The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 31, 1979, Page Page 10, Image 11
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
^
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.:^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.