The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 16, 1980, Page Page 10, Image 12
*??> I
? {?' 'f
Simon (Alan /
Brickman<
By David Baker
Gamecock Film Critic '
Together, Woody Allen and
Marshall Brickman concocted the
screenplays for, what are in my
estimation. Allen's thre#? hpst filmc
to date. Given the fact that Allen's
other directorial efforts are not
exactly what one would call inferior
pieces of entertainment, I've
often wondered what it was that
Brickman contributed to Sleeper,
Annie Hall, and Manhattan to
make them stand out from the rest.
Now that Brickman has ventured
OUt 011 his Own With Simnn
(which he wrote and directed),
I've arrived at the answer: not
much.
In Simon, Brickman pokes fun at
many of the sar. targets Allen
satirizes- intellectuals, urban
decay and sex, to name a few - but
he does so without any of Allen's
zingy one-liners. And without
Allen's stinging barbs to keep to
audience laughing, Brickman's
outrageous situations come across
as silly, condescending and almost
totally devoid of humor. They're
merely outrageous for
outrageousness' sake.
Brickman's scenario for Simon
goes like this: A group of intellectuals
are put together in a
think tank (called thf,,!nstitute for
Advanced Concepts) at the
government's expense. But instead
of coming up with ideas that
might save the world, the group
Srw?nH<J it? timA rlroaminn im
- I .....V v.. up
practical jokes to play on an unsuspecting
public. An example of
their prowess comes when they
jam the Nielsen computers so that
Donnie and Marie becomes
television's number one hit.
A story in The New York Times
catches the eye of one of the think
tank members. It savs that 60
percent of Americans believe in
life on other planets. With that in
mind, the IAC decides to give
America an alien.
With the help of a computer that
sounds remarkably like Mary
Hartman, the group locates Simon
Mendelsson (Alan Arkm), a
professor who has no living
relatives that can identify when or
where he was born. The tank
brainwashes Simon into thinking
that he is an extraterrestrial and
then it springs Simon, spewing
forth condemnations of the
American way of life, on the world.
The comic possibilities for such a
story are limitless, but Brickman
has picked up on only a few of
them. The scene wherein Simon
emerges from a 200-hour stay in a
sensory deprivation chamber and'
then proceeds to act out the
evolution of man is brilliant,
th a n Ire f A A rl/in'o I
viiuimu iw Mi rvm JJ SUpCI IJ (IS
a mime. A chase sequence toward
the end of the film also works well,
but it's too reminiscent of the
escape scene in Sleeper to be
heralded as anything more than
mildly entertaining.
Brickman apparently had
trouble coaxing credible performances
out of actors. Adolph
Green mugs shamelessly as the
leader of a commune. Fred
Gwynne's five-star-general is pure
> ' ^ I
"f'i"T *';? " ' K| t :.
1 ^-Jb jH ^Fe
\ rkin) being brain washed b y rest
on his own'
cartoon, and the members of the
think tank, with the sole exception
of Austin Pendleton, don't appear
to have had any direction at all.
Arkin, who can be hilarious in
the right vehicle, is fine in the
film's beginning, but he becomes a
bit hard to stomach after the first
hour. That's the point where his
Simon character degenerates into
a second-rate imitation of Peter
Finch's Howard Beale character in
Network.
!
j
I
II
cMe<
You might say Rus
suave, a little bit nar
campuses, Russ has
Russ' mind is fried c
boredom; (3) the ran
I above, Russ knows h
readily available.
In the Student Aei
tertainment, cultural
The Russell House
Sounds, the USC Cu
and Expeditions, anc
committees, he can al
Also in the Studen
200 clubs and organ
leadership training.
So when you find tl
[ i drop in. slide on over.
: | Cause in the Studei
j of activities, clubs, or;
j The Russell
)arch scientists.
1
W1L11 OilllUIl
In a brief role as an out-ot-work
actress whom the IAC hires to lure
Simon into their laboratory
Madeline Kahn is excellent, But'
then she's almost always superior
to her material.
Of course, with the material
Brickman has provided here, even
Ali MacGraw and Talia Shire
would be superior to it. Now that,
o c f hm; coir nn I r.
uo iui.jf oct jr uii icicviaiuii, 13 III*
credible. Simon opens in Columbia p
on May 2.
t
I
it%ss L
s L. House is your typical Carolin
>/> A .. ,1 ui.? ii
rmu uniiKc ine misunderstooc
found earnest enrichment in hi;
md frazzled by: (1) the grind of ;
* rcnlit V nf rpi/'flinn
_ _ w1 a V^jvv.livyu, VI LL11U11 ail
ovv to regain his composure throu
tivities Office of the Russell Hou
, and recreational activities to plea
University Union sponsors nine i
ltural Series, Free University, Ide
1 Visual Arts. Not only can Russ
Iso participate in their managemci
( Activities Office Russ has found
izations (randinff frnm ? Mvhut r.i.
o r-> " "J "'8 v 1'
ic need to become more cosmopoi
Office. We've just had our offices <
or mosey on down.
nt Ac tivities Office it starts with u
ionizations. programs, and servic<
llouse University Union ? Y<
{ J*Mil j 1 [ IiMaTTial||[-j|[-yZ^rT^^BHBa^ BHL/A
Earn Extra I
Money I
?
Urgently needed ? people with j
Mononucleosis to. aid in Medical Research.
If you have or had within the past 2 week$
Mono, you may qualify for $100.00 per
week for 3 hours of your time. Call 2546
5&7 for more information.
Serologicals of Columbia, Inc. j
Suite 105, 2719 Middleburg [ j
Columbia, S.C. 29204 ! j
.House |
a student. You know -- a little bit "cocky", a little bit j
I masses who (dis)grace the grounds of other college i
5 educational experiences. More importantly, when 1
academir --- ' Li- * *
j, K~, i.iv- utuuiciauie uurcien ol pure i ;
id depression created by a lost love; or (4) all of the I j
gh self-enriching activities that are legal, moral, and j j
se University Union you can find educational, en- j j
se every little Russ and every little Russetta. j
student committees: Cinematic Arts, Contemporary t j
as and Issues, Special Programs. Video Trine
attend the programs sponsored by these student j j
I Carolina Cares, the Homeeoming Committee, over | j
jb to a chess club) and structured opportunities for j j
itan, look for the experience of your college career in j ;
on the 2nd floor of the KI1UU remodeled. So come by, [ ]
s (and our extra-curriculum . > \ M
:*s) but it ends with you.
^1 U 1
I I
russo* house
iafittiiwyfiw