The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 01, 2000, Page 9, Image 9
'cue (3am£cocR
Rocky Horror
from page 8
the film, is on his way to New York after a two-day celebra
tion in Las Vegas marking the film’s 25th anniversary. He
^vants to be on hand for a new production of his original play
on Nov. 15.
The film was recently released on DVD and continues to
play around the country to packed houses, where fans dress
as their favorite chafacters, act out scenes and reach the
fevered, ritualistic pitch of a tent revival meeting where every
one’s saved and no one cares.
O’Brien says he always loved the old sci-fi B-movies “be
cause of the unconscious humor invested in them.”
“Today we get slasher movies, which I don’t approve of
— Tarantino kind of journeys which are, I think, brutalizing
and thoroughly reprehensible,” he says. “But in those days,
horror had just a little touch of irony and cynicism invested
in the journey. The tongue was in the cheek. People played
it as straight down the line as they possibly could, but it
never disregarded morals or ethics.”
In the early 1970s, O’Brien was a struggling actor and
musician, admittedly boring people to tears with his three
chord songs. (He got his start in show business as a stunt rid
er and can be seen in “Casino Royale.”)
* EMI asked him to play at a Christmas party, and he wrote
“Science Frction Double Feature,” which he would one day
sing over “Rocky Horror’s” opening credits. Meanwhile, he
had just been turned down for the role of Herod in “Jesus
Christ Superstar.”
With time on his hands and the germ of an idea from “Sci
ence Fiction Double Feature,” he began to put “Rocky
Horror” together. He soon landed a job in a Sam Shepard play,
but kept working on “Rocky” in his spare time.
What was supposed to be a quick run at a 60-seat theater
turned into a six-year run at a 500-seat theater, a brief stint
on Broadway and a feature film.
O’Brien says the film works on several levels. “One, it’s
cheap, cheerful, trashy, joyous entertainment,” he says. “But
if it was just that, it wouldn’t have the longevity. And then
it’s slightly liberating; it gives hope and joy to people who
are in a state of flux in their understanding of gender and their
place in society. But that’s not enough, because that would
be just playing to special-interest groups.”
The final key, he says, is mythology.
“It’s the eternal fairy tale,” he says. “It’s a root myth, a
retelling of a story which is almost in the psyche by now. And
I think that really is what gives it its ability to continue to en
tertain on a deeper level, on a subconscious level.”
The only message he ever wanted to convey was that “at
least they spent their dough to get entertained, and they did
for once. It’s not worthy; it’s not a high-brow, intellectual
journey. It’s a very simplistic journey and perhaps probably
the best time you can ever have in a theater, I think. You
know, that’s part of its joy.”
Being typecast as Riff Raff was never a problem, he
says, because he was always cast by body type. “I’m an ex
ceptionally skinny, strange-looking individual — I know that
nature didn’t make me look like Pierce Brosnan — and as a
result one does always get typecast, but it’s always better to
be typecast than to be miscast, and to be miscast is a dread
ful state of affairs for everybody. And so one will always be
slightly typecast. I mean, we want our heroes to look like he
roes, don’t we? And we want our baddies to kind of look like
baddies, and I generally get cast in the grimy, baddie kind of
role.”
He recently starred as the famous 18th-century castrato
Farinelli in the play “One God, One Farinelli” in London and
has appeared in such films as “Ever After,” “Spice Wrrld” and
“Dark City.” Among his upcoming films are “Dungeons and
Dragons” and “Mumbo Jumbo.”
The spotlight desk can be reached at
gamecockspotfight@hotmail.com.
BWP2
from page 8
to oblivion. It is during this time that
they lose track of roughly a four-hour
period. The remainder of the movie is
\ omprised of the group editing the cam
era footage trying to discover what hap
pened in those lost four hours.
Although none of what occurs is tru
ly frightening or suspenseful, the movie
does become a slight mystery. Skillful
ly added to this mystery is the super
natural as the tale of the Blair Witch be
1
gins to unfold in the present. Addition
ally, the directors added visions and
dreams to the plot, giving the movie the
feel of a Marilyn Manson video.
Finally, when the movie comes con
vulsively to a stop, the audience is no
more aware of what truly happened dur
ing those lost four hours than they were
when they entered the theater.
Several possibilities and contradic
tions emeige because of discrepancies
found in the videos. The line between
reality and imagination is then washed
away as the videos present two different
stories, which both contradict what
the characters experience and remem
ber.
Overall, the story adds little to the
genre that classic movies such as “The
Exorcist” easily achieved decades ago.
However, the differences between the
“supposed” reality of the movie and the
questions the videos raise warrant an at
tempt by the directors to make the au
dience think.
