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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1987)
Diversions Twelve Films Not to Miss If the 1986 year in cinema is notable for anything, it must be for display of sheer profes sionalism without vision, a distinction between the director as artist and the director as ar tisan. Most of the ’86 releases were entertaining, well crafted and worth a few hours of our time, a sure sign of a skilled ar tisan. yet this spelled a poor year for brilliance, the territory of the artist. The year 1986 was con spicuous for its display of film making competence. On the one hand this made for. in some respects, a good year Most ol the films that came out were entertaining, well made and worth a few hours of our time. On the other hand, 1986 was a bad year for brilliance. A few films took stabs at greatness, notably “Blue Velvet.” “Han nah and Her Sisters,” * * Fool For Love” and “Brazil” (osten sibly a 1985 film but released locally in 1986). but minor flaws or failings kept these films from attaining the levels they aspired to. The foreign cinema was responsible for the best films of 1986, but even those came in smaller numbers than in previous years. Of course, a number of critically acclaimed features that number on many 10-best lists across the nation have yet to make it to Eugene. Notable among them are “Platoon,” “’Round Midnight,” “The Sacrifice,” “Sid and Nancy.” “Vagabond,” “The Mission" and “The Decline of the American Empire.” In their place we got late '85 releases: “Ran..rhe Color Purple. “Sheer Madness,” “A Great Wall,” “28 Up” and “Shoah,” among others. Two films in particular seem to capture the tone of 198b American cinema Francis Cop pola’s “Peggy Sue Got Mar ried” and Martin Scorcese’s “The Color Of Money." These two features have a lot in com mon: neither Coppola not Scorcese had had a popular hit in a number of years; both had snubbed Hollywood for forays into other modes of production (Coppola created the now col lapsed Zoctrope Studios and Scorccsc made the independent ly produced “After Hours"); and both found themselves hack in Hollywood making films that needed to lx* popular successes if they hoped to continue their directorial careers. They succeeded at their primary goals, but something was lost on the way Neither pic ture reached the standards they hail set in previous features. Coppola’s in particular. High gloss and Hollywood sheen did little to replace the personal vi sions that tiHik a backseat. The ! 11 ms aren’t bad, mind you. but like some of American cinema in 1486 they aren’t great. Scorcese has since signed a four-picture contract with Disney’s Touchstone Pictures (the producers ot “Money”), and Coppola is already at work on his next film. There's a lesson to be learned from all of this: there is no reason to risk greatness when the merely go«xl is much safer. i he nest ot «n cinema wasn t found in Hollywood’s “class” productions, where production values and pretension were trad ed for sensibility and in telligence, but for the most part arose from the middle tier of production. These smaller pic tures. many of them made by the new generation of film makers who trained in low-budget pro ductions, reflect personal sen sibilities that give traditional productions a little personality and a sense of character. Unpretentious, stylish and quite clever, these films in variably looked to classic genres, classic directors and classic (or near classic) films There were remakes — David Crononberg's fabulous “The Fly,” “Tobe Hooper's crazy,” “Invaders From Mars" and Frank Oz’s musical parody “Little Shop of Horrors,” a remake twice removed. There Chlamydia is □ a new rock group □ a type of pasta f i a sexually transmitted disease If you've never heard of Chlamydia (pronounced Kla MID-e-uh) you re not alone If you've ever had Chlamydia, you're also not alone Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease in America today. It can cause serious infection and infertility Often there are no symptoms until the damage is done Silent destructive but curable if detected early Planned Parenthood now offers Chlamydia testing with routine exams. PLANNED PARENTHOOD 134 East 13th • Eugene • 344-9411 'mm C7) I ~yi i f Illustration by Lorraine Rath were classic genre produc tions— James Cameron’s “Aliens” (asequel to the '70s' hit), which displayed the sense of ethics of a Hawks or an Aldrich military adventure, Jonathon Demme’s “Something Wild,” which had resonances of Hitchcock (and in particular “North by Northwest"), and John Carpenter's “Big Trouble in Little China,” a spoof of kung-fu costurm adventures. And there was the just plain odd. in particular Alan Rudolph’s enigmatic “Trouble in Mind” and John Bender’s w ild comedy “UFOria.” Continuing on down the list were more standard Hollywood LANS COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRESENTS TIk> Sparkling I960 Musical About Elvis Call 726-2202 W for tickets SI JAN. 23-31 STUDENTS! W Price Rush Tickets Available products that nonetheless pro vided solid entertainment. Leading the pack was “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (possibly the most fun film of the year), followed by “Heart break Ridge,” “One Cra/y Summer,” “Running Scared.” “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off,” “Ruthless People,” “FX” and Eugene’s own “Stand by Me.” None of these films were brilliant, but they all did what they needed to — entertain — and an unpretentious picture that does its job is worth five “serious” productions that don't. The major aesthetic disap pointments of ’86 weren’t numerous but were conspicuous. “The Color Purple” led the pack, proving that rich, white. urban male Stephen Spielberg had about as much chance to sincerely understand and portray the poor, black, female ex perience as a poor, black female has of making a Hollywood film that could do just that. “Heart burn" gave me just that. “Gung Ho" proved to be both racist and unfunny, Walter Hill’s "Crossroads" went nowhere and "The Golden Child" prov ed that, whatever else he can do, Eddie Murphy can't turn lead in to gold. Like the year in review, my "best" list covers films that premiered in Eugene between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 during 1986. Once again my top-10 numbers 12 and is foiled by a slew of notables. Even if the American Continued on page 12 SALE WOOL uvl acceMort" vM»"po^o. aJo*.' -5-*S 20 -50%OFF • 762 ^ 5ga« • FIFTH ST iowMUJn 6e3Afi 4* FOLKWAYS, IMPORTS vr ir * t O'c C r •• * j .,r:i » . a- .f„,u. a -rv x , .
