The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 26, 2003, Image 4

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Aggieland 2003
Fridaij. April
ESa.rl>ectie Social
C'Ct+xrtl&t’
Sad: nr del id. April 26
Familij Fan Dag at tke Rec
Anniversary Gala
(/GrCfest- rfsjOorv*
Tii
to be cinnouncx^cl
For mi>ro in(orm.ittf)n, omoll ( 'lirlstlno A^tillar cma&vllarC^or
or t all Q7Q-345-4551
l-twlx
Fifteen Years of Enrickin^ Diversi t\j:
Raising tke Bar of Excellence
ednesday Sped
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1 Extra Large
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Northgate
601 University Dr.
979-846-3600
Post Oak Square Center
100 Harvey Rd., Suite D
979-764-7272
■ « vr^ax a ■ ca ■ ■ ■ c;
1700 Rock Prairie
979-680-0508
Sunday: 1 1 a.am. - midnight
Monday - Wednesday: 1 t a.m. - 1
Thursday: 11 a.m. - 2 a.m.
Friday & Saturday: 1 1 a.m. - 3 a.
longsleeifes ★ sweats + auto decals ^novelties +
across Prom Dillard's
Traditions Council will host a
5K Fun Run on Saturday, March
1, at 9 a.m. The race will begin
and end at the Clayton
Williams Alumni Center.
Participants can register from
7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Saturday
morning.
Registration is $10 and
includes a T-shirt. For more
information, call Della
Reichenstein at 324-8416.
The Muslim
Association will host a Gened
Meeting at 7 p.m. in MSC 292B
Free Food. Call Mohammad
Munawar at 575-4275 for
information.
TwoSpy
Continued from page 3
With its new disc, "Kool ot Yaw Gnorw ( Wrong
Way to Look)" being launched today in a CD
release party and show at Club Concept,
McLawhon said the lyrics aim to have a positive
message and good impact on their listeners.
"A lot of musicians tend to glorify pain and
suffering by writing lyrics about ordeals they
never even had," McLawhon said. "The lyrics that
I mostly write about are about how stupid I can be
sometimes. We also like to be truthful and origi
nal in our music.”
Weidlich said he is a strong believer in the the
ology that it is not the end result that is important,
but the path taken to get there.
"It's really all about the process of gaining
experience to where you want to be, in whatever
you are doing," he said. "In the beginning you
write and play music for yourself. After being in
the band for a while, we have all realized that we
have to write for the whole band. Since we have
all become in tuned to each others’ musical tal
ents, the composing process has just been flowing
together lately."
Eric Ortmann, a junior economics major and
a long-time fan of TwoSpy, said TwoSpy's mnsi
cal exploits get more impressive with each song
"They are constantly reinventing themselves,"
he said. "This is reflected in their music. WhenI
listen to their CD or attend their concerts, I'm
blown away by how they always get better with
each song. 1 saw them open for Flickerstick
recently and they were incredible. It is amazinjio
see how far they have come in such a short period
of time. It is very inspiring."
Loftis said the members of TwoSpy are in the
band for the music.
“We don't care a lot about the money at this
point," he said. "If I had enough money to pay
bills and buy CD's then it’s enough for me.The
dream and goal is to do something that we love
and get appreciated for it. We just hope peoplegei
something out of our music, w hether they cometo
see us perform or listen to our CD."
TwoSpy will launch its new album at Club
Concept tonight, and will be part of the local
band showcase, which begins at 8 p.m.
TwoSpy is scheduled to appear onstage at mid
night. The band will also be a guest on 103.9
F.M. at 1:30 p.m. today.
‘Gods and Generals’ gives a
whitewashed historical account
By Roger Moore
KRT CAMPUS
To suffer. To sacrifice. To endure.
To somehow sit through three and a half hours
of “Gods and Generals,” the hackwork Civil War
"prequel" to the 1993 historical embarrassment
titled “Gettysburg.”
We few, we unhappy few, grimace through the
molasses-on-grits Southern accents, shake our
heads at the historical revisionism and snort at
the static dullness of this endless, flaccid adapta
tion of another historical novel about America’s
defining conflict.
