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Crichton savt i? ? ?t ? ?ii rrteaKtn Kills By David Baker pick] Entertainment Editor locki The Great Train Robbery and The Brink's Hum Job should not be lumped together as vari< cinematic entertainments, even though both mist films are period comedies and both films To Hpnl u/ith fammic rnhhpripc r?f t ho fairlv. fho r W. W.V. |. distant past. deal What differentiates the two films from one seen another is the way in which each film's whil< director approaches his material. In proc directing The Great Train Robbery, Ea Michael Crichton attempts to provide the f viewers with several insights into life in forc< 19th century England as well as to provide trair them with two hours of fun. folia Strangely enough, however, William As Friedkin, by far a more accomplished not director than Crichton (whose only previous crea films are Westworld and Coma), tries only abur to provide viewers with the two hours of fun Engl in The Brink's Job. In fact. Friedkin seems I)r so preoccupied with giving the audience a cent] good time that he has neglected to tell them Dow why any of the events in the movie are Sp taking place. Jerr In contrast, every action in The Great Geol Train Robbery is so well thought out and so Eacl well executed that one is constantly amazed cong that he did not foresee each one before it acte< happened. Honestly, Train Robbery is such Rom surprisingly wicked fun that it's hard to five write a review that doesn't read like a love xi letter to all of the people who were involved factj in the process of bringing it to the screen. The Crichton not only directed the film, but one wrote the script as well (from his own best- Only seller). He has taken the story of the first 1950: recorded heist from a moving train, fleshed the it out, added characters and backgrounds Koel and turned it into a witty and revealing look Th ai nun century upperciass amorality. have AS THE STORY GOES, debonair arch- Whe criminal Edward Fierce discovers that the clas; monthly payroll of gold bars destined for artis soldiers in the Crimea is just waiting to be llrin had. It merely sits in a safe in the baggage buff< compartment of a virtually unguarded Pe train. Pierce's only problem is getting the crim four keys needed to unlock the safe. on th Hn Anliotc iVio aiH nf A rfon o ?v?ocfAr (i nhi A IV/ uiiAiovo niv Miu v/i ngai , a inuoict ' es'Train *'Brink 's' pocket who is also quite adept at picking >, ana uiean winy, an i?55 version of the lan Fly. Also instrumental in the )us stages of the plan is Pierce's ress, Miriam. reveal any further information about )lot would be to deprive you of a great of fun. Suffice it to say that the early es are kept to a deliberately slow pace, e the later scenes are permitted to eea mucn iasier. ich scene, however, is ingenious, and ilm's final half-hour, wherein Pierce is ?d to scramble along the roof of the i dodging low bridges and passing ge, is handled magnificently. Pierce, Sean Connery is splendid. He only displays his great talent for ting memorable characters, but also an ldance of charm and wit. He is an lish Burt Reynolds. >nald Sutherland is appropriately ec ric as Agar, and as Miriam, Leslie-Anne n is sheer perfection. ecial mention should also be made of ^ y Goldsmith's score and of the late "frey Unsworth's cinematography. i of the people I've mentioned should be ;ratulated for giving us the most welld and most opulent period piece since ' ?? 11?I.. / <!.: a ?i 1 ^ ict11 ruictiiDivi v iiiiuiiuwu was rcicastfu V/)OH f ~ i years ago. OtrCffl vUl IOUGII BOTH FILMS ARE BASED on seems to have th< >, the fact, is that the story examined in they're there. The Brink's Job isn't very different from the to what one might examined in The (ireat Train Robbery. Friedkin's talent the setting (from Victorian England to Pino (Peter Falk ? Boston) and the payroll (from that of can be summed u Crimean soldiers to that of Sears & surveys the carel 3uck) have been changed. the Brink's buil< le cnaracters in tne two turns, however, aghast at the UiNgi almost nothing in common save greed. FRIEDKIN C reas the thieves in Train Ilobbery are so SUSPENSE arour sy that they make crime seem like an other scenes, but 1 tic achievement, the thieves in The turn. This is espec k's Job