Paga 14
Daily Nebraskan
Thursday, February 9,1034
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30 PBS3B
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'Stan GO9 SioiLCTmg, Mmecesssiy
Special Screening
A ROBERT CHARTOFF-IRWIN WINKLER PRODUCTION
Of A PHILIP KAUFMAN FILM
"THE RIGHT STUFF" CHARLES FRANK SCOTT GLENN
ED HARRIS LANCE HENRIKSEN
SCOH PAULIN DENNIS QUAID SAM SHEPARD
FRED WARD KIM STANLEY
BARBARA HERSHEY VERONICA CARTWRIGHT
PAMELA REED Music by BILL CONTI
Directof of Photography CALEB DESCHANEL
Based on the Book by TOM WOLFE
Produced by IRWIN WINKLER and ROBERT CHARTOFF
Written for the Screen and Directed by PHILIP KAUFMAN
A LADO COMPANY Bf LEASE
MSEIECTEO IMtAIBES
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Limited number of seats available
Pick up your passes at
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Th Ladd Compan
Meriel Hemingway cad Eric Roberts
approach the climactic moment in Star 80.
Review by Wcrd 7, Triplctt III
As the first audience for the Lincoln screening of
Bob Fosse's Star 80 began to disperse, a woman
noticed a couple she knew waiting in the State Thea
tre lobby.
"So how is it?" the female member of the couple
asked.
The woman who had just come out of the theater
took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "It was
horrible," she said. "It's just a horrible movie."
The majority of that crowd, and likely many oth
ers leaving the State, were saying either something
like that or nothing at all. In a way, it's an accurate
evaluation. What happened to Dorothy Stratten, the
1 980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, was horrible and
the Fosse film version tries not to spare any details.
But the film itself is not that horrible. Only a little
unnecessary.
A little unnecessary because Stratten's story doesn't
turn out to be all that terribly interesting. Mariel
Hemingway does a credible job playing the simple,
Canadian teen-ager turned sex queen, but the role is
flat enough to negate the acting performance.
It's unnecessary because, if you're interested in
seeing thi3 film, you probably know how the story
ends. It's a rather self-defeating attitude to start a
movie with, so Fosse takes it head on and remind3
you all through the movie what lies ahead for Strat- -ten
and her husband, Paul Snider. Scenes of Snider
covered with Stratten's blood and cursing every
thing in creation are stuck between scenes and actu
ally serve as transitions from one scene to the next.
Stratten is working at a Dairy Queen when Snider,
played by Eric Roberts, discovers her. He takes her
to her high school prom, and soon shows Polaroid
shots of her to professional photographers with the
immediate objective of getting Stratten in Hugh
Hefner's centerfold.
Through a series of cons and lies, Snider does just
that and soon has Stratten and himself in the mid
dle of a Hefner party. He turns to buying cars (one
with a license plate "Star SO") and starts a series of
doomed businesses while Stratten's career blooms.
At her career's apex, she meets director Aram
Nicholas (in real life Peter Bogdanovich, who has yet
to finish his own screenplay on the Stratten story
called The Killing of the Unicorn). Their affair in
New York, while Snider wallows in self-pity, jealousy
and failure in California, eventually leads to the
killings.
Keep in mind Fosse continues to cut back and
forth to the story and to the scene where Snider has
already killed Stratten. The effect is a eerie feeling
that snuffs out what happiness and humor the
audience could have enjoyed had the ending not
been so publicized. In a way, the "in happier days"
scenes of Dorothy's interviews and movies are dil
uted when you know each sign of success is another
step on Stratten's path to her grave. .
Because there is nothing to be learned from Strat
ten's story (except, maybe, stay away from creeps
with slick greased hair) you have to wonder what
the purpose of the movie is. Perhaps if I had seen
Stratten's layout or any of her movies, I wouldn't feel
that way. But elevating her to martyr status seems
to be the only way to get any enthusiasm going for
Star 80.
To the filmmaker's credit, Roberts does a haunt
ing job as Snider. The film leaves no doubt that the
man didn't have an ounce of good in him, but some
how Roberts stirs a compassion for his character, a
feeling that he was more a victim of circumstances
in a world he couldn't handle than the two-bit sleaze
you would imagine. Not that you feel sorry for him.
But after the immediate reaction of frustration and
sorrow for Stratten, I no longer felt sorry for her,
either.
Continued on Paa 15
AMERICAN CANCER
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When Bruce McCandless took his
walk through outer space, he went
untethered, but not necessarily alone.
In the first place, he brought with him
the physical baggage of a television
camera. More importantly, he brought
with him the psychological baggage of
a whole lifetime of fictional pan-galactic
hyinks. The television camera
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:-- I!
might have shown us a breathtaking
view of the black void of outer space,
but the camera deceives. Not only is
space not a black void, it is downright
crowded with everything we have ever
imagined it to contain. Far from being
alone, McCandless had to struggle to
make room for himself out there.
(Thescene: Older space. BruceMcCand
less, making his merry way through
the darkness, sees somebody waving
and shouting at him. It is Luke Sky
walker). . "Hey you, you with the stars in your
eyes," Skywalker screams, as he speeds
toward McCandless by the power of a
backpack similar to the one McCand
less wears. "Get out of my cosmos."
McCandless, too' stunned to stop
and wonder what anything else is
doing out there with him, responds,
"I'm on a mission "
"Sure, on a mission," Skywalker says
scornfully. "So am I. I'm here to tell you
to get out while the getting's good."
McCandless decides there must be a
war or something going on. "Don't
worry about a thing," he shouts. "IH be
gone in 15 minutes."
"No you won't, Skywalker says. "You'll
be back in the space shuttle in 15 min
utes, but you'll still be out here forever.
Something tells me I'm already too late
to save you."
The logic of the conversation was
pitching and rolling like the flight sim
ulator back in Houston. It was time for
a straight answer. "I dont know who
you are or how you got out here, but
I'm a stranger here myself and I want
to know what the problem is," asked
McCandless.
"The problem is once youVe been
here, you can't go back to being Bruce
McCandless. Gordo Cooper was right;
those people on the other side of that
television camera of yours want to see
Buck Rogers. Well, you're Buck Rogers
now, kiddo. Whattya' think, you can
just go home now, visit the schleps
next door and maybe see their slides of
the trip to the Grand Canyon? Friend,
you are the main attraction in the
grandest canyon of them all. The
schleps next door will probably take
slides of you. YouVe been there, as they
say. Ate in the luncheonette of the
Starship Enterprise, you have. Used
the men's room of the Death Star. Sent
a postcard from the restaurant at the
end of the universe. Swapped anec
dotes about high school with my favor
ite Martian." Borrowed a dime from..."
"You made your point," McCandless
said, getting impatient.
"Well, I wish you'd tell me what my
point was then," Skywalker said.
"That I'm not just Bruce McCandless
anymore. I saw The Right Stuff. Hell's a
fire, John Glenn probably hasn't been
off the ground in anything that didn't
have a stewardess on it in 15 years,
and they still draw pictures of him in
his astronaut outfit for the political
cartoons.
"You think just because we've been
to outer space well no longer imagine
about it. What a crock. We have hu
mans in France, and we still lie to our
selves about what France is like. You'll
just have to become a more convincing
liar. So don't try to tell me I'm turning
into science fiction. I'm telling you
you're turning into science fact."