The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 01, 1971, Page Page 5, Image 5
W- a
QenuIe Q4een
ale /9
Sea a
highlightas.Fvsmhigc
natin~s t h ooefrmBf
thm Cn oror
goAnd bi-iefr for cans
"Focus Pocus," see beautift
eyes develop.
S
The finest in eye make-uap, yet sei
4 ~11
'icture -""*A
*7~m ~o
mb
4
sT a lC nTa lc
mriced
*bi
sa s e e e eeese sees.ea,
r At the movies
The Touchh
By MARGARET SWENDSEID
Staff Writer
The manager at Jefferson Square Theatre didn't think
this movie should or could last long, here in Columbia.
'Not many Ingmar Bergman fans; people walking out
before the film was over
It's too bad that people walk out of this movie. It's too
bad that people walk out of any movie, unless it's because
of pure boredom or disgust.
I don't think "The Touch" can cause either for any
length of time. It's a matter of thinking and feeling through
your own experience and something extra.
"The Touch" is exactly that - a touch between two
people. Two people reaching in heat, still reaching after
the break. Something as complete as you let yourself
en joy.
The story ol this film is familiar. Bibi Anderson as an
aging, spirited housewife, tiring of her just, too balanced
and dry husband, Max von Sydow. A young American brat,
Elliot Gould, comes to their small town on an ar
chaeological dig. They meet. He's invited to dinner, and
somewhere during the home slides of mules and orchids,
E.G. asks the Swedish Propriety if he has any pictures of
his wife nude. S.P. says no, half-amused.
And Bibi, part shy and coming to life, meets Elliot in his
very real grubby flat, in secret. The first time they are
quiet, soft. The second time Illiot ravishes her totally.
"'The Touch," both warm and frustrated, follows
through the blatancy of cold, echoing rooms, grinding
clothes washers, ran sounds, the flick of light switches, to
its sad, abrupt end, the legend of sense, balance. The soft
Swedish autumn.
Bibi Anderson and Max von Sydolv are great.
Elliot Gould looks comfortable being cute, fierce,
moody, and child-like. He looks avykward sometimes
speaking English around Swedish actors.
Bergman's symbols? I don't know. I don't figure them
out any more. This movie felt relaxed.
Anyway, "symbols" are natural understandings, except
when forced, designed too much. This Bergman movie is a
"touch" that might be awkward with the tease or
harrowing of imagination. It remains simple and good.
Jo4nny Got His Gun
By FREDERICA GREEN
Staff Writer
In the paranoid fifties when Joseph McCarthy named the
Communists of Hollywood, a lot of very talented moviemakes
found themselves very much out of work overnight.
Dalton Trumbo was one of those names. This year he finally
was permitted to return and film his novel "Johnny Got His
Gun," a very important film.
In the first place, it almost sounds an all-clear. All you pinkos
can come out now, the pogrom's over. Next, it proves Hollywood
is not really dead and It's still possible for an American to make a
competent and intelligent movie. Finally, the film itself is a
wipeout.
Joe Bonham is blown up by World War I (in a beautiful flash of
pure arc )epng) and loges his arms, legs and face. Nameless and
isolated in a graNf%di*#k and white hospital, he goes through his
'memories @nd faMf07 finensuous color.
He remembers his fast night with his girlfriend Karen, pure
and big-eyed; he raps with his unit (for some reason Christ is
traveling with them. One of the men exclaims, ''Jesus, I wish I
had a shot of whiskeyl...Oh, thanks."); life with his gentle
Colorado parents, where a cat, mouse, dog and chicks sleep
peaceably behind the stove. Gradually he decides he wants to be
a sideshow freak in a Fellini desert circus to stand as an example
of the horror of war. t'e!gets this message across to authorities by
tapping his head in Morse Code. The request is, of course, denied,
so Joe demands that they kill him.
The miraculous thing about ''Johnny Got His Gun'' is it
manages to avoid some treacherous pitfalls, it doesn't lapse into
squirmy sensationalist horror (See Ken Russell's ''The Devils")
or the-grimy-tedium as seen through a thousand-dollar lens (see
Casper Wrede's ''Ivan Denisovich'') or even weep
emotionalism (don't see ''Love Story''.)
The story is horrifying, but Joe's drive to do as much as he can
in the situation lightens it. It's emotional, especially the scenes
tween Joe and his father, yet always real enough to inspire
As an added bonus, the visual effects are innovative and ef
ective but never punky-groovy for its own sake.
.Trumbo's back. en 'he seems-m ;t no he e' mln