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With such songs o.s "Sweet Baby James," "Carolina in My
Mind," "Country Road," "Fire and Rain" and "You've Got a
Friend" to his credit, James Taylor will be making a solo
appearance at Pershing Municipal Auditorium on Wednesday,
October 13. Tickets for the concert are S4, S5, and S6.
Drive He Said tragic satire
Review by
Bill Wallis
Drive, He Said is a tragic
satire of the American
University and all the
newsworthy members of its
community: the college
athlete, coach and fan; the
radical student; the concerned
intellectual professor and his
unconcerned wife-even the
concerned college president.
Why is it tragic? Because no
one really wins the game he
plays. It is not a fair game.
Beyond its boundaries and
rules lie both joy and freedom
of expression, and insanity and
death.
Director Jack Nicholson's
metaphors for the game of life
are: basketball; an extramarital
affair; and individual protest
against social injustice, the
draft, war and authority in
general.
The young athlete, Hector
(William Tepper), wins on the
court and makes it with an
Involved professor's wife, Olive
(Karen Black), on the sidelines.
Hector tries to build his simple
view of existence about the
affair ("Can't I say that I love
you?"), and the wife tries to
escape back into her marriage.
They are discovered when the
affair is complicated by a
disturbed radical friend named
Gabriel (Michael Margotta)
who attacks the wife. The
attempted rape is paralleled to
an "exciting" basketball game
in which Hector leads the way
to victory.
The affair is left exposed.
Gabriel' is committed to
psychiatric care, not Vietnam.
Hector goes into professional
athletics ("What else can you
do, son?), which He does not
wish to do but must, to avoid
the draft. The professor and his
wife limp away together.
Man's position in the
universe is that of Hector if he
is lucky enough to have a
"talent." He will survive
without dignity or real joy and
purpose. If he is a
Gabriel --un gifted and
unbending-he will be broken
and run over. Between survival
and breaking is a gray
void-that of the fan.
The show is singularly
realistic, and has the frantically
calm atmosphere of normality
about it. Nicholson has used
cliche to his advantage in
dealing with character types,
and the resulting humorous
situations punctuate the rather
dull pain which saturates most
of the picture.
Nicholson's message is clear
and brawruly elegant: submit
to the rules of the game-drive
and you will survive, but only
with pain, and always with an
awareness of the poverty of
your existence.
But there is survival. Those
who submit-without pride, but
with a grim, wearing, sense of
humor--to the rules and
debasements of the game do
survive, "driving" with a
skeleton of their victory intact
and the dignity of their
masturbatory existence in
hand.
Highly recommended.
With the new fall television season running for about three
weeks now, I decided to take a break from watching my usual
two television shows Johnny Carson's Tonight Show and The
Dick Cavett Show- if I stay awake that long-and take a peek at
some of the new television shews which the various networks are
bringing us.
So-off and on now for the next few weeks I will be reviewing
some of the new offerings which the networks are presenting us.
This week it's one of CBS's new Friday night shows, O'JIara,
United States Treasury.
PRODUCED BY JACK WEBB (remember Dragnet and
Adam-1 2) and starring David Janssen (remember The Fugitive)
O'Hara, United States Treasury is one of several cops-and-robbers
series to be found all over the boob-tube this season.
However, O'Hara differs from many of these law enforcement
type programs in that the main character, Jim O'Hara (Janssen),
is not a private detective, he's not a playboy adventurer, he's not
a police officer; no-O'Hara doesn't moss around. He's with the
big boys. The United Stales Government. A Treasury agent.
With O'Hara (Janssen) working on -cases in various divisions of
the Treasury (Treasury Customs, Secret Service and Internal
Revenue) the show results in an extreme dedication to the
enforcement of law and order, no matter who or what suffers in
the process, including the viewing audience.
THE MOST NOTICEABLE POINT about the show is the
heavy, heavy hand of Webb, which can be seen throughout the
show; shortly clipped, direct dialogue, a minimum of actor and
audience rapport and few transitional scenes. Of course, this, like
all of Webb's shows, is supposed to be the "realistic drama"- no
frills or false adornments in this, "just the facts."
Luckily, O'Hara comes out a little more liberal. True you do
still have the Joe Friday-type lines and scripts, but at least
Janssen has been allowed some character.
Janssen still comes across with his heavily-lidded eyes and
throaty mumbling (which he evidently can't shake after his
several years as a fugitive) but has since added a pair of nice long
sideburns which are not normally included in Webb's conservative
character mold.
IN THE SHOW'S SEASON OPENER O'Hara and a fellow
Treasury Agent, played by George Takei (remember Lt. Sulu
from Star Trek) become front men for an import-export business,
their cover while trying to make contact with a group of heroin
smugglers who have a multi-million dollar load shipment due.
After a couple of deaths, the contact is finally made. O'Hara
sets the smugglers up, and as the soundtrack bursts forth with a
rousing patriotic-type tune, the Treasury agents converge and
capture the smugglers. Case closed.
All the characters in the show are one-dimensional. The
smugglers were all cold, colorless villians. The Treasury agents
were all-business, pure-hearted protectors of America.
THE SECOND SHOW was a little better. This time O'Hara
joins a ring of gun-runners who are transporting stolen firearms
across state lines. This show seemed very similar to the first one,
except that every now and then one got the impression O'Hara
actually enjoyed his job of tracking the criminals down and
setting them up for the kill.
Like most shows produced by Webb O'Hara, United States
Treasury will probably be a hit. I can't foresee it attracting too
many college viewers, but then college viewers are not in a
majority. Those same law and order types who watched Dragnet
and are still watching Adam-12, will probably watch O'Hara.
What more can I say?
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The Daily Nobraslcan needs
one qualified, independent writer to work out of its
East Campus office. East campus resident preferred.
Apply to News Editor, 34 Nebraska Union, ext. 2589.
PAGE 10
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1971