Wednesday, December 10, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 11
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NETV's Winterfest ' a mixed bag
This December, with winter's chilly
days and long, dark evenings upon us,
the Nebraska ETV Network presents a
mixed bag of seasonal specials, nature
documentaries and a variety of musical
offerings, from big band to rock, during
its nine-day "Winterfest" celebration,
which began Saturday.
Sponsored by Nebraskans for Public
Television, Inc., "Winterfest" Dec. 6
through 14 is the annual early
winter programming celebration to in
crease viewer awareness of Nebraska
public television and encouraging
membership in the NPTV citizen sup
port organization.
Here are some of the highlights of
the "Winterfest" celebration:
O A traditional public television
seasonal special, "The Nutcracker,"
airs Wednesday, at 7 p.m. Mikhail
Baryshnikov stars in this American
Ballet Theatre production of the en
chanting holiday story about young
Clara, whose Christmas Eve dreams
conjure up dancing toys, battling toy
soldiers and a prince. Gelsey Kirkland
dances the role of Clara, and Alexander
Minz is Herr Drosselmeyer.
O Live performances by the late
"King of Swing," Benny Goodman, are
featured in "Benny Goodman: Let's
Dance A Musical Tribute" at 8:30
p.m. Wednesday. This special program
includes performances and comments
by Goodman's fellow musicians and
contemporaries plus film clips of Good
man in his earlier years.
O Cameras follow a historical and
dangerous aviation journey, in which a
40-year-old veteran World War II bomber
pilot attempts to fly from San Fran
cisco to Sydney, Australia a dis
tance far beyond his aircraft's designed
capabilities on "Ghosts of the Sky"
Thursday at 7 p.m.
O London's Royal Albert Hall is the
site for "The Everly Brothers Reunion
Concert" airing at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Among the songs performed by the rock
'Heartbreak Ridge' a piece of trash
By Stew Magnuson
Staff Reporter
"Heartbreak Ridge," Clint Eastwood's
latest adventure flick, is a piece of
trash. OK, I admit I'm a "light years to
the left of liberal DN staffer," and the
chance that I was going to like "Heart
break Ridge" was infintisimal at best.
But I have to ask myself, "If I were a
right-wing militarist or an easily enter
tained 15-year-old boy, would I have
liked this movie?" I can honestly say
no. "Heartbreak Ridge" is still quite
silly.
"Heatbreak Ridge" centers around
Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway, an
irritable longtime Marine vet, who
speaks in a whisper due to a throat
wound he picked up in one of his many
battle experiences. He's not an entirely
straight Marine, though; he has a knack
for getting extremely drunk, and
beating up superior officers and urin
ating on police cars. Due to his latest
brush with the law, Highway is trans
ferred to his original unit, where he's
put in charge of a squadron of rebellious
Marines, who are lazy after suffering
from a weak commanding officer.
Highway spends the rest of the movie
shipping these "ladies" into real men
and Marines. To earn their respect,
ft
'n' roll duo in the 1983 concert are
"Bird Dog," "Cathy's Clown" and "All I
Have to Do Is Dream."
O The Everly Brothers continue at
9:10 p.m. Thursday with "The Everly
Brothers Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey." The
lives, careers and families of the famed
duo are the focus of this documentary
that leads up to their 1983 reunion
concert.
O The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
and opera diva Shirley Verrett present
a holiday treat from the Tabernacle in
Salt Lake City on "Christmas with the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Shirley
Verrett" Friday at 7 p.m. Among the
seasonal favorites performed are "Hark,
the Herald Angels Sing," "0 Come All
Ye Faithful" and Mozart's "Alleluia"
from "Exultante Jubilate."
O Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are
united for the first time in the 1942 film
"Holiday Inn" Friday, at 8 p.m. The film
is about a song-and-dance trio that
breaks up when one of them(Crosby)
"retires" to a Connecticut farm where
he stages shows on the holidays and
loafs the remainder of the year. It's not
long before the remainder of the act
Astaire and Virginia Dale reap
pears. Irving Berlin's Academy Award
winning "White Christmas" makes its
cinematic debut in this motion picture.
O At 6 p.m. Saturday, noted econ
omist Louis Rukeyser and a panel of
experts analyze the new bill on tax
reform and its implications for viewers
over the next year on "Wall Street
Week with Louis Rukeyser: The New
Tax Law and You."
