Wednesday, April 7. 1978
3
Moviegoers neglect political film
By CHUCK SACK
Name a recent political film. What did you come up with? "Z?" "Hearts and Sins" or "The Men's Man"? Chances are, one film that you didn't mention is "Punishment Park."
Your oversight is understandable, "Punishment Park" has not only been neglected, its director charges, but it also has been actively repressed.
Commercial cinema in this country rarely gives serious consideration to patients who suffer when such a dose is surface, it is unhealthy distributors. Witness recent stories about the problems Robert Redford had on him and in the Woodward-Bernstein story.
"Punish Park," made in 1970 during the Nixon-Mitchell law-and-order era, is a salient polarization caused by the Souheat Asian conflict. Peter Watkins, the director, now states that the film exactly mirrors the two years later in the Watergate affair.
The film, which will be shown free at 7:30 tomorrow night in Wooldock Auditorium, will serve as an introduction to the type of movie made by Watkins. It is the first of a series of seven films that will be shown during Watkins's appearance at KU April 11-24.
Set in a near future that now has been bypassed, the story takes place in an alternate time, when the escalation of the war forced the government to invoke the McCarran Act and impose a federal surrction has been declared, and state police and the National Guard have set up camps to handle political dissidents.
Prisoners who are convicted of conspiracy can choose between serving 7-10 years sentence in federal prison, or submarine service. They also can be punished Park. Those who opt for the
review
latter program must complete a $5-mile
route, with within 3 days to be eligible for
release.
Like Watkins' other films, "Punishment Park" utilizes a pseudo-documentary style. The trial of Group 638 and the ordeal of Group 637 in Bear Mountain Punishment Park are both being filmed by a British film unit for a TV documentary.
To add further verisimilitude, Watkins cast real-life radicals and non-actors in all of the roles. Yet the overall effect is unsatisfactory.
The masterful imitation of current documentary conventions underscores the
Plimpton remembers past, braces for future exploits
By KELLY SCOTT Staff Writer
It was comforting to discover yesterday that although his profession is pretending, George Plimpton doesn't try to be anything but himself.
Plimpton, who spoke night in night an appearance that was to have been part of Festival of the Arts, met with members of the Kangaroo and the Council Room of the Kangaroo Union.
He had agreed to an interview but wanted no part of a formal grilling. He shuffled quietly into the room and sat down at first. He preferred not to speak at the podium, but fitted with tape recorders' microphones, so he stood and faced his questioners.
He was properly courteous to the
assistant of predominantly student
journalists.
"If I really wanted to know what it was like to be a student here, I'd have to enroll for a week, maybe move into a fraternity house and the like."
"IT FILLS ME with enormous nostalgia," he said, when asked what he thought about the KU campus, "especially at this time of year.
He spoke casually about his current projects. He's trying to finish a book about Muhammed Ali, who he described as a near mythic figure.
"The trouble is, everyone's writing a book on him," he said. "Wilfred Sheed—one of the greatest essayists-Norman Mailer—that makes it hard," he said.
FROM LAWRENCE, he was bound for Edmonton, Alberta, to encrese himself in the sport of curling for a Sports Illustrated team. He later key with the Boston Bruins in September.
"I imagine it'll be rather tough," he said. "I don't skate very well."
Two efforts to portray Pliplimon in print and movie form have fallen far as far as he is expected.
Alan Alda played him in the film version of "Paper Lion," and a writer for Esquire magazine recently wrote an article after he tried to "be." Piltonon for a week.
PLIMPTON SAID he asked for a disclaimer on the movie because it was so funny.
"I got really hysterical, if you want to know the truth," he admitted.
"It was a weird role," Plipton said of the movie character. "They never mentioned that he was a writer. It was sort of a bit creepy, an amateur trying to make the team."
The movie version had the Plimpton character run into a goal post.
theatricality of the proceedings. Watkins has had far greater success in using a more traditional documentary approach of the "You Are There" variety. Had he created that atmosphere in the tribunal, those scenes would be much more effective.
"I assure you I never did that," he said.
The Esquire article concentrated on trial in the 1920s.
'HE WENT to my barber, wore my clothes, played tennis with me, that sooth the soul.'
This shouldn't be construed as a condemnation of the film as a whole. Although some techniques work against the grain, the film requires more than compensate for such lazes.
