Oregon daily emerald., January 21, 1982, Page 20, Image 29

4- 4
America’s Best Young Actor?
by Byron Laursen
In real life, Tim Hutton is equalh as
complex as Conrad Jarrett. t his charac
ter in 1980 s multiple Oscar winner.
Ortitrutri People). a guv who looked
like he d sucked an electrified nipple
But Hutton's real-life complexity is be
nevoient He's a mix of talents, all of
w hich he loves to put into plat A good
shooting guard, if NBA-undersized at
six feet and ISO pounds, lie even of
fered his services to the Ampersand
Avengers cit\ league team (currently in
a building year) A capable (a/-/ and
rock drummer, he and old high school
friends love to iam on tunes as de
manding as Round Midnight A child
of divorce, he seems to hold both par
eras in high admiration Typically cast
as a troubled youth, he can evoke
compassion like no one else in the
business Nonetheless his existence is
strictly enviable: a new electric red
Porsche 911SC, a sumptuous Malibu
Colony beach house a brand new
Oscar and Golden Globe Award, no
shortage of female attention, a pre
stigious new film just hitting the
screens
The Stones sing I'm just sitting on a
fence' when 1 step into Hutton s rec
reational vehicle dressing room at 11
a.m. on a mooch-skied day early last
June Hutton is between takes for Taps,
his second feature him. a shared star
billing with the formidable George C
Scott In cadet-style trousers with a
r~r
sideseam stripe Hunon also wears a
1 shin and is smoking the last cigarette
from a pack
"Vou don't smoke, do vav he asks
The question is a cue for his press
agent who has been recumbent on a
naugahvde bench He slumps dutilulh
over to the vehicle s aluminum door
An impish grin overtakes Hutton, who
wa- trvmg to plav the scene coolly
Merit Marlboro anything but
menthol, he instructs, and the press
agent vanishes
la/is is set at Valley Forge Military
Academy, three hundred acres of roll
ing. sloping rural Pennsylvania with
over forty buildings, mostly Georgian
brick-and-column sialwarts Oppres
sue or inspirational depending on
one s feelings about the milium, the
campus is a perfect setting for a
store about someone trapfx-d bv the
momentum of tradition Hutton's Brian
Moreland character is |ust ihat a
model cadet, he nearly worships
Scott's character, the general in charge
of the academy and its program of
breeding staunch leaders Try ing, in a
crisis, to act as he imagines Scon
would. Hutton turns the Academy into
a battleground and the line between
make-believe and real war is crossed
by the treads of a tank Though only
Obsessive u/>nyhi cadet Huttun (heft and be
lou l loo jtrefxjuxr to lake over a million
academy The fancy dress soldiers Turn
Crude and Sean Term (center), are tu o of
bis accomplices
time will tell about popular acecp
tam e 7aps has the makings of a c lassic
coming-of age store And tn Hutton it
lias one of the best vuung actors in
several tears, someone who does
copious research and who tries to as
sume characters from trie inside out
The class he sfv >wed in (trUnutn
HittfiU' is more than continued in this
film, director Stanley Becker told me
a tew minutes earlier, behind some
rigged-for-explosion scenerv in the
Academy's armory building Tci[>s
lives or falLs on Timothy Hutton, lies
the lifeblood, die ke\ performance
Hutton is pleased by the director s
remarks when I relac diem He nods
respectfully, but isn t anxious to dwell
on himself as subject Instead, he fum
files for a hook lie s been reading one
of those list-books, which are to litera
ture wtiai the medfh is t agriculture
In a list of tfie Twenty Greatest Kt ick
Albums of All Time Hutton is
perplexed bv number Is
"Let me |usl find tins, he savs, scrab
bling through the pages It s real
ly important The right page reveals
itself Here The Velvet Under
ground with Nico I've never heard
ol them'
In 1966, when the Velvet Under
ground was a brand new band and in
spiring reviews like an assemblage
that actually vibrates with menace,
cynicism and perversion’ (Chicago
Lktih News), Tim Hutton was only six
years old His father, Jim Hutton, was a