The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 25, 1972, Page Page 2, Image 2
Cinema review
'Slaugh ter
BY DAVID SIMPSON
Within the last two to three
years, Kurt Vonnegut has become
one of the most widely read
American authors. His books have
satirized just about every aspect of
the American Dream and its
middle-class dreamers. In
"Slaughterhouse Five," Vonnegut
extended his barbs to that of war;
in particular, to that of the Dresden
fire-bombing. Vonnegut was ac
tually in Dresden at the time of the
fire-bombing as a prisoner of war,
and so being a writer, authored his
story of the war.
It is a novel expressing the
futility and senselessness of war,
while conveying Vonnegut's
sardonic wit, pathos and way-out
fantasy. The story concerns Billy
Pilgrim, a young, assistant
chaplain during World War II who
becomes unstuck in time; that is,
he jumps back and forth in his
lifetime with no control over it.
If this premise sounds crazy, its
because it is pure Vonnegut. Now,
director George Roy Hill and
producer Paul Monash have
successfully brought Vonnegut's
madness to the screen in a mind
bending, magnificent picture.
Throughout the picture, Pilgrim
time-trips from his upper-middle
Down by the rive
'We're a
BY BOB CRAFT
This here record review column may
appear from time to to time and the idea
behind it is a simple one. That is, America
turns out a lot of records each year and
most of them good. Sooo, lots of good
albums are going to get overlooked.
(Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds a lot like the
Warnes-Reprise Loss Leaders rap).
Anyway, you and I know perfectly well
that you are going out and scarf up the new
Tull or Neil Young album despite what
Rolling Stone or Crawdaddy or Creem or I
have to say about it. Right?
We are all prisoners of Gibson and
Stromberg.
So here are some rather obscure new
albums that I like and want to tell you
about. These guys need help more than the
Stones.
JIM PEPPER
Pepper's Pow-Wow
Jim Pepper is an Indian. He's an Indian
who plays saxophone. Jim springs from
the Kaw and Creek nations.
Jim Pepper takes the chants of the Kaw
and Creek and Hopi peoples and sets them
to rock music. Helping him in this are
other Peppers; Gilbert Pepper, who writes
and sings; and Ravie Pepper on C Flute.
The opening cut on the album is a little
tune called, "Witchitai-To." The cut's
basis in fact is that "Witchitai-To" is a
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class house in Illium, N. Y., to
Belgium, where he is captured by
Germans, to Tralfamadore, a
distant planet where he has been
taken and exhibited along with a
blue movie starlet named Montana
Wildhack.
To convey the number time
changes on film would have been
thought an impossible, if not a
confusing task. But Hill and writer
Stephen Geller have done a
marvelous job at this.
Through these time changes, the
viewer not only experiences Billy's
life, but also Vonnegut's attitude
toward the middle-class society in
America today. After an air crash
in which Billy is the only survivor,
his wife rushes to the hospital in a
hilarious sequence in which she
nearly destroys her car. In the
process of doing so, however, she
dies of carbon monoxide poisoning.
When she hears of her mother's
death, Billy's daughter stares in
disbelief and cries, "But she drives
a Cadillac!"
The highlight of the film,
however, is the recreation of the
Dresden fire-bombing. The city of
Prague was used in shots depicting
the architecture of Dresden, for
both cities were similar in this
style.
i review
prisoners o
Kaw religious peyote chant. The cut begins
with a tom-tom being beaten and a man
chanting "Whitchitai-To" chant. This
continues for about a minute and a half,
cold stop, and then the band starts and
takes off with the singer singing the chant.
The English words "What spirit feeling
springing round my head-Makes me feel
glad that I'm not dead" are the only
deviation from the chant. The rock-jazz
portion of the cut continues for about five
minutes, stops cold and the tom-tom chant
starts again.
The album contains war chants, squaw
chants and marriage chants. A very in
teresting album.
Oh, and for you Mahavishnu fans, Billy
Cobham helps out on drums.
LORI LIEBERMAN
Lori Lieberman
Lori Lieberman has a very sweet, clear
and lonely sounding voice. She has the
voice of a woman who has loved and lost,
but is ready to try again.
There is a stillness that runs through this
album, and the style can be compared to
Michel LeGrand without LeGrand's
syrupmness.
The overall effect of the album is
somewhat European, more specifically
French, with images of Charles Aznavour,
and Fracoise Hardy running around.
You fell in love, it was over, and you
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The camera captures the horror
and confusion experienced when
135,000 men, women, and children
were killed by Allied bombers. A
young German soldier, hardly into
his teens, runs through the rubble,
screaming for the safety of his
young love, only to find that her
home is engulfed in flames. This
scene encompasses the
meaninglessness of war.
The performances are all good,
but the standout is Ron Leibman as
Paul Lazzaro, a G. I. who takes it
upon himself to avenge any in
cident that occurs. His wild-eyed
looks and manners are hilarious as
he continually threatens to kill
Billy Pilgrim for the death of a
friend.
Michael Sacks does quite well in
his first role as Billy Pilgrim.
MOVIE FACT SHEET
TITLE: Slaughterhouse Five
CAST: Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene
Roche, and Valerie Perrine as Montana
Wildhack.
THEATRE: Palmetto
COST: $2.00, $1.75 with student discount card.
Playing Dates: Sept. 22 to Oct. 5.
Rating: XXXX
Ratings are bassed on a four-starr system:
XXXX-excellent, XXXW-very good, XXX
good, XX/2-average, XX-fair, X/2-poor, X
forget it.
f Gibson,
meet five years later in a crowded street at
Christmastime. That's Lori Lieberman.
Cuts include: "Killing Me Softly With
His Song; "My Lover Do You Know",
"Time For Me To Go." Songs wirtten and
album produced by Charles Fox and
Norman Gimbel.
JIM WEBB
Letters
Speaking of lost loves, Jimmy Webb has
a new album. Jimmy is the fpremost
American exponent of talking and
worrying about lost loves.
This is his third album since he quit
being "Mr. Tin Pan Alley of Hollywood"
and stopped writing for guys like the Fifth
Dimensions, Glen Campbell and Richard
Harris.
Jimmy once said in an interview that he
wrote "By the Time I Get to Phoenix",
"Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston" at
different times of his life and under dif
ferent circumstances, but by the time Glen
Campbell got through with them, they all
sounded the same. Technically, this is
known in music circles as the "Cornelius
Brothers and Sister Rose Effect" or the
"Tommy James Syndrome."
Jimmy gets his chance this time around.
The first cut on the album is "Galveston"
Jim Webb style. Or not Jim Webb style as
it turns out.
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Instead of the acres of violins and piano
backing that Webb made his in the Harris
albums, he uses a single acoustic guitar
and one voice, his own, for the song.
A dissonent opening set of chords, then
some picking, then Jimmy starts his
rather simple song about a lonely soldier.
Jimmy also takes pot shots at California
living in his satiric and funny songs, "Once
in the Morning" and "Campo de Encino."
If you like the artist baring his soul and
telling you how he feels, you have
"Songseller" and "Catharsis."
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