University Daily Kansan, June 17, 1982
'Poltergeist,' 'E.T.' are good fun
By MICHAEL GEBERT Contributing Reviewer
With "E.T." and "Poltergeist," Steven Spielberg is now responsible for five movies that, by the end of the year, might make a total of one billion dollars. What can you say to a success story like that?
Well, are the five films any good? I think so. Spielberg is a commercial director, but his films, "Jaws," "Close Encounters" and "Riders of the Lost Ark," are "E.T." and "Polterger," nevertheless represent some of the greatest moviesaking in recent years. And these new films both at least in part, bear this out.
spettiberg handles action as well as anybody around and knows how to hook it into a story. Unlike George Lucas and his imitators, who see plot and character as something you put between special effects to pass the time (as in "Star Wars," or even in the Lucas-Broadway "Raiders"!) Spettiberg, more than anyone, understands the elements together. It may not be the most exalted kind of filmmaking, but it was good enough for John Ford, Kurosawa and a few other giants.
"E.T.," Spielberg's pet project, demonstrates this. It is the story of a boy and his alien—sort of a follow-up to "The Chronicles of Zootopia" where dentally leaves three-foot spaceman
behind, a boy finds him, befriends him, and the two share adventures as the extraterrestrial creature tries to find his way home.
THE FILM OPENS BRILLiantly with a scene in which the UFO is scared by humans, and other scenes, such as the meeting of boy and alien and a great car-and-bike chase, show Spielberg at his best.
The characters, the boy, his kid sister and sassy old brother, are established with wit and economy as being typical modern kids, down to the "Star Wars" junk that knits their rooms (there's a toy shark, too).
But there is an unfinished feeling to the film. A sympathetic scientist comes in too late and a telepathy angle is never really explored. The film has a great first look, but then it becomes her very pleasant, for an bourn and a half. Is that enough?
It might be. There have been a number of recent movies, such as "Grasse," "Heaven Can Wait," "Raiders," etc., that were very successful simply because they were pleasant to sit through. Conversely, I think Spielberg's only failure, "1914," failed, not because it wasn't dazzling, but because it was kind of nasty and cynical.
"E.T." exudes charm from every place; it gives audiences what they want. That's all summer movies are supposed to do.
NEVERTLEESS, LIKE "Raiders",
'E.T. 's suggests that Spielberg is sticking with old tricks. I think that will be Lucas' downfall. When his imagination for special effects runs out he'll be like a child. He's not over and over, falling flat on the new ones. "Poltergeist" makes me think Spielberg could escape that fate.
"POLTERGEIST" also shows the value of collaboration with co-writer Melissa Matthiom ("The Black Stallion") and co-director Tobe Hooper, who made the overrated Texas Chanssaw Massacre" and, more recently, a good TV film, Salem's Lot," and a decent horror cheapie called "The Fun House." The result is a sharper, meatier film, less reliant on the effects.
A suburban family in a new housing development notices little things which suddenly escalate into big things when a storm results in the kidnapping of their young daughter by other-worldly forces. A team of researchers comes in to investigate what happens to physical mumbo-jumbo, tries to exercise the house to get the child back.
Because the special effects in this movie are sinister rather than charming, there is more characterization here than in "E.T.," but both films show the same tendency toward establishing character in the first ten minutes, before the action gets underway. In "POLtergeist" that may be a good idea. We're probably spared another十teen minutes of dew-eyed explanation
while Jerry Goldsmith's violins weep on the soundtrack.
Nevertheless, it is worth citing Jobeb Williams and Craig T. Nelson as the couple, who are both funny, touching and believable. One reason I prefer "BET" to "EIT," is its idyllic, Peter Fan-ish sense of "Wonderliger," has a healthy satirical edge that Williams and Nelson both make good use of.
ON THE DEBIT SIDE, "POLTERGEIST" seems to be made up in part of other Spielberg movies—the setting is the same as in "E.T.", one character comes from "Jaws," the researchers come from "Close Encounters" and there are some ethereal wraiths that are just as silly as they were in the climax of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Maybe that's just a phase he's going through. At its best, "Poltergeist" shows Spielberg's facility for giving us quick and complete setting and characters, and his ability to weave his story around them.
No wonder Hollywood loves him. He's not only a money machine, he'd the new Frank Capra, always optimistic, confident that he'll always get his shark, that people from outer space just want to be friends.
It is a precarious position in these times, harder in times of vague unease than it was for Capra in a full-fledged suit. In the future he may well have the gifts to retain.
Photo by Jill M. Yates
Power company's plan rewards energy savers
The Kansas Power and Light Co. has been paying bonsies to Lawrence customers who replace old air-conditioning systems with more efficient ones, said Hal Jenner, energy consultant for the Lawrence division of K&P/L, Friday.
The bonuses are part of a "Save the Megawatts" plan initiated in March to help residential customers cut their summertime demand for electricity.
Because of residential air conditioning, usage peaks in the summer are higher than heating peaks in the winter, Jensen said.
it KP&L reaches its goal, it will not build a four power plant at its Jeffery Energy Center, near St. Marys, he said.
OUR GOAL IS to shave 100 megawatts by 1987" he said.
"The bonus idea to shave megawatts
money for everyone, whether they
participate in the plan or not,
because we'll have a lower rate base if
we can avoid building another plant."
