Word: realism
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...inside the main gate of the huge nuclear power complex at Novovoronezh. The slogan seems at first to be no different from the exhortations that decorate buildings throughout the U.S.S.R. Unlike many of the others, however, the slogan at Novovoronezh, some 300 miles south of Moscow, reflects as much realism as rhetoric. The Soviet Union is by no means ready to beat all of its nuclear swords into plowshares. But it is moving vigorously to put the atom to work as a civilian...
...Cheever deserves a defense. Unquestionably, his wealthy New Yorkers and suburbanites have much in common. The author describes them in one story as "the company of those people who were most free to develop their gifts." These fortunate few are much more significant than critics seeking raw social realism will admit. Well outside the mainstream, the Cheever people nonetheless reflect it admirably. What they do with themselves is what millions upon millions would do, given enough money and time. And their creator is less interested in his characters as rounded individuals than in the awful, comic and occasionally joyous ways...
...INDEPENDENTLY produced film made on a shoestring budget, Girl Friends has a very professional look about it. The film has many touching and amusing moments, and it portrays life in Manhattan with realism and a smattering of humor. But verisimilitude does not a plot make, and Girl Friends suffers most from a one-dimensional story line, even if the line is quite nicely trimmed...
...successfully until there is an inexplicable change in strategy and they are forced to withdraw into ambush and massacre. The picture is good at catching the absurdity and futility of the operation, but in the long siege-and-retreat sequence, Director Post's failure to rise above simple realism becomes a problem. The scenes here should be spookier and more suspenseful, imparting a developing sense of the madness of isolation in an alien land where the native enemy has all the advantages of terrain and bred-in-the-bones knowledge of it. There are hints of an effort...
...crucial decisions of John Paul on these and other issues defy easy prediction. Whatever his instincts, the Pope is in some sense still the "prisoner of the Vatican," where visions of change are so often circumscribed by tradition-and realism. On the day after the election, the Pope's choice of names was, as it always is, regarded as one of the few indications of the tone of his pontificate. Much has been made of John Paul's double choice. Last week in Rome still more was being said on the subject. Remarked Belgium's Cardinal Suenens...