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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1987)
Fourth Graders Boycott TV PAGE 9 — The Georgia Bulletin, April 23,1987 BY MARY K. TILGHMAN ANNAPOLIS, Md. (NC) - Not watching television for a whole week could be tough for many fourth graders. But those at St. Mary’s School in Annapolis this Lent show ed it was possible — and even fun. The TV boycott followed a class discus sion on how hard it can be to break a habit and a report that students in another school had made a similar effort, said Diana Stevens, the teacher who coor dinated the project. Students quickly found other activities to fill in their TV time. Theandre Currie said she spent more time with her grandparents and learned how well her grandfather plays cards. John Clayton read a few Hardy Boys books he hadn’t found time to read. Students had different reasons for par ticipating in the project. “I did it to feel good about myself — to give up a habit,” said Domenica Tripodi. Jay Morrison did it for cash. He bet his mother $3 and won. Family encouragement kept at least one student away from the screen. - “I wanted to watch, but they wouldn’t let me,” said Scott Preston, whose parents and brother did not let him forget his goal. With parental permission, the children refrained from watching TV from noon March 9 to noon March 16. Nearly every member of the class tried to participate even if all could not do so at this time, said Mrs. Stevens. “We all talked about how they'd feel stronger,” she said. “If they could do this, they could do other things they never tried before.” Improbable Plot, Violence Mar Two Recent Releases THEY DID IT — Wearing shirts that proclaim “I did it!” fourth- graders at St. Mary’s School in Annapolis, Md., celebrate their success at giving up television for an entire week. Diana Stevens’ class was discussing how tough it can be to break a habit when the idea for the TV fast came up. The class thought Lent was a good time for the project since it is a time of penance and growth. It was tough, the children said, but they had a lot of help and they found other things to do. (NC photo by Denise Walker) US :■ md it % an (IB >1 d!» 2 to- 1 fit' icare lit- rai , :!iot' d toil 6 isl " at link i» 0t «i f itai. ; if P ,0 : sis w ,0^ BY TONY ZAZA 1 NEW YORK (NC) — An up-and-coming legislative aide named Paul (Charlie Sheen) must transport Robin (Kerri Green), a senator’s feisty daughter, to a psychiatric clinic for troublesome girls in “Three for the Road” (New Century- Vista). Paul takes along his roommate, T.S. (Alan Ruck), for the ride. The three become embroiled in a series of comic mishaps when Robin makes several at tempts to escape. She succeeds in getting away long enough to visit her estranged mother (Sally Kellerman), whose apathy drives her back to the exasperated young men. Filled with improbable plot turns, the romantic comedy set as a road movie shows how idealistic dedication can lead to misplaced trust. Upon delivering the distraught Robin to Aschroft Institute, Paul, fueled by love, has a change of heart and helps Robin escape with the help of her mother, who arrives to save the day with a renewed commitment to her daughter. The movie, directed by B.W.L. Norton, tends to affirm a teen-ager’s right to rebel against unjust authority. The treatment is so strained with wholly unbearable adult figures that there is little room for realistic conflict. Extended chase sequences, prat falls, occasional vulgar language and some back-seat petting by the supporting characters distract from the overall romantic quality of the teen-oriented com edy. Jolly but not particularly insightful, this road movie is mildly entertaining formula diversion which will give youngsters neither positive nor negative role models but will serve to awaken them to the even tual matters of conscience they will face as young adults. The U.S. Catholic Con ference classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Associa tion of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. “The Night Stalker” (Almi) is a story about two tough Los Angeles vice detec tives who go on the trail of a psychopath who slays hookers and paints their faces with mystical symbols. It turns out that the lunatic thinks he can derive superhuman power via the deaths of his victims. The alcoholic cops finally get him, but not before an unconscionable excess of nude dead women, bloody violence, pro fanity and auto demolition are presented. The U.S. Catholic Conference classifica tion is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. TV Review Holocaust Documentary To Air BY HENRY HERX AND TONY ZAZA NEW YORK (NC) - “Shoah” is the Hebrew word for annihilation. It serves as a simple, direct and appropriate title for a program devoted to the mass murder by the Nazis of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. “Shoah,” a presentation in serial form of a 1985 French documentary pro duced and directed by Claude Lanzmann, airs in four parts, beginning Mon day, April 27, 8-11 p.m. EDT on PBS (Channel 8 and Channel 30). It continues Tuesday, April 28, 8-10 p.m. and Wednesday, April 29, 8-10:30 p.m. The series con cludes Thursday, April 30, 8-11 p.m. Highly praised by American and European movie critics, Lanzmann’s ' • The television schedule for the week of April 26 follows: SUNDAY, APRIL 26 THE CATHOLIC MASS — The Mass will be celebrated at the following times: 8:30 a.m. on WOR-TV (Channel 47 on Prime Cable). 