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FILM
The Word From GLAAD
Who to call once you've decided the way to end homophobia is to confront it.
Here's the latest from the
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's
January/February "Bulletin:"
Musical Fag Bashing
Sebastian Bach, lead singer for the double
platinum, heavy metal "Skid Row," appeared in
a recent Metal Edge magazine wearing a T-shirt
emblazoned with the words "AIDS Kills Fags
Dead" with the AIDS styled like the logo for
Raid insecticide.
Metal Edge's editor responded to a com
plaint by GLAAD /LA with regrets for printing
the pic and a promise to say so in print next
issue. Bach, however, offered lama 1 apologies
on MTV suggesting that the "Fags" his shirt
referred to were "little bundles of wood" not
living, breathing people. He went on to say that
he does not "know, condone, comprehend or
understand homosexuality.” In response MTV
News anchor Kurt Loder called Bach "Mr.
Sensitivity."
Demand that Adantic, Skid Row and Bach
issue a real apology directed at the same heavy
metal audience who saw the magazine article.
Write to Mr. Ahmet Ertegun, Chairman,
Atlantic Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York, NY 10019.
On a Brighter Note
Billboard reports that at a "Rolling
Stones"/"Guns N Roses" concert, a member of
one of the opening acts, Vernon Reid of "Living
Color" said to the audience. "If you don't have
anything against gay people, don't call them
faggots. If you don't have anything against
blacks, don't call them niggers.”
Send a congratulatory note to Reid for his
courage in speaking out against bigotry in what
could be unsympathedc circumstances.
Write to Vernon Reid!Living Color, P. 0.
Box 407, Bushwick Finance Station, Brooklyn,
N.Y. 11221.
Sullivan Slips
A document prepared by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services,
Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth
Suicide, concluded that gay/lesbian youth are
three times more likely than other young people
to attempt suicide and that gay/lesbian youth
comprise 30 percent of completed youth sui
cides annually. The key to ending gay teen sui
cides, the report says, is ending discrimination
aginst young people based on their sexual ori
entation.
Seems smart to us, but everybody's fave
homo-hater Congressman William Dannemyer
(R-CA) contacted President Bush and HHS
Secretary Louis Sullivan and demanded that
they reject the portion of the report dealing
with gay suicides because it is against "tradi
tional family values." (Wouldn't you just love
to blow those words right off the face of the
earth?)
Sullivan, rather than ignore Dannemyer's
bigotry, fell right in step writing to him, "I am
strongly committed to advancing traditional
family values....In my opinion, the views
expressed in the paper run contrary to that
aim."
The NGLTF has sharply criticized Sullivan
calling his statements alarming, insensitive and
frightening. They have also asked for a meeting
with the Secretary.
Tell Sullivan that, as a citizen and a taxpay
er, you demand that he stop trying to suppress
the report and that he get some education on
gay and lesbian matters. Agreeing to a meeting
with NGLTF would be a good way to start.
Write to: Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Secretary,
Department of Health and Human Services,
200 Independence Avenue., SW, Washington ,
DC 20201.
Saturday Night Wrong
"Wayne's World," the recurring skit on
Saturday Night Live about Wayne (written and
played by Michael Myers who also runs his
own public access TV show) has replaced last
season's epithet of choice, "fag," with a kinder,
gentler but still baiting "homo."
Another recent skit on SNL,called "The Big
Bitch Bulldyke Breakout" spoofed Zsa Zsa
Gabor and Leona Helmsley breaking out of jail
to escape beatings by an overweight lesbian.
Funny ? Sure. But remember that SNL,
doesn't use words like "nigger," "kike," "coon,"
and "spic." If they are that conscious already, it
doesn't seem like it should take much to get
"fag," "dyke," and "homo" removed from their
repetoire.
And while they're at it, they might want stop
making gays the butt of gay humor and direct
the venom towards homohaters. That way
teenagers might just get the idea that gay-bash
ing isn't particularly cool.
Write to : Lome Michaels, Executive
Producer, Saturday Night Live, NBC, 30
Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. Send
another to writer Michael Myers at the same
address.
Want to know more about GLAAD ? Give
them a call at (212) 966-1700 and ask to be put
on their mailing list Better yet, ask them how
to help start an Atlanta Chapter.
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FOCUS
On M
Film
Ratings:
★★★★ - Excellent
★★★ - Good
★★ - Fair
★ - Poor
V
J
and the Best of the 80's.