This attempt is completely success
ful, and gives a movie with a good con
cept, but poor execution, a memorable
aspect. Unfortunately, viewers still prob
ably won’t understand it days later.
The spotlight desk can be reached at
gamecockspotiightOhotmaiLcom.
Are you concerned about the
Earth’s environment?
Are you still searching
for the ideal major?
Then check out the department of Geological
Sciences’ BS degree with a concentration in
Environmental Geosciences!
Our courses cover such subjects as:
Global Environmental Change
Coastal & Oceanic Environments
Groundwater Contamination
Geologic Hazards
Environmental Hydrology
Environmental Field Geology
Earth Resource Management
Our courses get you outside to see the Earth in
action. We have an excellent faculty/student
ratio, and there are exciting research
opportunities available to our majors.
Curious? Find out more!
Call our Undergraduate Director (777-4530)
or visit our web page at www.geol.sc.edu
--;_ .
- - ■ —-—
Dark Angel
from page 8
his credits include “Aliens” and “The
Abyss”) and Egiee’s TV expertise.
Eglee, who has worked the shows
“Moonlighting,” “L.A. Law” and
“NYPD Blue,” was eager to team with
Cameron but hesitant about tackling an
unfamiliar genre.
“I said, ‘Chick, that’s a plus,”’
Cameron recalled. “I’ve found his
torically that some of the best science
fiction is written by people who don’t
write science fiction, because they come
to it with a fresh eye and don’t make
any assumptions.”
Besides, Cameron said, creating sci
fi for television necessarily involves
changes.
“You can’t do spaceships and ro
bots and giant ‘Independence Day’
vehicles hovering over Manhattan,”
Cameron said. “You have to scale it
down to the size of a human close-up,
really; that’s where it lives and
breathes.”
“Dark Angel” has its share of spe
cial effects. The two-hour pilot episode
reportedly was budgeted at $10 million,
and although it came in for somewhat
less, still cost considerably more than
other pilots.
“There’s truth in advertising: Jim
Cameron’s name is on the show and that
creates a set of expectations.in the au- ,
dience’s mind, and we need to be able
to deliver on that,” Eglee said.
The weekly budget has been reined
in, Cameron said without naming a fig
ure, but it “scales” to the premiere
episode.
“We didn’t want to do something
that was flash-in-the-pan on the pilot
and then couldn’t deliver after that...
It should look about the same,” he said.
“Dark Angel” is filmed in Vancouver,
Canada.
While Max copes with trying to
save the world, how much pressure is
there on box-office king Cameron to
make his maiden television venture a
winner?
“Dark Angel” has yet to match its
Oct. 3 debut when it drew about 17 mil
lion viewers against the first presiden
tial debate, but it is performing re
spectably for Fox.
“I don’t feel that much pres
sure,” Cameron said. “I do my best with
everything I do. (A series) is a very dif
ferent thing than a movie, where you
just fire it off like a missile and it either'
hits or it doesn’t and it’s all over by mid
day Saturday.
- “With this, we’re not going to know
where it’s at for a long time.”
The spotlight desk can be reached at
gamecockspotlight@hotmaa.com.
AAAS fashion show kicks off
Black Cultural Week with style
Zeina Makky
The Gamecock
The Annual AAAS fashion show, host
ed by SG President Jotaka Eaddy and ad
vertising senior Malik Husser, took place
Monday night at the Russell House Ball
room. The show marks the beginning of
Black Cultural Week.
The purpose of the fashion show is
to raise canned goods that will be donat
ed to the Oliver Gospel Mission.
The show started late because oiga
nizers wanted everyone to be present in
the ballroom before sending the models
out there.
“Months of preparation have been
necessary in order to get ready for the
show,” AAAS President Aisha Taylor said.
There were 85 male and female mod
els who had trained for weeks and whose
“walks” were more like choreographed
steps. They had more interaction between
the models than at usual fashion shows,
parading on the runway to the sounds of
rap and R&B music.
The models wore different styles of
outfits: business suits, casual wear,
modem wear, evening wear. The only cri
teria to be part of the show was to be pre
pared to “be dedicated and work hard”
and put forth “a lot of commitment,” Tay
lor said.
“Months of preparation have been necessary in order to
get ready for the show.”
Aisha Taylor
AAAS President
V
The outfits presented in the finale
were designed and made by AAAS mem
bers such as fashion coordinators Nicky
Frierson, a psychology graduating senior,
and Shadonna Edwards, a chemistry se
nior.
There were more people at the event
than expected, and the organizers had
to bring in extra chairs.
In between each scene, Eaddy and
Husser introduced the sequences with
humorous anecdotes, and asked for audi
ence participation. Husser shouted to the
crowd, “There any smart, fine, sophisti
cated brothers here?”
