Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Entertainment TheE BY LEE TSIANTIS I refrained from writing anything about The Exorcist for a while partly because I wanted to gauge the responses of others, but mainly because I refused to wait in line for a film only to have to shell out three dollars. Besides, reviewers and patrons alike in Columbia have been fighting tooth I MAUSHI MELLOW I I W S MU. I A RSHME 1 I E LLOWS I IF YOU ARE1 ARE A COMFOR HAS STYLE. I' xorcist: and nail to see the film before any of their friends do, doubtless to imbue themselves with the aura of superiority that comes from seeing something first. As it is, I went to an afternoon showing of The Exorcist last week, plowed my way to a seat through a swampy mixture of spilled coke and popcorn (no vomit, though), and waited for the film to start. By ELLOWS S MARS] LRSHMEL LLOWS 1V MARSl1 WONDERING, " MA 'TABLE INEXPEA 1221 MAIN ST &cratch back. shel n Intran the concession stand were pret netious little leaflets describing .cases of alleged possession, how author William Peter Blatty researched the cases, that everything you see in the film is horrifyingly authentic, etc. When the lights started to dim, the audience oohed and aahed ap preciatively, then started to giggle nervously in anticipation of MARSH IMELLO LOWS M1 ARSHM I I LELLOWSI I ARSHMVELLO WS " I SIVE SHOE TH-A T eraoHere dis presentai ars A0 t 4gent Fa he lurid thrills they expected to ,et. The fact of the matter is, The xorcist, for all its pretensions, is in intransigent failure. One's esponse to the "horror" in the novie is analogous to the effect of bell on Pavlov's dogs. No doubt ibout it, the audience gets its rogrammed thrills; are we upposed to smile when Linda 3lair rips up her genitals with a rucifix or vomits in Jason Miller's ace? If the movie scares you it loes so by the cheapest imaginable neans. Phones don't just ring in rhe Exorcist, they peal suddenly it as decibel level that ruptures ,ardrum tissue. If a film purp )orts to scare, then it must do so )leasurably. Director William riedkin resorts to thrill tactics hat anger, not please. There are those who have been iudacious enough to compare Ufred Hitchcock's talents as a lirector to those of Friedkin -- Nhich is i like equating pearls with swine'. Surely Hitchcock would have made us feel ;omething for these. characters. kll we know about Regan is that the likes to play ping-pong and Nrestle in the hallway with her nother, and that surely isn't mough to make me want to feel or her when she is possessed although she has more per onality then). All others walk around with tortured expressions m their faces. In a way, the shoddiness of The Exorcist is a shame. There is an Robert Froi At McKissi In commemoration of the 100gth J birthday of Robert Frost, an exhibit of Frost's items is e lisplayed at the McKissick Wiemorial Library. C Most of the books exhibited are v From the University's rare, ex- y tensive Frost collection which is 1 lisplayed for the first time. The exhibit covers Frost's long t r t v a f .Co.Bgnwt tivey git wrppe from etsy aven etic. Mied ad/o les o siler fr he ecialy slectd fo your pcketbo From $ n 0V@(hil 00* ev S treet0 ', (;n n 2239 ilure )pening sequence in Iraq photographed by Billy Williams, f Women in Love and Sunday Bloody Sunday fame) that is so mpressive that the rest of the film palls by comparison. In the Georgetown segments, Friedkin hurls the camera around every :orner of a cramped set; he is doubtlessly taseinawu by his own virtuosity. The stars of the show are the special effects men, who try valiantly, but fail to make things look convincing. I sincerely wish I could have been on the set the day they filmed Linda Blair's levitation schtick; the logistics of staging such a scene would have convulsed me. So when you reduce the film to terms of technical trickery (as inevitably you must, for there's nothing of any substance anywhere else) The Exorcist strikes out. If you go, you can revel in the Saturday-morning-matinee response of the audience, which has read so much about "the phenomenon" of the film, it will be damned if it doesn't scare them. One final thing to those who prattle that the 'film has made them "more religious": The Exorcist is about as religious as a beer bust at the Vatican. Acknowledging the existence of evil does not necessarily imply the existence of a counteracting force of good. As this movie presents it, a plumber could have had as much if not more character development as the cartoon Jesuits of author Blatty's conception. t Exhibit k Library ublishing career from 1894 to 1962. Many of the first and limited ditions are autographed by Frost. Also displayed . are the special hristmas greetings booklets vhich Robert Frost issued each ear for the last thirty years of his ife. The exhibit which is displayed at he entrance to the library, will emain on display through April. Music ranging from arias for Vagner and Verdi operas to a song nd dance number Walk Him Up he Stairs from the musical Purlie vill be featured at the University f South Carolina Department of 4usic's First Annual Scholarship 3enefit Concert at 8 p.m. Saturday it Drayton Hall. Admission is $3 per person with roceeds going toward scholar hips for USC music majors. The concert also will -feature vorks by Chopin, Debussy and chubert played by pianist USC rofessor John Kenneth Adams, nd a duo for flute and piano vritten by Aaron Copland in 1971 Lnd played by music professors ~onstance Lane and Max Camp. Music professor Donald Gray, aritone, will sing exerpts from Vagner's Die Meistersinger and rom Verdi's Otello. Gray will be Lcompanied by Prof. Charles 'ugo. In addition the concert program ncludes presentations by the USC 'oncert Choir- and Chamber Choir, oth under the direction of Dr. rpad Darazs with choreography y Naomi Calvert. Tickets for the concert may be btained from the USC Depart nent of Music or by calling 777 280. Music scholarships at the niversity are presented to in oming freshmen and are enewable for four years. The election of scholarship recipients s based on the student's financial meeds as well as his talents and the nuialn needs of the department.