The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 01, 1980, Page Page 9, Image 9
'The Ro
By David Baker
Gam?cock Flm Critk:
What's in a no mo?
--- -- . a uui WllICIl
director Mark Hydell calls The
Rose by any other title would smell
as bad.
Prospective viewers, doff thy
tickets, and for thy pleasure see
any film in town, save for that lessthan-dear
perfection which Kydell
and Bette Midler hath wrought.
Take me at my word. Call this
drek entertainment and I'll be
sicken'd; henceforth I never will
believe thou to be one with taste.
She sang very well, this
misguided, this indulgent woman,
this defiant hedonist and destroyer
of her own talent. Nonsense.
Rudge, her manager, had
destroyed her talent himself. Why
should anyone blame this woman
when her lousy disposition was the
result of the way this man treated
her? He had destroyed her talent
by overusing it, by betraying her
and the life she so desperately
wanted to live, by allowing her to
drink so much aquavit and inject
so much heroin that the edge of her
perceptions were forever blunted.
What was her talent anyway? It
was a talent all right, but instead of
allowing her to use it for
everyone's pleasure, he had
capitalized on it for his own
mysterious needs. He did it
because it was what he could do.
He had chosen to make his living
with something else than a
pleasing personality. It was
strange that when he managed
that woman, that she should grow
more neurotic by the minute instead
of dumping this foul monkey
on her back in favor of a manager
who would put her desires and
requirements ahead of all else.
My apologies to Shakespeare
' and Hemingway, but by mangling
these passages from Romeo and
Juliet and The Six ows of
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get across my feelings about The
Rose with less originality than was
used to create the film itself ? and
that's no small accomplishment.
Rydell and his writers, Bill
Kerby and Bo Goldman (Michael
Cimino had his name removed
from the final credits), have taken
the story of a self-destructive rock
star (based, supposedly, on the
late Janis Joplin), added bits and
pieces of plot angles from several
recent films, most notably A Star
is Born and Valentino, and tailored
the resulting mess to fit Midler.
Then Rydell, evidently
enamored of Midler's energy, put
her in front of the cameras and let
her go. His gamble might have
worked had Midler been able to j
make her character at all sym i
pathetic, but she's never a hip to Ho I
so.
Stallions
from page 8 >
Dianne Olds returned on the
Andalusion stallion, "Espanero,"
and delighted the audience with a
"dance" to Spanish music. The
horse once again behaved per- [
lectly ? a tribute to Olds' hor!?pmanchin
The Quadrille was the final
presentation of the evening. Four
white stallions and their masters I
performed intricate figures and
movements with precision and
apparent ease.
The Royal Lipizzan Show travels '
for about nine months each year, (
trainer and rider Robert Kiley {
said. The performance at the {
Coliseum was one of the final <
presentations of the current winter
tour. 11
se' wilts o
I don't mean to take anything
away from the lady, for her nor
trayal of Rose is quite convincing
(the excitement she creates in the
concert sequences almost makes
the film worth seeing), but the
character is such an unfeeling
harpy that the viewer never really
cares what happens to her.
In Looking For Mr. Goodbar,
Diane Keaton (whose only failure
thus far was in Rydell's Harry and
Walter Go to New York) took a
similarly unatractivo rhnr?ct*??
that of a school teacher who
cruises singles bars at night, and
had viewers falling in love with her
after 10 minutes of screen time.
Midler can't do anything close to
that, even in the 134 minutes
Rydell gives her.
At times, Midler is reminiscent
of Barbra Streisand in some of her
earlier pictures. She's untrained,
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to keep her from taking a
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character too far in the wrong
direction. With a bit of polish,
there's no reason why she couldn't
go on to become a fine actress.
Evey though The Rose fails, it can
be considered an excellent launching
pad in her quest for a career
in films.
With Midler so much in charge of
the movie's every scene, it's hard
to critique most of the supporting
players, but Alan Bates' portrayal
of Rose's manager leaves a great
deal to l>e desired. Frederic
Forrest, on the other hand, handles
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with style.
The film's other highlight is
Vilmos Zsigmond's moody
photography, although as far as
atmosphere goes, you'd never
know the film was set in the l%Os if
the words "The Hose ? 69 Tour"
were not emblazoned on the nose of
the singer's private plane. The
movie could be taking place in any
decade since the beginning of the j
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Bette Midler as a rock star in ' The Rose'
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