Arts & Entertainment
Eastwood, Hackman shoot up western
"Umorgiven
By Gerry Beltz
Staff Reporter
“Unforgivcn,” (Edgcwood 3, Douglas 3)
produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, brings
together some of the best veteran performers
that Hollywood has to offer, including Gene
Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Har
ris.
Unfortunately, Eastwood couldn’t quite fig
ure out what to do with them and the film
wanders constantly (for more than two hours) in
search of some sort of direction to follow.
Eastwood, Freeman, Harris and newcomer
Jaimz Woolvett all play various types of gun
slingers lured to Big Whiskey, Wyo., where a
S1000 reward has been offered for the deaths of
the two men responsible for cutting up the face
of a local prostitute.
The local sheriff Bill Daggett (Hackman)
attempts to keep the peace In the town through
some good ol* brute force and intimidation —
public beatings, and so the reward money is put
up by the young woman’s co-workers.
Eastwood plays William Munny, an aging
gunslinger who has killed more people than he
can remember, whether he was drunk or not.
Now a Kansas pig farmer with two children, he
hasn’t touched a drop or a gun in 11 years, but
is haunted by his past.
The word of the reward brings him out of
retirement to join his old partner Ned Logan
(F reeman) and the young, brash Schofield Kid
(Woolvctt).
Together they all ride towards Big Whiskey
and together they deal with each other’s per
sonal ticks and quirks in their chosen profes
sion.
All the performers in “Unforgivcn” do ex
ceptional work, especially Eastwood. He’s a
creaky gunslinger who can’t hold his pistol or
horse steady. He also continually battles his
past, attempting to keep from becoming what
he once was.
Freeman is good playing the role of Logan,
but we don’t get to sec very much of him.
Hackman’s portrayal of Daggett is wonder
ful. His character is one of absolute power and
corruption, but keeps a sense of humor about
him to make people think he is an OK type of
guy
Richard Harris’ performance in the movie as
the glory-seeking “English Bob” is good, but
his appearance in the movie was surprising
because his character had no real impact or
purpose in the movie at all.
“Unforgiven” is full of violence, adult situ
ations and oodles of profanity. It displays the
darker side of the time period and is not a movie
to take the young ones to.
Raising Cain Abel ■
to star at box office I
“Raising Cain”
By Gerry Beltz
Staff Reporter
After his extremely mediocre ver
sion of “Bonfire Of The Vanities” and
the nol-so-successful “Casualties Of
War,” Brian De Palma snaps back to
his pscudo-Hitchcock directorial style
with “Raising Cain” (Cinema Twin,
12th and P streets).
movif
Dc Palma’s style, which brought
him success in movies such as “Car
rie” and “Dressed to Kill,” features
erratic camera angles, fine lines sepa
rating what is dream and what is real
ity and a truly eerie topic, have all
returned with a vengeance.
At the helm of this story is John
Lithgow as Carter. He’s a child psy
chologist and a very nice, attentive
father, who isalso nuttier than aChrist
mas fruitcake.
Carter’s problem is that he suffers
from a multiple-personality disorder
that causes him to sec and talk to his
''twin brother” Cain.
Cain is Carter’s bad side. If some
thing bad or questionable needs to be
done, Cain cither goads Carter into
doing it or borrows Carter’s clothes
and commits the act himself.
“I guess I’ll be you for awhile,”
Cain says with a devilish grin.
Usually Cain is dressed in black,
complete with sunglasses and ciga
rette. He has a sinister voice, a dia
bolical laugh and is the personifica
tion of true wickedness.
Cain and Carter are “working to
gether” to recruit children for their
father’s (also played by Lithgow) re
search on child psychological devel
opment.
This scenario includes Cain and
Carter kidnapping children from a
local playground and disposing of the
parents bodies.
Another of Carter’s problems is
that his Dad committed suicide many
years ago.
Unfortunately, Carter’s wife Jenny
(Lolita Davidovich) has rekindled an
affair with Jack (Steven Bauer) and
Carter/Cain finds out about it.
Lithgow is terrific in this movie.
He evokes sympathy for Carter, who
docsn ’ t have the backbone to stand up
toCain, while at the same time hypno
tizes the audience with his portrayal
of Cain.
Also turning in a credible perfor
mance is Frances Stcmhagcn as Doc
tor Waldheim, a former colleague of
Carter’s father.
She clears up a lot of the confusion
in the movie and also adds a bit of
comic relief: Sadly, her character is
underused and introduced late in the
movie. s
Dc Palma is tne real master oi mis
movie. He makes use of some slow
motion photography, freaky lighting
and gets inside the thoughts of his
characters to move the story along.
He also shocks the audience from
time to time.
One welcome change from the typi
cal “dual-personality” movie in “Rais
ing Cain” is that the personality switch
doesn’t always happen off-screen.
At one point, Cain takes over for
Carter as he walks down the hallway
towards the bedroom. Not a word is
spoken, yet the audience knows what
has transpired almost instantaneously.
Also, as might be expected with a
De Palma flick, there is some blood,
a few adult situations and a lot of
downright spookines$.
Thoroughbred racing season begins today
Lincoln’s live thoroughbred
racing season starts at 6 p.m. to
day, with the $22,500 Inaugural
Breeders’ Cup stakes at six fur
longs.
The 14*day meet will run today
through Aug. 30, racing Wedncs- IJ
day through Sunday. Post lime will
be at 6 p.m. weekdays and at 2 p.m.
during the weekend. |
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