University of South Carolina Libraries
Entent rort By David Baker Film Critic In February 1980, William Friedkin's "Cruising," a harrowing movie about a killer in Manhattan's gay underground, provoked a great deal of controversy uctiiuac inaiijr ^icvjjic icu iu> smarmy depiction of sadomasochistic leather bars would lead people to think that all gays delighted in Paul Newman (!) and Ed Bronx," a police drama a Rodin By Dai Su The star of "Caddyshack crowd, Rodney Dangerfie masterful album displaying Rodney's problem stems Respect," even though this i Rodney has family and per w r? A rv?v> /iUt rvr \Jdid, UULIUID, Liiuui^ii, pvj problems we all encounter d One of Rodney's biggest comes from his very liberal both behind his back and in story of when he went to a asked the bartender to surpi picture of my wife." HE EVEN LOSES respe< day I told my kid about the fc about my wife and the butch His dog even shows no re] favorite bone is in my ai though, "the other night h three times I was reading it msssm i -i mhi "We're sorry, but we ha call as you dialed it. Pic dialing again. Or, if you p and ask for help. This is i= reported over the telephone The person on the othe disgust,taking the name o over. It was simply a case more efficient for its studer Since the plan went int numbers and dialing a "7' Office of Telephone Com 700,000 complaints. AND RIGHTLY SO. Th changing the system shoul Thanks to the guilty party, be missing some pretty imj The new svstem of dialir an eight-digit code just to | to take the new four-dig directory, adding the foi number and divide it by th give you a brand-new figur add 45, but if it's lower thai .between ten and 17, hang i the wall. We asked the telephone changed. "It's to give USC new numbers," said one pc wrong numbers. "We'll I weeks." Southern Bell is right ii :ainmer Apa< minVi nnKirai<to/1 fl a m O . 3UV.II pel VCi VV/U 5?IIIVplaying. But in that normal gay people were also portrayed in the film, the protestors had few grounds on which to become upset. The occupant of this year's February Hot Seat is Daniel Petrie's "Fort Apache, the Bronx," a police drama which has spurred a sizeable portion of New York's i hispanic population to ' Asner (r) co-star in Daniel F )bout a disparaging view of Hi ieuk Ft 1 nny Powell iff Writer " and hero of the "no respect" Id has come across with a some of his best material. > from the album's title, "No vork deserves the finest respect, sonal problems with sex, drugs, orness, ugliness: many of the aily. problems of not getting respect ted wife, who likes to fool around i front of his face. He relates the bar to get a drink, and when he rise him, "he showed me a naked :t with his children: "The other >irds and the bees, and he told me er." f)sect for its master, because "his rm." His dog is paper trained, e went four times on the paper, ve a problem in completing your ;ase check your number before refer, please dial your attendanl i recording," the voice statically r end threw down the phone ir ?f the Lord in vain several times of USC making the phone system its. o effect Feb.8 to change all th " prefix before the numbers, the imunications has received over le blundering oaf that suggestec Id be hung with a telephone cord some pretty important people wil wrtant phone calls. lg is pretty simple. First, you dia get the dial tone. Then, you've go it number listed in the campuj ir numerals together, take tha r a % . I _i l. . ml i e sum 01 me oia numoer. mis wii e. If that number is higher than 17 1 ten, multiply by .08. If the digit is up the phone and throw it agains personnel why the numbers were " students practice in memorizing irson who was contacted after foui be changing them again in twt n the middle of this controversy chebi denounce it on grounds of racism. With this film, the detractors have every right to be angry, for a "Fort Apache" would have it, every Puerto Rican (as well as every other citizen of the South Bronx) is a thief, a whore, a junkie, or a combination of the three. HOWEVER FEW, there simply must be some hardn qqgm.x*-? ? 