are nothing more than a gang of of the film, when I :>ons. pulled off the robb rhaps it's because of Walon Green's statute of limitatio linally underwritten screenplay (based The Warren Oat le book Big Stick-Up at Brink's by Noel after another robi i), but none of the criminals in the film concern for a dyii n 1 4 DeauLiiui but dra - ?By Mark Harrington Gamecock Staff Writer Upon witnessing the USC Depart! jMBI and Speech production of Streamer ;-\ Tuesday night and continues throu^ ?mb|. Drayton Hall Theatre, this writer IHgk lilaESral reali/.e that this play, by David Rabc maSL JMMBBM and believing once and only once. WKBM ^ production lasted about 212 ho liflra Mn^l 'lours would have been sufficient en< Pomt to the Half-filled auditorium ci refuge from the slushed-over streets. Wwitn me piay set in an Army oarr the Vietnam War, only one stage des all scenes; it appeared as a typical n 111111 Streamers renters around tho m;n ~b" dd j~ j- j^r ~ bodies. One sees Billy and his bun ^00^' m^EtKBKB i nnery in 'The Great T e slightest notion of why turn state's e scene that seems closest freedom. But . expect from someone of create suspense is the one in which Tony he just shows u: in a characterization that jail, p as Columbo gone bad) I don't really essly guarded insides of on The Brink1 ling, finally ending up watching it. Fr jarded vault door. cuts that he use OULI) HAVE BUILT Minskv s to ke id this or any number of comfortable pa le failed to do so at every performances ially evident near the end especially frorr U:inO cn/?n<iccfiillw luifo Vint iimu uuvvvooiuu y '? ii V, uiii owiuv >ery and is waiting for the floor lies a bet ns to run out. stance and dee es character lands in jail the one Friedkii bery and, because of his and that is the ig sister, is persuaded to rather have see 'Streamers' igs it out toe middle of the stage, co m!inv U'nrHc ? n A i-> ( tUIIJ TT VI ViO (11114 VV7U ip ment of Theatre said by his friends. On< s, which opened right, tucked away from [h Sunday at the ear and out the other, tr was amazed to him mentally. (, is worth seeing An attempt to summa is a repetitious chore. '] urs, of which 11 u j()b; the writer found hi :>ugh to relay the dering whether to ask th *owd that sought onjy t0 ^ told it was int second act was boring, 1 arks; in Virpini^ ?? ?; ? r. uic ai'iors art* going ov the outbreak of second act as they wen ;ign was used for veji ()f intoxication military sleeping Streamers, however, < vto-man, buddy- mild and sometimes evt oning of life that a split second in the s y, three friends writer with the convictic ith their fellow If anyone in this prod i<<hio Rillv nnrl thic rouinir it ii iviaiv , r mum iiiio iv ? iv , it ir? iiiv IJ /es through one iights off to lot us kno\ ; of Carlyle, the sending this critic out i il "I don't know, with no mixed emotions team had won Richie on the left Streamers does "do i ig why he has to the gift of viewing a liv< lands touch their moment when acting ik planted In the moment is far too short. - v-?/-Mvi l_v> w v_v r\ ? Vdye D rain Robbery' vidence in return (or his Friedkin does nothing to 2 around Gates' decision . . . 5 the gang being carted off to mean to come down so hard s Job, because I enjoyed iedkin uses the same quick ?d in The Night They Raided ep the action flowing at a ce, and he draws excellent from most of the cast, 1 Gena Rowlands as Fino's where on the cutting room ter movie (with more sub tuai av;it'i i/.diiuiD i 11 lei 11 i has chosen to put onscrccn. Brink's movie that I would does it, > long nfused and unsure, using so licating a simple statement ? observes Roger on the far i distractions that go into one ying not to let anything get to rize the content of Streamers Phe first act was a fantastic imself walking out and wone usher if the show was over, ermission. It wasn't as if the 3ut somehow one senses that er the same conflicts in the ? in the first, only through a :iid provide the audience with mi excited laughter, and even econd act that touched this >n of acting at its very best, luction deserves the kudos of >erson who turned the stage v that it was really the end, 4 I .. I L fill 1 A ~ IIHU I IllIM* MUMI-IllltHI NiriflN wondering if the basketball t," in the sense of capturing ? theatre play at a particular is at its very best, but the