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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 12/31/99 -- Vol. 18, No. 27
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. Well, here we go. Tonight that big leading digit changes. I
won't make the common mistake of saying we start a new millennium.
As an intelligent and discerning person, you know that it is not
true. But people will THINK it is the new millennium, and to
explain why it really is not you have to talk about there never
having been a year 0. Well even to the better informed among us
the year 1 is ancient history. Actually there never was a year 1
either. There was a year designated as a year 1 well after the
fact. Even that was not the year they wanted to be the year 1
since it was supposedly the year Christ was born and they were off
by about four years. I think that many of those graduating high
school these days are not even convinced that that time really
existed. The age of Xena and Hercules is more real to them. But
you cannot blame them too much. The history of the calendar is
just full of supposedly smart people making dumb mistakes. Some
time I ought to tell you about Austerlitz.
So never mind the fact we still have better than a year to run on
the century, people who assume that all that makes a century is a
digit in a year are flooding us with little millenniumisms. Man o'
War has just been named the Horse of the Century. I suppose if
there was going to be a Horse of the Century it would be for racing
and winning a large Pot o' Money for its owner. Just as firmly as
people are convinced that this is the new millennium starting
tomorrow there are those who are convinced that the whole reason
there are horses is racing them. The horse of the century would
have to be a racehorse. Horses might think differently. What
contributions would horses value? If they were asked I think
horses would be more likely to pick a horse that had done something
like figuring out how to unlock the paddock gate and let a bunch of
horses go free. In general I dont think it is a good idea for one
species to be choosing the best member of another species for the
century. Time Magazine's choice was Albert Einstein, by the way.
The moment is coming that I have thought about pretty much all my
life. I suspect I am not alone in that. From a young age I have
been thinking about how old I would be when I became a person of
the 2000s. Somehow I had the age number exactly right, but I am a
lot younger than I thought I would be. This was the time of my
life when I would become a person of both the 20th Century and a
person of the 21st Century. I was going to see what the 21st
Century was like, like it is going to be different from the 20th.
Well the 20th Century was a lot different from the 19th. So I was
expecting the 21st Century to be a lot different from the 20th. It
will be, but not for a while. The beginning of the 21st Century
will be a whole lot like the end of the 20th Century.
When I think of the people born in the middle part of the 19th
Century who lived into the 20th Century, I don't think of them as
understanding our century. They just saw an early piece of it but
to my mind these people always remained artifacts of the 19th
Century. Somehow I expected full-fledged membership in the 21st
Century for myself. I now realize that is not the way it is going
to be. People who are REALLY of the 21st century will consider us
old fogies and something of an embarrassment. We may even have to
take the rap for the Y2K fiasco.
If history is any sign the most important events of the 21st
Century will happen after we die. Suppose that a time traveler
from 100 years tried to explain to you the most important event of
the 21st Century. The odds are good you would have no idea what he
was talking about. Technology is moving that fast. If you had
Teddy Roosevelt here how would you explain to him the modern world?
I think I could almost explain the problem of nuclear
proliferation, but try thinking of how you would explain the Y2K
problem to Teddy Roosevelt?
I guess this is part of the human condition. We just dont live
long enough so that we can really be much of a part of more than
one century. Nobody lives long enough to ever really understand two
different centuries. [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. GALAXY QUEST (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: What would happen if the cast of "Star
Trek" actors was whisked into space and told
they had to fight real aliens? Aliens who do
not understand the concept of fiction and who
believe in the crew of "Galaxy Quest" borrow
the actors to help save their race. The film
is consistently amusing but it never becomes
any more than a one-joke film. Worth seeing
once. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
The cast rivalries of "Star Trek" actors, and the conventions of
"Star Trek" as well as "Star Trek" conventions, all get a fairly
loving shellacking in an enjoyable comedy that asks if the cast of
"Star Trek" had to fight real aliens, how well would they do.
