Daily Nebraskan
Friday, January 14, 1933
Arts 8
Entertainment
8
Nindeai' piwiiesu ufirre'We aire mt saved a'i all'
By Steve Abariotes
"We are saved today by freeing our spirit from resign
ation to the existing disorder. "
lgnazio Silone
aga
Well, not quite. For when Silone's proverb is cast
ainst "In The Kine of Prussia." Fmile de Antonio's
latest film ahmit nuclear nrotest and civil disobedience.
we find, quite uncomfortably, that we are not saved at all.
"In the King of Prussia" is a docu-drama and an ad
mittedly biased film written and directed by de Antonio,
who appeared on campus last semester to discuss his
work, "Point of Order," "Millhouse: A Wliite Comedy"
and "In The Year Ot The Pig" are the films that were
shown here.
Review
"In The King Of Prussia" follows the crusade of eight
peace activists, dubbed the Plowshares Eight, (three
clergymen and a sister among them), into a General
Electric re-entry systems factory in King of Prussia, Pa.
Immediately upon entering the plant, they subdued the
man in charge of security. Then with concealed hammers,
they battered noseconc housings being produced for first
strike nuclear weapons and sprinkled them with vials of
their own blood. Afterward, they assumed a more tradi
tional form of religious service, singing hymns and pray
ing, while they wait for the police to arrive. -
The film is comprised of documentary protest footage
and a dramatic re-enactment of the courtroom
proceedings which followed.
The courtroom scenes feature Martin Sheen as the
rather abusive judge, the Plowshares Eight as them
selves and seventy New York actors filling roles as law
yers, judges, police, jurors and GE employees. Sheen,
wmnathetiG.lQtheDiiit of the film, aareed to peiforjn
The GE employees are depicted as unimaginative
lackeys; they refer repeatedly to the hilarious-looking
cone-shaped missile housings that are produced for the
trial as "GE property," still swearing to company secur
ity. This brings up an interesting question. Does the com
pany oath that an employee takes in his work supersede
the sacred oath of the courtroom? In this case it did.
De Antonio, known for his juxtapositional, conflict
creating crosscutting, does not need to apply his
technique here. The good and the evil confront each other
in the same room at the same moment. Much of the film
is rough and sloppy because it was filmed with a hand
held camera, yet the visual movement of the first half of
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Emile de Antonio directing Martin Sheen on the set of "In the King of Prussia.
the film advances with a kind of scrappy, heavy momen-
titm
The octet, which included the Rev. Daniel Berrigan,
61, of the Society of Jesus and his ex-priest brother
Philip, 58, took its name from a biblical prophet's words:
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares."
Indeed, the film has a very spiritual feeling about it that
the camera completely respects, along with a flavor of
the 1960s draft card burnings, in which the Berrigan bro
thers also participated.
The Plowshares Eight argued that the burglary of the
GE nuclear warhead nosecones was an act that was done
in the name of mankind, regardless of the law, because
of the intended use of the warheads. They were found
guilty on all counts.
The Rev. Berrigan gives an amazing, dramatic perform
ance in his own defense, completely spontaneous and
without a script.
The King of Prussia area is, according to a long-time
resident, probably one of the most conservative areas on
the East Coast. As such, the area is still devoted to the
conservative ideal that property takes precedent over
people.
The music, a somber ballad, is by Jackson Browne.
There is also a special cameo appearance by New York's
premiere graffiti artist, "Futura 2000," who jumps over
a brick wall and spray paints the title of the movie on it.
"In The King Of Prussia" is at the Sheldon Film
Theatre tonight at 7 and 9, Saturday and Sunday at
3 p.m.
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Trudy was defrosting her refrigerator
freezer Sunday afternoon.
She knew it was time. The plants along
the window sill drooped a little more each
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time the refrigerator door opened and
darkness rose to the ceiling in small clouds.
A good-size glacier had formed below
the ice service tray and Trudy was
removing the moldy baking soda box
from the second shelf when the large mass
of ice dropped and crashed through the
first and second shelves of the old Friei
daire. Part of the tiny Himalayas formation
caught Trudy's arm and broke it in three
places. Trudy dropped the soda box and
it slid across the floor with bits and pieces
of iceberg.
A steak Trudy couldn't remember
eating but wasn't able to find 16 weeks
ago bobbed towards the kitchen door
along with the rest of Siberia.
A small snow-capped mountain
surrounded by tiny islands floated on top
of the vegetable drawer.
An oddly formed conglomeration of
tomatoes, cauliflower, fuzz and green
penicillin screamed from inside the veget
able bin. Lassie, the chihuahua, growled,
then retreated to his rug under the dining
room table.
Trudy poured boiling water into the
freezer and began shoveling the floor
into the sink. Sh& tried to remember if
Linda Beermann or Dale Munson had men
tioned blizzard conditions on the noon
news.
After sprinkling salt across the floor,
Irudy set her blow dryer at 250 and
placed it in the freezer.
She sat on the kitchen counter eating
half a bowl of Jell-O, a hard boiled Easter
egg, a square of hard cheese, some jam, a
cube of restaurant butter and some frozen
Halloween candy.
The freezer dried. Trudy wiped down
the fridge walls, cleaned the vegetable bin
and shined the handle. She returned the
ketchup and mustard to their home in the
door and filled the ice trays. The pop
corn sat on the second shelf and vitamins
went next to it. Trudy looked at her clean
Fngidaire and thought that it was, perhaps,
a good time to go grocery stropping . . .
"Let's see, Ell need some tomatoes. Cauli
flower sounds good ..."