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O" m Paul I 'America! in betterBy David Baker Garrv*cock Film Crhlc When it was released 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 jlVlovie Review of several of today's hottest actors among them Richard Dreyfuss Ron Howard, Cindy Williams Harrison Ford, Kathleen yuiniai and Suzanne Somers. It is only natural that such i successful motion picture woulc give birth to a sequel, and , sur prisingly enough, it's a very goo< sequel at that. Written an< directed by newcomer B.W.L Norton, More American Graffit Da nie DM fi AKivtArt QfiiaCt Entertainment Editor Yes, this is the album that h "The Devil Went Down Georgia" on it, no doubt one of t most fun songs of the past f< years, topping even "Disco Duck But Million Mile Re/lections h nine good songs on it, and it m ? SUZ|MSS?a rirv w? me irit/uniuw i Daniels'best. I Album Review It's hard to say just exactly wt Charlie Daniels is all about, course, he is a superb fiddle pla> nnH a mflinstav of the Nashvi country-rock scene, helping c groups like Marshall Tucker a Lynyrd Skynyrd from time to tin But on Million Mile Reflectior Daniels consciously expands 1 repertoire, including everythi from hard rock to jazz. One might be prone in the face i iaawiB leMat: John Milner in 'Gr n Graffiti' st than-avera< 4 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, 1 1 1 A _ ^ snows us wnai nappenea 10 mem 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 1 beautifully details the problems the two lovers encounter while i trying to make their feelings 1 known to each other. Vietnam on New Year's Eve 1965 1 is the setting for the story dealing i with Terry "Toad" Fields (Charlie >. Martin Smith) and Little Joe (Bo i Hopkins), the former leader of the Is rides :* i these facts to accuse Charlie Daniels of selling out, of aban cloning his country roots. But such is far from the case. No mattei what kind of music the Charlie Daniels Band plays, it is im possible to ignore the country influence everywhere. The amazing thing about this is that the effect is so subtle. Then are few twangy steel guitars, fev plaintively wailed vocals and few / 4 ?1 JJ1iL. uuiunuiiaieiy, uuuie nines. xei un Nashville flavor of the musi< stands out all the same. What is it about this pervasiv< as influence of country music tha X allows it to insinuate itself inti v\/ he everything it touches? It seems a: Jw if the very atmosphere in whicl '?? country music exists breeds tha as down-home sound so distinctly* Bv and alive. as Regardless of outward type Daniels' music brings to min< n pickup trucks, country stores an< i i..i l i. m J flopping jukc joints, more man an; other form of American music tat country has its own specifii Of references, its own home territory rer Country music does not jus lie originate in the South; it is th< Kit South. nd Daniels is part of a grea 10 tfnrtitinn r\f s?s\iintt?ts nopfnvmAN u auiiivii vi vvutiu j pH/iiviuivi<9 M| from Hank Williams to Portei lis; Waggoner to Donna Fargo ng Country music stars, regardless o the pressures of competition an< of personal gain, seem to have mon * II i. ' S; <f ' Jaffiti' A ars return ge sequel Pharohs. Their disgruntlement aver the atrocities of war has turned the former enemies into lifelong friends, both of whom are 4- AAmmrf nrv tirtfK IIUW CA|Klia ai V.UIIHI15 up mui 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 performing in strip 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 after the film's first half-hour, so we never learn anything about her, save for the fact that she has nknnn<u1 kap namo tn Rninhnur v^lkaitgvvi iiv>a imiitv w ww The New Year's Eve 1967 story., belongs to Laurie and Steve aaain c in common with one another, mor< of a sense of family, thai i musicians in other fields. Danieb has dedicated Million MiU > Reflections to the late Lynyr< Skynyrd leader Ronnie Van Zant ' an act of rare beauty in th< reputedly heartless music in ' dustry. J At times, in fact, this albun ' seems almost naive in its ap , proach. But the music never put " on airs, never iries 10 oe wnai i : cannot be. If the images at time are a little worn, it is only becaus i the music is by nature