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Spotlight
The Red and Black. Wednesday- April i. 1979
Png* 7
Schrader’s ‘Hardcore’ suffers from inexperience
George C. Scott,
above, stars in
HARDCORE, a pre
dictable flick that
showed the inexperi
ence of its director,
Raul Schrader. For
all its faults, though,
Scott and the rest of
the cast almost
succeed in making
the film work.
By BEN FL'GITT
Fntertainment editor
Paul Schrader is a particularly powerful screenwriter,
responsible for some of the most explosive films in recent years:
Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, and Blue Collar. Sadly, his latest
film. Hardcore, blows up right in his face.
Hardcore concerns itself with Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott)
A strict Calvinist and member of the Dutch Reformation Church,
he is a furniture manufacturer in Grand Rapids VanDorn's wife
left him several years back and he is faced with the care of his
teenage daughter. Kristen (Ilah Davis). So, where’s the
hardcore?
Kristen vanishes mysteriously while out on a church trip in
California VanDorn hires a seedy private eye (Peter Boyle- to
find her Several weeks later, the detective flies to Grand Rapids
with a hardcore porn film featuring Kristen as a main attraction.
VanDorn flies to L A to find his daughter. Now, this is where
the film runs into real problems Supposedly inspired by John
Ford's The Searchers. Hardcore modernizes the Ford plot
without revamping the Ford hero Too often the script calls for
Scott to play a sort of fist-swinging Calvinist John Wayne who
hates porn in the same way the Duke hated rustlers. It is a
tribute to Scott’s genius that he almost carries it off.
Another problem in the VanDorn character is his strict
Calvinism Throughout most of the film VanDorn is wandering
through adult bookstores, massage parlors, topless-bottomless
joints and the like and not once is he ever tempted No conflict is
in the character at all. and this hurts his credibility
Just like the Calvinist Church, everything in the film is
pre judged Since you know that VanDorn will never yield to
temptation, you know that he will get his daughter back and beat
the holy hell out of the perverts who exploited her
And he does just that.
This is Schrader’s second film as a writer-director, and the
film lacks a good bit of the pacing and flourishes an experienced
filmmaker could have given it Because Schrader has yet to
learn all the tricks of his trade he is unable to cover the holes in
his screenplay that could have been patched with tighter
direction and a better sense of camera placement
Schrader's last film. Biue Collar, worked much better because
it was so well-scripted it was almost director procf Hardcore is a
bit of a muddle and Schrader’s direction just makes it murkier
The cast is quite good for the most part George C. Scott
should get a medal for breathing some life and intelligence into
his portrayal of the one-dimensional VanDorn; Peter Boyle is one
of the most sublimely seedy detectives in the history of movies,
Season Hubley as the prostitute with the heart of gold portrays
one of the world’s.most stereotyped stereotypes as if it were the
first time it had ever been done
Schrader gets a gold-star anyway for attempting to grapple
with a controversial and difficult subject. Time and time again.
Schrader has been one of the few original screenwriters who had
the guts to deal seriously with political and social problems
Anybody who could write Taxi Driver is no hack Schrader will
be back and better than ever as soon as he can get the grasp of
the medium that comes with experience.
Broadway
Critic misses the big shows, settles for ‘ I Love My Wife ’ instead
By JFK It Y JOBF
Broadway. There I was.
finally, at the theater capital of
the world. Unfortunatdy. all of
the big shows were sold out. A
Chorus Line. Annie. Ain’t
Misbehavin'- all stxmed bonked
up until 1984. It seemec I
would have to settle for one of
the lesser known shows
A show called I Love My
Wife seemed a logical choice
since it had won the 1977 N.Y.
Drama Critics’ Award for Best
Musical This production of it
starred Tom and Dick Smoth
ers, so I expected to be fully
entertained
Perhaps my expectations
were too high -the production •
at the Ethel Barrymore
Theatre seemed to *be of the
same caliber as the produc-
Onstage^
tions at the now-defunct
Midnight Sun Dinner Theater
The play concerns two couples,
especially the male halves.
Wally 'Dick Smothers» .s a
self-styled swinger who claims
that he has often made love
with more than one woman at a
time He tries to convince
Alvin (Tom) that menage a
trois is the "now thing to do.”
Strait-laced Alvin is shocked
at the idea until he realizes
that he can live out his sexual
fantasies about Monica (Janie
Sell). Wally’s wife. The rest of
the play is occupied with the
husbands trying to convince
their wives to participate.
Unfortunately, the plot was
trite and the lines were
predictable.
Tom Smothers was the only
one who was able to do
something for his part, and
HARRISBURG
From p. I
At first officials said some of
the fuel rods might have
melted. But ucw analysis led
officials to believe the rods
might only have split and
twisted.
After more than five days on
the defensive, engineers said
they finally have taken the
offensive in subduing the
reactor
They said radiation emis
sions from the plant this
morning measured a maxi
mum one millirem about two
miles from the facility—one-
sixth the amount of a dental
X-ray—and most readings
were close to the minimum
detectable level, indicating
there have been no new major
releases, of radiation -since
Friday.
Two separate events Monday
- one planned and one a
surprise marked what
Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion experts viewed as the
turning point.
First, a large hydrogen
bubble within the reactor
suddenly and unexpectedly
appeared to have shrunk to six
percent of its original size for
reasons not entirely understood
by engineers.
Later, in a planned move.
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engineers began removing
hydrogen gas from the react
or’s castle-shaped containment
building, a concrete cylinder
120 feet wide and about 230 feet
high. Both promised to reduce
the risk of potentially catas
trophic hydrogen explosions.
"Those two events put us on
the offensive,” NRC technical
specialist Tom Elsasser said
early today "That was when
our people started thinking
optimistically.”
