ARTS Wednesday, March 20, 1991 * 'The Michigan Daily Page 5 DeNiro is guilty before proven innocent in Suspicion Guilty by * Suspicion dir. Irwin Winkler by David Lubliner There were no certainly no Com- munists like Hollywood Commu- nists. As the Red Scare caught fire in the late 1940s, the Congression- ally-appointed House on Un-Ameri- can Activities Committee realized that no investigation of Commu- nists could attract the publicity that an investigation of Hollywood Communists could. This was an at- tack on America's best-loved icon - the film industry - and it provided the attention that the McCarthyites needed. Today - a time when freedom of expression in the arts is under in- tense scrutiny once again - it is crucial that we look back to a period not so distant in America's history. Guilty by Suspicion addresses Hol- lywood's darkest period and casts one of this country's greatest actors in the starring role of a blacklisted di- rector. Robert DeNiro is David Mer- rill, a successful filmmaker loved by industry moguls like Darryl Zanuck; Merrill must decide between naming his friends as Communists or losing his entire career. Interestingly, it is not Congress who initially black- lists Merrill, but studio heads like Zanuck and Jack Warner, who tried to protect their own careers by insur- ing American citizens that their films were not directed by potential Communists. Merrill can return to the studio if he agrees to purge him- self by naming others who gathered with him at a few "leftist" meetings many years earlier. DeNiro effectively captures the ambivalence that Merrill feels about his predicament. He is a man who knows only one thing: making movies. However, when presented with the choice of ratting on his friends or losing his job, Merrill re- fuses to give in to the system. DeNiro creates a character that is moral but not overly self-righteous. He isn't convinced that he is doing the right thing, but he is too stub- born and bull-headed to give in to the pressure. DeNiro's believable and engaging portraval carries the film, which ac- curately reflects the mood of 1950s Hollywood. Former 20th Century Fox and RKO studio lots and other Hollywood haunts, such as the famed Brown Derby restaurant, were recreated. Even a number of sur- vivors from the blacklist era were gathered for the supporting cast. Ac- tor and director Sam Wanamaker, who plays attorney Felix Graff in the movie, was blacklisted in 1951 after escaping to England to avoid testifying in front of the Committee. The result is a first-class and authen- tic production, one which really makes you feel that these characters are not so different from the actual people they illustrate. The supporting cast also includes director Martin Scorsese, who ap- pears in a cameo role as Joe Lesser, a filmmaker who flees the country when he is linked to a Communist front group. Scorsese is joined by Annette Bening as Merrill's wife and George Wendt as Merrill's best friend, another suspected Commu- nist. Guilty by Suspicion marks the directing and writing debut for long- time Hollywood producer Irwin Winkler. Winkler, who also pro- Why are Martin Scorsese's eyebrows so huge? Is it because he plays blacklisted Hollywood director Joe Lesser in the film Guilty by Suspicion? Is it because he's Italian? Or is it just the result of making too many movies about New York? duced the Oscar-nominated GoodFel- las, powerfully brings this era to life. Although his directorial style is effectively minimalistic, Winkler successfully uses circular camera movement in one crucial scene which depicts Merrill's descent into depression. Although the film often moves from one scene to the next without strong momentum, its climax is ul- timately powerful and uplifting. David Merrill is representative of many filmmakers, most notably the Hollywood Ten, who sacrificed their careers and their lives to stand up for what they believed in. Guilty by Suspicion is an important film for young people who didn't live through the blacklist era. While the fear of Communism no longer exists to the extent that it did in the '40s and '50s, the same concern for indi- vidual rights and freedom of speech must be protected against similar criticism in 1991. GUILTY BY SUSPICION is being shown at Showcase. Comedy Review Cops, crackpots, cooties fill Big Show The Back of Beyond by David Yeadon Harper Collins