'etrie 's "Fort Apache, the fe in New York City. Ibumc -i- i i m i m I ayftnaflwu y Respect also evades Rodney psychiatrist told him he was wanted another nnininn thp s ugly too." On the subject of mental hea also. For years, this corporati s students for 67 minute telepho Jersey when most people eith l " U f A if ditu ui wuuiuii lauuui iu 11. ANOTHER THING Southe 1 expect it is to mail seven or < 1 person. After you've already 1 and if you're like most USC payed the previous one. There's a few things you ha J before you make false acc composed of 974 employees, connected with a mob of i j payments. If you've missed sending i j these thugs will come to yoi characters from a religous c I i iuwci ?. i ucii ud duuu y uu i t they'll put bullet holes in your } Then they'll oome to your he t masquerading as sisters of m 1 preserving tubes flowing wi strike you with a bedpan j characters can be. [ THERE ARE SEVERALv mobsters. Next time you send ? up with a stick of dynamite en j But there's still the Office ol deal with. They're the people ) make the lives of IJSC student their sheer ignorance. Tin machines with a case of sevei itesl 1 1 _ L! J! _1_ woriung, law-aoicung people in the borough, but we never glimpse any of them. Even the majority of the policemen portrayed here are criminals-they take bribes, they start fights, they lie and some of them even murder. The only remotely decent characters in the movie are the cops portrayed by Paul Newman, Ken Wahl and Ed Asner, and the nurse portrayed by Rachel Ticoten. And none of them are admirable enough to gain our sympathies. The Newman and Wahl characters cover up a murder, while Asner orders men to throw teargas into crowds and to make preposterous arrests. Ticoten dies of a drug overdose. Adding to this disparaging view of life in the Sronx is John Alcott's grainy, washed-out photography of locations that look more like Dresden than New York. "FORT APACHE" IS truly an amazing movie, not only in that its characters arp so desnicahle and its ? ??r cinematography so ugly, but in that its actors go about [ets sc at the doctor's office, when his ; crazy, and Rodney said he hrink replied "alright, you're ilth, Rodney claims his wife is on has been charging innocen ne calls to South Trenton, Nev er don't know people from tha irn Bell does when you leas eight of the same bills to on* payed one, another comes i students, you'll forget you'v ve to know about Southern Be usations. The corporation i half of whom are somehov gangsters who collect phon n your bill by three minutes ir dormitory posing as fictitioi :ult on campus, trying to sei >pen the door the least little bil face. >spital room while you recover ercy, and disconnect your life th oxygen. They might eve that's how ruthless thes vays to fight back against th back your telephone bill, seal closed. That'll teach them, f Telephone Communications t that stay up all night trying t s miserable.You've got to pi sy're not really human, ju *e rust in their terminal heads. T? A. ' ' 1 sig /\ppie WKSMt/SHM **^1^ fljStBS9iSS^SS^^ 4P^ ^C*' 'fflBMWM Tf> SBBBMBI % 1;:SMHM|BK|b ' j . ;;;iiP xj|^^^: ^j^y?:''' .w^?^j|WljiPjjBj^WWBPWWPf Paul Newman portrays policeman in 'Fort Apache.' their work so half-heartedly, ter's partnership believable Asner is like a block of wood never materializes. They're and his atrocious Irish ac- like two tugboats trying to cent seems about as at home lead an ocean liner in opon him as it would on a cigar- posite directions. Each store Indian. Newman and kfiows the other is there, but Wahl fare better, but the he makes no effort to strike feeling of camaraderie that up any kind of working would make their charao- relationship. >me respect very stupid. He said she wrecked the car the other day by running it into a tree, but she claimed it was not her fault; she blew the horn. EVEN THOUGH Rodney's wife fools around on him, he treats her with the same respect by enjoying the company of hookers all over the place. In Paris, he met a hooker who claimed to be a world traveler; "when she told me how much a trip cost, I told her we live in two different worlds." "No Respect" is pumped full of countless one-liners that have become his trademark over the past few years. The only thing that is missing from the full-effectiveness of the ? : ^ 1 r\ ?r; ,.i ,J cuuiiu a jui^ca is tiic viaucu gtrsLuiea. uaugci iiau s hyperactivity on the stage as he cuts his lines, his constant tie-straitening and wiping away sweat from his brow, add to his appeal as much as the jokes. But the lack of visual gestures is a problem every comedy recording has, from Richard Pryor to Steve Martin. Even though, as far as comdey tapes go, if you enjoy Rodney Dangerfield from his many "Tonight Show" appearances and his "Caddyshack" role, you will enjoy "No Respect." One last line about the roughness of the entertainment business: "You know it's tough to be funny when you're coming off drugs. I tried marijuana just once, that all, just once; I didn't know what I was doing, I was on cocaine." i 5 Before the new telephone system went into effect, . USC students were pleased with dialing numbers I j easily. ^ ^SWi^S^T^WBwMjiK^^lP^i^^^MB ^SIBS ^SSs-^al <0 .<' ^^WWjTO^Wiiff;fflTff'TfflL ? XQ| '' *? w ~ * W W ^ , %* ^ ) y Uh oh. After the new system was installed, students It /osf their tempers and took it out on the he/p/ess phones.