Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2-The Southern Cross, April 12,1979
CLASSIC REMADE -- Billy Flynn played by Jon Voight trains for a
fight while his son, T. J., played by Ricky Schroder, stays close at his
heels in MGM’s “The Champ,” a remake of the 1931 film which earned an
Academy Award for Wallace Beery and made a star of Jackie Cooper. It is
the first American film for director Franco Zeffirelli whose productions of
“Romeo and Juliet” and “Jesus of Nazareth” have brought international
acclaim. (NC Photo)
AT THE MOVIES
NEW YORK (NC) - The following
capsule movie reviews and classifications
were prepared through consensus of the
staff of the USCC Department of
Communication’s Office for Film and
Broadcasting.
‘THE BELL JAR”
(AVCO EMBASSY)
This screen version of Sylvia Plath’s
autobiographical novel about the mental
breakdown of a brilliant college girl has
been turned into a dreary and painful
film unredeemed by much in the way of
either compassion or intelligence. The
rather extensive use of nudity,
furthermore, is objectionable. (R) B —
Morally objectionable in part for all.
“OLD BOYFRIENDS”
(AVCO EMBASSY)
A recently divorced woman in her
early 30s, in the grip of depression and
beset by a sense of futility, tries to
make sense out of her life by hitting the
road in her battered Firebird and
looking up three old boyfriends who
strongly affected her at crucial points in
her life. A confused and muddled film
that seems afflicted with the same sort
of malaise as its heroine, “Old
Boyfriends” is further handicapped by a
poor performance by Talia Shire in the
lead. There are some rough language and
some adult situations. (R) A-III —
morally unobjectionable for adults.
RECENT FILM
CLASSIFICATIONS
“The Bell Jar” (Avco Embassy). (R)
B — Morally objectionable in part for
all.
“The Champ” (MGM-UA). (PG) A-II
— Morally unobjectionable for adults
and adolescents.
“Old Boyfriends” (Avco Embassy).
(R) A-III — Morally unobjectionable for
adults.
HAPPY
EASTER?
HERE'S
HOW!
THE HOLY FATHER’S MISSION AID TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCH
When are you happiest? Happiness lies in giv
ing. You’re happiest when you give yourself to
the people who need you most. ... A mother,
GIVE for instance, hums with happiness when she
SOME bathes and dresses her baby. A good nurse al-
HAPP1NESS ways has time for a smile. Good fathers whistle
TO at their work. . . . The best sort of giving
A involves more than writing checks—still, how
CHILD better can you help the children now who need
you overseas? Boys and girls who are blind,
lepers, deaf-mutes, orphans—your money gifts,
large and small, will feed them, teach them,
cure them, give them a chance in life. . . . Want
to be happier this Easter? Give some happiness
to a child. You’ll be happy, too!
HAPPINESS
IS A
SISTER
OF YOUR
OWN
HAPPINESS
IS A HOME
OF THEIR
OWN
HAPPINESS
IS
CLOTHING
HAPPINESS
IS TO
BE
EDUCATED
Dear
Monsignor Nolan:
Please
return coupon
with your
offering
In Erumathala, south India, a young Indian girl
in training to be a Sister of the Destitute will
learn, among other things, how to care for
orphans. Her training costs $300 all told
($12.50 a month, $150.00 a year), a small in
vestment for a Sister’s lifetime of service. Like
to be her sponsor? We’ll send you her name and
she will write to you.
For only $200 in Ernakulam you can build a
decent house for a family that now sleeps on
the sidewalks. Simply send your check to us.
Cardinal Parecattil will write to thank you also.
4*
In this “Year of the Child,” brighten the heart
of a blind child in the Gaza Strip (where Samson
lived). $5 gives shoes, $10 a set of braille
readers, $25 clothes!
MU,
nw
Where there is none in south India, you can
build a six-room permanent school for only
$4,000. Archbishop Mar Gregorios will select
the village, supervise construction and write to
thank you. The children will pray for you, and
you may name the school for your favorite
saint, in your loved ones’ memory!
<D AX
ENCLOSED PLEASE FIND $
FOR
NAME
STREET
CITY STATE ZIP CODE
THE CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION
NEAR EAST
MISSIONS
TERENCE CARDINAL COOKE, President
MSGR. JOHN G. NOLAN, National Secretary
Write: Catholic Near East Welfare Assoc.
