Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Tuesday May 27 1997 — Page 15 ONE BIG HAPPY THE TYPE Of GAMES WHERE WUKKnEnXTM AND TAKE ME FOR ROMANIC DRIVES THE HtliS AND SWEET-TAL- N TRAUKIARKNUIBBOCr MENCIENDWTOUMDICV A DRNCM6 TROBlEH TWO BANKRUPKCS FORYMUWMIUrJ BEMNDYDU VET How a young Spielberg overcame CNLYTOWSCOfRTHAJWVE GOTAWTE AND MDMA AND anti-Semitis- BUS 7 m LOS ANGELES (AP) — A new biography Steven Spielberg depicts (he world's most successful filmmaker as a youth bedeviled by taunts who won over his enemies by including them in his home movies The book resulted from three years of research and writing by Joseph C McBride film reviewer reporter and author of Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success and books on Howard Hawks Orson Welles and John Ford "For many years I wondered why there was no book on Spielberg not even a good critical study” anti-Semit- ic CATHY for MOST OOHNSWN ft MU) AND BRUTAL FILED HATH LANVERS AND SECURITY WARDS Z TAKE PEOPLE 0IIT LET TMEAI TALK COFFEE OCT ABOUT THEIR HUES THEM SEUEOMft THEY'RE I PIONEERED BUT a anre acNsmve approach' SPECIAL i r Z EVEN LET PEOPLE THMK CONFIOM H THEAfl BY TCUMS THEM THIS ft MHAT X DO WTH EVERYONE ELSE 90AIETMICS IT EVEN BRIMS A TEAR ID AN EVE! im ' AND WFfEACNT I DATED YOU TOO LONS SHE’S ALREADY HEARD XT IRVINS ISNT COINS ALL AW TO WORK A" on me material! says McBride whose - ljj2 R glasses and horn-rimm- ed unruly dark hair make him look unusually scholarly for one who has worked in Hollywood for 23 years “There have been some books I felt he was a great filmmaker who was not truly appreciated The public appreciates him But the te' critics and the press and the academics haven't taken him seriously enough ' Schindler’s List was widely acclaimed but a lot of people said he had finally made a serious adult film as though he had never made one before If you look at Duel and Sugarland Express he was making serious adult films from the beginning" McBride had the advantage of writing about a contemporary — “We are the same age: he is 50 1 am 49 so we watched the same TV shows saw the same movies as kids” More importantly the author was able to find scores of people who knew Spielberg in his forma- BEETLE BAILEY Ap Photo Joseph McBride pose in his home McBride has just published an unauthorized biography: Steven Writer SpMbetg “His life was an attempt to fit in and be accepted I think that made him go for popular entertainment filmas opposed to being an elitist or an art-hou- se maker” Steven Spielberg is an unauthorized biography The director has declined interviews with book tive years Although he was born in a Jewish enclave in Cincinnati he grew up in largely gentile suburbs of New Jersey Arizona and California McBride visited each of the six cities to track down those who knew the young Spielberg "I usually start with city directories where he lived” he said “I start calling all the neighbors and one person leads to another “Phoenix was one at the key parts at his life he lived three seven years He became very creative He used to do crazy things like pouring ketchup on his head to look like he was bleeding and scaring the girl next door with creepy stories “He thought it was great when the pressure cooker blew up Once he threw his mother’s cheny pie up to the ceiling and watched it drip down kind of like a Jackson Pollock action painting He loved mayhem and chaos” McBride writes of the many racial insults and pranks his fellow students played on him through his schooling He won over hi tormentors by including them in his films “One of the themes of my book” the author says “is that he grew up as a bright skinny wimpy Jewish kid who was not in the ‘in’ crowd He was kicked around and mistreated Filmmaking was a way to be accepted by his friends and to please HAGAR THE HORRIBLE 'i&ufc cA&tiP OB pte anti-Semit- ic PEANUTS MARCIE WAS CAN YOU BELIEVE IT CHUCK? CAN YOU BELIEVE NAMED'OUTSTAND-IN- STUDENT OF THE IT? THOUGHT “ "rt I YEAR! G I WAS GOINS ID WIN ! y‘ writers declaring that he expects some day to write his own story But he did not advise friends and not to talk to McBride hence many doors remained open McBride interviewed 327 people many of them more than once “I found out his father helped Steven with hia amateur films and was himself an amateur filmmaker dating back to the 1930s His father was more supportive of his filmmaking than Steven has indi- cated” Where will Steven Spielberg figure in the pantheon of Hollywood? “My feeling is if he retired tomorrow he'd be one of the great filmmakers He has a body of work that I think will stand the test of time He’s made several great films I think Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Schindler !r List are his greatest “Jaws is a great suspense film Empire of the Sun has a great first half it gets less intense later on Duel is a classic suspense film Sugarland Express is superb Jurassic Park is right up there with King Xiong as two of the great monster movies “I’m not frilly enamored with all of his films I don't like Raiders of the Lost Ark very much Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is terrible and 1941 is a debacle He is uneven But so are the other