9 a m. on WGN-TV (Channel 42 on Prime Cable). 10 a m. on WVEU-TV (Channel 69). 10:30 a.m. in Spanish on AIB CABLE.* MONDAY, APRIL 27 SHARE THE WORD — This video edition of the Scripture program produced by the Paulists features commentaries on the Readings for the upcoming Sunday. May 3. 8 p.m. on AIB CABLE.* VIDEO EDITION — The plight of homeless people in ur ban society and the Church’s response comprise this week’s topics. Parish involvement in shelters and other forms of ministries to street people are discussed. 8:30 p.m. on AIB CABLE.* WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 THE MASS — The Mass celebrated at the parish of Sts. Peter and Paul in Decatur. 5 p.m. on AIB CABLE * SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS — Series host, Sister Maria Grazie, examines a wide range of religious topics, along with her weekly guests. Guests Dr. Patrick Aspell and his wife Denise discuss communications in terms of conflict resolution within the marriage and family. 8:30 p.m. on AIB CABLE.* CHRISTOPHER CLOSEUP — Portraits of Peace: Teenagers whose homelands and lives have been ravaged by war present a message of peace. 9 p.m. on AIB CABLE.* *( AIB CABLE is an interfaith channel on Cable 5 in North DeKalb and on Cable 8 in Alpharetta, Atlanta, College Park and East Point). account of the Holocaust does not rely on any of the film footage shot at the ex termination sites by Nazi cameramen. Instead, Lanz mann constructed the film from interviews with those who were there, whether as victim, executioner or bystander. The result gives witness to the human reali ty of an infamous period. Its method is that of oral history, from which one gets the human dimen sion of events from the per sonal experiences of par ticipants. Lanzmann has achieved this exceptionally we'l in a work that is in tensely emotional and often shocking. In his interviews with sur vivors of the camps, Lanz mann knows that he is caus ing pain by asking them to recall in detail these terrors from the past. Viewers will see that pain and share it as they listen to verbal des criptions of assembly line factories of death. To get interviews with camp guards, Lanzmann pretended to be a journalist writing about the camps and secretly filmed their conversations. They are men who ran the exter mination camps and work ed out the “machinery of death,” as Lanzmann re fers to the process that murdered millions in a lit tle more than three years. One learns that murder on such a mass scale is not easy to accomplish. In describing their grisly work, it is obvious that they did not regard their victims as human beings and they all justify what they did as “obeying orders.” There is not a guilty conscience among them. The death camps were not built in Germany but in Eastern Europe, mostly Poland. “Shoah” has been criticized by some as charg ing that all Poles at this time were anti-Semitic. Viewers will see that it is much more complicated than that and that one should beware, as Lanz mann is, of making gen eralizations. Certainly he shows that there were Poles with other views than the farmer who suggests that Poland is better off without Jews. For Catholics this is an important issue, especially since the Second Vatican Council. Catholics should be ready to admit the ex istence of anti-Semitism among Catholic people in the past but that such feel ing was then and is now morally repugnant. Cer tainly the recent visit of Pope John Paul II to the Roman synagogue is a clear indication of where the church is on this matter. “Shoah” does not at tribute the Holocaust to Polish anti-Semitism. Even if the Poles had wanted to, there was nothing they could have done to stop the Nazi occupiers. What it does imply, however, is that there were few Poles who cared about their Jewish neighbors, and that is something for all viewers to think about. Parents should consider the age and maturity of those watching. It is not for the young and immature but it is a lesson of history that has grave conse quences. The U.S. Catholic Con ference classification of the theatrical version is A-II — adults and adolescents. There was no Motion Pic ture Association of Amer ica rating.