1011 First Avenue • New York, N.Y. 10022
Telephone: 212/826-1480
- ' *
TV Reviews-Programs Of Note
i — ^
BY T. FABRE
NEW YORK (NC) -- The American
Dream equates hard work with material
success. For those who try too hard,
however, the goal can become a trap of
the kind described in “Transplant,”
airing Tuesday, April 17, at 9-11 p.m.
on CBS.
John Hurley has worked his way up
the ladder from a Brooklyn slum to an
executive office and suburban affluence.
He thrives on the pressures of his job,
smokes and drinks too much, and keeps
pushing himself until he is felled by a
massive coronary.
“I’m only 35,” he says, helpless and
disbelieving as he slips into
unconsciousness. Viewers will feel
keenly their own mortality in these
scenes, not least because his loving wife
and three children stay by his side,
frightened but refusing to give up hope.
Hurley, the tough slum kid, amazes
his doctor by surviving and then
recovering. However, too much of his
heart muscle has been destroyed for
even a bypass operation. His only
chance for a few more years of life with
his family is a heart transplant.
The last part of the film explains
what such an operation involves, how
few people are accepted for one, the
risks of infection and the body’s
rejection of a foreign organ, and that
success is measured in terms of one to
five years. Except for the inserts of
actual hert surgery, the sequence is
fairly typical of the well-done medical
drama.
Kevin Dobson’s sardonic performance
as the aggressive, all-American
heart-attack victim achieves its
necessary pathos in conjunction with
the character of the tenderly devoted
wife played by the appealing Melinda
Dillon.
What the film is telling us might seem
un-American but it makes sense: slow
down, relax and enjoy what you already
have.
“PINOCCHIO,” PBS,
APRIL 21
There is more to the wooden-headed
puppet than found in the 1940
animated version of Walt Disney. Going
back to the original source is
“Pinocchio,” a four-part BBC series
premiering Saturday, April 21, at 8-8:30
p.m. on PBS.
Carlo Collodi, an Italian journalist,
created the story of the puppet who
wanted to be “ a real boy” in the early
1880s as a comic serial with moral
undertones. Pinocchio was the literary
extension of the Italian tradition of the
travelling marionette theater that
Collodi loved as a child.
Barry Letts, the BBC producer and
director of this series, worked with
British puppeteer Barry Smith in
creating the mischievous face of
Collodi’s Pinocchio. It wears well in the
course of the puppet’s picaresque
adventures which Disney had
characteristically . turned into a
sentimental journey with hummable
music.
Collodi’s point is that children learn
by getting into trouble and that as much
as Pinocchio lies — and his nose grows —
it is all part of the magical process of
growing up.
Intertwining live actors such as Derek
Smith as the irascible Geppetto and
puppets such as the grumbling cricket
who serves as narrator-chorus, this
version has enough of its own magic to
satisfy those tho grew up with the
Disney classic as well as those to whom
the story is completely fresh.
The “Once Upon a Classic” series has
once again demonstrated that family
entertainment can be as enjoyable as it
is creative.
THE GUARDIAN,” NBC,
EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 15
On Easter Sunday, April 15 (1-2 p.m.
EDT), NBC offers viewers a rare
opportunity to share a kind of
state-of-the-art experience in creative
American university drama when it
rebroadcasts “The Guardian.”
FATHER-DAUGHTER
DANCE COMPETITION
WINNERS - Pictured above are
Frank Aliotta and Albert Remler
and their daughters, Dina and
Marilyn. They took prizes for
their dancing at the recent
Father-Daughter Dance sponsored
by the National Honor Society of
St. Vincent’s Academy, Savannah.
A presentation of the U.S. Catholic
Conference, “The Guardian” is a
contemporary mime-modern dance
interpretation of the passion, death and
resurrection of Christ, as the
involvement in such a production
affects a group of college students.
Produced by William Cosmas and
directed by Marvin Einhorn, the work
was specially conceived for television by
Brother Augustine Towey, director of
the Niagara University theater arts
department, and is performed primarily
by a group of his students. It is, as
Helen Hayes observes in her
introduction, an example of innovative
university theater which meets the
highest professional standards.