so sincer t that the triteness sticks ou ) noticeably. The album opens wit] J "Passing Lane," which starts ou ) as a deceptively hard rocker but i t about the old ramblin' man theorj J However, as always Daniels adds < twist; he takes to the highway t , get away from bad music: "I'v 1 been rocked into ruin, I've bee 1 discoed to death, I've been fun f rocked and punk rocked 'til I can' catch my breath, I've bee ; reggaed 'til I'm ragged, I've bee new waved 'til I'm blind." t Even on such a common them 5 I ho Hnniplfi hnnrf rhnrn? nai refreshing, moving-on music. Th t preoccupation with being on th , road is summed up in the fiiu line: "No more blues lust as Ion as I can move." "Blue Star ' is a surprising! I Sixties-ish tune, vaguel > reminiscent of groups lifce th V * y ^| <: -. x'- \ .-.' ' Toad (Charlie Man Bolander (Cindy Williams and Ron Howard), who have recently become the parents of 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 couple 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 period. The drag racing sequences are filmed in Panavision, with very little camera movement. They look very much like the films of today ? 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 them mRefli i Turtles. Again, the music is n \ country but the images are tl > same; the lost love is idealized in z a "blue star" that is beautiful b i cold. , Then Daniels really surprises i s with "Jitterbug," about a jazz-c i- gangster who could "scare tl letters off a highway sign." Fro i an introduction that would plea: i- Benny Goodman, the band mov s into a competent jazz-boogie. B t even in this piece the blaring hor s have a Nashville sound to thei e and in the end "Jitterbug" e another song about another kind it cowboy. The outlaw legei h remains strong. it Side one closes with "Refl< s tions," a beautiful song abc Ronnie Van Zant that shoi a unusual depth of feelir o Laudatory songs such as this oft e bog down in heaps of praise n obscure reminiscing, b k "Reflections" sums up much of t t spirit of Van Zant and the wh< n music business: "It was October n St. Louis town when we heard th the Free Bird had fallen to t ? ? . _ e ground; ana we an said a praj it before we went down... to play." e e And then opening side two il have the wonderful "The Dc g Went Down to Georgia/' a sc much like Daniel's first cc y mercuu success "uneasy itiae y But the former is the much bet e number; from the legend-1 ^ S^^BPppS6:i^ ^S *''"':^'X;::-x 'Y' ' .:^IBMM. -.Sfc fMifefi-f. :&: ^ V iH rVJ^HfV*!. m/mgm/am ^hhjhhb^ y tin Smith) wants out look very much like newsreel footage. The story dealing with Debbie, 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 of the four sequences, and Norton's direction is quite good as well, but the movie succeeds through its wealth of fine acting. LeMat and Williams are especially deserving of praise. More American Graffiti may not 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 ; sequel that is not content with just l being a remake. If I were a [ professor, I'd give it an A+ for i effort. j* 1 ecuons ot story to Daniels' furiously virle tuostic fiddling, "The Devil Went to Down" is almost impossible to at dislike. "Mississippi" is an appropriate lis follow-up to "The Devil Went at Down;" it is a lazy, laid-back he country ballad. One feels after m hearing it the peace and relaxation se associated with the state by es Daniels. The most "country" song ut on the album, "Mississippi" ns sounds like the bluesy work of the n, Marshall Tucker Band at their is best. of " >id Daniels and his band make a -A. ? i - ? strung sufttemem on racuiu in 5C- "Blind Man," which treats the Kit subject as only a Southerner, who Mrs has seen the horror firsthand, tg. 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 ovnlro nil tha rvnthrvc nf tho stnrv >le without being maudlin or bitter, in "Rainbow Ride" closes the iat 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 tremes without making either too ;vil dominant, the Charlie Daniels nig Band has made a fine album, a >m- tribute to the spirit of Ronnie Van 1 M J Al. ^ - A I 1 ? r. Lam ana 01 ine enure reaun ox ter music, the spirit that takes us on ike . rainbow rides.