Page 12
The Battalion
Monday, January 23,1989
“Mississippi Burning”
Starring Gene Hackman and Willem
Dafoe
Directed by Alan Parker
Rated R
“Mississippi Burning,” a film full of
gripping intensity and compelling per
formances, is one of the greatest films
of the 1980s.
Director Alan Parker has taken a tur
bulent period in Asnerican history and
REVIEW
SHANE HALL
“Talk Radio”
Starring Eric Bogosian
Directed by Oliver Stone
Rated R
Rather than making feel-good-type
movies, director Oliver Stone has
built himself a reputation for hard
hitting, sometimes violent films that
take on many social and political
topics.
He showed us the Vietnam War
through the foot soldier’s eyes in
“Platoon” and the urban war fought
with computers and stocks in “Wall
Street. ”
“Talk Radio,” Stone’s latest ef
fort, is a gutsy film focused on a
controversial talk show host on the
radio.
The screenplay, written by Stone
and star Eric Bogosian, is based on
REVIEW
SHANE HALL
Bogosian’s one-man play and on
the story of Alan Berg, the Denver
radio personality murdered by a
white supremacist.
Bogosian stars as Barry Cham
plain, the abusive, irreverent host of
a*talk show on a Dallas radio sta
tion.
His message is that people don’t
talk about what’s happening in the
world anymore.
Every night, Barry fields calls
from an audience of rednecks and
bigots.
Shooting off stinging one-liners
and verbal jabs, Barry Champlain is
a man full of fury, unafraid to say
what he thinks no matter whom it
offends.
Even when he begins receiving
death threats from neo-Nazi luna
tics, he doesn’t stop.
Robert Richardson’s photogra
phy of “Talk Radio” is excellent, us
ing a wide variety of camera angles.
Filmed in Dallas last spring, most
of the movie is set in the radio sta
tion studio.
Stone’s direction of the film is su
perb and sometimes brimming with
intensity and moments of suspense.
In one such moment, Barry re
ceives a call on the show from a
man claiming to have sent him a
bomb through the mail
. All the while, Barry eyes a pack
age sitting atop a stack of mail next
to him. The scene’s intensity is
heightened by Richardson’s camera
technique and Stewart Copeland’s
soundtrack.
Filled with elements of anger, in
tensity, and even a little humor,
“Talk Radio” is an impressive work
from one of America’s most daring
filmmakers.
The opening sequence is a depiction
of the murders. After the workers are
reported missing, an FBI investigation
begins.
Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe
star as two agents from different back
grounds who are in charge of the inves
tigation.
Dafoe plays agent Ward, a by-the-
book liberal. A native Northeasterner,
Ward is an outsider in a region where
outsiders are less than welcome.
crafted a remarkable film that has
raised widespread controversy.
With a career that includes such
films as “Angel Heart” and “Midnight
Express,” it’s a good bet that Parker is
not one to shy away from the contro
versial.
“Mississippi Burning,” like his pre
vious efforts, is a movie filled with star
tling visual images and graphic vio
lence.
The film is based on the 1964 slay
ing of three civil rights workers in Mis
sissippi and the investigation that fol
lowed.
Hackman, as agent Anderson, turns
in his greatest performance in several
years, possibly of all time. Anderson is
a Southern good ol’ boy and a former
Mississippi lawman who doesn’t mind
using methods that are not standard
procedure.
While Ward is questioning people
who won’t talk and bringing in hun
dreds of agents to drag swamps for
bodies, Anderson becomes friendly
with the wife of the sheriffs deputy in
volved in the murder and begins find
ing facts to speed up the investigation.
“Mississippi Burning” is neither a
documentary nor the story of the civil
rights movement. It is a film that shows
why the movement was necessary.
Parker packs the film with difficult-to-
watch scenes of churches burning and
blacks being terrorized in their homes
and beaten in the streets by redneck
Klansmen.
These scenes, as well as the rest of
the movie, are brilliantly photo-
graphedthroughout.
