Page 8--Thursday, June 3, 1982-The Michigan Doily 'Anti-christian' TV stirs up religious wrath By Kenneth Clark UnitedPress International , NEW YORK - The Rev. Donald Wildmon might have more suc- cess in his effort to boycott garbage on television if he would stop trying to sweep out what little true quality remains. Sadly for the pastor from Tupelo, Miss., the yardstick by which he measures NBC these days is neither long enough nor broad enough to evaluate things like 'warmth, artistry and the sheer genius of the human heart revealed in three dimensions. All those terms apply to "Sister, Sister" - a drama written for NBC by Maya Angelou, a luminous black poet and playwright whose work is so awesome in its power it scorns the very hyperbole it demands. "Sister, Sister" airs next Monday from 9-11 p.m., EDT, and the Rev. Wildmon hates it already. He hates it so much he is urging his followers in the NBC boycott effort to view it as a means of honing their indignation. In a press release and open letter to his troops, Wildmon brands the film "an example of anti-Christian, anti- religious network programming" and delivers the following synopsis: "The film involves principal charac- ters identified as Christian. One of those characters is the minister who commits dultry with a member of his congregation when she comes to the parsonage for help with a prob- lem. "The minister steals money from the church treasury to help finance a' political campaign. He later commits adultry with the sister of the lady he is already having an affair with and later divorces his wife." "Sister, Sister" is just that - in the same way a human being is just a Tinker-Toy construction of bone or 97 cents worth of chemicals. What Wildmon overlooks -- if indeed he has seen the film at all - is the glowing aura of soul injected with the dramatic and timeless intensity of a Greek tragedy by Diahann Carroll, Rosalind Cash, Irene Cara, Dick An- thony Williams and Paul Winfield. Far from being "anti-Christian" or "anti-religious," "Sister, Sister" sings a vibrant hymn to faith by unveiling a pit of bottomless pain for those who would forsake faith, or compromise it, or attempt to lure it into prostitution. Characters such as the Rev. Hender- son who hawks his phony piety from the pulpit in "Sister, Sister," are a miniscule minority, but they do exist. Looking upon the results of their hypocrisies in no way denigrates faith or undermines the thousands of sincere and hymble ministers who do not plun- der their churches' building funds or seduce their parishioners. Wildmon has committed a major technical blunder in asking his followers to relax their boycott of NBC and view "Sister, Sister" with wrath and alarm. If they do their viewing with their eyes and their hearts open, the already faltering boycott is likely to breathe its last Monday night. May Maya Angelou pen its epitaph. Kip Adotta, extreme right, hosts "Everything Goes," an R-rated quiz show on Escapade cable TV channel. The show is a combination of "Strip Poker" and "Let's Make a Deal." roeson and gan return foar more fun (continuedfrom Page 7) gang of Urban West thugs. It's avengertime, folks, only this time Kersey doesn't get arrested and bun- dled away-by films end he's walking proud and tall through the streets of LA, presumably transforming it into the safest city west of Moscow. It's difficult to tell which audience this exercise in libidonous garbage was California Stereo Liquidators, Federal No. Y9 -331LI3 , wi[ aus- pose of, for a manufacturer's representative, their inventory surplus of new stereo equipment. The items listed below will be sold on a first-come first-served basis at. . . Saturday, June 5, 1982 HILTON BRIA RWOOD INN 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P. M. 610 Hilton Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI ONL Y WHILE QUANTITIES LAST Disposal Disposal . 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Ostensibly a film for the law- and-order crowd, Death Wish II's ironic counter-message rings clear: LaW and order don't work anymore, so grab yourself a gun and gain instant sain- thood. The filmmakers clearly want it both ways: When hoods attack a woman in an underground carport, you're meant to feel her terror. Yet she's carefully pinionedio show enough naked flesh to goad audience fantasies over the joy of the very gangbanging they're supposed to deplore. The movie avoids racial stereotyping like the plague-the objects of Kersey's pursuit are neatly land improbably) divided between white and black. DEATH WISH II would be far more offensive were it not put together by ar- tistic moles. Director Michael Winner (who also guided Death Wish I) once again proves himself a hack so flam- boyantly incompetent one suspects he uses Mafia connections in order to ob- tain movie assignments. Death Wish II has the look and feel of a cheap porno movie-swarthy color, jangled editing, cartoon acting, plus a bombastic soun- dtrack which constantly heaves and pants despite the fact that it often has no connection to the scene it's accom- - panying. Presiding over this cacophony is that great stone icon of thespian blankness, Charles Bronson. Product of the Pen- nsylvania coal mines, admirer of General Franco ("He had a cop on every corner. That's the way to run a country," Bronsononce said in an in- terview}, now nearing 60 and ' his brunette locks turning alarmingly white, Bronson has been performing for three decades but has yet to exhibit the slightest smidgeon of emotion on film. An auteur hero in Europe, Bronson has sculpted a cult of inexpressiveness so consuming that his lack of talent is often mistaken for a form of iron-fisted psychic discipline. 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