In format the drama is a
play-within-a-play which falls into three
interwoven segments in which the “real
life” actions of the students are played
off against and merged into a
“rehearsal” followed by a
‘‘performance’’ of the
play-within-a-play.
TV PROGRAMS OF NOTE
Tuesday, April 17, 9-10 p.m. (PBS)
“Off Your Duff.” A paean to the
physical, mental and spiritual benefits
of proper exercise, this lively program
demonstrates a wide variety of ways
that children, adults and senior citizens
can get into better shape and enjoy
being fit.
Wednesday, April 18, 10-11 p.m.
(PBS) “Who Remembers Mama?” A
harrowing documentary on the
economic and emotional devastation
experienced by millions of middle-aged
women when they lose home, status and
financial security as a result of
“no-fault” divorce laws.
Thursday, April 19,10-11 p.m. (PBS)
“One of the Missing.” Partly buired by
an explosion, a sniper fears that his
slightest movement in trying to free
himself will discharge his own cocked
rifle directly into his face, in this
adaptation of a short story by Ambrose
Bierce.
Saturday, April 21,10-11 p.m. (ABC)
“Men Under Siege.” This “ABC News
Closeup” documentary reports on
American men since the women’s
movement, examining how the raising
of women’s consciousness has affected
male-female relationships and
influenced men’s relations with each
other.
DIOCESAN LENTEN PROGRAM, “FAITH ALIVE”, was used by St.
Teresa of Avila Parish, Augusta. Each Sunday the homily referred to the
theme of the week and the prayers were used at Mass. About 20 couples
met in various homes throughout the parish each week to discuss the
topics. Pictured 1. to r.: Jack & Linda Shelley, Sheila & Richard Reynolds,
Mario & Myriam Miras, Marina Shurley, and Fr. Walter L. DiFrancesco.
THE CHURCH:
A T HOME
THE CHURCH:
TV-MOVIES
Nuclear Safety: Atoms For Peace/Atoms For War
BY KAREN SMITH
Part I of this series reported a major
nuclear accident in the Soviet Union and
looked at the NRC Review Group Report
which resulted in NRC’s repudiation of the
main document used to assure the public of
nuclear reactor safety, the Rasmussen Report.
Part II explored some of the transportation
hazards posed by the expected increase in the
shipment of spent fuel rods. These articles
have not even considered the danger of a
complete meltdown of a nuclear reactor; a
matter of sudden public interest after fhe
experience at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
This article focuses on the link
between nuclear power used to produce
electricity and nuclear weapons
designed to destroy the lives of people.
Plutonium 239 is one of the most
lethal substances known. It is a
man-made radioactive substance created
in a nuclear reactor. It is a by-product,
but an extremely important one because
it is the key ingredient in nuclear
bombs. Plutonium is lethal in even the
tiniest doses. One thousandth of an
ounce distributed in smoke particles has
been found to damage the lungs of
beagle dogs that inhaled it, and they died
within days or weeks. Even worse,
plutonium is not biodegradable. It
lingers in the environment with a
half-life of 24,400 years. Plutonium
ignites spontaneously when exposed to
moist air, so the methods of “safe”
handling and “safe” storage for literally
thousands of years present tremendous
technological problems.
In Rocky Flats, Colorado (16 miles
from downtown Denver), hundreds of
pounds of plutonium ignited in 1969,
causing the country’s worst industrial
fire. Tax money paid an estimated $45
million for the cleanup. Some studies
predict an increase of 2,000 cases of
lung cancer for people living in the area
from plutonium particles carried in the
air. Of course, these cancers may take
15 or 20 years to appear.
The Savannah River Plant, operated
by DuPont, produces plutonium which
is later fashioned into 4V2 pound units
called “buttons.” These buttons are
shipped by truck from Savannah River
Plant via Augusta and Atlanta and on to
Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant
where they are made into fission triggers
for use in nuclear weapons.
On April 24, 1975, a classified report
from the General Accounting Office to
the Secretary of Defense charged that
nuclear warheads were being moved by
highway in a way that makes them
vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Specifically, the report cited that
tractor trailers were without armor or
entry-denial devices, that they did not
use helicopters for aerial reconnaissance
and surveillance, did not have adequate
enroute communications systems for
monitoring, and did not provide a
security team vehicle to respond to
emergencies. One large carrier, Tri-State
Motor Freight, has complied with much
of this type of protection; yet the
hauling proves unprofitable because of
these added overhead costs.