Dafoe and Hackman both are su
perb in their roles and the conflict be
tween their characters makes for some
fine dramatic moments.
Although the story is set 25 years
ago, “Mississippi Burning” is a contem
porary film.
With today’s increasingly common
reports of racial conflict and white su
premacist groups, this film serves as a
reminder of the repugnance of racial
hatred.
Rush’s live album a hit, Floyd’s a miss f m
Rush and Pink Floyd do not
make rock n’ roll in the tradi
tional sense. They construct
hard-hitting, powerful, complex
and sometimes delicate musical
compositions much like classical
composers have done in the past,
with the added benefit of in
triguing lyrics. You can’t dance to
their songs, and you can’t bang
your head to them, but many
people have found that you can
receive a whole lot of enjoyment
from just listening to them. If
you’re not careful, you just may
learn something too.
Over the fifteen-plus years
these bands have been putting
out albums, they’ve each built in
credibly loyal followings of very
diverse fans. Go to one of their
concerts, and the audience will in
clude both the long-haired kids
who wouldn’t look out of place at
a Metallica concert and the clean-
cut, thick-glasses types who could
be working on an advanced phys
ics degree.
A concert by Rush or Pink
Floyd is more than your average
show. It is an extravaganza for
the ears, the eyes and the mind.
The recent release of the double
live albums Delicate Sound of
Thunder by Pink Floyd and A
Show of Hands by Rush, will have
their fans heading for the record
stores, eager to buy a tangible re
minder of these concerts.
With Delicate Sound of Thun
der, Pink Floyd has produced
what amounts to a soundtrack of
the show they had on the road
throughout 1987 and 1988. This
album never should have been
made. The first half is nothing
more than a live rendition of
more than half of the songs on
1987’s A Momentary Lapse of
REVIEW
KEITH SPERA
Reason. Since that album was
boring and bland compared with
past Floyd masterpieces, and the
live versions of these songs sound
just like the studio version, the
first half of Delicate is a waste of
time if you’ve heard Momentary.
The second half is a bit more
interesting. It provides a greatest-
hits retrospective of Pink Floyd
classics. Each of these songs, how
ever, were originally recorded as
a part of a whole; they were tied
in, both musically and lyrically,
with the rest of the songs on the
albums on which they first ap
peared. Recording these songs
out of context on a live album
denies them the full meaning and
bass notes once covered by Wa
ters. He does an adequate job of
playing, but the attitude just isn’t
there.
The album is musically aver
age, with the weak rendition of
“Another Brick in the Wall Part
II” being offset by killer perfor
mances of “Comfortably Numb”
and “Run Like Hell.” David Gil-
mour does a fine job on guitar,
but his voice is obviously strained
on several songs (perhaps be
cause the album was recorded in
August of 1988, after Gilmour
had performed almost a year of
concerts.) For those who attended
a Pink Floyd concert but don’t re
member it due to overindulgence
of some sort or another, Delicate
can provide a partial example of
what was missed at the show.
Other than that stick to Pink
Floyd’s past releases.
impact they were meant to have.
In concert, this can be over
looked, since the songs are not all
that is happening — there are the
legendary special effects to con
tend with. However, with the al
bum, you don’t get the 30-foot in
flatable pig, the surround-sound,
the footage of jumbo German
shepherds with glowing eyes, or
the light and laser show that
made the Pink Floyd concert
something special.
The Rush album is another
story. It does not pretend to be a
documentation of their most re
cent show-indeed, the songs con
tained on A Show of Hands were
recorded on two different tours.