Have you ever wanted to get away from it all? If your answer is yes, you may want to consider alter- natives to daily immersion in the Diag's masses of scurrying lem- mings - er, college students. If you don't have a favorite desert island al- ready picked out, prospective destina- tions - or a more vicarious and purely mental escape - can be found in David Yeadon's The Back of Beyond, a collection of tales about "the wild places of the Earth." "Wild places" is an ambiguous term. While a few of the stories cen- ter around the land itself (probably because nobody lives there to draw the author into conversation), Yeadon most often offers up a pic- ture of the place viewed through its inhabitants' thoughts and actions, and his own impressions of them. Besides lending a welcome and fa- miliar human side to these far-away places, the book is an inescapable reminder of the strength of the con- nection between people and their en- vironment. Yeadon's desire to immerse the reader in the local environment leads him to forsake polished prose and of- fer raw sensory data in its place. Un- fortunately, this onslaught of im- ages, untamed by an authorial hand, sometimes overwhelms; but hap- pily, these stylistic lapses are rare. For instance, Yeadon's tape-record- ing of his first trip into the aged- hippie paradise of Katmandu is in- comprehensible at first, but finally succeeds in calling up still-living images of a type of life that has been absent from America during the past 15 years. The only other major complaint I have is that Yeadon nodded off dur- ing an Indian swatu's uncontestable proof of the soul. Such a proof has only been sought after for 20-odd centuries - for our sake, at least, couldn't he have stayed awake to hear it? The stories are much more than rambling travel reminiscences. It is not the menus, sceneries or travel mishaps that stick with me (except for one: "Sorry, sir. Iceland is closed.") Rather, the impressions of ways of life that are different from our own, and yet not unobtainable, remain memorable. The fact that there are no unbreakable bonds tying us to our current path is shown by the wanderers who have found a bet- ter niche eating psychedelic mush- rooms on the sandy beaches of Goa, seeking nirvana in the rarified heights of Nepal or simply living happily in the mountains of the most peaceful nation in the Ameri- cas (Costa Rica, if you're thinking of moving: no military - only tropical rain forests just aching to be preserved... ). That these hidden "Shangri-las" exist is incredible, but their reachability is incredibly allur- ing. Yeadon's book leaves one with an appetite for what lies beyond the boundaries of the norm, for what lies waiting in the "wild places" of the, world. -Jonathan Harrison by Diane Frieden The lights went down, the curtain rose and the orchestra started play- ing... the theme to Gilligan's Is- land? Well, it was just a piano, but what other show in town uses tele- vision theme music to change scenes? It was the Comedy Com- pany this past weekend in their Big Show & Tell, and one of the fun "audience participation" tactics hauled out was singing along with the pianist, Hannah Hensel. Fortu- nately, the audience was aware enough to sing along. Unfortu- nately, the producers and directors who were prompting the audience from the back of the auditorium didn't know all of the words. The re- sult was laughter and some silly- looking directors and producers. Most of the skits revolved around a central male character. Even when a couple was central, as in the "Love Story," the boy received slightly more attention than the girl. Only one sketch, "Susie's Secret," featured a female lead; it dealt with Susie's (Deborah Grayson) dilemma as a young girl with cooties. The laughter was riotous at the show-stopping "Time for Mike," a sketch that blended detective Mike Hammer with rapper M.C. Hammer. "His name was Fred, and now he's dead," rhymed Jon Glaser as the title character. In "Telegram," the silli- ness of Dave Kahn's over-exagger- ated character of Current Husband rubbed off on the audience. The Ven- dor (Mike Blieden) who appeared in "Ice Cold Date Here" also showed up in the second act as the President of the United States, saving an other- wise flat sketch. Some great work was done by the cast members who were not spot- lighted. Wendy Shanker and Charly Schwartz, who played