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Show iraficMes The NewspaperThursday, May i. - c BS K , w(j . "-. ; i.-0"- -j A -iafc Amy Steel hides from a crazed killer who has embarked on a savage bloodbath in the all-new film, "Friday the 13th Part II." A Classic Recommended Good Double feature material Time-Killer Formasochists only Friday The 13th, Part II Yes, America! The picture pic-ture you've been waiting for is here! As you'll recall, the mother murderess of Park I (Betsy Palmer) was decapitated. But her mutant son, Jason, is alive and slobbering slob-bering for revenge. He begins by murdering the surviving heroine from the first "Friday" very unusual! Even for this kind of flick. His main course, however, is the assortment of campersthe cam-persthe young, the horny and the really, really stupid. ("This place is spooky," one says, while she wanders off into the woods, by herself!) You'll probably still jump at ", all the right places, but there are no surprises. The script doesn't give a damn about making sense of the plot, and the only new wrinkle is a kind of toilet-peephole humor in the suspense scenes. (The terrified heroine, hiding under a bed, gives herself away by wetting wet-ting her pants.) "Friday the 13th, Part I was last sum mer's fluke box-office hit, but the sequel reminds us of another superstition: Lightning Light-ning never strikes twice in the same place. Va Caveman You'll have a fun time at this one, as long as you can accept (a) Ringo Starr as the only Neanderthal Man who grunts with a Liverpool accent; ac-cent; (b) Barbara Bach as a spoiled cave bunny; and (c) a tyrannoussourus who reminds one vaguely of Truman Capote. Ringo plays Atouk, the intelligent weakling weak-ling who is thrown out of his tribe. He and buddy Dennis Den-nis Quaid form a tribe of misfits and Ringo's leadership leader-ship proves to be one small step for man, one giant pratfall prat-fall for mankind, as the tribe discovers fire, the art of making weapons, reggae music, and the three-minute egg. Director and co-writer Carl Gottlieb has made a fine low comedy that you almost , forgive for , the predictable plot and raunchy gags (the tribe's reaction after af-ter marching into the world's largest cowpile!), and very old jokes (some, indeed, have been found carved into the walls of ice caves in France). Ringo's on-and-off movie career finally may catch fire with his portrayal of a clumsy, clum-sy, but undaunted Cro- Magnon hero. The entire case is hilarious, especially Jack Gilford's blind old frump, pint-sized Corky Hubbert, and king-sized football star John Matuszak as the heavy whose brawn is exceeded only by his stupidity. (He heaves huge boulders at his enemies, but forgets to let go. ) A Force Of One Chuck Norris stars as the defending champion at a martial arts tournament who discovers one of his challengers also moonlights as a hitman for a drug operation. Norris' adopted sons finds the culprit after some casual poking around (for which he is killed) but poor Chuck combs the whole city, and still never catches on till the climax. The police aren't too bright, either: all they know is that the mob's teenage contact rides a skateboard, and thus they spend most of their time rousting Pizza Bug delivery boys. Also there's a cast headed by Jennifer O'Neill, Clu Gulager, and Ron(Superfly) O'Neal that carries the acting ac-ting load for Norris, who is cursed with a vacuous personality per-sonality and a timid screen voice that hints at more of an interest in macrame than mangling. 2 More American Graffiti A best of times worst of times misfire that tries to confront the tough issues of the 60's and romp through them at the same time. Four concurrently running stories, all set on New Year's Eve find John Milner (Paul LeMat) in a 1964 drag race; Terry the Toad (Charlie Martin Smith) a disgusted Vietnam GI in 1965; Debbie (Candy Clark) involved with the slapstick escapades of a group of SF hippies, circa 1966; and Steve and Laurie (Ron Howard & Cindy Williams) as young marrieds who carry a stupid sit-com quarrel through a '67 campus riot. The picture garners the high rating almost soley for its Vietnam scenes of men mired down in mud, blood and their own crap, but even this segment sells out by building up Toad's martinet CO as a drunken, cowardly stock heavy. American Graffiti One of the great films of the 1970s, at once a film crammed with nostalgic good spirits and yet an elegaic farewell to the '50s. Directed by George (Star Wars) Lucas with a cast of now-famous names: Richard Dreyfuss, Ronnie Howard, Cindy Williams,' Paul LeMat, MacKenzie Phillips, Harrison Ford and Suzanne Somers as the Girls in theT-Bird. Keefl WowM by Kick Hrough 'Breaker Morant': verdict too easy to predict in court-martial drama y2 Breaker Morant I can almost give enough stars to recommend "Breaker Morant." It proves that an entertaining, thoughtful movie doesn't have to be home-grown or imported from the shores of Europe. But this Australian picture is thoughtful, without being thought-out too well. It tackles an important problem, prob-lem, but its answer sounds too much like cliches. "Breaker" takes place during the Boer War of the early 1900s between Great Britain and the Dutch colonists col-onists in the Transvaal of South Africa. The film, based on a true story, shows the court martial of three Australian soldiers charged with shooting Boer prisoners without trial. (Edward Woodward is the senior officer "Breaker" Morant, along with Bryan Brown, and Lewis Fitz-Gerald.) Their defense counsel (played by Jack Thompson) points out that shooting prisoners is a policy condoned, con-doned, at least informally, by the British commanders who consider it an inconvenience incon-venience to haul Boer POWs over miles of veldt country to the nearest