1
i ff . -f
Alvin Lee. . .lead guitarist and vocalist for Ten Years
After, howls at the group's Friday night performance at
Pershing Municipal Auditorium.
University of Nebraska School of Music presents
Globolinks! 3 Performances Only! November 12
November 14 at 3:00 p.m.
Children $1.00
Students $1.50
Adults $2.00
2
o
Johnny Got Hs Gun
Review by
Bill Wall is
Billy Jack lauds the
American Indian and today's
war-protestine. adolescent by
uniting them in the fight
against ignorance, bigotry and
small-time criminals. Johnny
Cot His Gun shows the horror
of war by dissecting the mind
of a body decimated and made
utterly useless by a war injury.
What do the two shows have
in common? Both employ
cloying sentiment. And both
are blatant anti-war
propaganda. In this regard
Johnnv is far more effective.
Both shows tear at America's
racial and international
conscience.
But Johnny goes too far.
The message is beaten into the
audience's heads over and over.
Too much is made of a good
thing or, rather, of a very bad
thing.
A YOUNG MAN leaves his
mother and two small sisters
(his father has just died), and
an adoring girl to defend
democracy in WW I, and is
literally blown to shreds while
burying a fallen German. Only
his torso remains intact.
He is nursed back to
"health" before the viewers'
Help, Help, The
& 13 at 8:00 p.m.
Kimball Recital Hall
Call 472-3375 for tickets
Box office open 8-5 weekdays
eyes as a textbook case because
it is assumed (due to extensive
head injuries) that he cannot
think, and so will not suffer
the horrible existence his
injuries condemn him to.
But the viewer soon finds
out that e can indeed
think--and imagine and
remember. But he cannot
communicate. As Johnny
"heals" and "lives," between
the world wars, we relive his life,
experience his real and
imaginary accounts of the war,
and take a morbid look at what
Johnny imagines his future to
be.
WHEN JOHNNY finally
learns to communicate by
banging out Morse code with
(what is left of) his lead, those
who led him to war can offer
him absolutely no solution to
his situation. He only longs for
death finally, and when
deprived of that freedom, he is
left between despair and
madness.
Although parts of the show
are technically brilliant and
very effective (especially the
imaginative nightmare
sequences, which are
effectively connected by
images of emptiness and
desertion), the premise of the
show wears thin. Why? Several
reasons.
First, one can only taite so
much horror before it becomes
funny-such is the nature of
I saw the Bob Hope Show Saturday night, but before I say
anything about it, I must commend the members of the Nebraska
Coalition For Peace and Justice who demonstrated against the
Hope show in front of the Coliseum. They acted in a mature and
dignified manner, making their point without hurting their cause.
In any case, the Hope show itself was plagued by many, many
problems.
Opening the show was a group of UNL students called The
Good Time Singers, who reminded me of a bad copy of The New
Christy Minstrels. They butchered several songs including 'Til
Never Fall in Love Again," "Everything is Beautiful" and "Bill
Bailey".
Perhaps they're good for singing at luncheons for the League
of Women Voters, but they're not material for shows like the
Hope show.
Next on stage was vocalist Helena Jackson, a "professional"
member of Hope's show who was as bad, if not worse, than the Good
Time Singers. Hoping to come across as a sexy, sultry vocalist,
Jackson failed- instead she sounded like a poor country -western
singer.
She ruined so many good songs that I was actually happy to
see her leave the stage.
Following Jackson was the introduction of the officers of
Corn Cobs, which was completely -out of place in an
entertainment situation.
Finally Hope made the scene and quipped about UNL football
coach Bob Devaney, the team and Nebraska Okay, Hope can be
funny, and he's truly a professional.
His comic timing is one of the best in the business, but Hope
has one problem. He can be funny in a ten or fifteen minute
monologue, but after an hour he becomes tiring. It's the same
set-up, the same material over and over.
Then, topping off the entire evening was the presentation of
10 coeds with whom Hope "joked.'Tt certainly was a joke-as well
as the most boring part of the show. It was nothing more than a
fashion show for a Lincoln store.
The only redeeming factor of the show was. Bob Beadell and
his band of UNL department music faculty and students.
Considering the conditions they were forced to work under, they
did a good job.
I'm sorry Corn Cobs and everyone else who liked the show,
but basically, the entire evening reminded me of a poor example
of a high school talent show, with all of the worst possible cliches
present.
"Thanks for the memories," but...
Cooperation. . .
Continued from page 1.
approve," he said. "If students
work for that, we're going to
get something."
In a parental survey taken
last year for a proposed
CSL-approved visitation policy,
- overdone
fear-nroducine contrivances in
fiction. Johnny goes too far in
this way
SECOND, THE plot
possibilities contained in a
story of the rebuilding of an
unintelligent mind irreparably
damaged appear to be rather
limited. A slight occasional
dullness is the result, and there
is difficulty in putting together
some of the pieces.
The figure of Jesus (played
by Donald Sutherland) is
handled inventively and
portrayed well, but poorly
integrated into the imaginative
sequences. The special effects
are sometimes weak. For
example, the howling voices
are vaguely comical rather than
horrifying-as they were surely
meant to be-in the Jesus and
prayer sequences.
Jason Robards (as the
father) and Diane Varsi (as the
nurse) deliver excellent
performances, although the
character of Johnny is
unevenly portrayed, possibly
because several different actors
(of several different ages)
portray the role.
Johnny Cot His Gun is
powerful and effusive drama,
but borders at times on the
melodramatic. Director
Trumbo has demanded too
much of his script. The
ineffectually ludicrous is a short
step beyond piercing tragedy.
Trumbo took the step.
56 per cent of the responding
parents approved. That
visitation policy was turned
down by the Regents last
summer, on the recom
mendation of former UNL
Pres. Joseph Soshnik.
PAGE 6
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1971
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
