Word: scripting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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What makes the one-act watchable is its clever organization. Divided into 15 short segments, What Time never gets bogged down in one particular scene. Ultimately, though, the script's stilted language and puzzling plot twists make it a poor match for Am I Blue...
...make things worse, instead of the spicy language that real warriors use, the script forces them to blurt lines like, "I was as dumbfounded as you." Dumbfounded. I've never even heard even Archie Epps use that word in conversation--let alone a combat soldier...
With three quality war pictures offered this week, Dewitt wonders why anyone would go to see St. Elmo's Fire (Science Center C), an idiotic film about the conflicts of several young people just out of college. Along with a painfully awful script, St. Elmo's features the undistinguished acting of such screen luminaries as Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy and, of course, Judd Nelson. One of the ludicrous features of this flick is that it is billed as an "ensemble" piece, ensemble being used here to signify several uninteresting storylines which are connected with no common theme...
...Russo dreamed bigger still. "From the beginning," he says now, "I knew the screen could take this little person with the enormous talent and show her off in a big way." But no project seemed right. So they resurrected Pearl, a script about Janis Joplin, and had it rewritten, Midler says, "as a homage to all those men and women who bit the dust from sheer compulsion." That was The Rose. "I had a ball! I couldn't wait each day to strap on that angst bag and chew up that scenery. I thought it was my best work." Seen...
...European tour following the filming of The Rose in 1979 provoked one last fight with Russo, and Midler was on her own. She chose a jokey film noir script called Jinxed; she chose the director Don Siegel and her co-star Ken Wahl. The brass at United Artists, then tiptoeing through the rubble of Heaven's Gate, was turning to Midler to make decisions. And the creative team, vexed at her power, turned on her. There were shoving matches and walkouts. It was a sorry time. In retrospect, Midler notes, "I feel I've had my revenge. What goes around...