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MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
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PAGE 5
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
arts & features
HOROSCOPES Because the stars know things we don't.
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Today is a 9
Take action for what you love.
You hear about a lucky break.
Accept encouragement without embarrassment. You're making a good impression. Start from the ground up. Be assertive with your love.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Today is an 8
Today is an 8
Today has the potential for extraordinary fun (and hot romance). Your team shows off their skills. Learn by doing. Ask the family to play along. Your own wit and effort makes the difference.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Today is a 7
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Today is a 7
It's all coming together at home.
Do the homework, so you know what you're talking about. You have what you need at hand. Do what you love, well. Friends provide leads for service providers.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Today is an 8
Good news arrives for your
partner or mate. An unexpected
bonus gets unveiled. Express
your affection. You can still get
what you need. Play music while
you work. You've got an ace up
your sleeve
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
Today is a 9
Gather valuable clues and piece the puzzle together. Investigate an interesting suggestion from a friend. A beneficial development arises at work. You're learning through experience, earning more than money. The cash isn't bad, either.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Today is a 9
You're in your element today and tomorrow, with the Moon in your sign. Power on, and add to savings. Make a decision you've been avoiding. Get your teammates on board. Frugality gives you the edge. Act quickly.
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Today is a 7
Passion is definitely part of the moment. Talk about love, beauty and matters of the heart and soul. Go visit your muse. Your efforts finally show results. Friends help you make a new connection.
Provide leadership.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Today is an 8
Get social for highest impact.
Express what you're up to, ask
for help where needed, and give
abundant thanks. Support your
team. Punch up the sexiness!
The old blends with the new.
Send out a call.
Send out a call.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Today is an 8
Your career could surge forward in a beautiful direction, with a little encouragement. Let your partner take the lead. Continue to push ahead and pay off bills.
Keep track of the details. Do good works
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Today is a 9
Long-distance travel makes a connection. Passion sparks career advancement. Take stock of where you'd like to be. Cast your nets wide. Never doubt your powers. Make long-term plans. Invest in efficiency.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Today is an 8
Fortune favors your actions today.
Earn money and love. An opportunity arises for physical passion... dance, explore, climb, race and play for a thrill. Form a new partnership. Discover new options to grow your family resources.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Today is a 9
Romance is a distinct possibility. Pay attention to any and all offers. If you've done the homework, you can prosper. Follow your mom's rules. Your loved ones inspire you. Talk about partnership and collaboration.
'Fury' shows horror of war from a tank
ALEX LAMB
@LambCannon
"Fury" opens in a decimated battlefield, with light peeking above the horizon as a German officer rides a white horse through the desolation. As he passes by some battle-torn tanks, Brad Pitt jumps off one to tackle the officer to the ground and stab him through the eye. It's a blunt and brutal start that immediately makes the stomach tighten in a film all about the violence, inhumanity and loss of war.
Warddaddy (Pitt) leads the crew with a tough demeanor and a hardened, no-nonsense approach to the war. Bible (Shia LaBeouf) preaches God's word with Southern conviction, Grady (Jon Bernthal) flashes wild eyes and animalistic agro and Gordo (Michael Peña) brings both a lighter attitude and
While the horror of war is the main point of this World War II movie, the bond between the men who go through it holds the secondary focus. The crew of the Sherman tank named Fury has been together for most of the war and survived much longer than other crews. Although now, in April 1945, it has finally lost one of its own. The crew gets fresh-faced Norman (Logan Lerman) as the replacement assistant gunner, but he's merely a typist with no battlefield experience and an unwillingness to kill.
perceptive reminders of war's harsh realities.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This photo released by Sony Pictures Entertainment shows, from left, Shia LaBeouf as Boyd "Bible" Swan, Logan Lerman as Norman, Brad Pitt as Sgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier, Michael Pena as Trini "Gordo" Garcia, and Jon Benthal as Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis, in Columbia Pictures' "Fury."
Taking place over one long and hellish day during the last month before the Nazis' defeat, "Fury" finds the titular tank pushing through the German territory in intense battle sequences through fields, in a crumbling town and at a dark crossroad. Soldiers on both sides fall to gunfire and explosions. Sometimes they die quickly, sometimes they suffer the horrible carnage of body parts tearing off, some burn alive and more.
