LIFE #
editor
Kristin North
associate editor
Cindy McMillian
art director
Phelan M. Ebenhack
feature writers
Yvonne Salce
Terri Welch
reviewers
John Mabry
Rob Newberry
John Righter
Julia Spencer
contributing writers
Donna Banse
Pamela Lee
Kevin Robinson
Lisa Young
Life Style is a weekly publication of The Texas A&M
Battalion. The publisher and editors are not responsi
ble for unsolicited material. For advertising information
please call (409) 845-2696. For editorial information
please call (409) 845-3313.
Editor’s note
Tickets:
$3 Students
$5 Public
ON SfiLE NOW
at
MSC Box Office
You are holding before you the first
issue of Life Style magazine. The
magazine is a weekly publication of
The Battalion and takes the place of
Monday and Thursday’s lifestyles
sections.
As the frazzled editor of the
magazine, I would like to point out that
the magazine is written, designed and
edited completely by Texas A&M
students. I would appreciate any
comments, criticisms, story ideas or
praise you can contribute.
Battalion editorial offices are in 216
Reed McDonald, and I also can be
reached at 845-3313.
Years ago, The Batt published a
magazine called At Ease. The
premise for Life Style is similar and will
feature reviews of recorded music,
live music, films, theater, art and
books.
We also will spotlight local
personalities and events in Bryan-
College Station and surrounding
areas.
I hope Life Style will be a magazine
you will look forward to every
Thursday to provide information for
your weekend.
I hope you will read and enjoy the
feature articles and identify with
another person’s life.
I hope the magazine doesn’t fall out
of The Batt when you take it out of the
newsstand and lie on the sidewalk
polluting our campus as many
■advertising inserts often do.
Well, with all my hopes in mind,
welcome back for Spring 1991 and
good luck.
— Kristin North
Josh Alan to play Sunday
Dallas guitarist Josh Alan is sched
uled to perform a set at the Front
Porch Cafe Sunday night. Alan’s gui
tar work falls nothing short of incredi
ble, and his technique is very original.
Alan’s style draws heavily on tradi
tional blues, but he spiffs things up
with some slide-guitar and jazz. One
minute he'll be strumming through
jazz chords, then all of the sudden
he's soloing way up high on the neck
of the guitar. Next thing you know, he
lays the slide across the strings and
screeches through some bluesy riffs.
All in the same song.
Alan’s performance will likely in
clude several covers, as well as some
of his original material. He can tear
through Jimi Hendrix’s “Stone Free,”
and he does some nifty acoustic work
on some Led Zeppelin metal. His solo
work includes “Knocking Off," a nifty
use of delay effects and rhythm
pounding on the body and neck of the
guitar that give the song an appropri
ate title.
Other originals by Alan include
"Thanksgiving at McDonald’s in Time
Square” and “Happy Hour.” The first
tune sketches characters Alan saw as
a reporter in New York City, and the
second reveals all the terrible situa
tions about every bar and salloon mu
sicians play in. But both songs show
Alan’s off-the-wall dark humor.
In addition to guitar playing, Alan
has developed his style of humor
through writing cartoon strips with his
brother Drew Friedman. The two have
a pair of books in print, as well as work
in many magazines.
Josh Alan is an extremely talented
and innovative guitarist. For a look and
listen to some of the best guitar work
College Station will probably see this
semester, give Alan’s show a try on
Sunday night.
Bonfire of Vanities — read the book
By John Righter
For filmmakers, the hardest project
to pull off is the adaptation. More diffi
cult than the sequel, the translation
from printed word to screen is a .ten
uous endeavor.
Brian De Palma (“Body Double,"
“The Untouchables”) is the latest di
rector (and producer) to try to resur
rect a best seller. With "Bonfire of the
Vanities,” a shoddy, lifeless movie, De
Palma widely misses the mark.
In fairness to De Palma, trying to
coax a 700-page book into a two-hour
time slot is very difficult, if not impossi
ble. And of course, the usual flaws re
sulted.
Most distressing is the fact that De
Palma lost all of the class friction that
author Tom Wolfe so painstakingly de
veloped. The premise of the novel is
the two worlds of New York — the up
per-class Manhattan and the lower-
class, mostly minority, Bronx. It is at
the center of this storm that Wolfe op
erated.
The flying atom that sets off the
class war is Sherman McCoy (Tom
Hanks), a Wall Street bonds broker
and self-proclaimed “Master of the
Universe." It is when Sherman and his
mistress, Maria Ruskin (Melanie Grif
fith), take a wrong turn into the Bronx,
“the jungle,” that his world begins to
tumble.