Like the two live albums Rush has
released in the past, this album
serves a different purpose: to
mark the end of another chapter
Each instrument is clearly aurl
ble, and Geddy Lee’s distinct!*)
vocals shimmer above the muiMLONl)
Neil Peart’s extraordinary drcflP was
ming ability is showcased inp' n ^
four minute drum solo emiilol when
“The Rhythm Method.” A Pelrew twt
drum solo is not a display oflnj
fast he can play, or an exhibitii
of what unusual pieces of (J
drum kit he can beat on 4
hanging upside down with anil
dience member’s bra clamped dwsand
his teeth (your typical heji®A recet
metal drum solo.) It is a skillful® engag
executed medley of various benRiiily pi
and sounds, including thesyntlulieiitenan
sized sounds of chimes, bra" 30 last ye;
struments and a harp. ftarah '
Bf thos
The band switches moods band’s 8
styles throughout the album- Queen M
are sweeping and majestic tBhickin
“Marathon,” and dark, omincBdrew,
and powerful on “Witch HtintB>ected
Throughout the album, theygrBnts an
their newer songs a bit mciWir first
power by letting Alex LifemBBut a
guitar stand out a bit morepro;®ed Sut
inently that it did on the studBicated
versions of the songs. “Close Bed be
the Heart” closes out the afteBssdoe
with Rush cutting loose a bit®l her h
deviating f rom the song’sorigiJh? gover
You also don’t get founding
member Roger Waters, who was
the band’s bassist and main lyric
ist until conflicting egos in the
band caused him to quit after The
Final Cut was released in 1983. It
was he who wrote many of Floyd’s
darker songs. Now, a fresh faced
fellow named Guy Pratt plays the
in Rush’s musical history. The al
bum sums up the music Rush has
created since their last live album,
Exit. . .Stage Left (only two of A
Show of Hands 14 songs pre-date
Exit), and provides an opportu
nity for the band to set off in a
new musical direction, as they
have done after their last two live
albums.
With its latest release, Rush has
produced a perfect example of
how a live album should sound.
sound and giving the audierB Her R
something to clap along to. pi' s hea
Bgie is
These two live albums rw of tl
resent something very diffemBf
to the two bands that produiij
them. For Pink Floyd, it isasmBfhe nt
that they are not what theynivBinion 1
were. Without Roger WatcrP?|led 50
guidance, they have forgott® of err
what they are all about; maybcBHews ;
should be the end. For Rush,!:® her
the closing in a chapter of a IwBtain, c
that hopefully has many m«w e d hei
chapters to come. Bt was
two ’
Author’s life leads to book
detailing her childhood abuse
(AP) — The story of child abuse
that Sylvia Fraser tells in “My Fa
ther’s House” would be chilling on
any terms.
But, even more so, the story is the
writer’s own.
Fraser created a separate identity,
another self, to exist when her father
sexually abused her during child
hood. The other self remained hid
den and unknown to her for 40
years until she realized she had been
an abused child and summoned back
the memories.
In an interview in her nearly all-
white living room, the author said
she started to write a novel about
what had happened but was “offen
ded” by the idea that she was putting
into fiction something that was fact.
She decided to go ahead with the
book despite the self-exposure it
necessarily would bring.
The response has been positive,
she said, including many letters
from people who tell her, “You’ve
written my story.”
“My Father’s House” was first
published last year by Doubleday
Canada and, now in paperback, has
been high on the Canadian best
seller lists. It recently was published
in hardcover in the United States.
While the story has been told be
fore in such books as “Sybil,” Fra
ser’s is the first book by a profes
sional writer about her own abuse
and multiple personalities.
Unlike Sybil, whose case has been
documented by psychologists, Fraser
did not seek psychiatric help. She
completely blocked out all conscious
memory of her abuse and main
tained that the child victim was a
completely separate personality.
Fraser believes that neighbors
may have suspected something was
wrong in her household but were re-
Oylvia Fraser
decided to go ahead with
the book despite the self
exposure it necessarily
would bring.The response
has been positive,
including many letters from
people who tell her,
“You’ve written my story.”
REVIEW
SHANE HALL
Night Train
Bobby Mack
luctant to say anything in a time
when divorice was not even dis
cussed.
Through personal awareness and
woman consciousness-raising ses
sions in the 1970s, she slowly came to
terms with who she was. The actual
memory came spontaneously one
day in 1983 while she was socializing
with friends.
Fraser has written four novels
since her first novel, “Pandora,” was
published in 1972 — all of them in
cluded themes or incidents of sexual
violence.