O On the conclusion of Wonder
works' "Anne of Green Gables," airing
at 7 p.m., Saturday, Anne saves the life
of Diana's young sister one wintry
night, and their friendship is renewed.
Later Anne goes off to college and finds
her niche in the academic world.
O Irving Berlin gave Americans a
legacy of songs, such as "There's No
Business Like Show Business," "White
Highway simply does some tough, he
man things such as beating up the big
gest guy in the squadron, and ripping
an earring out of the hipster Stitch
Jone's ear.
Besides this little story, the script
writers threw in some other subplots to
bolster the overall plot that's thinner
than tracing paper.
Highway spends his off-duty hours
wooing his ex-wife, played by Marsha
Mason. Wait! What's this, Clint? Could
it be you finally realized that America
was sick of seeing Sandra Locke in your
movies? He also has two difficult com
manding officers to deal with: a likable
but naive nerd and a hard-ass major,
neither of whom has seen a day of
combat.
Naturally there's a rivalry between
Highway's outfit and the major's elite
fighting force. But this rivalry just isn't
enough to make the first hour and a
half of "Heartbreak Ridge," interest
ing. The renewed romance between
Highway and his wife is cliche and just
plain dull. We also get some glimpses
into Highway's past; all those big wars
and his divorce are supposed to make
me feel sympathy for him. I'm sorry, I
just felt sympathy for myself for having
to sit through this dull movie.
But wait, just when I was thinking
Eastwood in "Heartbreak Ridge'
Christmas" and "God Bless America,"
which reflected the times, changed our
moods, inspired our patriotic fervor
and entertained us when there was lit
tle to make us smile. "Irving Berlin's
America," telecast Saturday at 9 p.m.,
highlights the Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers movies and the wonderful mus
icals of the 1940s with all the memora
ble Berlin melodies that people have
been singing and dancing to for nearly
50 years.
O Rare film footage of legendary
performances show the birth of rock 'n'
roll as it really happened on "Rock and
Roll: The Early Days" Saturday, at 10:50
p.m. Elvis Presley is shown in his first
television appearance on Uncle Mil
tie's show. Other film clips include
appearances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee
Lewis, the. Everly Brothers, Little Ri
chard, Bill Haley, Fats Domino and
Buddy Holly.
O A team of young divers explores
a labyrinth of underwater caves that
form a honeycomb beneath the Carib
bean island of Andros on "Deep into
Blue Holes," Sunday, at 6 p.m.
O The final evening of "Winterfest"
activities continues at 7:05 p.m. Sun
day, with the Vienna Boys Choir and the
Tanglewood Festival Chorus joining
conductor John Williams and the Bos
ton Pops Orchestra for a festival holi
day celebration on "A Christmas at
Pops." Opening with the Vienna Boys
Choir a cappella version of "Adeste
Fideles," the choirs also perform such
favorites as "Silent Night" and "The
Little Drummer Boy." Also on tap is a
visit from Santa Claus and the Tradi
tional Pops audience sing-along.
O "A Passion to Protect," airing
Sunday, at 9:10 p.m., visits the unique
wildlife sanctuary of professional gam
bler John Aspinall in the English coun
tryside. The sanctuary houses more
than 500 wild animals from 79 different
species.
about checking out the video games in
the lobby, the United States invades
Grenada. What luck, now our fighting
boys can prove their mettle by invading
a tiny island country in the Caribbean.
And just after Highway and his old war
buddy were lamenting the fact that the
only wars they fought in were either
ties or losses (Korea and Vietnam).
Now they can hit the beaches and kick
some ass!
Well, you remember the news reports;
that's just what Highway and his Marines
did. They killed off a few of those nasty
Commie Cuban soldiers and went home
to a hero's welcome. Listing all the
little stupid things that happened in
the heat of battle would take too long.
But the commanding officer making a
collect call to the United States to call
in an airstrike is definitely worth
mentioning.
"Now we're not 0-1-1 anymore," High
way's old war buddy proudly says. Well,
heck, why doesn't the United States
just invade every tiny country smaller
than Rhode Island if we want to make
up for a bad war record? That last rid
iculous line was a perfect ending for a
ridiculous movie.
"Heartbreak Ridge" is playing at the
Douglas 3 and is rated R.
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Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers