.-- selection of campusfilm highlights
The gichicgan Daily, - Saturday. May 14, 1983 -- Page 9
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Atomic Cafe
(Kevin & Pierce Rafferty, Jayne
Loader, 1982)
Nuclear War as seen through the
government's perenially rose-colored
glasses. Ridiculous public service
snippets explain away all your fears
about nasty radioactivity, horrid
thermonuclear blast, and the evil
Russian bear. Most of the material is
hilarious, until you realize that the
government was serious about it all.
(Saturday, May 14; Lorch Hall, 7:00,
8:40, 10:20).
2001: A Space Oddyssey
(Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
The story of human intelligence as
envisioned by Kubrick and co-author
technical virtuousity. The result is a
strikingly compelling story of a
family's love set amid the cultural
upheavals at the turn of the century.
(Sunday, May 15; Lorch Hall, 7:30).
Zorba the Greek
(M. Cacoyannis, 1969)
If you missed the recent Detroit Music
Hall version of Zorba, this is your
chance to see the original. Anthony
Quinn plays the Greek peasant who
goes to Crete with a young English-
man, Alan Bates. As they live on the
island, Zorba gradually shows his
employer the meaning of life. (Sun-
day, May 15; Lorch Hall, 7:00,9:00).
Twentieth Century
(Howard Hawks, 1934)
John Barrymore stars as an alcoholic
producer bent on getting his ex-wife,
Carole Lombard, to star in his latest
stage production. The twist in the plot
is that all the action takes place
aboard the Twentieth Century
Limited, a glorious old-world train
travelling from New York to Chicago.
(Wednesday, May 18; Lorch Hall,
9:15).
Images
(Robert Altman, 1972)
A difficult film to interpret. Susan-
nah York plays a simple woman who
begins to have frighteningly real
hallucinations. Her gradual mental
collapse is methodically scripted and
directed by Altman. (Thursday, May
19; Michigan Theatre, 9:20).
The World According to
Garp
(George Roy Hill, 1982)
Garpmania hits the screen. The
bigger-than-life-but-oh-so-realistic no-
vel is rewritten by Steven Tesich
(Breaking Away, Four Friends) who
adds some good stuff and leaves out
some better stuff. Though the movie
was hopelessly handicapped by
everyone's preconception of T.S.
overwhelmingly good supporting
cast, including Glenn Close as Jenny
Fields, and John Lithgow as the tran-
ssexual Roberta Muldoon (both Close
and Lithgow were nominated for
Oscars). (Friday, May 20;
Auditorium A, 7:00,9:30).
A Streetcar Named Desire
(Elia Kazan, 1951)
An intensely emotional treatment of
Tennessee William's traumatic play.
Marlon Brando is the brutish Stanley
Kawolski; Vivien Leigh is the shat-
tered sister-in-law; and Kim Hunter is
the understanding wife. I hate to
gush, but calling this film a cinematic
tour-de-force is an understatement.
(Friday, May 20; Lorch Hall, 7:30,
9:45).
Orson Wells
... makes no film before its time.
Garp, Robin Williams comes off sur-
prisingly well in the title role. Hill's
direction is evident mainly in the
Arthur C. Clarke. Contrary to ill-
informed opinion, the film is not
boring, not static, and not elitist. Even
if you've seen it before, this showing
on the huge Michigan Theatre screen
will be worth a second viewing.
(Saturday, May 14; Michigan
Theatre, 7:30, 10:00).
The Magnifecent Ambersons
(Orson Welles, 1942)
Recently, Welles has gotten a
reputation as an obese wine salesman
who hasn't done anything worthwhile
since Citizen Kane. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. Welles has
consistently shown depth, maturity,
and wit in all of his films. The
Magnificent Ambersons, his first film
after Kane, favors extreme
melodrama over more blatantly
Helicopter crashes
By Kevin Walker
THE FILM "BLUE THUNDER,"
which premiered last Saturday
evening at the Michigan Theater, was
not the action-packed thriller it was
supposed to be. There was nothing like
an interesting plot or character
development (God forbid) in the movie,
and the highly touted weapons
technology was only a futile diversion
from the film's true lack of substance.
By "weapons technology" I refer to
our main character, that grotesque
helicopter affectionately referred to as
"Blue Thunder," whom we ultimately
get to know much better than our sup-
posed main character, Jake Murphy
(Roy Scheider). Indeed, while we learn
every nuance of the high tech gadgetry
of the aerial killing nachine, all we
know of Murphy besides his
stereotyped cop image is that he has
psychological problems which stem
from his experiences in the Vietnam
War.
Warren Oates plays the
stereotypically gutsy, caring but un-
caring police bureaucrat who puts
Murphy in his good, subservient place,
and Daniel Stern plays the wet-behind-
the-ears rookie cop who seems to know
nothing except how to giggle and look at
naked women from his helicopter seat.
Murphy, his mentor, just smiles. Only
Malcolm McDowell, who plays the
villain, is relatively convincing with his
devious effiminacy and maniacal blue
eyes.
There are a few potentially exciting
elements to the film, especially the idea
of the "inner conspiracy." But before
we now what is going on, or can believe
that what is happening is plausible, we
find Murphy hovering above Los
Angeles in the helicopter battling it out
with M-16s. With the conclusion of this
20 minute battle, the movie ends.
The emptiness of this film probably
stems from director John Badham's
presumption that we would be so im-
pressed by the helicopter (how quickly
its computer gathers data on total
strangers, how accurately and quickly
it shoots bullets, how large and black
and ominous it is), that we would not
care about things like the development
of emotional conflict or meaningful
dialogue.
The biggest problem with this film,
however, is not its lack of originality or
shallowness, but its basic hypocrisy
with regard to the "message" of the
film. After all, since this film does have
a "message," we might as well suppose
that we are to take it seriously. The
message, as-I see it, is that weapons
technology, specifically the helicopter
Blue Thunder and the fighter jets, is
inhumane, even insane. By the end of
the film this message is clear as we see
the destruction that occurs when these
weapons are introduced.
But if high tech weapons or any
See 'BLUE THUNDER', Page 11