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)
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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.
