Battalion/Thursday, December 5, 1985 Page 2/The Opinion Art vs. smut X-rating doesn’t denote pornography Film is art, be lieve it or not. Despite the re cent fare of mov ies at the local theatres, film is a valuable art form, just like painting, sculpt ure, music and literature. There have been Pollmey©r hundreds of films ■ ■■■ that are considered masterpieces. A list of classic films would include “Citizen Kane,” “Persona,” “Birth of a Nation,” “Potemkin,” “Seven Samurai, The 400 Blows," “S'A>," “Hiroshima Mon Amour,” “1 he Craduate,” “The Red Desert,” “That Obscure Object ot De sire,” “Rope,” “Breathless,” “M” and “ 1 he Bicycle Thief.” A list of classic films would not in clude “Red Dawn,” “Debbie Does Dal las." “St. Fhno's Fire,” “Commando,” "Bolero,” “Missing In Action,” “Missing In Action 2,” “Invasion U.S.A.," “Deep Throat," “Rhinestone," “Rambo: First Blood II,” “Rocky II,” "Rocky III.” "Rockv IV" or “(hunt: The Wrestling Men ie." This semester a new club was formed to bring some of the better films to cam pus I his semester the Student Art Film Societv showed several classic films, in cluding “Seven Samurai,” "Persona,” “ Fhe Trial” and “Breathless,” showed various short films, held an exposition of local amatuer video works and brought guest speakers talk about film. Fhe Student Art Film Society is funded by membership lees and donations in stead of box office receipts. Tonight and Friday night at seven, in room 103 of the Soil Crop Sciences and Entomology Building, the Student Art Film Society will be showing their last film for the semester — an X-rated film. “ Fhe Canterbury Tales,” is a film by Piet Paolo Pasolini based on the literary work by Geoffrey Chaucer. If you’ve ever read “ Fhe Canterbury 'Tales” you would realize that it would be impossible to make a movie that was true to the text and not X-rated. When “The Canterbury Tales” was released, it was surrounded in contro versy. In 1972, Pasolini was booed by the audience when “The Canterbury Tales” won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Many critics hailed Paso lini as being an insightful director while other critics chided Pasolini for making pornographic movies. Pornography is described as being writings and pictures intended primar ily to arouse sexual desire. It would be foolish to say the primary purpose of “ The Canterbury Tales” — the book or the film — is to arouse sexual desire. Chaucer’s book was an mack on the church and society of 14thcentury En gland. Pasolini used Chaucer’s work as the basis for his attack on the church and society of 20th century Italy. In “ The Canterbury Tales” —book and film — the various characters, a cross section of 14th century society,tell sto ries that would parody the thencurrent social and moral values. Even though 600 years have passed, the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness is still promi nent. Sex is used for many purposes. In movies like “Debbie Does Dallas,” “Bole ro” and “Deep Throat,” sex is used to arouse sexual desire so that people will pay money to see the film in the hope that they will be aroused. ln“'l he Can terbury Tales” sex is used to make f un of society’s embarrasment towards sex. The word “pornography" has its roots in the word “prostitution.” “Debbie Does Dallas,” “Bolero” and “Deep Throat” are sex to make money, there fore they are pornography. “ The Can terbury Tales” uses sex to make a statement, therefore it is art. The Student Art Film Society is using sex, in the form of showing an X-rated movie, to attract more members and to expose the general public mart films. Karl Pallmeyer is a senior journalism major and a columnist for The Battal ion. Inside view of spy-bargaining The toughest tiling about catch ing a spy is seeing that he gets the punishment he deserves. As soon as one is arrested his attorney starts bargaining for a lighter sentence in exchange for the fink’s revealing how much information he turned over to the other side. “Hello, Justice Department? This is Mat O’Hara representing Collard Cos mos, the weasel who sold the plans for the Stealth bomber to the Bulgarians. What kind of deal are you of f ering us?” The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member ot Texas Press Association Soul Invest Journalism Contercnc e The Battalion Editorial Board Rhonda Snider, Editor Mic helle Pcnve, Managing Editor Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor Karen Bloch, City Editor John Halleit, Ka\ Mallett, News Editors hi avis Tingle. Sports Editor Editorial Policy I he li.iu.tlmn is ,i non-pEotii. «*<•//-su/>/w>nif/# m n «*/>«/- \n i itfici.itcd .is .i t sa vin' to 1 c\.is ,\X:M and Hi \ nn-CnllcKc St.itio:i. Opinions cNprcssctl in I he liutt.ilion me those o! the hlitori.il liomd or the mil hot ,iinl do not necess.irih rep resent the opinions ot / t \.i> .