Word: films
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...gestures: the shy grin, the hunch of the shoulders, the sudden stare, the deliberate monotonous thud to denote anger. His performance, anything but a star turn, is intelligent, confident and touching. Hoffman brings to mind his ingratiating Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman or, even more strongly, his film work in Straw Dogs as a quiet man driven beyond endurance into mayhem. The show never stints on the virulent anti-Semitism of Shakespeare's world, although Hall employs subtle staging and lighting cues to mollify modern spectators' disquiet at the injustice of the ending. The production is under discussion...
...rage of race is exactly what has stirred a righteous debate over Lee's movie. After it lost the top prize at last month's Cannes Film Festival (to a comedy by another young American, Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies and videotape), jury member Sally Field told Lee she fought to get him a prize. The film's detractors called it facile and irresponsible; Lee responded by accusing his critics of racism...
...radical chic -- or so many political-disease detectives ready to stanch the epidemic. A single issue of the Village Voice ran eight articles on the movie, with opinions running from raves to cries of "fascist" and "racist." A political columnist for New York magazine charged that Lee's film could undermine the New York City mayoral campaign of a black candidate. Everywhere, the film has polarized white liberals for whom Bed-Stuy is as exotic and unknowable as Burkina Faso. Some see Lee as the movies' great black hope; others tut till they're tuckered. A few fear that...
...accept the film, though, one must first understand its point of view, and that is maddeningly difficult. All we know for certain is that Do the Right Thing is not naturalistic. Golden sunset hues swathe the street at 10 in the morning. The color scheme is chicly coordinated, as if Jerome Robbins' Sharks and Jets were about to dance onscreen; the picture could be called Bed-Stuy Story, full of Officer Krupkes and kindly store owners. At first, the dilemmas are predictably pastel too: populist cliches brought to life by an attractive cast. Even the racial epithets have a jaunty...
Behind the plot, which stands on its own, is a chorus of extremely wellplanned sound, staging and cinematography. The music, while it does not intrude into the film, especially demands recognition, as Keating is constantly listening to, refering to or playing music. The two themes which continued throughout the movie are Beethoven's 9th symphony and Handel's "Water Music...