fort. (His case is bolstered by brief glimpses at the past. The scene shifts from the dusty concrete hunker courtroom to the craggy mountains and rolling roll-ing plains of the veldt, where British forces struggle to survive the ambush tactics of the Boers.) British courtrooms do not accept flashbacks as evidence, evi-dence, so the lawyer attempts at-tempts to pry an admission from Lord Kitchener, the commander-in-chief, that he sanctioned on-the-spot exe cutions. Kitchener, however, stonewalls, for what he thinks is a good reason. The British government is about to begin peace negotiations with the Boers, and the three Australians are to be convicted con-victed and sacrificed as a conciliatory gesture. You're invited to take the movie as an analogy to Vietnam the combat in a "Third World country," the callous commanders, the soldiers confused and brutalized bru-talized by this new-fangled guerilla warfare. Ultimately, we learn, it is not the three men who are guilty, but the institution of war itself. It's not the person, it's the system. That message is an over-obvious over-obvious cliche. Sure, it may be true, but so many dramatic productions have used it that it's tired out. (Courtroom melodramas in particular love it. To give two examples at random: "The Andersonville Trial," a Civil War court drama on public television a decade ago, indicted the system, not the individual. The idea was even transplanted to the topic of professional sports. 'A TV-movie of some years back dealt with a professional profes-sional hockey "assassin," on trial for manslaughter, who was defended on the grounds that his bloodlust on the rink was encouraged by the owners, coaches, and especially es-pecially the fans.) Everyone knows by now that the System's rotten. "Morant" doesn't need to tell us again. What it should fin i;; explore the theme tur'.iwr, and ask, "Does the brutality of war completely cancel out the responsibility of the individual?" After all, take the "Breaker Morant" theme far enough, and you end up with Lt. Calley, who said he couldn't be blamed for shooting women and children child-ren in a war where women and children shoot first. A lot of folks argued that Calley was no different from the B-52s blasting the Vietnamese Vietnam-ese hamlets or the planes bombing German cities in World War II. But at the other extreme, we find someone like Eich-mann, Eich-mann, and we say a person should be held responsible for what he does in wartime. So where do you make the distinction? When does war turn men into brutes, and when is it simply an opportunity op-portunity for brutes to masquerade as men? To its credit, the movie does reveal that Breaker Morant and at least one other defendant are guilty of the charges against them. Morant shot the prisoners because he believed they were responsible for killing his beloved senior officer, the brother of his fiance back home. The picture acknowledges ac-knowledges this fact, but doesn't explain it. The defendants are cliches Fitz-Gerald is the scared young kid; Brown plays the hard-bitten ladies' man; Morant looks like two or three cliches combined the romantic, the noble victim, and mouthpiece. ("We're an apology for their Empire," he cries as he's led away from his prison cell.) The film never explains Morant too well. He's a tough soldier, but he is also a refined character who used to sing madrigals in the parlor back home, and who now writes heartfelt poetry in his prison cell ("moon-June-croon" stuff that the film sentimentalizes horribly). horrib-ly). The movie never shows us enough of the blood and horror of warfare to let us understand why such a sensitive man could become capable of atrocities. Edward Ed-ward Woodward isn't much help in the title role. He and the rest of the cast deliver robust but superficial performances. per-formances. The film story is confined basically to the courtroom, but the script and direction try to keep things lively by shifting to flashbacks and scenes outside the courtroom. court-room. It also uses a style that focuses not so much on the entire court, but the participant's partici-pant's faces and heads. Characters often are shoved full-face into the camera, allowing us to examine their defiance, nervousness, or sincerity as if we in the audience were the judges deciding the case. Despite its faults "Breaker Morant" is worth seeing as an example of the Australian cinema that has excited film-goers for the last couple of years, "morant" is about Australians, Austra-lians, made by Australians and has a certain overtone of flag-waving self-rightous-ness. (In the movie, the Aussies are underdogs to the British, and it's not hard for them to feel an identification identifica-tion with the South African farmers they're fighting. The overtones are anti-colonial.) anti-colonial.) "Morant" is well done, but it's not the best example, hopefully of what the Australians Austra-lians have to offer. I 614 Main Street Park City 649-9066 0 LA mam ft FIT' i -J JL .I".' 4 I Nt SWT Log Custom Home Park Meadows 3 bedroom -3 baths. 2,400 square foot house. Well-equipped kitchen Jennaire.compactor, microwave micro-wave and many extras. Sitting room off the master bedroom. Humidifying system. Completely furnished. Double-car garage with separate openers. Landscaped front yard with sprinkler system. Picturesque view of mountains and Parkwest runs. Call: Tevy Smith, 649-7785 Sharon Fleck Secretarial Services, Inc. GRAND OPENING SPECIE COPIES No Minimum Trices effective: 511 - 52381 11X14-20$ ltf higher for color stock 2tf higher for copies on Xerox 8200 1$ higher for 82 X 14 14X18-25$ Lower Level Of Summit Savings Bldg. Mon-Fri 8:30 a.m. -7:00 p.m. Sat 9:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m. 649-8790 We're here to serve you! Stop in and get acquainted g i |