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Fritz
X-rated
failure
lorry, kubert
Welcome back Students
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Sha Na Na . . . greased and ready.
So you're back on campus after
three-and-a-half months of boring bliss. And
around Lincoln you see signs in business
windows saying "Welcome back students, we
like you." How about '"We like your
money"?
So you're back on campus. With or
without money. And everything seems the
same, nothing changes. What are you going
to do with your free time?
Well, the Union Weekend Films
committee is starting early this year, even to
the extent of booking in a Clint Eastwood
Special into a weekday instead of a
weekend. They're offering The Good, The
Bad & The Ugly and The Beguiled in the
Nebraska Union small auditorium at 7 and
10 p.m. Wednesday. And on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday they're giving us The
Andromeda Strain and part of a Buck
Rogers serial.
Other movie finds include the return of
two goodies, Easy Rider to the State Theater
and The Graduate to Cinema 1. If you
missed either of these flicks the first time
around, make sure you don't make the same
mistake twice.
If this is your thing, the final Grandstand
show at the Nebraska State Fair will feature
Glen Campbell in a Wednesday night
concert.
More in my line are some of the concerts
coming to Pershing Auditorium. The
delectable Roberta Flack appears Sept. 8,
the raunchy Sha Na Na Sept. 9, Cheech and
Chong Sept. 22 and Black Oak Arkansas
Sept. 29.
The Howell Theatre season has been
announced and offers a wide variety. The
opening play is Front Page directed by Orlan
Larson, foil wed by The Caucasian Chalk
Circle directed by William Morgan, Abelard
and Heloise directed by Hal Floyd and The
Memorandum directed by Tice Miller.
As usual, season and individual tickets
will be available for these productions.
Season tickets should be on sale by Oct. 1,
maybe sooner. Front Page premieres Oct.
20.
The Lincoln Community Playhouse
season opens with You Know I Can't Hear
You with The Water Running, followed by
Cactus Flower, A Delicate Balance, Strange
Bedfellows and The King and I.
Also, held over since this summer, the
UNL School of Music is presenting Rossini's
The Barber of Seville on Friday at 8 p.m.
and Sunday at 3 p.m. Students tickets are
$2.00.
Finally, for any budding fine arts people
out there, if you have any fiction, poetry,
black and white illustrative work, or photos,
feel free to send them to Bart Becker, Daily
Nebraskan, Room 34 Nebraska Union.
3
Cinema 1: "What's Up Doc"
1,3, 5,7,9
Cinema 2: 'The Candidate"
1,3:05,5:10, 7:15,9:20
CooperLincoln: 'Where
Does It Hurt?" 7:45, 9:20
Embassy: 'The Liberated
Woman" 11, 12:45, 2:30,
4:15, 6,7:45,9:30,11:15
State: "Easy Rider" 1,3, 5,
7,9
Stuart: "The Salzburg
Connection" 1:30, 3:30, 5:30,
7:30, 9:30
Varsity: "Fritz the Cat" 1,
2:18, 4, 5:42, 7:24, 9:06
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SHA-NA-fJA
Saturday, Sept. 9, at 8 P.M.
PERSHING AUDITORIUM
ALL SEATS ADVANCE $4.00
AT DOOR $5.00
ORDER BY MAIL; Enclot monty ordtrorcoiHItrt
chock for amount of purchase plut 25' handling chorg
ond Mtf-oddrttd itamptd tnvlop and moil toi
SHA-NA-NA TicbtOffico
PERSHING AUDITORIUM, P. O. Box 81 126, Lincoln,
Ntbr. 68501 TICKETS NOW ON SALE PERSHING
BOX OFFICE, 12 Noon til 6 Doily or may t ordtrtd oti
K&m i Pstot Dwittw t Critwiy
WrtCfcMa
TW Bah hi Ctlcwty
BfMili Rt Btyt.
He view by Bart Becker
Fritz the Cat, an animated X-rated feature based on the
characters created by Robert Crumb, is touted as an amusing,
diverting, handsomely executed poke at recent youthful
attitudes. The PR for the movie, as might be expected, is a
low-down packet of balderdash and drivel.
The Steve Krantz production, adapted and directed by Ralph
Bashki, relates to the Crumb original about the same way
Reader's Digest Condensed Books might relate to Personae.
Fritz is a college-age cat who dabbles in drugs, radical politics
and hedonism. Mostly he dabbles in the former two hoping for a
little of the latter. He's as phony as a "learn to draw" course.
Crumb's character is obnoxious but lovable. And his comic
situations are always good for a chuckle or a guffaw.
Unluckily for everybody, Bashki's adaptation misses the point.
It's a dreary treatment of the Fritz story. The film traces Fritz's
sexual and political exploits from an East Village pot party to an
orthodox synagogue to a Harlem bar brawl and riot to an odyssey
across America climaxed by an encounter with a bike-riding
neo-Nazi rabbit.
Crumb has the ability to explore the seamy side of life and the
shady characters involved in it while maintaining a level of humor
which can make the whole experience palatable. And Crumb is
able to do it both graphically and through his stories' plots.
But the movie scenes are generally disappointing. They are
-,nressing, with no semblance of humor to help pull them out of
the iter.
Bashki obviously made the film solely to cash in on Crumb's
popularity and to feed the American public its favorite dish a
peek at what the hippies are up to. The film unfortunately is
cashing in as he expected.
Much of it is an affront to the intelligence of anyone who has
ever: 1) taken a toke of the devil-weed, 2) been black, or even
said so much as "hello" to a black person, 3) had any vague
connection with the counter-culture, or 4) felt any affection for
Robert Crumb and his characters.
Some of the graphic work and animation is dynamite; for
example, a pool shooting sequence in which a middle-aged black
character expounds some philosophy for the wide-eyed Fritz.
Most of it is competent, but common, and not up to Crumb's
standards. Still, it's better than most animation available the
general exception being Disney's works.
If you have any affection in your cold hearts for the work of
R. Crumb (the old left-hander) you'll be quite disappointed in
Fritz the Cat.
Crumb himself had no part in making the mqvie and has since
commented that it is one of the worst things he's ever seen. He's
also suing the film's makers-likely for defamation of Fritz's
character, if not of his own.
Krantz and Kashki are to be commended for the undertaking
simply because it is a pioneer work. But they should be
condemned for botching the job.
In short, it wasn't worth visiting for.
Frit . . . csHSstj crocnJ.
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SEPTEMBER 8th at 8:00 p.m.
SEPTEMBER 10th at 3:00 p.m.
page 14
daily nebraskan
tuesday, September 5, 1972