“Of course, now I understand that
it was my other self,” she said. “My
whole writing impulse had really
come from my abused self.”
“My Father’s House” is a sort of
detective story in which Fraser
searches for the unknown portions
of her own past. Yet it also is a re
markably vivid memoir of growing
up in Hamilton, a city about an
hour’s drive southwest of Toronto,
in the 1940s and ’50s.
Fraser attributes the crucial deci
sions made in her life, from walking
out on a good marriage to an affair
with the father of a childhood
friend, to the confusion underlying
an always outwardly strong front.
“The whole emotional drive of my
life was to reunite my two selves,”
she said.
Bobby Mack and his band, Night
Train, play a driving brand of Texas
rock in the vein of Texas rockers
such as Omar and the Howlers and
the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The al
bum Night Train," on SJM Records,
is a six-song EP that features Mack
and his band (drummer Jimmy Pate,
bassist Larry Eisenberg and guitarist
Chris Duarte), as well as an impres
sive lineup of guest musicians, in
cluding rock guitar pioneer Lonnie
Mack (no relation to Bobby).
The record includes soulful rock
’n’ roll complete with back-up vocals
and horns (“Change My Mind” and
“Treat Her Like a Lady”) and power
trio rock on “Change It,” which was
a top 10 hit for Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Mack’s version is not as heavy on fla
shy guitar stunts as Vaughan’s, but is
sure to find favor with fans of Vaug
han’s music.
Mack’s instrumental, “Take It Ho
me,” is recommended for guitar en
thusiasts. Mack, Duarte and Lonnie
Mack make a formidable guilarl
while the rhythms of Pate and t
berg give the song a rocksolidli
beat. Riley Osborne plays kevlxd
and finishes up the record wiihj
second version of “42nd Street |
If this sounds like your]®
rock ’n’ roll, you can see Bobbvl 1
and Night Train at Brazos Latil
Thursday night. It will be
first College Station appearanttl
Mack, a Texas native, orga:
Texas Musicians For the World]
participated in the 1987 1
s/USSR Music Exchange
brought a sample of Texas id
talent to the Soviet Union. H(
has performed in Europe an;
pan. While in Japan, hemetwii]
country’s minister of foreigna
The End of The Day
The Reivers
REVIEW
to discuss involvement of WeM°^ svv
artists in changing Japanese viefl e t am 111
the handicapped. In 1986,theT§ “, umn
Senate proclaimed Mack I® u .
Music Ambassador to the Wor fi 01 ’
Slirfer, t
-..i—i— i —Ipr wl
Tere. Ai
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The Reivers recently released al
bum, End of the Day is a nice album,
but that’s about it — all the songs
sound basically the same. None of
the songs are particularly awful, so
it’s not a bad listening experience,
but the songs aren’t particularly
great either.
The first song is encouraging.
“It’s About Time” has a good beat,
and lead singer John Croslin’s voice
is impressive, but the precedent it
sets for the rest of the songs to follow
is not upheld.
Although the lyrics are not award
winning, they’ll do for this mediocre
album.
“Star Telegram” sounds like it
could be a sentimental advertise
ment for the Fort Worth Star-Tele
gram, with lyrics like, “In those
golden Mustang days backyard sul
fur and croquet with the Star Tele
gram, Orange Crushes in my hand
with the Star Telegram.”
One can just picture the ad on TV
with children playing in slow motion
the background as the sun sets be
hind them.
“Lazy Afternoon” has a slightly
different sound because it is vocalist
Kim Longacre’s only solo on the al
bum. The song also has a slight jazz
flavor to it. This jazziness, combined
with her clear, vibrant voice makes it
an interesting song.
Among the other tracks are “He
Will Settle It,” yet another ambigu
ous, repetitive song. With this al
bum, if you’ve heard one song,
you’ve heard them all.
However, “Cut Above” has some
interesting lyrics. The song is about
the mental torments of a man who
has made it to the top in the business
world and the problems he faces
within himself.