Back in the early 1970s there was a science fiction TV show that
would be immortal to its fans, "Galaxy Quest." Even today the
die-hard fans want more. Let's get this part out of the way so we
can proceed. Tim Allen plays Jason Nesmith who on the show played
Comdr. Peter Quincy Taggart. Alan Rickman plays Alexander Dane who
played Dr. Lazarus of Tev'Meck. Sigourney Weaver plays Gwen
DeMarco who played Lt. Tawny Madison. Tony Shalhoub, who does not
look the slightest bit Chinese, plays Fred Kwan who played Tech
Sergeant Chen. And Daryl Mitchell plays Tommy Webber who played
Lt. Laredo. With each but possibly Laredo, the writers were
clearly thinking of a corresponding member of the "Star Trek" cast.
In spite of the fact that Galaxy Quest has been off the air for
many years the cast continues to be a hot item at science fiction
media conventions. Just about everyone in the cast is tired of
being type-cast, but they have to contend with the fame and
popularity they got from the TV show. Most tired is Alexander Dane
who at one time played Richard III to raving audiences but now is
reduced to repeating the tire TV show catch-phrases over and over,
ad nauseum. And all are a little tire of how Jason Nesmith, who
played their leader, basks in all the glory at the conventions and
treats the other cast members like decoration. He behaves like a
rude, ego-centric jerk. When four teens in alien costumes ask
Nesmith to see their space ship and fight an alien for them he
plays along with the gag. Then he finds out that they in truth are
aliens, their spaceship is authentic, and their foes are all too
real. Soon the whole crew is pulled involuntarily into the
adventure. For once they have no script, no director, no lines,
and they are in real danger.
As a story about the actors we have come to know so well from "Star
Trek," this film is passable but cliched. By depending on each
other they build firm relationships of mutual respect. Outward
Bound probably has hundreds of stories just as moving. As a space
opera adventure this film is fairly lame. That is not the point,
of course, but it might have been a better movie with a little more
thought about the adventure. In general the audience is a step or
two ahead of the characters. The greatest value of the film is the
lampooning of the "Star Trek" iconography. And in doing that it is
considerably more adept than anything Mel Brooks has done for a
good long time.
Nobody requires great dramatic scenes in a film like this. Tim
Allen's acting was more than sufficient and his timing adequate.
He might have issued one little "To infinity and beyond," if that
would not have been mixing metaphors. Sigourney Weaver did not
have a lot to do besides wear a tight suit well, which she still
can do surprisingly nicely for a lady who recently hit the half-
century mark. Alan Rickman does little with his role but act
petulant. He can be a very magnetic actor but here is not. The
biggest disappointment was a sort of lack-luster, half-speed
performance from character actor Tony Shalhoub. He is one of the
actors I tend to watch for, but not for the sort of effort he
seemed to give this role. He looked like he just felt out of
place.
The ideal length for this material would have been as a ten-minute
skit. It is impressive that director Dean Parisot kept the
chuckles coming as long as he did. This is a one-viewing film, but
pleasant enough. I give it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on
the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. CRADLE WILL ROCK (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: In the 1930s art and politics
inextricably intertwine in this (mostly) true
story of big money interests fighting the WPA's
Federal Theater Project. Also retold is the
tale of the disagreement between Nelson
Rockefeller and Diego Rivera over the mural
that Rivera painted for Rockefeller Center.
Tim Robbins, who both wrote and directed
captures a feel for the heady days when
American talent seemed to be blossoming but
when the mostly liberal sentiment of art was
seen as a threat to the wealthy who strongly
influenced the government. This film will
certainly be in my top three films of the year.
Rating: 9 (0 to 10), +3 (-4 to +4)
In the 1930S during the Great Depression massive numbers of
Americans were out of work. In 1934 the number was 11 million. To
cut unemployment and get people working again the Works Progress
Administration was established. It eventually employed 8.5 million
people to improve the infrastructure and culture of the country.
Laborers built roads, bridges, parks, buildings, and airports.
Artists were employed by the Federal Arts Project, The Federal
Writers Project, and the Federal Theater Project. The Federal
Theater Project (FTP) lasted from 1935 to 1939 when it was shut
down by the House Committee on Un-American Activities for its
left-leaning plays.
