KWSAN REVIEWS
FILM: Parks' tree
By RICHARD LOUV
Kansan Reviewer
It was a real cold day, so cold you thought your feet were going to walk home without you, and you stood behind the cameraman who had filmed Bonnie and Clyde.
His moustache had snow on it and he kept fogging his viewer with his breath. And the Kansas wind came screaming through Fort Scott. The day was grey.
All the actors were lined up in front of the kind of run-down church you could find anywhere in Kansas. They were trying to smile and not breath too hard. In the celuloid dream the day was supposed to be a warm fall one, but here were the actors shaking in their boots and trying to keep the fog of their breath off the film.
Then you see it, a year later on film.
And you realize the pain they went through just to look warm.
And you realize the pain they went through just to look warm. Kansas. Suddenly you've never seen Kansas before. And here it is, in the celuloid deam, and you know you've been there but you don't know when. You remember the press agent talking about Parks, who insisted on driving across the state before the film was shot, through the Flint Hills and the wheatlands and the low hills of eastern Kansas, and then finally, after fifty years, all the way home.
You remember the press agent describing Parks, who would hit the brakes, jump from the car and swing his hand at the sky of his boyhood.
"Look," he would say, knowing he'd been there. "Look sky. Look at the colors."
this sky is on film, a year later.
A tornado forms in the sky,
above a place you know you've
been but you don't know when,
and you understand something
about Kansas you didn't under-
stand before.
That sky is on film, a year later.
The people know and accept calamity. It's something that comes out of the sky, out of control. You can only hide from it. Maybe that's why there are so many Republicans here.
The film is about the boy Gordon Parks, and cannot be separated from the man, the man who looks like Paladin—the big, tough, scarred man with the softest eyes you've ever seen. And the film is big and tough and scarred—done softly, with touches that in other cases might have been corny. The scars in the film come from a few poor actors, but the total effect reflects the man.
Gordon Parks, if you haven't heard of him, is black. What is truly remarkable about the film, is that it's ordinary. You don't have to guess who's coming to dinner, or cheer for Jimmy Brown to kill everybody except Rachael Welch.
For the first time a black film is natural—not trying to hide its blackness, but not trying to force it.
Maybe we're finally ready for that kind of thing.
Maybe. You remember watching the film sitting behind a little black boy who was far up in front of everyone--alone.
Oct. 3
1969 KANSAN 5
COLOR DeLuxe United Artists
STARTS TODAY
Eve. 7:00 and 9:15
THE Hillcrest 2
BARABAJAGAL: Donovan, appearing in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium tomorrow night, is the British minstrel whose albums and concerts have become top entertainment across Europe and America. His latest album, Barabajagal, includes his pop song "Atlantis."
BARABAJAGAL: Donovan.
An intoxicating new adult game!
SHAREY'S
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544 W. 23rd VI 2-2266
Lowrence
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EXCLUSIVE PET CENTER
Storewide Stocks
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1218 Contact. Ph. VI 3-2912
Welcome
PAUK. NEWMAN
ROBERT REDFORD KATHARINE ROSS
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
A. George Roy Hill Park Monograph Production. Co. Starring STROTHER MARTIN, JEFF COREY, HENRY JONES.
Praise PAUL MOHAN Productions. By FOOK FOMAN. Directed by GROVEY ROY HILL. Written by WILLIAM GOLDMAN.
Music Composed and Conducted by BUILD BACKMARCH. A NWA MAN FOREMAN Presentation. Publication Color by De LIVE
NEW BOOK MOHAN's Keynote Live We Wear at Music by 2 & 3 Films.
Supported for Patronage
MAT. DAILY 2:30
EVE. 7:15 - 9:25
A film by Gordon Parks
"A statement of human values...it is emotionally valid and moving!"-N.Y. Post
"Well-worth seeing!" Judith Crist, NBC-TV
"A movie of rare high quality! Totally absorbing!" -Newsday
"What occurs in the story that is a boy becomes a man," says Parks. "It oblits us and too soon tooom in his life amidst a veritable deluge of occurrences."
Filmed on location in Fort Scott, Kan.
Starts TODAY
Eve. 7:20 and 9:25
Adult $1.50
Children. 75
Shown in 16 mm.
Eve. 7:30 and 9:20
Adults $1.50
THE
Hillcrest
MERCHANT SHOPPING CITY A 4TH AND 1ST
"So far above the other thriller films comparison would be foolish. Beautifully made and acted."
Bosley Crowther, N.Y.Times.
"A masterpiece. One of the all-time greats."
Archer Winsten,
N. Y. Post
"A triumph and a thriller. Erotic scenes of outright beauty."
-Judith Crist, WJT
A film by ALAIN RESNAIS starring
YVES MONTAND and INGRID THULIN
introducing
introducing
GENVEIEVE BUJOLD
A Brandon Films Release
"Young People Should Be Required To See"
TIME: "As impassioned and impressive a film as any released so far this year! Signals perhaps a new boldness in American cinema!"
Rex Reed HOLIDAY MAGAZINE
CUE MAGAZINE: "One of the most important American films of the 1960's! Towers as an American 'Blow-Up,' only far more direct and meaningful!"
Mat. 2:30 Sat. and Sun.
Eve. 7:15 - 9:20
robert forster/verna bloom/peter bonerz/marianna hill harold blankenship tully friedman haskell wexler/haskell wexler
No one under 18 admitted