ARTS
Tuesday, July 16, 1985
4
The Michigan Doily
Page 8
Highlights from a history maki
the competition wasn't so heavy.
By John Logie The "New Attitude" Award - Sting
has completely re-tooled his ap-
ATURDAY'S Live Aid concert proach, performing with Branford
has already generated seventy Marsalis and Phil Collins as an ex-
million dollars to feed the world's cellent pop-jazz artist. Marsalis'
starving peoples. The promoters are saxophone work lent a wispy, elegiac
almost -ertainly going to release feel to "Roxanne" and "Every Breath
videos and records to generate more You Take."
money for this most worthy of causes. The "Pamplona" Award for
These "Live Aid Awards" may help Reckless Endangerment of Audience
potential consumers find their way. Members - U2 leader Bono, for
Most Emotional - Bob Geldof of the gesturing to front-row women to join
Boomtown Rats, who put more into a him for a slow dance. He set off a mad
semi-inappropriate rendition of "I scramble which verged on mass
Don't Like Mondays" than he ever hysteria and looked quite painful. U2
has, and declared mid-set that he was also has the distinction of being the
having "...the happiest day of my only band to overrun its time limit.
life." Most Astounding Crowd Reaction -
Best Beatle Cover - Elvis Queen, who managed to generate a
Costello's "All You Need is Love" was semi-choreographed variety of fist-
a revelation. He brought the tempo thrusts and swaying from a deafening
down and made the message urgent. Wembley crowd.
The "Back in Black" Award - Who Tightest Set - David Bowie, who
else but Black Sabbath? Ozzy was in top form from the word go.
Osbourne and the band reunited for Many performers needed one or two
"Iron Man" and "Paranoid" and songs to build up steam, which is a
proved themselves to be as exciting a problem since each act was alotted
"reunion act" as any of the others five songs, tops. Bowie managed to
who re-formed for the show. reach his performance peak two
Worst Timing - Whoever seconds into "TVC-15" and sustain it
scheduled Run-D.M.C. directly again- for the next four songs. Thomas Dolby
st Sting and Phil Collins. In addition to provided terrific keyboard work.
being the hottest New York rap act in Worst Glitch - The Who blinked out
the country, and the only scatch act in right in the middle of "My
the show, Run-D.M.C. happens to be Generation." Those pesky satellites.
black, the same color as the majority The second half of their performance
of the starving people that this event was terrific, especially "Love Reign
was created for. I don't know why so Over Me."
few black performers were included Best Quote - Madonna, for, "I'm
in this event. The least the promoters not taking shit off today." on national
could do would be to acknowledge that television and radio, after male fans
Sting and Phil are going to be on T.V., responded to her statement that her
and out Run-D.M.C. in a soot where coat would not be removed in sym-
I
I
Mick Jagger and Tina Turner rehearse for their dazzling duet, Saturday in Philadelphia.
pathy for the overbaked fans. While later, and could have censored the back-up singing by the rumor-busting
Madonna was biting back tears when remark, but didn't. foursome. Early in the day it was;
she said this, the quote, and her Der- Worst Beatle Cover - Paul McCar- suggested that George Harrison,
formance, showed guts and a sense of tney, Bob Geldof, David Bowie, Alison Ringo Starr, and Julian Lennon might
humor that prove there's a lot more to Moyet, and Pete Townshend's ren- join Paul for a semi-Beatles reunion.
Madonna than meets the eye. Bravo dition of "Let it Be." The highlight of Best Finale - The Wembley all-
also to ABC radio, which ran Madon- this song was Townshend goosing
na's set on tape-delay several hours McCartney. The lowlight was the See LIVE AID, Page9
Far-fetched plot appeals to all ages
By Ron Schechter
ACK to the Future produced by Steven Spielberg and
Lidirected by Robert Zemeckis is packed with adven-
ture, comedy, romance, and suspense, making it easily
the summer's best film. It contains something audiences
do not expect from a Spielberg production: depth.
Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, a high-school
senior in a small Northern California town. He is a typical
child of the '80s, complete with designer clothing, Walk-
man, skateboard, and electric guitar. But what is atypical
about Marty is his friendship with an eccentric scientific
genius, Dr. Emmet Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd.
Dr. Brown is the inventor of many strange gadgets, in-
cluding an automatic dog food dispenser for his canine
companion, Einstein. His piece de resistance, however,
is a spectacular time machine built from a DeLorean
sports car. The machine runs on plutonium stolen from
Libyan terrorists, and when it hits 88 mph is travels, as
the mad doctor puts it; "outatime."
One night Marty is accidently propelled back to the year
1955, where he is out of place with his down vest and
digital alarm-watch. Here Marty meets his teenage
arents-to-be, who will never actually become his parents
if his presence prevents them from falling in love and
marrying. The fact that Marty's "mother" is enamored of
him and oblivious to the boy she is "destined" to marry
creates serious problems f or the time traveller, who is in
danger of never having existed. The rest of the story con-
cerns Marty's hilarious efforts to arrange his parents'
Dr. Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd) does strange things to a meeting and his attempt to get "back to the future" in a
DeLorean in 'Back to the Future.' time machine that has run out of plutonium fuel.
Twnety-four-year-old Michael J. Fox is convincing in
his role as a teenager caught ina time warp. An excellent
screenplay, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale,
provides Fox with just the right lines for his outstanding
performace. Fox is already well known for his role in
NBC's series Family Ties, but I expect the young actor to
appear in many films in the future (no pun intended).
. Christopher Lloyd id first-rate as the eccentric Dr.
Brown. Lloyd, whose experience as the off-the-wall
character in Taxi no doubt helped his performance in
Back to the Future, plays a refreshingly new kind of mad
scientist. Unlike the typical one-dimensional lunatic so
commmon in science fiction films, Dr. Brown is a more
sensitive, human character.
Crispin Glover is superb both as the henpecked husband
and the meek, bullied teenager. Lea Thompson is stunning
in her role as the wide-eyed teeny-bopper in hot pursuit of
her future son, and is convincing as Marty's 1985 mother
as well.
Back to the Future, although produced by Steven
Spielberg, is not a typical Spielberg production. Absent
from the film are the fuzzy (or scaly) little creatures
which made the producer famous, and the audience is
spared the usual onslaught of cuteness. Another
refreshing change is that in this film the machine,
although playing an important role, does not dominate the
screen, and the actors shine asa result.
Finally, Back to the Future is different from its
predecessors in that viewers of all ages will enjoy it.
Children will love the special effects and chase scenes,
while adults will appreciate the film's philosophical
nature.