The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 29, 1979, Page Page 10, Image 10
Dire Strait
after secor
Communique s
(Warners) |
By Lehman Stiles . J
Ent?rt*lnm?m Editor <
Following the midsummer [
release of their second album \
Communique, Dire Straits will <
appear in the Township on Sept. 23.
Dire Straits' premier album won J
critical acclaim spftiiw npw 1
precedents for music with its J
subtly powerful sound. i
Communique is basically more <
of the same from Dire Straits, <
more a continuation of their debut 1
album than a completely new disc, i
While Communique does in- '
corporate some expansion of the i
Dire Straits sound, its songs are !
interchangable with those of the 1
first album. i
Dire Straits' music is something <
| Album Review | 1
<
for which there are no foundations.
The group, under the creative ]
guidance of Mark Knopfler, seems i
to ignore all the conventions and I
stylish idiosyncracies that mark
modern music. The image of Dire <
Straits is having no image at all. (
"Subtlety" is an extremely 1
imnortant word when it romps to i
discussing Dire Straits. Nothing I
jumps at you in their music;
nothing stands out against any sort I
of repetitive background. The i
lyrics are frighteningly impressionistic
in the critical sense of ]
the word, dealing with starkly
specific images and colors.
The fact that Knopfler uses
subtlety so effectively in his songs
Anton mort
in her mo
By David Baker
Gamacock Film Critic
AH^AnrtK T/v/\rvK Cnrrt/xnPn /^* ?I
f-iJiuwu?w oat 5C111 o u^iuer
an above-average psychological tl
one can't help thinking it was
primarily as an excuse to photograph
Anton in the tightest running shoi
producers could find for her to wear.
The film opens six weeks before tl
Moscow Olympics. A quint
I Movie Review
businessmen are trying to convince
Jack Dryden (James Coburn) to a
unknown woman sprinter, Goldine !
(Anton), to his roster of clients.
The men insist that Goldine is going
the 100, 200 and 400-meter races an
nnpo cho Qppnmnlichoc cnnVi i fo
vaavv u*?v uvwa??p?loilvu tJUVH U IM
name will be worth millions
dorsements. Dry den believes the me
crazy, but when he is shown a film
Goldine in action, he agrees to giv
offer his consideration.
The consortium flies Dryden to G<
training camp, where he finds tha
been used as a human guinea pig. W1
umc o nKilrl hut* PAiAwfCr*/wl*
yy uo a vianuf 11^1 ov^icutioi iauici VpiC
Curt Jurgens) injected her wi
perimental drugs to increase her
and strength. For the past few yea
has been subjected to a be
modification program.
The drugs have now altered he
chemistry to the point where she is
curaoie aiaoetic, wnue tne w
modification program has left her
incapable of answering any question
she hasn't been conditioned to hear.
It's here that the script, by John
makes a near-fatal mistake by introdi
sub-Dlot about Drvrien and ftolriine fa
love. Given the ages (he is 50ish,
barely 20) and backgrounds of th
characters, such a romance is prepos
and it crrpjitlv HiminishM fhp imnnrl
film's middle section.
When the Olympics begin, ho
Kohn's script gets back on the right
very quickly. After the first trials, C
begins to complain of heaviness in h
and feet. After she wins her first gold
\
s comes to <
id LP 'Com ,
s a true indication of musical i
genius. There is no need here for I
synthesized disco explosions or :
endless overdubs; with his careful
guitar work and stunning lyrics, <
ECnopfler strikes at the very heart <
*\f kite DI?KlfU>fo
Jk IUO ouwjtvio. J
In fact, next to this music disco <
and punk seem no more than the
mindless ramblings of third- '
graders. Dire Straits' work is <
jnquestionably mature, totally i
ievoid of catchy imagery or I
commercial short cuts. There is a
feeling of the classic about this i
music, from the moody cover art to i
the museum-quiet tone of the
arrangements. Somehow Dire
Straits does not seem even to
belong to the contemporary music <
scene. The effect is almost i
otherworldly. ,
The album opens with "Once <
Upon a Time in the West." an I
obviously allegorical song about i
"heap big trouble in the Land of '
Plenty.'' The cut daringly employs i
a nonstandard meter that rein- i
forces its spooky, troubling lyrics: i
"Sitting on the fence; that's a i
dangerous course; you could even
?et a bullet from the peacekeeping I
force ? even the hero gets a bullet s
in the chest, once upon a time in j
U/oct "
ff VOi. J
"News," the next cut, seems to
be about a man caught up in the i
imagery of "Once Upon a Time"? !
"It may be a game, but I won't ]
play to lose" ? a man who lives i
"too fast to stop, he makes a line in ]
the news." The listener is allowed <
to fill in the details of this ab- ]
surdist, bone-bare story, and the j
; than sex sy
vie 'Golden
she becomes subject to fits o
paranoia. By the time her 1
igirl is around, Goldine has becom
hriller, junkie, popping pills in an i
made remain alive long enough t<
i Susan gold medal and to take r
rts the people who have wrecked her
Considering the fact that
he 1980 have been treated like a sex
pt of shp hn<5 tVlA nntonHol fr* Kann
w v - ..v?w |/vwv*avAUi W kfVW
filming of every scene, Antor
impressive performance, ful
wit, with just a bit of patho
good measure. Had she bee
! agent uke an actress, she might r<
add an outstanding.
Serafin The film's main problems
inadequacies of the supporti
\ to win from the choDDv editint? o
id that, editor.
at, her NBC helped finance Gol
in en- condition that it be allowed t
in to be film as a four-hour mini-sei
clip of coverage of the Olympic
e their perhaps the added footage
poor editing job and make t
jldine's bit more thought-out.
t she's
hen
lyeci by v
th ex- .i0wlt
growth r' >i ^
.re, she -:
_ ? a ^HR>'>:v:'T-~y >
Columbia I
munique9 I
song is that much more powerful
for letting us create our own
suicidal, fast-lane fantasy.
"Where Do You Think You're
Going?" is a "love" song, again so
devoid of flashy imagery that the
listener creates his own events and
nhnrnctors tn fill fHo lurino rw?f
which consist for the most part of fj
the title line repeated over and jj
over. Is the singer worried that his I
girl is leaving him for good, or does U
he desire her so that he does not |1
want her to leave at all? The I
questions are as unanswerable as I
the question of the title. , *
Side one closes with the title cut,
which, appropriately enough for
Dire Straits, points out the great
deal of empty communication done
in the world. Knopfler shows an
almost sarcastic voice here as he
describes the meaningless chatter
that fills our ears so that we cannot j
fmlv honr thot Ulhinh io imnnrfnnt
V TT IJUVt* AO IIlipt/1 141llt,
rhis is fitting; the very
arrangements of Dire Straits
utilize silence as an element as
important as sound in conveying
meaning.
Due to some strained symbolism,
"Lady Writer," the first
single from Communique, is the
album's worst song. But side two
moves quickly on to "Angel of
Mercy," a bluesy, swinging
number that demonstrates Dire
Straits' top-drawer musical '
proficiency. They are, thankfully, '
not subtle here: the humor-tineed'
j - o
plea "Angel of mercy, angel i
delight; give me my reward in )
Heaven tonight" is a wonderful i
singalong chorus
if suspicion and
;hird race rolls J ?
e pracucaiiy a
nsane effort to
) win her third
evenge on the 'i
life. ?
she seems to piiS
symbol (which
me) during the p
I turns in a very
II of charm and
s thrown in for f
n treated more V Jrtl u%
ially have been *
stem from the Tifl If 1 I
ng players and &. 1
f an unnamed ByI
Q?m?
deneirl on thp mi . .
j i Tl mougn i enioy<
o broadcast the m8 remake of Do
ies prior to its Body Snatchers>
.s "e"t year. pressed by any of
wi 1 erase the man has directed,
he film seem a Wanderers.
The Wanderers
gangs. As compai
hopefully shoi
than Walk Proud,
Nights, and not
a Based on Rich
novel about grow
film's script, by Kfi
details the story o
school friends, ca
their nuMt tn at*?v i
" " 1--" "-?.7 >
rougher neighborh
The dangers into
are, of course, otl
group called the
named the Del B
known as the Duck;
the Fordham Bald
v *
\ N
Mark Knopfle
album's moodier moments well.