PBS entrusted “The Civil War" to Ken Burns.
Ted Turner, who makes cameos in these bloated-
corpse reenactment movies, gave the job to
Ronald F. Maxwell. And Maxwell, a TV movie
director with no ear for dialogue that isn't over
the top and no eye for the sort of visual poetry
these stories demand, is plainly not up to the job.
"Gods and Generals" is as laughably drawly
as a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon and as animated as
a daguerreotype.
It's the story of Stonewall Jackson, his rise
from religious fanatic artillery teacher at the
Virginia Military Institute to legendary hero of
Bull Run and immortal icon of Chancellorsville.
Stephen Lang, who made a splendid Gen. George
Pickett in "Gettysburg," is given center stage and
a decent beard for this role as Robert E. Lee's
"right arm." If only he’d been given compelling
things to say.
"I regard the crime of desertion as a sin
against the Army of the Lord," he preaches. He
utters oaths about "our sacred war of independ
ence," moons over his absent wife and professes
to want an end to slavery to his new black cook,
"Uncle" Jim Lewis (Frankie Faison).
The "S" word is hard to come by in this end
less epic, just as Abraham Lincoln is forever the
unseen, offstage villain of the piece. Only when
Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels), returning as
the Bowdoin College teacher-turned-Union offi
cer, shows up is the ugly source of the struggle
correctly articulated. And he does so in a speech
so arch as to draw more eye-rolling than tears.
It would probably take a staggering budget
and a director like Kubrick to pull off this huge
tale on a grand canvas. As it is, the movie, like
Maxwell's "Gettysburg," is heavily reliant on
Civil War re-enactors, who fill the screen with
thousands of men marching, firing and charging.
These scenes are vivid and realistic to a fault
until you notice the expressionless faces of the
nonactors (including a grinning Turner himself),
who never know quite where to look or how to
look when the camera is rolling.
An awful lot of public servants and ex-public
servants turn up in cameos. Phil Gramm, George
Allen and Robert Byrd are there. Surely there
was a role for the least repentant Southern apolo
gist of them all, Trent Lott?
Maxwell's racial myopia is patronizing. But
his worst sin is his slack storytelling. He set out
to make "Gettysburg" for Turner TV and then
had the film released into theaters at an inter
minable length. That story, at least, seemed to
support much of that length. "Gods and
Generals" is just funereal, as Maxwell didn't
know what parts of Jeff Shaara's book to leave
out. He stages Christmas-carol singing, parlor
piano-playing, visit after visit to the hospital tent:
and even a USO show (actually, CS0) that has
everything but Bob "The South Will Rise Again
Hope. The photography is flat and colorless, save
for a wintry gray re-creation of the December
1862 Battle of Freciericksburg.
"Gettysburg" benefited from a few standout
performances, especially Lang in his earlier role
and’the late Richard Jordan, in a riveting and
emotional sequence during Pickett's Charge.lt
also had the idiotically miscast Martin Sheen as
Robert E. Lee and Tom Berenger, as General
Longstreet, sharing the screen with a godawful
fake beard that had a mind of its own. The beards
are better here, and Robert Duvall makes a per
fectly convincing Robert E. Lee. But Lee is in
the background for too much of the tale. And
there isn't an emotional moment in this.
There is some historical foundation for
showing Southerners who wanted to end slav
ery, of slaves utterly devoted to their masters.
But using anecdotes like that to justify the
film's general whitewashing of history is
patronizing and wrong.
Thanks to Ken Burns, we know how people
talked and looked and thought during the Civil
War. He reminded us that even then, people kites'
what the war was about. Thankfully, it willbetlie
PBS version of the war that will stick in the pub
lic mind. And Ronald F. Maxwell can go backto
cable where he belongs.
GODS AND GENERALS
1 star (out of 5)
Cast: Robert Duvall, Stephen Lang, Jeff
Daniels, Mira Sorvino.
Director: Ronald F. Maxwell.
Running time: 3 hours, 58 minutes, including
intermission.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMP''
Robert Duvall, center, stars as Gen. Robert E. Lee, in Ted Turner Pictures' sweeping epic “Gods and Generals.