great filmmakers: Capra Ford Hawks” Mailer’s ‘Gospel’ is hardly divine By Mario Szichman Associated Press Writer Review Many great writers have been tempted to write in what cultural critic Dwight MacDonald called “that prose Pearl Buck used in The Good Earth ” It happened to Faulkner in A Fable- - to Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea and now to Norman Mailer in The Gospel According to the Son (Random House $22) Mailer who crested such wonderful books as The Executioner's Song and The Armies of the Night — and even such splendid failures as An American Dream and Harlot’s Ghost — has become pious But the megalomania and the chutzpah are intact Who but Mailer would have put himself in Jesus' place to tell about his predicament in the first person? The Christ who walks — and walks and milks — through this “gospel” is a bowdlerized version of the me who changed probably more than any fake-biblic- ffiOfla MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM al one else the course of humanity In a recent interview Mailer said that there are two ways in which to write about Jesus — "reverentially or satirically” — and he did not want to do either His book besides bring a synopsis of Jesus' life is like an accidental parody When Jesus says “I was bom in a manger by the light of a candle As all know by now there was no room at the inn” it sounds comical and one might wonder if his parents could not have found a instead These have been most trying times for God In every field he has been surpassed by human ingenuity Even the parting of the waters now seems an old and imperfect trick performed better in some Hollywood movie with die help of special effects The selection of Norman Mailer to “holy ghostwrite” the words of Jesus might have been a divine one but it was also an unfortunate one Names in the news FOXTROT Rimes vs Yearwood? NASHVILLE Tenn (AP) — LeAnn Rimes is only 14 and she's getting an early lesson in the politics of Hollywood I MEAN fT SEEMS LHC WE WOE JUST YESTERDAY SIMMS HERE AT ALL FRESHMAN ORRNWIloN Miss Rimes was asked to record How Do I Live for the soundtrack of the Nicolas Cage movie Con Air but filmmakers rejected her version reportedly because she was considered too MTRoOUONft OURSELVES 1b EACH OTHER young for the romantic ballad The producers asked Trisha Yearwood to do the song Now JiU REAL LIFE ADVENTURES CLOSE TO HOME both recordings have been rushed to radio stations pitting the two singers against each other in the battle for airtime Curb Miss Rimes’ label paid to make the record and video The company thought they would free speech battles of the publisher of Hustler magazine The film was criticized for glorifying a retain rights to the song if it pomogtapher and those involved wasn't right for the film chief Mike Curb said in Thursday’s edition of USA Today Milos Forman with the movie said that hurt its popularity “Not since Citizen Kane has a film suffered from the politics of the day” said co-stCourtney ar Love who presented Forman receives award LOS ANGELES (AP) — Milos Forman didn't win the Oscar for directing The People vs Larry Flynt but the ACLU has awarded him the Torch of Liberty which honors freedom of expression The 1996 film chronicles the with tlie trophy on Wednesday The director who grew up under Eastern European totalitarian regimes said “I learned that in the hands of those in power individual civil liberties are very fragile and can easily be Win at bridge Bv Phillip Alder One of the most respected bridge players and writers Alfred Sheinwold died in Los Angeles on March 8 at the age of 85 Bom in London Freddie as he was known to all his friends moved with his family to New York when he was nine He stayed in Manhattan for nearly 50 years before moving to LA After graduating summa cum laude from City College in 1933 Freddie was hired by Ely Culbertson then the leading bridge personality Freddie spent the rest of his life writing about the game in magazines newspapers (for the LA Times Syndicate) and books (“Five Weeks to Winning Bridge” has sold millions of “W ITa hard to wak In lata on a rainy day anyone tries to look at aomoono elao's answers and turns hia or her heed a mere three Inches TIMBERI" copies) A top player he won two national and many regional titles 01997 by NEA Inc During World War II Freddie was the chief code and cipher expert of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) Here’s a simple but effective defense Freddie produced South as it was a went for six national pair championship And he seems to have 12 easy tricks no-tru- doesn't he? However when South played a club to his ace at trick two Freddie dropped the jack! Trying to judge the distribution South continued with his two top spades East discarding a diamond Now thinking West was long in spades and diamonds declarer led a heart to dummy's ace and played a club to his nine Happily Freddie produced the 10 and ran the diamonds: four down Freddie will be greatly missed not only by all who knew him but also by his readers North Q 7 5 4 J 10 6 3 V A AS 8 H East West J V 10 6 0 3 2 s V Q K Q 10 J C I 7 4 0 0 2 4 2 J 72 10 4 South A K 0 V K 0 5 1 A K Q 0 S 2 Vulnerable: Both Dealer North |