Jensen said.
More than 20 Lawrence customers have collected bounces for replacing old air conditioners with more efficient models or electric heat pumps, which are central heating and cooling systems.
JENSEN SAID single-family residential customers could collect houses of
To qualify for bonuses, KP&L residential customers must have the equipment installed by a qualified heating contractor in accordance with industry standards.
- $200 for replacing an electric central air-conditioning system with a new heat pump with an Energy Efficiency Ratio of 5.5 or more. The EER is determined by dividing the British thermal unit of cooling capacity by the number of watts needed to operate it.
- $100 for replacing an air-conditioning system with a new unit with an EER of 9.0 or more.
- $20 for installing a gas air-conditioning system.
"THE HIGHER THE EER, the more efficient the unit. So customers can get the same amount of cooling for less electricity."
Jensen said KP&L wanted customers to replace old air conditioners with new ones with an EER of 9 or more.
- $100 for installing an add-on heat pump with an EER of 8.5 or more.
"We're looking at air conditioners that are 10 years old and older," Jensen said. "They average an EER of about 6
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"The add-on rate of interest is 9.8 percent." That would be 1639 percent over a five-year period, but we can fit it with an shorter period of shorter time. Jensen said.
KP&l will finance replacement costs at low interest rates for ju to five years.
Landlords can use the plan to attract renters, he said.
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Mosier, who earlier this week submitted the state's compliance report with the federal ASCS, said he had hoped more Kansas farmers would participate in the reduced-acreage program. The program is aimed at cutting wheat production so the market price will go up.
Participation in the program entities farmers to eligibility for a federal target price of $4.05 a bushel, which means that if the average market price for their wheat is below this year, the federal government will make up the difference, Möster said.
Destruction of 37 bushels per acre—which is the state's average yield per acre, means about 31 million bushels of wheat will be harvested and expects a bumper wheat harvest this year of 488 million bushels.
"As units wear out, they could be replaced with more efficient ones. Utility bills would be lower." Jensen said about the money saving plan since its inception three months ago. Jensen said that more than 200 people had incurred, and that company inspectors had completed more than 100 audits.
"These inspections and recommendations are not necessarily for equipment replacement. We also check such items on the roof, cabin and weather striping." Jensen said.
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To comply with the program, farmers must agree to destroy 15 percent of their wheat crop, either by letting livestock graze on it, cut and burn the grass or mow it. Fifteen percent of 5.6 million acres is 640.0 acres, Mosier said.
Their compliance with the 1982 reduced-acreage program means that production on 40.3 percent of the state's wheat-based acres will be cut by at least 15 percent, Frank Mosier, executive director of the State Utilization and Conservation Service in Manhattan, said yesterday.
TOPEKA-Kansas farmers controlling about 5.6 million of the state's 14 million wheat-based acres have made themselves eligible for government assistance by agreeing to buy 840,000 acres of their wheat.
on campus
EVE 7.35 9.30 MAT SAT -SUN 2.15
The entry deadline for RE-CREATION SERVICES tennis singles is 5 p.m. Play will begin at 1:30 p.m. Attendance at the tennis courts. Sign up on 260 Robinson
TODAY
SATURDAY
Registration for MIDWESTERN MUSIC CAMP, junior high division, will be at j.p.m. in the lobby of Murphy Hall.
SUNDAY
Orientation for new students in ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE and URBAN DESIGN, and take place all day in the Kansas Union.
THE BUREAU OF CHILD RESEARCH Planning Committee will
ERIK KETCHERSIDE will perform a master's recital in conducting at 3:30 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
meet at 9 a.m. in the Kansas Room and the alcoves in the Union.
DAILY—2:15, 7:20 & 9:35
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Rick Desko, Kansas City, Kan., graduate student, and Dan Sall, Big Fort, Montana graduate student, play some pretty cool jazz using an old refrigerator as a stero cabinet.
Rain delays completion of new alumni center
By KATHLEEN FEIST Staff Reporter
Despite recent heavy rains, construction of the "Boots" Adams Alumni Center, Eighth and Oread, is expected to finish on schedule, said Dick Wintermute, executive director of the University of Kansas Alumni Association. Tuesday.
However, Bill Valentine, superintendent of the building project, said Tuesday that construction was a month behind because of the rain.
"We're having the same success as harvesting wheat," Valentine, employee of Ray Anderson Construction of Topeka, said.
basement and the retaining walls for the first floor.
According to Valentine, the delay has left 80 percent of the three-story building unfinished.
"WE COULD HAVE been framing the third floor to pour in a Valentine said.
so far, $2,000 has been spent to pump
valves in the system. Which Valve
sale will be an unexpected one?
The center was originally projected to be finished in May 1983. So far, the construction team has completed the
The company also must pay for equipment rental such as fork lifts and trailers that have been sitting idle in the rain, he added.
But the Alumni Association has not felt the money crunch experienced by the construction company because of the rains.
Winternote said the rain has had no effect on the cost of the building because they pay the contractor only the price originally agreed upon.
THE COST OF THE project will amount to $5 million for the Alumni Association, none of which will come from the University, Wintermute said.
The association has been able to collect more than the amount needed.
"We have to nurture a little about $25 million in private funds," Wintermor said. "Private funds." Wintermor said.
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