contestants in "Crackpot," were as wacky as their psychiatric selves. The Little Inves- tigators (Schwartz and Chris Pentzell) backed up Mike Hammer+ with dancing worthy of In Living Color. And a hilarious portrayal of; kindergartners was achieved by Grayson, Schwartz, Michael Sturtz+ and Amy Fabrick in "Memoirs." Some of the sketches attempted the abstract, like "Mannequin Pic- nic," in which the mannequins didn't move, but enjoyed themselves any- way. Others, like "Random Vio- lence," fell sh6rt of achieving the humor goal - killing children didn't hit the audience's funny bone. Over- all, there was a great deal violence- related activity within the sketches, including lots of screaming and a high percentage of police officers and doctors. In a (deliberately?) sequen- tial finish, the show ended in "Game Show Hospital." Where else could you put all of the dead people or contagious teenagers with cooties? Daily Fine Arts needs writers with background in classical music. Are you interested? Telephne 763-0379 and ask for Elizabeth Lenhard ANN ARbOR1 THEATERS 1 & 2.5TH AVE. AT LIBERTY 761.9700 Loketo Extra Ball Shanachie Plain and simple, Diblo Dibala is the greatest guitar player in the world. Although his style may not translate well to an audience that is accustomed to guitarists who are ob- sessed with the size of their geni- talia, his timbre is a thing of beauty. The fuzzed distortion and histrionics Westerners are used to are replaced by a clarity, a fluidity that signifies the "purity" that Allan Bloom ascer- tains in "true" art. Like most other African music, Dibala's soukous groove is not cre- ated by endless chordal riffing, but by intensely rhythmic and effort- lessly graceful single note runs. On Loketo's previous American re- leases, Dibala was front and center. Unfortunately, on their latest effort, Dibala's guitar takes a back seat to gimmickry that is meant to be an ef- fort to cross-over into a "world beat" market that is getting larger by the minute. Don't get me wrong. The guitar is still prominent and this is still an amazing record, but all too often the sound effects in the background and the blasphemous distortion on Dibala's guitar reek of pandering to American consumerism. With the explosion of zouk and the production style of Kassav' dominating the French soukous studios, soukous has become hi-tech music. But on Extra Ball, hi-tech has become bloated, grotesque commercialism. The metallic-psychedelic effects on "La Joie de Vivre" and "Mondo Ry" are transgressions equal to backing Muddy Waters with strings, and the John Schofield guitar licks of "Tcheke Linha" are nearly as nox- ious as Pat Boone crooning Little Richard. -Peter Shapiro Mica Paris Contribution young Mica (pronounced meesha), Paris has been touted as Britain's finest new female soul singer - and it's not hard to see why. In a year when the hottest dance/soul acts (outfits like C+C Music Factory, Black Box and the 49ers) have turned out to be no more than slick produc- tion vehicles - slender Ebony mod- els fronting for the vocals of veteran studio belters - Paris is the real thing. And given material like the fizzy "South of the River" - which resembles the current Mariah Carey hit "Someday" - the chart potential in America of Paris' second album, Contribution, seems equally strong. The important distinction, though, is the impeccable taste that Paris (assisted by producer/writer duo Camus Celli and Andres Levin) demonstrates in her studio players and choice '70s influences - as well as her controlled, no-grandstanding vocals. She easily handles tepid material See RECORDS, Page 8 - T Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (PG-13) Cyrano De Bergerac (PG) Free 46 oz. Popcorn PRESENT THIS COUPON WITH PURCHASED TICKET THRU 3/28/91 I I U olmmmlmnmrl" Island Signed at 18 in 1987 by Island, his music has taken him on a sometimes swerving path-from austin to nashville to london. along the way, he has earned acclaim for his solo work ("endearing and genuine" -cmi). as wellas his col- laboration with boo hewerdine ("-evidence' captures the exhilara- tion of two young song- writers coming into their power"-rolling stone). "trouble no more" succeeds in capturing his con- stantly unfolding talent and experience as a songwriter and per- former. darden smith Want a job in Advertising? 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