Jonday • May 4, 1998
JH& The Battalion
15 ki 1?|. ;1 |
S pike Lee’s new film
He Got Game is
not as much about
basketball as family
and responsibility. It is
a touching tale of a fa
ther trying to reach a
son he never knew,
played against the
modern morality tale of
college athletics.
Jesus Shuttlesworth
(Ray Allen) is the top
high-school basketball player in the coun
try. All agree he has the skills to be the next
Jordan, Bird or Johnson. The path to mil
lions is his to choose. Everyone wants a
piece of Jesus and the riches he will reap.
Though Jesus would be loathe to admit
it, the reason he is so good can be traced
to the dogged teaching of his jailed father,
Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington).
Jake is in jail because he killed Jesus’
mother and accordingly, Jesus hates Jake
for the act. Jake is looking at a long jail
term when opportunity passes the ball on
a fast break.
The governor offers Jake a shorter sen
tence if he can convince Jesus to play for
the governor’s alma mater. Jake not only
has to convince his son to forgive him,
but free him.
He Got Game is one of the better
movies of 1998. It delivers drama so deftly
He Got Game
Starring Denzel Washington
and Ray Allen
Directed by Spike Lee
Playing at Hollywood 1
Rated R
Critique: A
that even those who hate basketball will
enjoy the film. While there is a fair amount
of basketball, there is no big game, no
grand finale.
Most of the hoops action is a metaphor
for the relationship between Jesus and
Jake. The dynamic between father and
son is what drives the film.
Denzel Washington is excellent as the
troubled Jake. The absentee father is not a
particularly new role, but Washington rais
es it and the entire film a notch or two. His
scenes of the abusive training of his young
son and his subsequent regret over those
actions are superior stuff.
Ray Allen is pretty decent as the round-
ball prodigy Jesus. A NBA player with no
previous acting experience, Allen gives his
character credibility.
Rosario Dawson and Milla Jovovich are
solid in supporting roles as the women in
Jesus and Jake’s lives. Lee regulars Bill
Nunn, John Turturro and Lonette McKee
play people in the player’s life.
Lee does a great job infusing the film with
emotion and realism. Lee, who wrote the
screenplay, brings a lively, original film to the
big screen, at a time when such is a rarity.
There are a few flaws. The movie runs a
little long and the depiction of women as a
bunch of money hungry, sex-starved
groupies seems a bit cliched.
Please see Game on Page 4.
Les Miserables
Starring: Liam Neeson
and Geoffrey Rush
Directed by Bille August
Playing at Hollywood 16
Rating PG-13
Critique: B
Rachel
Dawley
staff writer
o novel has been
filmed as many
times as Les Mis
erables. The first feature
films made in America
and France were adap
tations ofVictor Hugo’s
tome. The latest film
version of the 1,200-
page classic novel is
simply another compe
tently told rendition of
the familiar saga.
Director Bille August {Pelle the Con
queror) presents the movie adaptation
with a star-heavy cast of Liam Neeson,
Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and
Claire Danes.
The film treatment, with a screenplay by
Rafael Yglesias, compresses and stream
lines Hugo’s vast cavalcade of human mis
eries and victories without diluting the au
thor’s passion and anger. It is fueled by
Hugo’s acute outrage at the inequities of
the judicial systems, at the harshness of so
cial castes and at the lack of human mercy.
The movie does an adequate job of pre
senting the well-known plot of Les Mis
erables. Set in early 19th-century France, it
recounts 40 years in the life of Jean Valjean
(Neeson), his rise from misery to nobility
and his efforts to find serenity through
atonement.
The movie begins with Valjean just out
Liam Neeson (Valjean) and Claire Danes
(Cosette) prepare to leave the convent where
they have taken refuge for the past eight years.
of prison, where he spent 19 years of hard
labor for stealing a loaf of bread. Now a bit
ter man battling for survival, he is re
deemed by a priest’s act of kindness, and
his entire life is reformed.