NRC officials have raised the
possibility in background brief
ings with members of Congress
that the Three Mile Island
plant may be so badly
contaminated it can never be
used again, the Washington
Post reported today Sen. Gary
Hart, D-Colo., said, "It might
be a $1 billion mausoleum
that was because the part
seemed to have been written
with him in mind. His hesitant,
naive manner, while custom-
made for the part of Alvin, was
a direct throwback to the time
when Tom was the "dumb’’
half of the Smothers Brothers
He was able to make even the
dullest scenes hysterical. His
bit of undressing for the
couples’ get-together was a
classic.
The other parts suffered,
however. Dick's swinger be
came just a vehicle for
developing the action, rather
than a costar. His acting was
wooden at best, and he didn’t
develop his character enough
to be even mildly amusing.
The female parts were just
stereotyped. Monica, who
seemed to be the swinger type,
turned out to b« the hardest
one to get to join the fun.
Alvin's wife Cleo (Maureen
Moore), on the other hand,
turned from Mrs Suburban
America into a little fireball
The ladies suffered through the
parts, trying valiantly to make
more of them than was
written, but in vain.
The minor characters made
up for what the major
characters lacked. Four musi
cians served the double parts
of Alvin's working buddies and
a kind of Greek chorus which
commented on the action at
appropriate times The only
real show-stopper belongs to
them—the second act begins
with the number "Hey There
Good Times," which some
people may remember hearing
on the Tony Awards show two
years ago
The technical parts of the
show can usually keep me
occupied if the plot is terrible
Not so with this show The set
was merely functional and
added nothing to the enjoy
ment of the play
The other technical aspects
suffered as well The Ethel
Barrymore is by no means a
large theater, yet the director
thought it necessary to amplify
the actor's voices through a set
of speakers that would have
run a close second to The
Rolling Stones! Now, I may be
a little old-fashioned, but I
though that part of the actor’s
job was to be able to project
his voice to the back of the
theater. Obviously someone
didn't agree.
Although I was entertained
by I Love My Wife. I left the
theater feeling that maybe
next time 1 would make my
reservations for a hit Broad
way play a lot earlier and wait
for plays like this to come to
the Peachtree Playhouse.
The Easter Bunny
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Wehavealar^e
selection of chocolate
bunnies, e^s, hens,
and gourmet jelly beans.
Handmade straw baskets.
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< Formerly King Discount)
‘ China Syndrome ’ is
edge-of-seat thriller
By BOBBY BYRD
Assistant campus editor
This is, of course, the film
that foretold it all. preced
ing the crisis in Harrisburg
by a couple of weeks But
eerie coincidences aside.
The China Syndrome is one
hell of a motion picture
The China Syndrome cen
ters around a faultily
constructed nuclear power
plant and the efforts of
three people to prevent an
impending holocaust Jane
Cinema
Fonda stars as Kimberly
Wells, gorgeous TV report
er who stumbles upon the
biggest story of her fluff-
dominated career
Fonda and her crew
(producer Michael Douglas
plays her cameraman) are
filming a piece on nuclear
energy in a southern
California plant when an
earthquake triggers a near-
catastrophic breakdown
The whole thing is captured
surreptitiously on film, but
the news show’s producers,
afraid to buck the utility
company, refuse to air it.
Jack Lemmon plays Jack
Goddell, the plant super
visor In investigating the
accident, he finds evidence
that the plant was shoddily
constructed and ought to bei
closed. He runs into opposi
tion, from the power com
pany’s chairman of the
board to hit men hired by
the plant's builders
The film builds to a
shattering climax as Lem
mon takes over the plant,
demanding to tell the public
what he has been unable to
tell anyone else. Fonda and
her crew race to get him on
the air as everyone else
races to stop him.
The film’s title refers to
what happens when a
Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and Michael
Douglas star in ‘Syndrome’
meltdown of the fuel core
occurs at a nuclear plant
The molten radiation super
heats eating down into the
earth, theoretically to Chi
na In actuality, the stuff
hits ground water and blows
up. making, the film tells
us. "an area the size of
Pennsylvania uninhabitable
forever." (Makes you think,
doesn't it?)
All three of the principals
should take home Oscar
nominations this time next
year Fonda is simply
brilliant, portraying a love
ly young reporter swamped
by not only the biggest story
of her young career, but
problems with her career
itself Hired purely for her
looks. Kimberly covers
things like fish veterinar
ians and birthday parties
for tigers Her frustration
as she tries to prove herself
as a journalist is magnifi
cently effective.
Lemmon is immediately
made a candidate for Best
Actor as he brings total
credibility to a role that
easily could have been
botched, playing a bad guy
turned hero
And Michael Douglas
should win two nominations,
one for supporting actor as
the radical cameraman
trying to work within the
system, and one for produc
ing the best picture of ’79
Thr China Syndrome is
also, of course, an awesome
film about the horrors of
nuclear energy It was
scary as hell the first time I
saw it, a look at what, God
forbid, might happen in our
lifetime. It has now become
a much more sobering look
at reality Attendance has
picked up since the Three
Mile disaster, and reasona
bly so The potential for a
terrible disaster, threaten
ing all of us, is shown by the
movie as graphicailyas by
last week's newspapers
But. in the end. The 1 tuna
Syndrome is a draining and
exhausting thriller, guaran
teed to have you on the edge
of your seat for over two
hours The climax, which I
won't give away (and don't
let your friends tell you), is
one of the most powerful
I’ve ever seen
The China Syndrome's
timeliness is spooky, but it
doesn’t depend on that to
hold its weight It’s grand
entertainment that makes
you think, which is what a
truly great film is supposed
to be
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