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University Daily Kansan
Monday, April 28, 1980
Thompson's 'Buffalo' roams into vast wasteland
By KEVIN MILLS Staff Reporter
The bats have taken up permanent residence in Hunter S. Thompson's brain. The once-great doctor of Gonzo journalism was killed on April 16 by a cold call, to the dismay of his adoric legions.
So Thompson was executive consultant for "Where the Buffalo Roam," the movie based on his motorious career? Yeah, and Adolf Hitler is alive and eating yopo root in some Brazilian hell hole. Thompson is as biased as his doctorate in journalism.
A self-awarded where for a hack. Thompson probably took the money and ran in pursuit of recreational drugs and violence, his personal pastimes. His clenched Gonza
fist certainly wasn't felt on the "Buffalo" set.
In the movie, Thompson, played by Bill Murray, comes off as a recklessly irrepulsible reporter who deadlines drugs and harms innocent drugs. That much is on target. But the incisive, sour wit that made Thompson's books national bestseller is strangely contradictory. He does not brazenly haunt the screen, a pistol-toting madman on the verge of nothing, and going nowhere.
WHY THOMPSON settled for this gross parody of himself is beyond me. It's as if caricaturist Ralph Steadman, who illustrates Thompson's books, wrote the book.
The script loosely ties together incidents
in Thompson's life from 1968 to 1972, including his non-coverage of the '72 Super Bowl and his infamous hijinks with the
national press corps during the 72 campaion.
KANSAN Review
Screen writer John Kaye and director Art Linson have taken an "Amal House" approach to these episodes, and Thompson's wit and wisdom is reduced to gibberish in the script. This is followed by a disguise with the script in a recent interview in Rolling Stone's College Papers. The
THE ONLY saving grace in most scenes is Bill Murray's fine comedic talent. He transforms Thompson's real-life savage demeanor into a comedic one, and the comedy is key in the midst of chase and is given to deranged screams when things get too quiet. The few intelligent statements written into his part have been taken from the dramatic characterism of Thompson's writing.
writing was 'low level and sueded,' he said, and much of his time on the set was spent trying to improve the script. Apparently he didn't spend much time on the set.
Lazos, payed by Peter Boyle, is an anomaly next to Murray's Thompson. Patterner after attorney Oscar Acosta, Thompson's one-time left arm of the law,
Laszlo is a serious, almost sympathetic, person who threads the film together with his frequent appearances from out of the blue.
There is a reverence in Boyle's performance that seems superfluous in context with the rest of the film. Perhaps Thompson should have interacted with the character of Lazzo; you can badmouth and ridicate Hulley all you want, but don't make sick jokes about his friend.
NEIL YOUNG fans **fa**o came to hear the point he painted. *we* saw the points, *we* saw the credit in advertisements for the movie's sound, contributes only one song: an *a capella* by Pinkpop.
his pitchless, warbling tenor. Occasionally Young's guitar riffs filter through the background—but not often.
If Thompson was seeking to perpetuate his power, he often did so, then he succeeded with a vengeance. As consultant to a film about his own life, he certainly could have made changes where necessary.
Maybe it's true. Maybe Hunter is ready or the great wasteland in the sky. If that's he case, he should give up now and quit ripping off the fans who saved his earlier work. "Where the Buffalo Roam," though a competent competitor would do better, was lavish when viewed in retrospect to his many fine books and articles. Who's kidding whom?
Nostalgia inspires student to make'40s detective film
By SHAWN MCKAY Staff Reporter
Reminiscent of "The Maltsee Falcon" and "The Lady From Shanghai," an adorned, drenched streets to save the honor of a beautiful hero. A shady poro dealer, a baby-faced killer and a pankicked woman, leads into a night with a male sex, and murder.
As the detective settles back into his easy chair near the end of the film, he puzzles over the fate of his distraught employer: "We need someone to explain that doesn't seem to make sense—or do they?"
THE DIRECTOR AND Writer responsible for the film, which was inspired by 1940s detective films, is Dan Oliver. Great Bend graduate student in radio, television and film.
Oliver's first feature-length film, "Night Work," was shouted in the mood of "film-noir." Film-noir is a French word meaning "dark film" or "dark cinema."
"The French discovered it in American films after World War II," Olivier. "In
these films, the hero is somehow defeated in the end. There is a dark undercurrent about the films and a general mood of pessimism.
"I was inspired by a lot of film noreps of the '40s. One of my biggest inspirations was 'The Late Show'. I hate to say that I stole a list from it, but I at least tried to
OLIVER SAID that the completion of the film last week had fulfilled a two-year dream.
"I think that every film student wants to make a film nor, but I can't tell you why," he said. "When I started, it seemed that everyone wanted to do a private eye film, but there's something about those old films that gets inside you and makes you say, 'Oh, no, what happened?' It was the hero trapped on a rainy street and dark venetian blind shadow on the wall."
"Night Work" has all the trappings of the protection films. The private eye agrees to help detect crimes, but she is being blackmailed. After a series of murders and accidents, the detective leaves her job.
scandal and only wanted him to help her get drugs without paying for them.
Oliviers aid that he began thinking about the film more than two years ago.
"I had the story in my head for a year and a half, and then four nights after last Christmas, I just sat down and the whole thing came out," he said.
BUT OLIVER postponed making the film until he thought he was experienced enough.
"I just put it off for two years and worked on other projects until I thought I was proficient enough to pull it off. I just didn't think I could do it the way it should have been."
His love of the movies was the primary motive for making the film.
"I made it because I love the movies. I always have," he said. "And the film allowed me to express part of myself visually through the work of other artists."
Kevin Keating, Great Bend, graduate student, was the first actor Oliver recruited.
"I had known Kevin for a long time and he played a vampire for me in a couple of
shorter films I've made," he said. "He made a great vampire and I wrote one of the narts with him in mind."
THE PART OF the detective was written for someone like Craig Swanson, Lawrence, junior, Oliver said.
1 was really impressed with the natural actin in his performance, he said. "I got him to read the script and he said that he was very good," she added. "I wanted to see some of my other work first."
"I showed him what I thought were my best pieces but he was not as impressed as a hoped he would be. So I got out my vampire movies and those won him right over,"
Olivier filmed the movie during the evening using buildings on campus and the alley behind Massachusetts Street.
"To give the film a '40s look, I didn't want to do anything with the camera that would be too distracting. But I wanted an zooming or telephone shots because they were much more dynamic than black and white with a lot of dim lighting."
THE CAST AND crew were not paid.
The film cost more than $1,000 to make.
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"A RICH MIX...PLENTY OF SURPRISES! ILLUMINATES AND CELEBRATES LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS." "SKIPS HAPPILY" - NEW YORK TIMES
PLAYS & THINGS BY NORMAN DIETZ
MAY 1
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A CAREER IN LAW
DENVER PARALEGAL INSTITUTE will be on campus on May 1st Contact your placement office to arrange a personal interview
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STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS
We have plenty of summer jobs available in the Kansas City metropolitan area as security officers. You must be at least 18 years of age, have your own transportation, and phone in home.
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lowest foursome net for 18 holes
1stlfifo Lemba Lambda 32 JT
2ndpfu Lemba Delta 33JO
2ndPhi Pfu Delta 33JT
Lambda Chi Alpha announces the results of their 3rd annual Greek Golf Tournament held Sunday, April 20, 1980
Lowest net individual
Kck Prater Alpha Kappa Lambda 74 John Welch Sigma Alpha Epsilon 74
"If I could tell you that, I wouldn't have to make the film," he said.