It's both shocking and gripping as writer and director David Ayer puts viewers right in the heat of bullets and rockets whizzing by in the desperate fight for life, using a dreary color palette that emphasizes the total ruin. Simultaneously, we see things from Norman's perspective as he loses his innocence. Images like a sheared face of a soldier, a fire-engulfed soldier shooting himself in the head and children hanged for not joining Hitler's forces leave a disturbing picture of war's unforgettable destruction.
While the characters of the crew seem stereotypical on the surface, Ayer writes them with enough rough-and-tumble authenticity and they're performed with a devotion of real brothers in arms. LaBeouf reminds us he can be a poignant actor, Jon Bernthal recalls the on-edge aggression he had as Shane in
"The Walking Dead" and Pena brings more gravitas than expected. Though Wardaddy has some similarities to Nazi scalper Aldo Raine from "Inglourious Basterds," Pitt doesn't just rehash that role with a dour outlook; he emanates honor and resigns himself to the cost of war while grounding himself with the tank and crew.
Lerman gives an impressive performance as Norman transforms from a scared pacifist to a brave member of the team. He and Pitt have some especially absorbing interactions together,
including a charged scene of Wardaddy forcing Norman to kill his first German, at point-blank range. After the U.S. soldiers capture a town and earn a reprieve from conflict, a lengthy scene of Wardaddy and Norman having a meal with two German women ensues. But the attempt at calm doesn't last long, showing normal living isn't part of life during war.
"Fury" reaches its most effective action with a heart-racing tank battle against a superior German tank. Though the battle following that in the last act is much
longer, bigger and more furious, Ayer oversteps the line of believability and suddenly this great war film about the haunting horrors of war turns into part of a "Call of Duty" mission. The emotion of the characters remains intact and it's certainly exciting to watch, but the ridiculous action reduces the impact of what came before.
As a result, "Fury" won't be a war classic, but it does manage a dark, thrilling and affecting journey through the hell of war.
Edited by Yu Kyung Lee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014 photo, a worker at the Bowers Museum sets up bronze "Mask with Protruding Eyes," in Santa Ana, Calif.
"China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdu" includes more than 100 ancient pieces, some never seen outside China. The exhibit will remain at the Bowers until March 15, 2015, after which they will move to Houston's Museum of Natural Science.
Rare ancient Chinese bronze pieces go on display in US
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTA ANA, Calif. — When the mysterious people of China's Sanxingdui packed up and moved away 3,000 years ago, they left behind no written language and no indication of who they were, where they were going or why.
What they did leave was a gigantic cache of intricately fabricated, larger-than-life bronze art works — each created at a time during which historians doubted technology even existed to make a bronze on such a grand scale.
They also left several dozen elephant tusks, in an area where elephants were not believed to have been introduced yet.
For whatever reason these objects were made and then discarded, they themselves
are moving now, just as their creators did three millennia ago, and will go on display Sunday at Southern California's Bowers Museum, the first stop on a rare U.S. tour.
"China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdui" includes more than 100 ancient pieces, some never seen outside China. The exhibit will remain at the Bowers until March 15, after which they will move to Houston's Museum of Natural Science.
"You look at these figures and they're really unworldly," said the museum's president, Peter Keller, as he stood in the shadow of an 8-foot-tall statue of a man in bare feet, flowing robe and elaborate headress.
Keller was waiting inside the museum for workers
to uncrate a 125-pound companion piece — a floppyeared, bug-eyed bronze "mask" about the size of a sofa.
"China is full of mysteries, but to me this is China's greatest mystery," Keller continued as he gazed at the mask that contained a smile as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa's. "Who were these people and where did they go?"
That's a mystery that's been bugging archaeologists since Chinese bricklayers stumbled across the treasures in 1986, said Suzanne Cahill an authority on ancient Chinese civilizations and the exhibition's curator.
"Wow, 1200 B.C. people are doing stuff like that and we think we're so technically evolved," she said. "It's kind of humbling, actually."
QUICK QUESTION
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT AMERICA THAT THEY DON'T HAVE IN ENGLAND?
"Ah, Chipotle is the big one. If we had that back home, that's where we'd hang out."
Eleanor Gorton and Ellie Louise Roy are study abroad students from England, and took the time to talk to the Kansan over the weekend about their experiences in America so far.
ELEANOR GORTON JUNIOR FROM MANCHESTER
DALTON KINGERY/KANSAN
"24/7 IHOPs. We don't have them and 24/7 pancakes are amazing."
ELLIE LOUISE ROY
SOPHOMORE FROM LONDON
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