Herewith, then, in order of preference, my
opinion of what constitutes the finest films of
1989 and the 1980s.
by Terry Francis
***!/2
First, a note on a fine new film called
"Glory," the thoughtful, concussive account of
a black regiment in the Union Army, and then
a deluge of film titles, drawn from the 1980s
and representing (in my view) the finest films
released in the last ten years.
Edward Zwick's "Glory" (Tri-Star) centers
on a young white Union Army captain named
Shaw (Matthew Broderick), who is commis
sioned to form the 54th Massachusetts out of
black volunteers.
The film's emphasis soon expands and
deepens to render the details of the black vol
unteers’ lives: their formation, training and
courage on the battlefield; their souls.
Apart from the miscast Broderick, the rest
of the cast penetrate their roles with convic
tion. Especially fine are Andre Braugher,
Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy, Denzel
Washington and Cary Elwes. Dreadful music
by James Homer, evocative photography by
the celebrated Freddie Francis, and more than
promising direction by Zwick, whose second
film the splendid "Glory" is.
Some critics consider the practice of com
piling a list of the year's best films to be a silly,
egotistical pursuit I never see the problem.
For two reasons: James Agee did it and any
way egoism is a necessary attribute in all
artists, especially critics. We would crumble
without it
The Best of 1989:
Do the Right Thing, Casualties of War, Yaaba,
The Fabulous Baker Boys, Batman, Queen of
Hearts, Chocolat, True Believer, Drugstore
Cowboy, and sex, lies and videotape.
The Best Films of the 1980s
(English language):
Blue Velvet, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, Hope and Glory, Melvin and Howard,
Shoot the Moon, My Beautiful Laundrette,
Sid & Nancy, The Unbearable Lightness of
Being, Dreamchild, Housekeeping.
Other notable films:
High Tide, Comfort and Joy, The Dead,
Dressed to Kill, High Season, Blow Out, The
Untouchables, Under Fire, Do the Right
Thing, Casualties of War, A Passage to India,
Atlantic City, Married to the Mob, House of
Games, Beetlejuice, The Purple Rose of
Cairo, Roxanne, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid,
and The Lonely Passion of Judith Heame.
The Best of the 1980s (Foreign language):
Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Night of the
Shooting Stars, The Home and the World,
Pixote, Three Brothers, Diva, Law of Desire,
The Makioka Sisters, the Hour of the Star,
Summer.
Other notable films:
My Life As a Dog, Matador, Women On the
Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, What Have I
Done To Deserve This?, L'Argent, After the
Rehearsal, Vagabond, Man Facing Southeast,
Parsifal, Boyfriends and Girlfriends, and Ran.
Film Clips
Born on the 4th of July **** This movie
Tango and Cash Sylvester Stallone
is taken from Vietnam vet Ron Kovic's autobi-
(Tango) and Kurt Russell (Cash) are Thing
ographical novel of the same name and is
One and Thing Two in a funnybone male
given superb treatment by everyone involved.
bonding police drama. Sly wears Armani
Tbm Cruise as Ron Kovic will surely land
suits and uses big words; plus, he has a
an Oscar nomination for his searing portrayal
of the good all-American love it or leave it
boy who loses his legs in the war and almost
everything else upon his return to the states.
The events in Vietnam are the first steps in
Kovic's loss of innocence and true blue
idealism; but it is the brutality of the V. A. hos
pital and the juxtaposition of the Sixties' poli
tics that galvanize him into action.
Aided by John Williams'majestic score and
Oliver Stone's taut, no-holds-barrcd direction,
this film shows the dark side of what hap
pened when Johnny came inarching home. It
is an overwhelming story of patriotism and
stockbroker! Russell is the big brash denim
and beer type. Set up by drug kingpin Jack
Palarice, they get sent up the river where most
of the criminals in the joint were put by either
Tango or Cash. They escape or seek justice
while trying to stay alive.
The dialogue is funny, action is slow-mo
make believe violence, and there are a couple
of attempts at treating a female character as
more than just a - well, a female character
complete with removable clothing.
I can think of worse ways in which to
spend two hours. Average direction, average
script, average everything.
and outright hostility. It is a story of a real hero
who not only picks up what pieces are left but
uses them to provoke change in himself and
ultimately his country.
- Candace Wiggins
January 18,1990 •Southern Voice /II