In escaping a suspect robbery at
tempt (the novel is more ambiguous
during this sequence than the film),
Sherman and Maria sideswipe a black
teenager. Sherman wants to report the
incident to the police, but is per
suaded not to by Maria. The failure to
report is a crucial error.
Bruce Willis portrays the drunken
Peter Fallow, reporter for The City
Light. In the novel, Fallow is British,
but the change of nationality is only
one of several distortions that ruin the
role and importance of Fallow.
Fallow is fed the story of the hit and
run by Albert Vogel, a lawyer who
works in cahoots with the Reverend
Bacon. Bacon has a pivotal role as the
minister and social activist with ques
tionable ulterior motives.
In the film, Bacon is obviously cor
rupt, dropping the uncertainty of
Wolfe's work, and subsequently, wast
ing the tension of his motives and his
sincerity to the black community. With
the controversies recently surround
ing Yahweh Ben Yahweh and Al
Sharpton, Bacon’s overtness is unfor
tunate and an important role is lost.
Once the story of the hit and run
breaks, Sherman becomes scapegoat
and martyr. The district attorney’s of
fice views Sherman’s incident and
subsequent negligence as a means to
appease their minority constituents
and offers Sherman to the lions. This
final display of self-centered action
completes the circle of vanity, in
which no character is appealing.
Interestingly, the role of Judge Ko-
vitsky is changed with Morgan Free-
Godfather. Continued from page 5
man playing a similar character in the
film. The casting of a black judge in
this role is the one positive alteration
that De Palma and screenplay writer
Michael Christofer make from the
novel.
Key book references to “master of
the universe” and a thrown jar of may
onnaise are sloppy and insignificant
on screen. Further, the pivotal roles of
Assistant District Attorney Larry
Kramer, and Sherman's lawyer,
Thomas Killian, two of the funniest
novel characters, are crudely dis
torted in Cristofer’s script.
Overall, "Bonfire of the Vanities” is a
disappointing film that fails to capture
any of Wolfe’s wry wit, class tension or
historical sense. Bruce Willis is terrible
as Fallow, while Hanks and Griffith are
fairly solid.
As with most adaptations, the best
choice is not to be lazy and to instead,
read the book. Wolfe’s “Bonfire” siz
zles. De Palma’s “Bonfire” is a wash.
than makes up for it on a personal
level.
The first two films were basically a
complete story of Michael Corleone’s
fall from innocence to juthlessness.
The third is a separate story, taking
place 20 years after the last and docu
menting Michael’s search for redemp
tion.
The setting is 1979 and Michael
Corleone (Al Pacino) has made good
on the promise he made to his wife,
Kay, in the first film. The Corleone
family is no longer involved in illegal
activities, bestowing its territories to
the flashy Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna).
This is not to say that Michael has
given up ambitions.
To redeem his family, he has set up
a charity in his father’s name that
works with the Catholic Church. He
also attempts to help the Vatican with
financial matters in return for control of
one of the Vatican's biggest corporate
investments.
Entering as Michael’s personal
watchdog and righthand man is his
nephew, Vincent (Andy Garcia). Vin
cent is everything that Michael is try
ing to renounce: violent, proud and
hot tempered. Complicating matters
further is the love affair between Vin
cent and his first cousin, Mary (Sophia
Coppola). Mary is, of course, Mi
chael’s daughter.
The film concludes with a family re
union in Sicily to attend the operatic
debut of Anthony Corleone. In this
scene is a clever reworking of the first
film’s most brilliant sequence. The cli
max, though powerful in context with
the movie’s theme, loses much of its
punch due to the limited acting ability
of Sophia Coppo ! r>
Coppola isn’t a:> oad as most critics
are making her c ' to be. It’s merely
that her small, trucial'role de
mands a little more oirength than she
gives.
In fact, acting seems to be the one
crucial element of the movie that was
lacking. Winona Ryder, originally cast
as Mary, could have transformed the
film into the tragedy A/as meant to
be. Ryder appearr three other
Christmas movies, i, so viewers
might have expecte see Edward
Scissorhands as tf rleone gar
dener.
Also sorely missec -bert Duvall
as Tom Hagen, a aCter who
added a lot of weigh le first two
films. He is replaced lother law
yer played by George Hamilton
(George Hamilton?!)
The best and most consistent per
formance is given by Andy Garcia,
who is riveting as a two-bit thug who
eventually becomes as calculating
and ruthless as Michael Corleone
once was.
To sum up, "Godfather III” is a fine
film taken on its own merits. It con
cludes the Godfather trilogy with the
same sense of epic tragedy that has
marked all the Godfather films. How
ever, it doesn’t do this with an epic
scope. Coppola was content to make
a smaller picture that concentrates
more on the characters. If the movie
doesn’t seem to live up to its prede
cessors, you have to remember what
big shoes those are to fill.