\Sc\t .idininistrmors. Lit ult\ tn the liomd ot Regents. I he limtulion also serves .is .i l.ihor.itors newsp.ipei toi .11,drills in ir/jiiiliiiK. rdllillf, .in,I phonal.i/iln , l.isscs nil tiin I hr Drp.iilnirnl ,,l Cniiilllnnir.illiilis. tin- li.iiInti,in is piildishrd Moml.n ihionyh hid;,, during I e\.is \X \/ re^nl.n semesters, except loi holidnx mid exmninmion periods. Mml subscriptions me $H).73 pa semester. Sdd.Xo pa st hoot \em mid S.'lj per lull w.u \d\ ei tisinff r.nes tinnislied on letpicsi. Out address I he Battalion, if Hi Reed McDonald Huililnui. Texas A&\1 L'nivcrsit\. College Station. TX .Second class postage paid at College Station. TX “We don’t negotiate plea bargains for spies, O’Hara. Your guy sold out his country and the government intends to hang him by the neck until he is dead.” “You better think it over. Except for the Stealth bomber you have no idea what secrets Collard walked away with, and we have no intention of telling you if you keep demanding a pound of flesh.” “We’re not talking about some two-bit code clerk, O’Hara. Cosmos is the big gest fish we’ve caught in years. We in tend to put him in the freezer for life.” “What if I were to tell you that my cli ent is willing to name over 120 people in the U.S. government who are still on the KGB payroll?” “O’Hara, did it ever occur to you that we may not want to know who they are? The more spies the government uncov ers, the worse we look in Washington. Every time we arrest somebody, Con gress wants to know why it took us so long to flush him out. We reject your of fer for the list of KGB agents, and we’re still holding the position that Cosmos has to serve a minimum of 20 years.” " “Would it whet your appetite if I told you my client smuggled blueprints of ‘Star Wars’ in Nancy Reagan’s cosmetic- case when she went to Geneva?” “That’s impossible.” “Here are the films of Gorbachev switching cosmetic cases with Nancy at the airport. My client knows the whole story and will tell you how he did it for a reduced sentence.” “The law is the law. Every person in this country must be punished accord ing to his cririie. In this case Cosmos has to do at least seven years for compro mising the security of the nation.” “Apparently you don’t realize what a predicament you’re in. You people have spies coming out of your ears and spies coming out of your socks. If you don’t show mercy to Cosmos I’ll advise him to remain mum about the nuclear subma rine codes that he has stashed away in a pumpkin in the northeast part of the United States.” “What sub codes?” “I can’t say because we might have to sell them to another country for legal expenses if you make us go to trial." “O’Hara, we have an open-and-shut case on your client committing treason. No matter what information you say he can turn over to us he still will have to rot for 30 days in the county jail.” “I can’t believe my ears. Collard made one lousy mistake of selling his country down the river, and when he says he’s sorry and offers to make amends, your response is that he spend a month be hind bars.” “What do you think Cosmos should get for cooperating with us?” “It wouldn’t bother me if you charged him with one count of failing to curb his dog.” “The government can live with that. We were af raid you were going to hold out for the Congressional Medal of Honor.” Art Buchwald is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Mail Call Texas' of the Letters id the Editor should not est eed .'UHLwords in length. I he editotinl sltilhm right to edit letters loi st\le untl length hut will in.ike e\er\ ellnri to ni.iiiiliiill intent. Ent h lettci innsl be signetl .ind ninsl hit little the .idthess .mil lele/i/ioncii writer. to spe Apologies for The Batt EDI FOR: Recently following a weekly meeting of student leaders hereom I had the opportunity to speak with Rhonda Snider, editor of Ihefii ion. Texas’ 19t Year will pre; ning philosoj dav at Texas / Z Melkme NT uale of Texa teaching in a ing, Sharing, |()1 Rudder 1 During our conversation Rhonda reluctantly mentioned her that the night before, while visiting at a Student Senate meeting,shtll received a rather cold reception from several of the senators in then Knowing the long-standing rivalry that lias existed between Sludenili eminent and The Battalion. I think she was possibly wondering if lb a tradition she was yet unfamiliar with, that is, hissing The Batialinm resentatives at meetings of the Student Senate. 