The crowd laughed and cheered at
their jokes, and also at the models, es
pecially the male models—the crowd’s
population was mostly female. They went
crazy when two male models started to
rip off their flannel shirts before casting
them away. The female models earned a
lot of cheers, as well. A lot of the crowd
came to support their daughters, sons or
roommates who were part of the show.
This kind of success pleased Taylor.
“Anything that is a success makes me
happy. My goal as the president of A AAS
is to make every enterprise a success,”
Taylor said.
This past year there about 300 peo
ple attended and “it was a great success
... we hope this year will be as good, if
not better,” she said.
Taylor said as a senior student and
president of an organization,it was hard
to run this event, but Taylor didn’t want
to take all the credit.
“It is hard to balance, yes, but it is
hard for everyone here,” she said.
The fashion show is not the only thing
AAAS will be doing this semester.
They will participate in the Greek step
show at the Carolina Coliseum on Nov.
10th.
The spotlight desk can be reached at
gamecockspotlight@hotmail.com.
Movie Times
Carmike Wynnsong 10
5320 Forest Drive, 782
8100
Bring It On (PG-13)2:00,7:30
The Cell (R) 4:30,9:30
The Contender (PG-13) 1:30,4:15,
7:00,9:45
Dr. T & the Wfamen (R) 1:30,4:00,7:00,
9:45
The Exorcist (R) 1:15,4:15,7:00,9:45
Get Carter (R) 2:00,4:30, 7:00,9:15
'Ladies Man (R) 2:00,4:30, 7:00,9:15
Legend of Drunken (R) 2:00,4:30,7:15,
9:30
Lost Souls (R) 1:00,4:00, 7:00,9:30
Nurse Betty (R) 2:00,7:00
Scary Movie (R) 4:30,9:35
What Lies Beneath (PG-13) 1:30,4:00,
7:30
Columbiana Grande
Stadium Cinemas
1250 Bower Parkway,
407-9898
Almost Famous (R) 2:05,4:50, 7:25,
10:00
Bedazzled (PG-13) 1:15,2:10, 3:30,
5:00,5:40,7:15,8:00,9:20,10:15
Best in Show (PG-13) 1:00,3:10,5:20,
7:15,9:20
Book of Shadows (R) 1:55,4:30,7:25,
»
9:30
Bring It On (PG-13) 1:05,3:20, 5:30,
7:45,10:00
Digimon (PG) 1:00,3:15,5:35,
7:45,10:05
The Exorcist (R) 1:00,3:45,6:30,9:10
Legend of Drunken (R) 1:05,3:25,5:45,
8:00,10:00
Lost Souls (R) 1:40,4:00, 7:30,9:55
Lucky Numbers (R) 1:20,4:35, 7:10,
9:40
Pay it Forward (PG-13) 1:25,2:00,4:10,
4:45,6:55,7:35,9:45,10:20
Space Cowboys (PG-13) 1:10, 3:50,
6:50,9:30
Dutch Square 14
800 Bush River Road,
750-3576
Beautiful (PG-13) 1:00,3:15
Bedazzled (PG-13) 1:50,4:50, 7:45,
10:10
Blair Witch Project 2 (R) 1:00, 3:00,
5:00,7:40,10:00
The Contender (R) 1:30,4:20, 7:10,
9:50
Dr. T and the Women (R) 1:40,4:40,
7:15,9:55
The Exorcist (R) 1:30,4:15,7:00,9:45
Ladies Man (R) 2:30,5:00,7:20,9:30
Little Vampire (PG) 1:10, 3:15,5:20,
7:25,9:40
Legend of Drunken Master (R) 2:00,
4:20, 7:00,9:20
Lost Souls (R) 2:20,5:10, 7:30,9:40
Lucky Numbers (R) 1:40,4:10, 7:30,
10:00
Meet the Parents (PG-13) 1:50,4:30,
7:20,9:45
Pay it Forwaid (PG-13) 1:15,4:00,7:10,
9:50
Remember the Titans (PG) 1:40,
4:00,7:00,9:30
Urban Legends 2 (R)5:30,7:50,10:10
Regal Cinema 7
Richland Mall Rooftop,
748-9044
Bedazzled (PG-13) 2:10,4:35, 7:30,
9:55
Book of Shadows (R) 2:30,4:35,7:40,
10:00
Little Vampire (PG) 2:15,4:40, 7:15,
9:35
Lucky Numbers (R) 1:40,4:20, 7:10,
10:00
Meet the Parents (PG-13) 2:00,4:30,
7:20,9:50
Pay it Forward (PG-13) 1:30,4:15,7:05,
9:45
Remember the Titans (G) 1:50,4:30,
7:00,9:40