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University Daily Kansan, March 27. 1981
On Campus
TODAY
THE HIPER DANCE FILM SERIES will show "Dance: Four Pioneers" and "Anna Sokowla's Rooms" at 9:30 a.m. in 300 Bailey Hall. They also will be shown at 2:30 p.m. in 3 Lippincott Hall.
THE AEROSPACE ENGINEERING COLOQUIUM will host Bill Kitzura on "Engine Stability and Instabilities due to Flow Distortion and Disturbances" at 3.80 p.m. in 3143 Wescool Hall.
THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT READING will feature Terry, Southern reading from "Youngblood" at 4.p.m. in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union.
THE BIOLOGY CLUB will meet at 4 p.m. in the Sunflower Room of the Union.
THE SLAVIC CLUB SLIDE SHOW/COM-
PETITION will be at 13:00 in the Council Room of the
Museum.
AN AFRICAN ART EXHIBIT LECTURE on "icons of the Kongo Atlantic World" will be at 8 p.m. in the Main Gallery of the Museum of Anthropology.
THE LAWRENCE SYMPHONY OR CHESTRA will present a concert at 8 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Union.
TOMMORROW
THE SIGMA ALPHA IQTA MUSICALE will be at 3:30 p.m. in Swartworth Rectal Hall in Murphy
The violence in 'Scanners' goes beyond revulsion
SCANNERS, starring Steve Lack, Patrick MacGoohan, Jennifer O'Neill, Lawrence Dane and Michael Ironside. Directed by David Cronenberg.
By MIKE GEBERT Contributing Reviewer
★★★
Sick to death of watching young babybats育嬰s chafed by crazies with knives in fins bearing the name of some holiday? If it's Crondenberg's "Scanners" may be your meat.
But beware before you venture into "Scanners": Cronenberg has no interest in the cheap thrills of "He Knows You're Alone" or "My Bloody Valentine." Cronenberg is after primal fears, as ancient as Oedipus and as close to home as the mind that turns against itself.
"Scanners" is tremendously gory. It will be too much for some, perhaps most, people. But it is worth trying.
IT IS UNLIKE the offerings of "Halloween" rip-offs in that, although it is commercial, it was not made for a quick buck. Nor was it, unlike "Hallowen," the "The Shining," "Dressed to Kill" or "Altered States," made as a sort of exercise in the sport of baseball, which was made for Cronenberg and no one else.
It is a fortuitous coincidence that his private
demons are similar to the attributes of a marketable horror film: the horror of modern science, the horror of one's own body, turning on itself with death and disease. These are animals whose fears, besides horror movie trappings are bloody icing on nihilistic, hateful cake.
"Scanners" does have a story, a rather good one. Scanners are people who have the ability to read minds and can with training, manipulate them with their minds. But it is not a gift, it is a curse.
A far more demonstration of scanning is demonstrated shortly afterward. A corporation called ConSec is giving a demonstration to industrialists to show its potential as a weapon.
They cannot avoid others' thoughts, and their minds are filled with the din of what everyone is thinking. They are derelict; they cannot concentrate, they hurt other people by thinking about them.
THE HEARER, Cameron Vale (Lack), is first seen wandering through a cafeteria like a burn, picking up unseen food. A woman expresses concern and the instinctively causes her to faint and convulse.
The demonstration has been infiltrated by a man named Daryl) Revack (ironside) who volunteers to have his mind read. However, Revack scans the demonstrator and explodes his mind.
has forced one police car to crash and directed a policeman to shoot his partners and then him
IN THE MEANTIME, our derelict here has been picked up by ConSec's scanning expert, Dr. Paul Ruth (MacGoohan). MacGoohan uses a drug to suppress the scanning and for the first time in his life, Vale can think clearly. The agent is working an army of scanners that will take over the world and trains Vale as the world's first line of defense against Revack's diabolical plan.
Once again, treachery is all around-ConSec could very well be setting up Vale, ConSee's own chief of security is working with Revack. And Vale's loyalty is, though he doesn't realize it, more logically to his fellow scanners than to the corporation.
It only makes sense that in a morally empty world, the heroes and villains have more in common with one another than with ordinary people.
"Scanners" continues on a predictable yet satisfating course, redeemed by Cronenberg's imagination. With the help of a woman (Jennifer O'Neill) who is the last survivor of a group of altruistic-minded scanners wiped out by Revack's thugs, Vale tracks down the secrets behind Revack, scanning and ConSec's cultivation of scanners.
THERE ARE spectacular scenes throughout the film: the scene where the man's head explodes is guaranteed to reduce any audience to jelly. Amazingly, it is seen in toto and with no other explanation in the film's coming attractions preview, creating enormous curiosity and incidentally devastating the impact of whatever movie follows it.