1 assured her that this was not the case and that neither niy.self nnila I Sharon Bn gate adviser i ucation, said currently iea< wilier literacy High School will compete titer of the spring. I The nrogr the College < open to the pi t ie Johnson, speaker of the Senate, knew of such goings on. However,(■ later recalled our discussion I realized that what I told her mightnotbj been entirely true. To a large portion of the student body an indignant outlookoiii Battalion is probably considered “good bull.” After all. The Batialiu: § time and again printed letters and editorials that are not repiesenialKl the campus consensus. |lH^ exas ’for the Braze By ME S 1 will be the first to admit that on more than one occasion Ihavty campaign, U pat iK ulat h chafed by opinions expressed in the pages of 1 he Ballil Director R< that were my m|)clled to apologize n> Rhonda and the#allMTl ie Uxas The Battalion and to express a personal sentiment ax well. If thereiiiH}' e S es () * en ists a degree of hostility between A & M students and The Battalion, ltl; Ult '‘ lu '‘ l it is lacking Sufficient justification. Aside f rom possible argumentsvvitlix philosophical nature of journalism there is little reason to com pi this year's Battalion. As college newspapers go, l he Battalion Isainiiid best. While boasting a circulation ot ovei 22.<)()(), I he- Battalion isaiwj the tojj ten student newspapers in the country. Lastly, I w ant to express my appreciation to Rhonda and the pro leadership of The Battalion for their superb relations with Student (if eminent and other campus organizations dm ing this semester. Frotitli efforts our programs and events have received more than adequate™ age. Sean Royall Student Body President i Un-American ad-tivities Opet 8 p.m. EDITOR: This letter is being submitted in response to the ridiculous letterp lished in Mail Call on Nov. 25 dealing with the GIA recruitment ad. The CIA is an agency of our federal government. Alan Semberadei implied that the members of this agency lie, cheat and steal. Hmveverl offered no facts as a basis for these implications. I believe that making criminal implications without offering fktualtl dence is very unfair and, since it was against out government, un-Aiiitf can. Chad Abney ’89 3 [ Gigi Sho Flatten, don’t flatter EDITOR: goo I am hoping that most, if not all, of the students chanting "PoorIt; sips” did so simply because they have not been Aggies long enoujl] know better. Not only do we have more class than those fans fromoij schools who resort to such poor sportsmanship, but imitation is thes cerest form of flattery — and we do not want to //niter the teasipsjusil ten them. 7 C. David Stasny ’74 Anne Stasny ’84 Not among the chosen few EDITOR: V I was shocked to read in a somewhat biased Austin Antakiwiui man front page (naturally) article on the eve of our game with theUnil sity of Texas that we had a fourth-year “student” at Texas A&Mwhn* “downright ashamed of what goes on . . . and doesn't like that peopled tify 'Texas A&M with the Corps. Since there are only 2,000 cadetsiiu? dent population of 36,000,” What this so-called “Aggie," fourth-year student, doesn’t undewj that the reason A&M exists today and its graduates have such anoutsiai| ing worldwide reputation is because of the Aggie Corps of Cadets. Graduates of this institution — and in almost every case formerci! — are leaders in every facet of the American business/industrial wtir in medicine, research, engineering, agriculture and in key positionsinj branches of state and federal government. John Makely (the fourth-year student) is a name 1 shall renienibef' and I see over 100 resumes a month — and shall certainly not countt amongst the chosen — those few good men and women deserving to] known as Aggies! Jay Biskey Austin, Texas Class of ’59, Cadet Colonel World-class dining? EDITOR: I am writing in reference to Sbisa. This is the third case of food poir ing I’ve had since the beginning of fall ’84. After the first two, 1 genet stopped eating on campus, except when 1 needed a quick meal. Now, I am going through the same thing again! Flow can Sbisa mi tain a reputation of good food at reasonable prices if they keep getting: dents sick? How many cases go unreported because students think it's#® a 24-hour bug? I think a lot more work is needed to make Sbisa a world-classdW hall. James Tomlinson ’87 Si ft 202: