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mmmmrn ESSES :?SDH Paul I 'Americai in betterBy David Baker Q?m*cock FHm Critk: wnen 11 was reieaseu six years ago, George Lucas' American Graffiti came seemingly out of nowhere to become the sixth highest grossing film of all time (it has since dropped eight notches to 14th place). This lighthearted look at a handful of California teenagers growing up in 1962 set off a wave of nostalgia that has yet to subside and launched the careers Movie Review of several of today's hottest actors, amonc them Richard Drevfuss. Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Kathleen Quinlan and Suzanne Somers. It is only natural that such a successful motion picture would give birth to a sequel, and , surprisingly enough, it's a very good sequel at that. Written and directed by newcomer B.W.L. Norton, More American Graffiti a lAHT^ Ent<*ft*tnm*nt Editor Yes, this is the album that hi "The Devil Went Down t fiflnrflin" on it. no doubt one of til most fun songs of the past fe years, topping even "Disco Duck. But Million Mile Reflections hs nine good songs on it, and it ma surpass Fire on the Mountain e Daniels' best. j Album Review It's hard to say just exactly whj Charlie Daniels is all about. ( course, he is a superb fiddle play* and a mainstay of the Nashvil country-rock scene, helping 01 groups like Marshall Tucker an Lynyrd Skynyrd from time to tim< But on Million Mile Reflection Daniels consciously expands hi repertoire, including every thin from hard rock to jazz. One might be prone in the face c > ? " i Ky^ .eMat: John Milnerin 'Gi i firaffiti' q1 than-avera has to be the most ambitious followup ever made. The film takes seven of the original's most memorable characters and, through four separate and disticnt stories, shows us what happened to them in the mid-1960's. The story concerning John Milner (Paul LeMat) takes place on New Year's Eve 1964. John has given up street machines in favor of racing dragsters, and it's at the track that he meets and falls in love with Eva, an Icelandic exchange student, winningly protrayed by Anna Bjorn (an Olivia Newton-John lookalike) who speaks no English. The sequence beautifully details the problems the two lovers encounter while trying to make their feelings known to each other. Vietnam on New Year's Eve 1965 is the setting for the story dealing with Terry "Toad" Fields (Charlie Martin Smith) and Little Joe (Bo : Hopkins), the former leader of the k rides I these facts to accuse Charlie Daniels of selling out, of aban doning his country roots. But sucl is far from the case. No mattei what kind of music the Charli< Daniels Band plays, it is im possible to ignore the country influence everywhere. HPU r* n nnrtM rf tlnivhrtf o V\/vi f t iiac aiiidMii^ U11115 aiA>ui uua 1; that the effect is so subtle. Then are few twangy steel guitars, fev plaintively wailed vocals and few unfortunately, fiddle tunes. Yet th< Nashville flavor of the musi< stands out all the same. What is it about this pervasive 1S influence of country music tha 0 allows it to insinuate itself into ie everything it touches? It seems a: w if the very atmosphere in whicl ? country music exists breeds tha /)?..? (.am/. UUWiriiUIliC 9UUUU BU UlSUItCUVI y and alive. IS Regardless of outward type Daniels' music brings to mini -i pickup trucks, country stores an< | hopping juke joints. More than an; J other form of American music at country has its own specifii )f references, its own home territory 2r Country music does not jus (e originate in the South; it is tin it South. id . Daniels is part of a grea e. tradition of country performers s, from Hank Williams to Portei is Waggoner to Donna Fargo g Country music stars, regardless o the pressures of competition an< >f personal gain, seem to have mor< IP affiti' :ars return ge sequel Pharohs. Their disgruntlement over the atrocities of war has turned the former enemies into lifelong friends, both of whom are now experts at coming up with ideas about going AWOL. Debbie Medway (Candy Clark) and Carol Morrison (Mackenzie Phillips) are the stars of the sequence taking place on New Year's Eve 1966. The two girls have become flower children and are living together in a commune as the story begins. We subsequently learn that Debbie makes a living by penorming in smp shows and that all of the money she earns goes to support her boyfriend, an out-of-work musician who fools around behind her back. Carol fades into the background a Iter cne mm s ursi naii-nour, so we never learn anything about her, save for the fact that she has changed her name to Rainbow. The New Year's Eve 1967 story, belongs to Laurie and Steve again < - in common with one another, mor of a sense of family, tha i musicians in other fields. Daniel ' has dedicated Million Mil s Reflections to the late Lynyr - Skynyrd leader Ronnie Van Zan f an act of rare beauty in th reputedly heartless music ii * d us try. J At times, in fact, this albui f seems almost naive in its a] , proach. But the music never pul J on airs, never tries to be what : cannot be. If the images at time are a little worn, it is only becaus 5 the music is by nature so sincei t that the triteness sticks 01 ) noticeably. The album opens wil i "Passing Lane, which starts oi 1 as a deceptively hard rocker but t about the old ramblin' man theor 2 However, as always Daniels adds twist; he takes to the highway I , get away from bad music: "I'\ J been rocked into ruin, I've bee i discoed to death, I've been fur / rocked and punk rocked 'til I can L. it. T t. I , caicn my uream, 1 ve oet 2 reggaed 'til I'm ragged, I've bee new waved 'til I'm blind." t Even on such a common then 3 the Daniels band churns o< refreshing, moving-on music. T1 t nrwvpnnatinn with Mni> nn tt , road is summed up in the fin r line: "No more blues just as lor . as I can move." "Blue Star' is a surprising] I Sixties-ish tune, vaguel - reminiscent of groups lifee th . . Toad (Charlie Mat Bolander (Cindy Williams and Ron Howard), who have recently ho^nmp (hp nnrpnts nf twin sons Laurie wants to start working again and Steve will not allow her to do so. After a heated argument, Laurie storms out of the house, and when Steve goes out after her, the couplc accidentally wind up in the middle of a violent antiwar demonstration. The four stories are woven together in a very elaborate structure, and each is filmed in a different style typical of films of the neriod. The drag racing sequences an filmed in Panavision, with ver> little camera movement. They looh very much like the films of todaj ? clean, crisp and uncluttered The Vietnam scenes are filmed or 16. millimeter, which winds up as a relatively small square frame ir the center of the screen. The use ol high-contrast filters makes their on'Refl, e Turtles. Again, the music is n M Wtai f avMnrtfA^ AMA #1 ii cuuuuy uui uic 1111050 aic u Is same; the lost love is idealized in e a "blue star" that is beautiful b d cold. t, Then Daniels really surprises i le with "Jitterbug," about a jazz-c 1- gangster who could "scare tl letters off a highway sign." Fro ti an introduction that would plea 0- Benny Goodman, the band mov is into a competent jazz-boogie. B it pvf?n in this niece the Mariner hnr ?s have a Nashville sound to then ;e and in the end "Jitterbug" e another song about another kind jt cowboy. The outlaw legei th remains strong. it Side one closes with "Refit is tions," a beautiful song abc y. Ronnie Van Zant that slur a unusual depth of feelin to Laudatory songs such as this oft ? ? j i ? ? _ # re Dog aown in neaps or praise ;n obscure reminiscing, b ik "Reflections" sums up much of t i't spirit of Van Zant and the wh< ;n music business: "It was October ;n St. Louis town when we heard tti the Free Bird had fallen to t le ground; and we all said a pray nt before we went down... to play." \e ie And then opening side two al have the wonderful "The De ig Went Down to Georgia/' a sc much lilre Daniel's first co ly mercial success "Uneasy Ridei ly But the former is the much bet le number; from the legend-ii ?4m&& _ .JriJessK^ fe*. f/n Smith) wants out look very much like newsreel footage. ine story dealing wiin ueDDie, Carol and Haight-Ashbury features split-screen, multiple images and floating frames, all of which become slightly unnerving after a while. The sequence concerning the Bolanders looks very much like a television situation comedy. The photography, by Caleb Deschanel, is outstanding in each nf (ha fftiir cannan/wu! anrl Mnrtnn'c V/*. UAV &VVU k}V\|UVIIVVO| UIIU Aiv/l Wl? U direction is quite good as well, but the movie succeeds through its wealth of fine acting. LeMat and Williams are especially deserving j of praise. Hfnro Am orient* CI rnffiti mAV tint ; always work perfectly, and the r seemingly random editing may make it rather hard to follow at i first, but it is refreshing to see a 5 sequel that is not content with just i being a remake. If I were a f piofessor, I'd give it an A+ for i effort. ections' ot story to Daniels' furiously vir tie tuostic fiddling, "The Devil Went to Down" is almost impossible to ut dislike. "Mississippi" is an appropriate us follow-up to "The Devil Went at Down;" it is a lazy, laid-back fie country ballad. One feels after m hearing it the peace and relaxation se associated with the state hv es Daniels. The most4'country" song ut on the album, "Mississippi" ns sounds like the bluesy work of the n, Marshall Tucker Band at their is best. of nd Daniels and his band make a strong statement on racism in "RliriH Man " wM/>h traufc fha TTIUVB1 V* VUMI Vi?V >ut subject as only a Southerner, who ws has seen the horror firsthand, ig. could do. The song is about an old en black man who was blinded by the or Ku Klux Klan, left to play guitar on ut street corners. It manages to he evoke all the oathos of the storv >le without being maudlin or bitter, in "Rainbow Hide" closes the lat album appropriately, since Million he Mile Reflections seems to be about rer a journey, real or. imagined, through the beauty and the terror of life. By embracing both exwe tremea without making either too ivil Hnminnnt thA Pharlip HflniAk >ng Band has made a fine album, a m- tribute to the spirit of Bonnie Van p." Zant and of the entire realm of ter music, the spirit that takes us on ike ... rainbow rides. '