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daily nebraskan
thursday, january 29, 1981
Wilderness battles bureaucracy in nature flick
By Pete Schmitz
Mountain Family Robinson is a nature-travelogue film
that follows the adventures of a nice middle-class family
from Los Angeles. After being fed up with the rat race in
the big city, Skip Robinson takes his wife and two kids to
live off the land.
The wilderness is such a good living and learning exper
ience for teen-age daughter Jenny, and the little son Toby,
that the sister intelligently proclaims to her brother,
"We're so lucky to be here with nature!" And so follows
the diddly-dah musical score that would make John
Denver envious.
Just when things are going fine for Skip, Pat and their
two darling children, a big menace comes along to disrupt
their lives. No, it's not a ferocious animal. Dad can take
care of that. Nor is it the unpredictable acts of Mother
Nature. Dad can take care of that, too. What's really
threatening the existence of the Robinsons is the govern
ment !
Instead of coming dressed in a black cape and stove
pipe hat, the villainous bureaucrat arrives with orders for
the family to make good use of the land if they don't
want to get kicked off.
"What are we going to do Skip?" cries Mom. But even
Dad can't do anything about that darn representative
from the government (boo, boo; hiss, hiss) who promises
to be back as he flies off in his helicopter.
Crusty oF man
Meanwhile, Boomer comes to visit. This crusty ol'
mountain man, who takes a bath only once a year, tells
his friends they have to find valuable minerals in order to
satisfy the government (boo, boo; hiss, hiss) and all their
"legal mumbo-jumbo they put so much stock in."
As Boomer goes off into the mountains searching for
gold, little Toby is left awe-struck-hoping that someday
he too will be a mountainman since he doesn't like girls
anyway.
Just in case you got the impression this is a family of
anarchists, there is a heartening sequence where the
Robinsons, dressed in patriotic colors, go out on a Fourth
of July picnic that is initiated by two rifle shots from Dad
as he stands next to Old Glory.
As 1 joyously watched this family surviving in the wild
erness without electricity or shopping centers, I was
struck by their natural cleanliness, pressed flannel shirts
and jeans, as well as their beautiful hair. How they kept
their hair styled without blow-dryers I'll never know. I
guess that goes along with being an all-American family.
Mom leaves home
But wait! Mom can't take it anymore! With her garden
and clothes line all messed up by the storm, she takes her
cue from Kramer vs. Kramer and Ordinary People and
leaves home.
Because Mom leaves the family, little Toby nearly falls
off a cliff, but Dad rescues him by grabbing the boy by his
overall straps. The motherless boy gets into more trouble
as he runs away the next night to join Boomer, only to
be met by a hungry wolf. But don't worry, this Montes-sori-school
graduate fends off the animal with his torch
until Dad comes along to finish things off.
Just in time, Mom comes back home, bringing a hot
tub for her handyman to put up for them and the neigh
borhood bear. Luckily, Pat's mom told her to go back to
the mountains since she belongs with her family.
But once again, that darn representative from the
government comes back. Even the family dog growls at
him now. This time he has papers for eviction.
Without ruining the end for you, I'll just add that
Boomer's smarts, Dad's virtue and Mom's tears (that
attempt to soften the nasty bureaucrat) might save the
day for our endearing family. But then again, Ronnie
Right wasn't around yet to set things straight. So see what
happens for yourself.
If you're looking for some good fun, and if you're just
plain tired of big government (but not patriotism), go see
Mountain Family Robinson. It will either inspire or amuse
you.
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The legendary Muddy Waters will be headlining the
Fourth Annual Great Plains Blues Festival Feb. 26 at
8 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall.
Recognized around the world as one of the most in
fluential electric blues artists of all time, Waters'
appearance follows that of such other blues legends as
Opening for Waters will be Lincoln based band, The
Heartmurmurs. Tickets for the Great Plains Blues Fes
tival go on sale Wednesday, Feb. 4 at Kimball Hall,
John Lee Hooker, Albert King and Sonnie Terry and
Brownie McGhee at the blues festival.
Dirt Cheap and both Student Unions. Prices are $8 for
students and $9 general admission.
Pro fessor assists in classic Mozart production
By Penelope M. Smith
Opera has always been an essential part of the harmony
in Hans Beer's life. Beer, associate professor of opera and
conductor at the University of Southern California School
of Music, was in Lincoln last week to assist the UNL
School of Music's production of Mo.art's Abduction from
the Seraglio.
Beer has been conducting and teaching operas for near
ly 30 years in America and abroad. Born in Germany, he
came to the United States in 1955 on a Fullbright schol
arship after studying 3 years in Munich as a master stud
ent with composer Carl Orff.
profile
Friday he spoke of Mozart and how he was able to as
sist the cast of the Seraglio for the forthcoming product
ion. Beer said UNL was lucky to have Gregg Tallman,
UNL's opera teacher, and because of the UNL teacher's
skill. Beer's job became merely that of an objective aud
ience and guide in strengthening performances.
"Gregg is a stage director with marvelous imaginat
ion." Beer said "He concentrates at every angle of a
score, I have been helping to solidify some of the soloists
but they are very well prepared."
Beer said that one of the greatest problems any young
cast must face is that of experience.
"In general any young person has no experience, it
takes 20 or 30 years of doing opera and not exactly know
ing how to do it before some of this experience is gained."
Historical comparison
To clarify his point, Beer compared opera to a differ
ent field of study, history.
"You give a lecture in history, for instance on Alex
ander the Great, you tell what your professors have taught
you, his biography," said Beer. "But later you begin to
understand the conflicts, you place him in the context of
his time, you deal with the great Persians and India, simp
ly because you know more, you have experienced more,
found out more. It is this way with opera, after you do
20 or 30 operas, perhaps fall in love, and meet new prob
lems, it does not become easier but the approach becomes
easier."
In the production of the Seraglio Beer sees Mozart as
one of the difficulties for the young performers.
"The older we become the more we realize how dif
ficult to perform Mozart really is. Maybe he is the most
difficult because everything is exposed, clean and clear.
Operas like the Seraglio are tlie ideal of classic beauty, it
looks simple on the outside and the simpler something
is the more difficult it is to do," he explained.
"Mozart is like a Matisse charcoal drawing." Beer ex
plained. "It took Matisse two minutes to do the ab
stract of a figure but 50 years to learn how to do it, to
learn simplicity."
"The drawing like the opera is wide open to the imag
ination but it compels you to frame your imagination
within a few simple lines, it makes you concentrate on the
small things." he explained.
Flexible rules
In working with the cast of the Seraglio, Beer said he
has attempted to show them that each opera has its own
set of rules that are flexible within the realms of temp
erament. This flexibility Beer defines as not a tolerance,
which is the willingness to countenance another approach
even though you believe it is wrong, but the recognition
of different approaches in search of what he describes as
the composers great ideal.
"Master works like the Seraglio are more than little
pieces of entertainment, there are two challenges in the
work, the work and the performer." Beer said. "Each per
former must realize his temperament, and so must each
director, he may have an ideal but it may not be suited
for the performer. This is not a quality statement but
one of temperament." Beer explained.
"Temperament is essential, you must never imitate in
an opera but go back to your core, in this I pass on my
experience." he said. "We must go back to the senses
because there is no mathematical definition of opera,
in the senses we have deeper insight and have learned
more about life."