Another track with interesting ly
rics is “Discontent of Winter” has ly
rics that conjure up images of rest
lessness, but that same basic Reivers
beat and melody are still present.
Many of the songs have a strong
country and western influence. “Al
most Home,” is a good exampIBh^fp
this. The second side of the ret q u i
much more enjoyable to lis |t; Hre wort
than the first side. k “Wha
“Truth to Tell” is the bestsotMg j n
the album. It’s a good songtoi|| nt ” j
to if you need an outlet for ft aiH ] sa y S
lion. Jjpday, y<
However, the next song, “l® U se tc
Out,” is a letdown after such a Ky wav<
song. It just drags on andonwilg Toda'
saying or doing anything, Snake R
“Dude Man Hey”, an instrc Jdaming
tal, gives the listener good exp jot her. G
to all of the band members skill® “This
eluding Andy Metcalfe and®ear-old
McCord on keyboards and «burra
Lamb on guitar. Beaker,
“Your Secrets are not Safe' little one
same old thing — words and or two c
that have no substance. ft
Maybe these words do have]
stance but they’re just preseM
such a boring manner that'
don’t encourage anyone to listen I
Although the album isn’t oil
listen to for a deep meanitl
wouldn’t be bad as background!
sic. Still, I wouldn’t give up
Reivers — they do show somepljAP)
tial, but they need to vary theirSBidfs
plves a t
Book advises women to avoid
consuming desire forperfectioi
ling to a
i But un
lays it is b
: The di
jaralyzin
ris home
Pquentj*
In Apr
(AP) —- Karen makes $250,000 a
year working for E.F. Hutton and
prides herself on being a “shark.”
Anita runs miles every day but has
been bulimic for eight years. Marjo
rie has made straight A’s all her life
but panics and overprepares for ev
ery test.
What all these women have in
common, says Colette Dowling, is an
overwhelming desire to achieve per
fection.
In her book “Perfect Women”
(Summit, $18.95), Dowling argues
that this striving for ever-higher
goals — hours of aerobics every day,
60-hour work weeks, making every
meal from scratch — is not a healthy
exercise to fulfill one’s potential but
a desperate scramble to fill an inner
void.
“An artistic drive is satisfying,”
Dowling says. “A drive to perform is
... a kind of rigid, compulsive symp
tom, as compared to something
that’s really joyful and self-express
ive and gives back to us.”
Dowling, best known for her 1981
best seller “The Cinderella Com
plex,” says, “The whole drive to be
perfect comes out of a feeling of in
feriority. We wouldn’t even be inter
ested in the idea of perfection if
there wasn’t something that we psy
chologically were compensating
for.”
The premise of the “Cinderella
Complex” was that women had a
deep-seated belief that they could
not take care of themselves, that de
spite the gains of the women’s
movement they were still waiting for
a Prince Charming to whisk them off
to “live happily ever after.”
Dowling, 50, said the book was
based on her own experience.
“Perfect Women,” similarly, is
based on Dowling’s own experi
ences.
The author found that despite the
success of “The Cinderella Com
plex,” which spent 26 weeks on the
||e on
best-seller list, she still felt indioved tc
about her work and at a loss tolis spina
next project.
At the same time, her
daughter, Gabrielle, a star sen 1 !
athlete and beauty, dropped (
Harvard University and re«|
that she had been bulimic foryt®Unwill
Dowling realized that her ( ' Arndt wi
lentless drive for success had Be in FI
which tr<
passed on to her daughter. j|rk Cit
In “Perfect Women,” DoBh one
cites psychological studies deBremov
the mother-daughter relation'wd.
“They (mothers) are notovedlArndt’
volved with us (daughters) 2'writi
rate persons; they’re overly in ffilentall)
with us as extensions of themsBysicalh
she said. iHe say
The way for a woman to By walk
the perfection treadmill, sheBthetre
r^lr^mr'ci11\/ c^r^arofp
to psychologically separate 111
from her mother, which can btfc says. ‘
through therapy, self-explotfiysicali:
and perhaps confrontation, fate.
f “I’m a