YET CRUNENBERG does not exploit violence for violence sake, unlike so many of the horrorschlock mongers. There are several scenes of violence that feature not a drop of blood, particularly when guns are involved. George Eichhorn uses blood in "dawn of the Dead" and other films to inflict endless chaos and destruction in society, but Cronenberg's violence explodes from within.
In "Scanners," he tries to even out the black-and-white. Part of this is accomplished by a basic, John LeCarreyou-can't-trust any-bodyincluding yourself atmosphere with the twist being Cronenbauer's fear of the body itself revolting and betraying you.
Revack, younger, had drilled a hole in his head to "let the voices out"; and in the battlemic scanning battles the opponents do not so much as either as force the opponent's body to attack itself.
Cronenberg's great talent comes in creating violence that goes beyond revelation, playing on fears not of slaughter but of injury, mortality and self-destruction. In his most transcendental moments, he gives the cheap horror film a resonance it has never before known.
BUY OR SELL
SILVER, GOLD & COINS
Class Rings
Antiques-Furniture
Boyds Coin
& Antiques
Monday-Saturday
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Monday-Saturday
9 am-5 pm
TRAILRIDGE
APARTMENTS
2500 West Sixth 843-7333
Studios, 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments, 2-3-4 Bedroom Townhouses.
• Requestball
• Free Tennis
• Free Swimming
• Convenient Location
• On KU Bus Route
PHONE 843-6282
BECERROS PRESENTS
The Conquistador
ONE DOL OFF
This week you can savor the Conquistador for one dollar off. It's more than a big burrito, it's a meal in itself, and now it's one dollar off. But don't wait. This special ends March 31st.
11:00am - 12:00am
Sun. Thur.
12:00pm - 12:00pm
21:5W 13:23
841-1323
LAR
NOW OPEN OPENING SPECIALS
Ali Baba
1:30-10:30m
1:30-MIDNITE
1:00-MIDNITE
1:00-10:30m
2220 IOWA (BESIDE MUNSKY PIZZA)
---
GRANADA DOWNTOWN TELEPHONE 866-537-6748
THE FINAL CONFLICT
BAT CINEMA AT THE WINDOWS MUSEUM
VEHICLE RATING: 7.15 / 8 & 30
WEEKEND MAR 2 00
WALKING
LADIES
Boutique
Junior & Misses
Gage Shopping Center Huntoon &
Gage Topeka, Ks.
273-0090
SHOES 9 thru 12 All Widths
PRESTON'S
AT
815 New Hampshire
UPSIDE DOWN
Margaritas
$1.25
SVA FILMS
Friday, Mar. 27
The Warriors
Walter Hill (The Long Riders) retelling of the legend of Kenyon, he in a jazzy dress and his long hair is killed and another gang, the Warriors, are blamed; hunted by 100,000 gang members, the lone Warriors must cross a bridge to get to Dazzling night photography and Hill suspenseful direction, this is an exhilarating, measuring film. With Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburg, Jason Meehan and Dinosaurus (947 min) Color: 3:30, 9:30
(1980)
Wise Blood
The new film by John Huston is one of his best and one of the strangest American creations. The new film O'Connor's novel of a Southern dffer, Hazel Mozels (Brad Dufour of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), who rejoice in her victory over tounding the "Christ Without Christ," only one of many desperate, mystic cults in rural Georgia. A aardonic, bizarre but compelling story, with its mesmosphere and a sense of humor that goes beyond black. With Ned Bedette, Harry Dean Stanton, Amy Irving. Plus, "Landscape" (1082 m/4.700).
Dark Star (1974)
An early film by John Carpenter (Halloween), written by Dan D'Announ (Allen), is about a space-ship that deteriorates space-ship, this low-budget, high-quality science fiction film easily outlastes those $4 million movies. It's both fun and funny cast and philosophical bent. A class act. "The Wizard of Space" (8:38 mins). Color, 120-2 Midnight.
Saturday, Mar. 28
Wise Blood
3:30, 9:30
The Warriors
7:00
Dark Star
12:00 Midnight
Sunday, Mar. 29
Fellini Satyricon
(1970)
An attempt to make a film without an attempt to create a gun that Christians can safely use, this opens up the decadence of Rome has been called the last Jungian film, the mastemake rap song of the 1960s intellectual hedonism. With Martin Potter, Capucine (120 min.) Color, Italian
Unless otherwise noted; all films will be shown at Woodstock Auditorium in the morning or evening on Friday, Saturday, Popular and Sunday films are $1.50, Midnight films are $2.00, Adult films are $3.00, USA Union 4th level, Information #84-6290 or smoking or refreshments allowed.