CRADLE WILL ROCK combines the stories of two incidents of the
1930s. In 1933 Nelson Rockefeller objected to the mural that Diego
Rivera was creating for Rockefeller Center which depicted Lenin as
a liberator. In 1937 Marc Blitzstein's play "The Cradle Will Rock"
was to be produced under the aegis of the FTP staged by Orson
Welles and John Houseman, but the government withdrew support with
dramatic consequences.
The film begins with a homeless woman Olive Stanton (Emily Watson)
catching some sleep behind the screen of a movie theater. The
theater is showing a newsreel about the spread of Fascism in
Europe, but how things are better and more optimistic in the US.
Stanton clearly knows more about conditions in the US than the
patrons of the theater. Chased from this shelter she looks for a
job with the Federal Theater Project.
The FTP is an explosion of creative chaos presided over by the
tireless Hallie Flanagan (Cherry Jones). She reads new plays,
makes production assignments, and does a wealth of other jobs. We
are soon introduced to Orson Welles (Angus Macfadyen), John
Houseman (Cary Elwes) putting on a creatively-staged production of
Marlowe's DOCTOR FAUSTUS. They are also preparing a polemical
play, "The Cradle Will Rock," for the FTP.
The wealthy also mix in with a strong interest in the arts. We
meet Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack), an oil magnate more
interested in art and Latin America than he is in petroleum. He
has commissioned the admired Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint a
mural for Rockefeller Center, the theme of which is to be "Man's
Intelligence Controlling Nature."
But not everybody is happy with this flowering of creativity. Icy
Hazel Huffman (Joan Cusack) and a frustrated vaudeville
ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw (Bill Murray) do not like the leftist
message of many of the plays present. They are organizing to fight
what they think is becoming a liberal establishment. The film
chronicles their collision with the artists and playwrights they
oppose.
The casting is quite good. Especially notable is the Angus
Macfadyen impression of Orson Welles. Welles has now been
portrayed by a number of different actors on the screen but never
by someone who with so close a physical resemblance or who got the
facial expressions down so well. Less familiar is John Houseman
but Cary Elwes at least sounds a good deal like Houseman. Cherry
Jones just sparkles as Hallie Flanagan.
The characters of CRADLE WILL ROCK are in a kettle with a seething
stew of politics and art. Tim Robbins who wrote and directed, sees
the events of this film to be the beginnings of the 1950s
Congressional witch hunts for communists. It also provides much of
the reason that even today there are few plays on Broadway with any
real political meat. Art today is about colors and textures and
not political ideas for the most part. Few works in art museums
have strong political comment and much of Broadway is given over to
fluffy plays with little political bite. Ironically Robbins makes
a very clear statement that only some censorship is bad. Aldo
Silvano (John Turturro) does not want to see "The Cradle Will Rock"
be censored for its unpopular political message. Yet he is
outraged when he hears his children singing a song that is sung by
the Brown Shirts in Italy. In this case he is censoring his own
children's singing of a Fascist song. That seems right, but where
is the line to be drawn? Plays of this time could appeal to any
political persuasion instead of having to appeal to people of every
political persuasion as they do today. The wealthy and powerful do
not want art to have messages that threaten their interests. The
rich who have been the patrons of the arts do not what to have to
choose between what is good for art and their own welfare.
The film is good entertainment. Is it accurate history? There is
some distortion, certainly. Just having two art and political
censorship events occurring at the same time instead of years apart
leads one to believe that such clashes were more frequent than they
really were. Robbins portrays the people who agree with his
political viewpoint being likable, intelligent, artistically
fulfilled people. Those who oppose artistic freedom are
maladjusted neurotics if not out-and-out wackos. By leaving no
doubt as to whom the viewer should credit as being in the right,
Robbins talks down to his audience and demonstrates that he does
not trust them to choose the correct side of the debate. One could
ask if Lenin was the great liberator that Rivera wanted to portray,
where are all the people who genuinely believe that he liberated
them? History seems to have sided with Rockefeller.
While CRADLE WILL ROCK plays a little fast and loose with history,
it still is an enjoyable watch and one of the best films of the
year. I rate it a 9 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +3 on the -4 to +4
scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619