The article was "graceless," Plimpton said.
fellow, but I didn't discover until I read a piece that he was angry, had some sort of frustration.
What is most admirable about "Punishment Park" is its intelligent consideration of the alternatives open to its characters. The prisoners aren't simply lumped together into one group; they carefully divided into three groups: militants, semi-militans and pacifists.
With that one word, a description of Plimpton finally materialized. Plimpton is: a huge man with graceful mamertisms, an inventive sense of styling, and a fluid voice and demeanor.
Woodward had canceled a speaking engagement at the University of Denver when Plimpton was there, and Plimpton offered to stand-in for Woodward to help out the distraught student lecture series director.
Nor does it settle for the comfortable clichés that marked the products that came out of the Hollywood "youthquake" of the early 70s. The philosophical similarities and differences of each group are precisely delineated and examined.
But he's not above a little frivolity. He told a story of nearly impersonating reporter Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.
But much of the film's impact has been blunted by the years of rapid change that followed its making. The protest movement has run down and just seems shrill in the final days. The film emphasizes obvious parallels with the trial of the Chicago Seven, looks simplistic.
"I TOLD HIM, "no one knows what Bob Woodward looks like," he said. "I was prepared to unleash all sorts of stories. I was prepared to tell them Nixon was entirely innocent."
Plimpton, who said Monday he was turning to other writing than sport features, said he was a hopeless Detroit Lions and Boston fan—two teams for whom he has played.
"It's like a love affair that doesn't stop," he said. "I've been known to weep if they fall."
All of Watkins' best work has a strongly prophetic edge to it, and in its time "Punishment Park" was no exception. Now the police defused by the current events of yesterday.
The McCarron Act has been repealed, and the distributors who felt that it was too potent five years ago may now feel that it is outdated.
But one of the underlying themes of "Punishment Park" is the way that the media distort events and homogenize opinions to prevent serious examination of And in an election year, that aspect Warkins's work seems acutely prophetic.
Juco ...
From page one
Some students find the change in the size of the schools difficult to adjust to when they graduate.
Riehart said the classes were smaller at more personally involved, with their courses.
BORING SAID HE missed the personal contact between students and teachers.
But Nordman said she was impressed by one of her professors at KU who managed to keep the personal touch although there were more than 100 students in his class.
She had been getting poor grades on her tests and decided to talk with her professor.
"When I first went in there," he said,
"Hells, Marienne. You're having trouble,
with the stairs."
Although one of her classes is larger, the others are about the same size as at Barton County Community College, she said. It was a bit tricky to say exactly when each day that was had for her to adjust to.
"All those people running around reminded me of an ant farm," she said.
KANS-A-N...
From page one
Kunkel also said that the total KU telephone bill should be lower, because of the lower cost per minute available to KANS-A users.
Controller's office records show that the cost of the WATS lines the University had increased more than $150,000 per month for five lines to $273 a month for the six Kansas City lines. The total bill for long distance calls at KU in January 1976 was $2,290. The bill for January 1976 was $2,290.
NO ONE CAN BE SURE how much the KANS-A-N telephone bill for KU will be because calls that were made on the WATS lines were not always recorded and it isn't known how many calls each department made on the line.
The five offices at KU that were contacted said they wouldn't know what effect KANS had on their telephone bills until they saw the data. They included every long distance call they made.
Steve Owens, student body vice president,
said the Student Senate office's telephone
bill shouldn't be affected too much by the new billing system with KANS-A-N.
Owens said most long distance calls they made in the Senate offices were on the WATS call he expected his bill to be made only made five to 10 WATS calls a month.
Larry Krupp, director of the division of information for the Office of University Affairs, said:
telephone bill could be lower with KANS-A-N.
Knupp said his office made a number of calls to newspapers, press agencies and Topka using the WATS line, paper and University, before KANSA-N went into effect. Now he said they would have to pay much more than the cent of which had been on the WATS.
We BUY used cars.
John Haddock Used Cars
23rd and Alabama
843-3500
Spaces Still Available on the
Cheapest to Europe from Kansas City
Departing June 16 to Paris Returning on August 12 from London PAN AM 707
$391.75 $
Travel Arrangements by SUA/MaupIntour Call 864-3471 For More Information
★ pro-rata share of charter including taxes and administrative fee; subject to change