It takes less than 12 pounds of
plutonium to make an atom bomb.
Even a tiny amount in the wrong hands
could kill thousands of people.
Terrorists, transportation and storage
problems are serious threats to look
forward to. In 1970 a 14 year old
Orlando, Florida youth nearly
succeeded in blackmailing officials for
$1 million. He sent the FBI a convincing
set of plans for a hydrogen bomb. This
is only one of several similar incidents.
Plutonium is worth many times the
price of gold. This fact alone may
provide incentive for some
sophistocated criminal theft of
hijacking. We are fortunate indeed that
no such calamities have yet occurred,
but with the increases expected, there is
no guarantee that we will not have to
face them yet.
Any nation with a nuclear fission
power plant and facilities to reprocess
spent fuel can make an atom bomb. The
spread of “atoms for peace” also
spreads the potential of atoms for war.
The hope that atomic energy would
prove “too cheap to meter” has proven
false not only in actual dollars and cents
and health and safety factors, but
because of the added insecurity at the
international level. To date there have
been over 1,000 nuclear explosions. The
nations responsible are: United States,
U.S.S.R., France, England, China, and
India in descending order according to
the number of explosions. Under the
Atoms for Peace Program, the U.S. and
Canada helped India with nuclear
research and power reactors. Now India
is a member of the expanding nuclear
club. The expanding list of club
members includes countries whose
governments are unstable and who
already have internal problems with
terrorists or oppressive and tortuous
leaders.
Our government estimates that 400
million pounds of plutonium could be
moving through the nuclear fuel cycle in
20 years with additional millions of
pounds overseas. How do we expect to
keep track of this flow, let alone
safeguard it? Will our computers
necessarily do a better job protecting
these shipments than they do in their
present billing performances from credit
departments? Why are we continuing to
manufacture plutonium, to construct
nuclear power plants, and to transport
such dangerous materials all over our
country? Why do we export technology
tht only decreases international
security?
One of the closest-to-home responses
is JOBS. When the Pentagon calls for
more weapons, contractors have more
orders and unions have more workers.
Academics even have more research
money. Yet the House Committee on
Government Operations states:
“Nuclear plants are capital intensive
and thus produce few jobs. Renewable
energy sources such as solar and
conservation are not capital intensive
and are expected to produce many jobs
- 500,000 construction jobs alone or
three times as many jobs as produced by
the nuclear industry.”
The Bureau of Labor estimates that if
funds spent for nuclear weapons were
spent on health care there would be
84% more jobs, if it were spent on
education 147% more. Weapons
themselves, not being consumer goods
or services, contribute to inflation.
Taxes subsidize the nuclear industry in
research, liability protection, uranium
enrichment services and waste
management. Meanwhile our currency is
devalued at home and abroad and
thousands of Americans walk into
nuclear related offices and plants each
day with the dark cloud of nuclear
mishap, accident, or retaliation looming
overhead.
The link between nuclear power and
nuclear weapons is clear. Power plants
produce materials that can be used for
weapons. These materials are
transported thousands of miles each day
across our nation. Weak spots in
transportation and storage Drocesses
make us vulnerable to terrorist tactics or
to perpetrators of big money crime. The
U.S. is the leading exporter of
technological know-how and equipment
in the nuclear field. We are also the
nation that began the nuclear age.
Let us look candidly at our national
and international situation. Let us ask
ourselves why and how we got here. Is
this way of life contributing to peace
and security for our world? Do we
desire any alternatives? Are there any
viable alternatives open? In Part IV of
this series some of these underlying
questions will be addressed.
NUCLEAR CLUB
NEAR NUCLEAR CLUB
United States
U.S.S.R.
France
England
China
India
Israel *
South Africa *
Iran
Brazil
Argentina
South Korea
Egypt
Pakistan Indonesia
Japan Philippines
Taiwan
West Germany
Belgium
Italy
Canada
* Some evidence exists from satellite photos that these two nations may already
have nuclear weapons.