Please see Miserables on Page 4.
AGGIE RING ORDERS
THE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS
CLAYTON W. WILLIAMS, JR. ALUMNI CENTER
ATTENTION: JUNIOR & SENIORS
/ou will be eligible to order your Aggie ring after either May ‘98 graduation or the
iy final grades are posted, please do the following:
Visit the Ring Office in the Alumni Cc iter beginning May 8th between the
hours of 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. to complete an application for eligibility verifi
cation and to receive order information.
m are a qualified May or August degree candidate, please inform the staff per-
nwhen completing your application.
Upon completing the application, you may request a mail order form if you
will not be in the Bryan-College Station area to place your order in person
between May 27 - June 12, 1998.
Undergraduate Student Requirements:
You must be a degree seeking student and have a total of 95 undergraduate
credit hours reflected on the Texas A&M University Student Information
Management System. (A passed course, which is repeated and passed,
cannot count as additional credit hours).
60 undergraduate credit hours must have been completed in residence at
Texas A&M University if your first semester at Texas A&M University was
January 1994 or thereafter, or if you do not qualify under the successful
semester requirement described in the following paragraph. Should your
degree be conferred with less than 60 undergraduate resident credits, this
requirement will be waived after you graduate and your degree is posted on
the Student Information Management System.
30 undergraduate credit hours must have been completed in residence at
Texas A&M University, providing that prior to January 1, 1994, you were reg
istered at Texas A&M University and successfully completed either a
fall/spring semester or summer term (I and II or 10 weeks) as a full-time stu
dent in good standing (as defined in the University catalog).
You must have a 2.0 cumulative GRR at Texas A&M University.
You must be in good standing with the University, including no registration or
transcript blocks for past due fees, loans, parking tickets, returned checks.
ATTENTION: GRADUATE STUDENTS
you are a May ‘98 degree candidate and do not have an Aggie ring from a prior
9ree, you may place an order for your ring after you meet the following requirements:
Your degree is conferred and posted on the Texas A&M University Student
Information Management Systerm: and
You are in good standing with the University, including no registration, tran
script or hold blocks for past due fees, loans, parking tickets, returned
checks, etc.
the Ring office in the Alumni Center beginning May 8th between the hours of
3 0a.m. - 3:30 p.m. to complete an application and receive order information.
ATTENTION: AUGUST ‘98 GRADUATES
August undergraduate degree candidates who complete all of the ring require-
Ws in May ‘98 and pay their diploma fee no later than May 20th, may receive
ei fhng approximately August 13th; provided, however, the ring order is placed
til the Ring Office on May 21 - 22 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Hyou are an August '98 masters or doctoral degree candidate and will complete
of your degree requirements (including being cleared by the thesis clerk) prior
June 12th, you may request a “letter of completion” from the Office of Graduate
llJ <lies (allow at least 5 days). The original letter of completion, with the seal, will
accepted by the Aggie Ring Office in lieu of your degree being posted.
^ease visit the Aggie Ring Office in the Clayton Williams Alumni Center between
hours of 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. on May 8 - 18 to complete an application.
*%s placed between May 27 - June 12 will be delivered in September).
ALLEN HONDA
2450 SH 6 P.O. Box GA 409-696-2424
College Station, Texas 77840
Dear Graduating Senior:
CongratLilations!! We at Allen Honda are proud of
your achievement! To help celebrate your accomplishment,
we invite you to come in and pick out your New Honda!
Now that you have earned your valuable degree from Texas
A&M and are joining the business world, it can be that sim
ple. We have several financing options available - so let us
show you how easy it is to get your first new car with little
or nothing down.
Honda has been named number one import owner
loyalty for the nineteenth year in a row. Which means, year
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Because you get what you pay for. Why settle for anything
less?!
Very Truly Yours,
D. Allen
Class of ‘45
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