-
k and forth." ist, minimalist Gothic-cathedral-
e are two worlds to this playground.
orlds of nuns and brothel But the reason for all this diver-
, strict officials and per- gence from the, classical when
isoners, moral severity and putting on Shakespeare is the
ess. "Measure for Mea- playwright's enduring relevance
ncentrates on these oppos- in any time or place, which is par-
Ids and their intersections: ticularly apparent in "problem
ces where the subversive plays" like this one.
lly of Vienna touches the "I think it makes them par-
y austere surface. ticularly relevant to almost every
he play goes on you real- era that they are performed in
there are lines connect- because these problems do keep
e two worlds, tendrils that cropping up. It's not like he's tack-
eally were broken," Man- ling universal health care in the
said. "Each of the worlds US in 1950. That's not the type of
tle other one." problem play it is. It's as if some-
emphasize this duality, one said OK, sexual corruption,
rello has actors play more go, That's the problem. And that's
re role; many characters something that is infinitely trans-
Vienna's sordid under- posable," Manganello said.
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A soulless memorial
2008-2009 Stanford Lipsey Awards
GARY GRACA, Public Service Reporting
"Abandoning the Bully Pulpit"
October 17, 2007
CHRIS HERRING, Investigative Reporting
"Touted by 'U,' Outreach Often Absent in City Schools"
December 5, 2007
PETER SCHOTTENFELS & MARA GAY, Multimedia
"What We're Looking For"
online at michigandaily. com
By ANDREW LAPIN
Daily Arts Writer
First, the relative good news
about "Soul Men." The film has a
handfulof poppy
musical num-
bets, and the
last two perfor- SOUl Men
mances by Floyd
Henderson (the At Quality16
late Bernie Mac, and Showcase
TV's "The Ber- MGM/TWC
nie Mac Show")
and Louis Hinds
(the omnipresent Samuel L. Jack-
son) as old-school R&B band The
Real Deal hit all the right notes
when capturing the essence of
'70s soul music.
Mac and Jackson, playing for-
mer backup singers to a recently
deceased Motown-era legend,
do their own singing in the film
(accompanied by Sharon Leal
from "This Christmas"). They
cover Buddy Guy's "Do Your
Thing" plus original composition
"A Walk in the Park" (download it
for free from the movie's website).
They sound fantastic and display a
real talent for showmanship, bust-
ing out slick, if uninspired, dance
moves and having a good time all
around.
These two scenes totalless than
ten minutes of the film. Set them
aside, and "Soul Men" becomes
one wholly unfunny mess of a
movie. The plot is standard road-
trip fare, as Henderson and Hinds
drive cross-country to the presti-
gious Apollo Theater to perform
at a tribute concert for their for-
mer lead singer. (Did none of the
concert's organizers bother to
arrange transportation for their
biggest act?)
Neither the unwieldy direction
by Spike Lee's cousin Malcolm
D. Lee ("Undercover Brother")
nor the collaborative patchwork
scriptby Robert Ramsey and Mat-
thew Stone ("Man of the House")
I
Don't worry, we're not making a Bernie Mac joke,.
marage to utilize the charisma
of the lead actors in the slightest.
Mac and Jackson are funny and
instantly likeable, but they need
to do more to provoke laughter
than just swear at each other for
two hours.
The film fails in all its attempts
at humor. Mac has two incredibly
disturbing sex scenes meant to be
played as physical comedy. There's
a running gag (really more like a
limping one) that his character
doesn't know how to handle a fire-
arm, soit always goes off when he
holds it. Funny? No.Allthis, plus a
token white-boy character named
Phillip (AdamHerschman, "I Now
Pronounce You Chuck & Larry")
with a white-boy afro who says
white-boythings like "homie" and
even dons a pair of tightie-whities
at one point.
"Soul Men" is one of the last
films Bernie Mac completed
before his death. To say he
deserved better than a mediocre
"Blues Brothers" rip-off would
be an understatement for the man
who once hysterically proclaimed
"I'm gonna bust your head until
the white meat shows" to his TV
son in "The Bernie Mac Show." A
touching tribute to him is played
over the end credits, underscored
by a groovy, chilling rendition of
"NeverCanSayGoodbye"bybona-
fide soul legend Isaac Hayes.
Catchy musical
numbers can't
save this film.
Hayes, who died a day after
Mac, also makes a cameo in the
film, but his image remains intact
- mostly because he isn't given
anything interesting to do. How-
ever, it's a mystery as to why the
amazing Sam & Dave hit "Soul
Man" (co-written by Hayes) isn't
played or even mentioned at all,
considering it's the clear inspira-
tion for the movie's title. But then
again, a film of this meager qual-
ity would've been a very poor fit
for one of the greatestsongs ever
written.
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