The album closes with "Follow
Me Home," another "love" song
that has ail kinds of subjective
connotations. The music here is st
Slllvilia^ otl/l /MiitAf no fn Ka
JUUUUVU miu ?^uici ao w uc giwuijr
and the final effect of the song is
almost tragic in nature, actually
cathartic. Yet it is impossible t<
pin down the exact reason for this;
the instrumentation, the wording
the performance is so understatec
that one can look at the song only
on the basis of its overall effect
rhis makes the number a true
urnrlr nf ar>f
it n w* u* v.
If this album does nothing else, il
should definitely establish Marh
Knopfler as the best guitarist or
record today. He rarely indulges ir
j movie 'W
of too-fair
>avld Baker events
cock FMm Critic with fl
hi uie second half of his and-oi
n Seigel's Invasion of the field.
I never have been im- The
the movies Philip Kauf- stylize
including his latest, The realist
nausea
is a movie about youth an(j #
ed to the other films in an(j g
t-lived genre, it is better su8pei
, on par with Boulevard audiei
nearly as. good as The Hon
niAviP that afro
V * ?V o Sl&DDf
ation with gangs. right^
mm" " ""l laps i
View I ranot
I , of it.
lard Price's celebrated At ti
ing up in the 1960s, the fema*
lufman and his wife Hose, "e sec
f a group of Italian high
ueci tne Wanderers, and w\l" 1
ilive in one of New York's m"leu
oods. DePal
;rent to the neighborhood f??tt>a
ler gangs ? an oriental aPP?a
Wongs, a black group 8ame*
ombers, an Irish group
I* Dnua o nrl n ifmum i?1A
; uv;oa>iun5luU);tflUCU
ies (so called because all ^ *
e shaved their heads). picturi
is when a member of the 884(1 b
o the Baldies as4 'a bunch * dersta
"This sets off a series of ^elea
Ik % ' jM il
7 '
r of Dire Straits
flashy solos; he never uses fuzz
} boxes or the like, but his playing is
, extremely concise and exact,
I technically perfect, yet at the
<xnma Hmp omntinnollu rumiorfnl
J VM?V?IV?IWI? J pvnVAAUl.
His subtle slides and ornaments
! are most reminiscent of Eric
t Clapton in his glory days, but
> Knopfler goes beyond even Clapton
in transferring emotion into music.
Communique is not a
| remarkable album; it is what one
r expected after Dire Straits' first
album. It goes far in establishing
J the most distinctive style in
modern music. If Communique is
t not very different from the debut
. album, it is only because Dire
| Straits simply cannot get much
, Detier, and tiiey would never allow
themselves to get worse.
*T * ^ 'W r . I
ysp . i
Wanderers'
liliar genre
\ that brings each gang into conflict
ill the others, culminating in an out
ii war on a neighborhood football
violence here is not the beautifully
id violence of The Warriors, but
tic head-knocking of the most
ating sort. Kaufman's lack of focus
te slap-dash editing of Ronald Roose
tuart H. Pappe fail to generate any
lse or any empathy from the
ice.
estly, The Wanderers is so arbitrarily
(d tflDPthpr that norto nf J* ?? r-11
? ? o~ ?WJ VTA IV OCV1II IV mil
off the screen and into the viewers'
to ten-minute segment of it looks even
ely like any other ten-minute segment
Irnoe a. . -
...ivo, ivautiiian sceuui w oe trying 10
:e The Lords of Flatbush and at times
ims to be trying to remake Saturday
Fever. The Ducky Boys sequence,
ts swirling figures and smoke-filled
i, looks like it came out of Brian
ma's The Fury, and the climactic
11 game (before it erupts into chaos)
rs to be an imitation of the football
i in both Robert Aldrich's The Longest
>tUl DaW..4 A 14 - - ? - - - * ?
mm nwci i muiian s
point I'm trying to get across is that
'anderen is a very unoriginal motion
e. Everything it tries to say has been
efore and said better. I'll never unnd
why anyone would want to make so
s a motion picture.