Artts

The Michinan Daily

Saturday, June 5, 1982

Page 7

Schwarzeneggar
plays bloody Conan
to dramatic heights

By Dave Paton
T HE GREATEST figure of the
heroic genre has made the tran-
sition from Marvel Comics to the
cinema. Conan the Barbarian, with the
title role aptly filled by Arnold Schwar-
zenegger, is an unflinching, well
executed picture, which does a
measure of justice to the '30s pulp sagas
of Robert E. Howard.
Every part of Conan the Barbarian is
pitched at a high dramatic level - an
attempt to make an epic capable of
sustaining a sequel. Director and
screenwriter John Milius, who scripted

Dirty Harry, Jeremiah Johnson, and
Apocalypse Now!, felt that the current
sword and sorcery boom had somewhat
diluted Conan. "I felt that he should
return to the concept of being a pure,
undiluted legend, a primal example of
mythology,"he has said.
"Primal" is the key word. The movie
draws strength fromits uncivilized
hardness and its brooding, violent at-
mosphere. The controlling focus of the
plot is revenge-of the most unwashed
sort.
Early in Conan's life, his native
village in the land of Hyboria is
See REVENGE, Page 9

Luther Allison plays the blues
Paying your dues
in rhythm and blues

By Robert Weisberg
LAST THURSDAY night at Rick's
Luther Allison once again showed
Ann Arbor a good time. And he also
showed why his' relative lack of
popularity is unfathomable.
Fronting a group called The Luther
Allison Extension Band, the Arkansas-
born, Chicago-raised musician belted
out blues standards and not-so-
standards, including originals, as well
as soulful pop tunes and a show-
stopping finale-tribute to Jimi Hendrix
that had everybody dancing.
Allison alternated slow blues like

"One-Room Country Shack" with up-
beat rockers, showing a versatility on
the guitar that few other performers
can match.
His band, for their part, was solid but
nondescript. Together as a unit for less
than four months, veteran Allison
drummer Donald "Hye-Pockets"
Robertson, bassist Michael Morrison,
and French pianist Michelle
Carras-making his first visit to the
U.S.-are, along with Allison, in the
process of getting their act together.
Thursday night Allison was the man in
front, with his fellow musicians
See QUARTER, Page 10

I

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