Word: fortressed
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...centuries. Now, in modern Kyoto, two brothers fight to the death for possession of those swords. Life, it would seem, is cheap in the mystic East, at least when an Occidental director like John Frankenheimer invades Japan to make a martial-arts movie. Glenn and Mifune invade the industrial fortress of Mifune's brother and, banzai! 23 men are dead of arrow, sword, spike and gunshot wounds. Honor is all, death is nothing-except the excuse for some spectacular carnage...
Only at the climax does Frankenheimer build something durable out of the mayhem: a metaphorical bridge between old and new Japan, between the integrity of the samurai and the ingenuity of the technocrat. The warlord's fortress is an executive suite; the watchtowers are electronic eyes; hero and villain cross swords over a photocopier, wrestle on sleek chairs and desks, almost electrocute each other with a computer's exposed wires. The final blow, be warned, is a vertical slice through the bad guy's cranium. One wonders how many members of the audience will stay around...
North to Byblos. Ads for Woody Allen movies and a curious recurring road sign, BABY LOVE ME, that seems to have no reference. Here one is yet farther from the war. Not a soldier in sight. Only the ancient city and the ancient port, still protected by a Crusader fortress. Kids in bathing suits dangle their legs from the tops of the walls. Pleasure boats bob in the water where the Phoenicians once sailed. Is this Lebanon too? At lunch at the Fishing Club restaurant, one makes cheerful conversation with the owner, Pepe Abed, half Mexican, half Lebanese, who boasts...
Battling what had become rapid deterioration. Harvard has embarked upon a comprehensive $7 million overhaul of the stadium which will actually leave the football fortress unchanged architecturally. The traditional and incomparably uncomfortable concrete seats have all been removed, but they are being replaced rapidly by new and equally rock-hard concrete. In addition, new steel beams and freshly painted seat numbers will complement the work now being done by mammoth cranes, which dangle the cement tonnage far above the field and then gently drop each segment into place...
...should not forget that in an East-West conflict, its important allies will be the South Americans. The Europeans, with or without missiles, will probably last a few days, while North and South America will be the real fortress for the Western world...