Longest drive
Steve McClain Phi Gamma Delta David Pussuglia Evans
Closest to Pin
Mark Humphrey Alpha Kappa Lambda David Duncan Sigma Chi
Lambda Chi Riha would like to thank the following teams for participating the third annual Greek Golf Tournament. Delta Deta Delta, Kriha Kappa Lambda, Lambda Chi Riha, Delta Upsilon, Evans Scholars, Gamma Phi, Gamma Delta, Sigma Phi, Sigma Phi, Epsilon Delta, Tau Deta, Delta Theta.
Sponsors - Exile, Ltwinis, Headmasters, Miller Beer, and special thanks to Alvamar Countral Club.
"It's a very personal film, I identify very strongly with the main character. It's nothing that really happened to me but on the basis of what we see in the one plan I take for make some time."
"Most of it used to be my savings," he said. "And when I realized that it was going to cost more than I had planned, my folks strenued in and put a couple of hundred."
Oliver said, that, unless the film causes a big sensation in Hollywood, he planned a career in teaching.
Oliver said that after the final print came back from the lab, he hoped to enter it in amateur film contests.
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"I'd also like to make a classic western starring a young Henry Fonda, but I don't know who it could be," he said.
He said he would also like to make an "Annie Hall" or a "Manhattan" or even a western.
Oliver said he did not know what the film said to viewers.
Staff Reporter
By JENNIFER ROBLEZ Staff Reporter
KU police to give Dykes memo investigation report
The memo was addressed to Chancelor Archie R. Dykes and allegedly sent to him by David Waxman, executive vice chancellor of the Medical Center.
University police today will give administration members a preliminary report of an investigation into an alleged fraudulent memorandum that claimed a University of Kansas Medical Center of Honor for employees and forced employees out of their jobs.
The memo suggested that Dr. Barb hoastraten, former director of the Malt-Oak Council, should be fired and that the loss of funding accompanying Hoastraten's termination is a cause for concern.
OFFICIALS Said the memo, dated Feb. 25 and sent anonymously to some news media, may have been written by a disgruntled employee. However, police were also investigating the possibility that the team had sent from someone outside the Med Center.
Richard von Ende, executive secretary to the preliminary investigation being conducted by police from both the Lawrence campus and Kansas City was expected
It also stated that several medical school staff members were planning to resign, including Dr. James Lowman, dean of the medical school, and that a funding shortfall occurred.
The memo said the deficit could be partly covered by manipulating other parts of the budget.
KU officials said that the memo was a detriment to the cancer center and the Medical Center, and that the reported funding shortfalls, although they existed at lower levels amounted to $12 million instead of the $2 million suggested in the memo.
THE SHORTTALKS were caused by construction delays, officials said, but they added that increased hospital revenue had helped offset much of the deficit.
Waxman denied that funds had been manipulated to cover uan the deficit.
Early attempts to trace the origin of the memo were hampered by a lack of reference photographs and photocopies which had been handled by many persons—enough to restrict the collection.
However, von Ende said the report would detail the chances of a successful investigation. He expressed optimism about the police findings.
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The Agnes Wright Strickland Award was established in memory of Agnes Wright Strickland, a member of the class of 1887. The award is given annually to a graduating senior man and graduating senior woman in recognition of a good academic record, demonstrated leadership in matters of all University concern, respect among fellow students and indications of future dedication to service to the University.
The University Kansas Student Awards Committee is accepting nominations for two awards annually awarded to graduating seniors. These awards are the Agnes Wright Strickland Award and the Class of 1913 Award.
The Class of 1913 Award was established by the Class of 1913. The award is given annually to a graduating senior man and graduating senior woman who by his/her evidenced intelligence, devotion to studies and personal character gives promise of usefulness to society.
Applications for the Class of 1915 Award and the Agnes Wright Strickland Award are available in the Office of Student Organizations and Activities, 220 Strong Hall. The Student Awards Committee invites nominations from the University Community. Self nominations are also welcomed. Applications for the awards must be received in the Office of Student Organizations and Activities, 220 Strong Hall, by Friday, May 1, 1980.