Friday, October 26, 1973
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University Daily Kansan
Movie's Message Is Pretentious
By DON CREACH Kansan Reviewer
Snap! And it broke. I had held it together by my own will for as long as I could, but finally it snapped. I sat there and willed "Electra Glide in Blue" into what I wanted to see for as long as I could— finally the movie was stretched to admit the movie was stretched past my mold.
I wanted so much for the movie to be like a movie Robert Altman would make or a short story John Updike would write: one showing a character who is interesting, believable, worth caring about and then telling a story about him. The movie did so.
review
For that reason, and because of the nature of the law, he is also it is a very easy and worthwhile provi
However, the makers of the movie apparently weren't satisfied with just telling a story. They needed to impose a message, and in consequence, the movie can't be a favorite of mine.
At first, I was afraid the whole movie would be heavy and bogged down with revelations of truth. The biggest indication was that I would be able to color enough texture, unusual curtain angles, quick flashes from place to place and other assortment gimmickly to ensure that the first name to appear in the credits after those of the director is that of the director of photography.
But as I was being introduced to John Wintergreen, the main character, and as I was beginning to enjoy him, it occurred to me that the photography and tone could have had a more innocent and worthwhile purpose. Just as John had a cocky sense of self-importance, perhaps the film itself also had a conscious style of self-importance.
Big John Wintergreen, all 5 feet, 4 inches of him, is his own kind of cop. He's not embittered; he's not诅罸; he's not sadistic. Robert Blake, who plays Wintergreen, does a tremendous job of making him feel like a champion in his style flair and enthusiasm for his job and his life. He's part Columbo, part Napoleon and part Road Runner.
Then Wintergreen has to swallow his style to reach his goal of being a detective. In fact, he has to subordinate his style to that of a man who can help him become a detective. He learns a pressive style, although he makes it obvious that style alone isn't enough, because he lacks the humanity that John has. He suffers a conflict of style and humanity which John hasn't had to face. Harve turns his anger on John in the conflict, since he feels he can't overcome such a problem. And John loses out on his dream of being a detective.
These elements and others make a very adequate story line. It is a story that subjects this interesting character to enough stress that important changes and re-orientation of the character must take place. The movie has all it takes to make it one of my favorites.
But it has more. The movie used too many dramatic techniques for me to attribute them to a reflection of Wintergreen's style. The producers kept insisting that they were significant events in an important movie. Even during the requisite chase scene, the flashy and gory stunts seemed to be trying to fight off all these pregnant moments and symbolic gestures and confrontations until the end.
The movie ended with a song that sounded like an ordinary ending song. But the credits didn't come up right away, and most of the audience was still affected enough by the previous action to be willing to sit back and watch it. So much that this was to be taken as more than incidental music—the credits didn't come up until the song was over.
So the lyrics of the song became important. And three, under the pretty goddess of the setting, the pliatae plateau were plied upon rosy generalization. The story of a guy who
Children's Theater To Open to Public
The current production of the KU Theatre for Young People, "The Magic Horn of Charlemagne," will be open to the general audience p.m. tomorrow at the University Theatre.
The play, which was performed yesterday afternoon and will be performed this afternoon for grade school students, is the story of Emperor Charlemagne risking his life to rescue the famous sword, Durandal, from the evil Falerina.
napped to be pretty sensitive and perceptive was stretched into an exhortation for us to all be more loving and understanding toward our fellow man. I guess you hadn't noticed that he should have guessed it would do. I had tried to believe it wouldn't tell us that because
I still think this movie is worth seeing. It may be worth watching twice. However, if you want to see it as a film, have to scrimp to yourself that it really is, an all, an awfully pretentious movie, after.
John Wintergreen was a good guy, we could end wars but alas . . .
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