Word: medium
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...jokes and the general tone of its dialogue--John Herbert's Fortune and Men's Eyes revolves around homosexuality in prison life. But the play is really about the exigencies of power relations inside "the joint." Homosexuality, in Herbert's imaginary cellblock, just happens to represent the medium of influence. So when Queenie, one of the cellmates, throws his head back effeminately and announces, "The General (meaning the warden) has had me all over his carpet," he means more than the physical act--he is also implying that he pulls political strings. And when Smitty, a new inmate, arrives, Rocky...
Chase shows a cheeky sense of the medium's absurdities and a fearless inclination to bite the hand that bred him. With help from Comedian Tim Conway, a few famous jocks, some dancing poodles and "$12,500 worth of extras," Chase takes puckish potshots at TV sports coverage, presidential press conferences, variety and game shows and, of course, advertising. At times, the old Saturday Night wit is in top form. In a takeoff on Let's Make a Deal, one hyperexcited contestant trades a husband, children and an Arizona home for what's behind the door...
...Chase's idols was Comedian Ernie Kovacs, the 1950s master of surrealism whose shows are finally being rebroadcast in a series now on public television. Says Saturday Night producer Lome Michaels: "Kovacs was the consummate television comic, and Chevy has that same sense of how to use the medium. I don't think he'll ever leave it completely." Chase does plan to limit his own tube time, hinting at one reason for abandoning his weekly act on SN: "I certainly don't want to get so overexposed on TV that people...
Mother Kustersis a frustrating, dissatisfying film because an ideology emerges, but there is no medium through which this ideology can be expressed. The Communists' aims, if not their methods, are Fassbinder's ("people are responsible for their own lives. Capital is the common enemy.") Ultimately, however, the film denies both methods and aims any importance. It presents a pessimistic vision: there are no acceptable means for revolution...
...injustices but is interested in showing specifically how change can be effected. His politics must be uncompromising. Fassbinder, on the other hand, is only interested in citing in justices. He compromises his ideology in order to please a large audience. His mistake is in seeing film as a medium for reaching the middle-aged proletariat masses. Fassbinder expects these people to create their own radical realism. Ultimately he is too optimistic about the breadth of his viewing public and too pessimistic about revolutionary methods...