@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 05/24/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 47 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 06/05 LZ: UBIK by Phillip K. Dick (Death and Hell) 06/26 LZ: ALTERNATE WORLDS by Robert Adams ("What If Things Were Different?") _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 06/08 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) 06/15 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3B-301 949-4488 hotsc!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. Now it can be seen! Walt Disney Enterprises in cooperation with Touchstone Films and Hollywood Pictures brings you *the complete* _B_a_m_b_i. Newly restored, it includes the nine seconds that Walt Disney DID NOT WANT YOU TO SEE! See the scene where Bambi looks up smiling at his mother, and his mother licks him right on the nose! [Well... actually it is on the far side of Bambi's face, but Walt thought that it looked like she licked him right on the nose, and he decided it looked perverse.] Cut from the original film and thought lost for years, the missing nine seconds of _B_a_m_b_i has been found without sound. A sixty-three piece orchestra, including eight musicians of the original orchestra that recorded the score for the original film will play the music for the scene. Special audio techniques have been used to blend the music of the scene with the surrounding music. The dialogue must be newly recorded and impressionist Rich Little has been hired to speak the dialogue, THE MT VOID Page 2 which consists of Bambi saying, "Mother?" Now you can see _B_a_m_b_i as it was meant to be seen, complete and uncut. Remember the version that you may now own is incomplete. It is not the REAL _B_a_m_b_i. If you want to see the REAL _B_a_m_b_i, you have to pay new film prices. Coming soon to a theatre near you. And coming next year is the restored version of _T_h_e _S_h_a_g_g_y _D_o_g. We thought Walt was nuts to cut those seven seconds, but now we are glad he did. Next summer you can see the ONLY complete version of _T_h_e _S_h_a_g_g_y _D_o_g, playing at a theater near you. [This ad has been paid for by Walt Disney Enterprises.] 2. I want to thank the 44 people (!) whom Evelyn coerced to tie up my terminal last Friday with birthday greetings. Just for your information, Evelyn's birthday is November 21 and I expect all 44 of you and anyone else you can get to do the same to her in November. We'll see how she likes it! (Oh, and thanks for all the nice sentiments.) 3. _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _T_h_e _N_e_x_t _G_e_n_e_r_a_t_i_o_n _#_1_6 "_C_o_n_t_a_m_i_n_a_t_i_o_n" by John Vornholt was donated to the Lincroft Science Fiction Club library by Laura Woodworth. [-lfl] Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 ...mtgzy!leeper The history of the race, and each individual's experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and a lie told well is immortal. -- Mark Twain SWITCH A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: This is a tasteless, sexist film about why it is bad to be a male chauvinist in a strange world that bears little resemblance to mine. A brainless man is murdered and returns to earth as a brainless woman. _S_w_i_t_c_h is Blake Edwards begin part of the problem and pretending he is part of the solution. Rating: -1 (-4 to +4). I think everybody knows that Blake Edwards is a successful filmmaker. I get the impression that he retreated into Beverly Hills some time around when hula hoops were in and he has not stepped out into the real world since. That is fine by me. He writes funny movies like the Clouseau films set in a never-Never-Land-Europe or set in his hermetically sealed world where you can go to one store to buy clothes and spend $41,000, and where if you catch someone by surprise she has only $3000 in her purse. (These are plot elements from _S_w_i_t_c_h.) That is fine. Edwards bragging about how much money people in his class have is no worse than Bob Fosse bragging about how much sex he gets in _A_l_l _T_h_a_t _J_a_z_z. Edwards has made a lot of people laugh and he is welcome to his world. Where the rub comes is where he starts making comedies with supposed social relevance. In _S_w_i_t_c_h, Edwards tackles the thorny issue of male chauvinism in an Edwards-Never-Land among his usual assortment of under-dressed buxom women and mannequin men. The sexism in his world is the blatant stupid sexism of boors and is of an entirely different character from the subtle and ambiguous sexism that occurs in my world. Steve Brooks (played by Perry King) is successful in advertising. ("Advertising" is Hollywood shorthand for he isn't a policeman and he doesn't make films. Ever notice how often advertising shows up as an occupation in films. How many films can you name where the main character is in plumbing supply or auto parts or has made a career of software engineering? How many people work for a corporation with more than one level of management above them?) Brooks is going about his humdrum life--he is having a hot tub party with three naked women--when he is murdered. Heaven, appalled by his sexism, sends him back to earth where he must stay until he can find a woman to like him. But he is sent back as a woman. This situation has a lot of possibilities, some comedic, some silly, some interesting, some controversial. Edwards toys with most of the possibilities, but flinches every time he gets too close to ideas that might be interesting or controversial. Mostly we see Amanda Brooks (Ellen Barkin as the female reincarnation) feeling herself, feeling other women, and wearing skirts too short and sitting with her legs apart like a man so the camera can get crotch shots. Most irritating is the misfire running gag of her stumbling around on high- heeled shoes. It is intended to get funnier each time and it simply Switch May 19, 1991 Page 2 gets more and more annoying. Apparently high-heeled shoes are the only kind women wear in Edwards-Never-Land. Barkin goes through the movie oscillating between playing a really boorish male chauvinist and getting fed up with men treating her the way she treats women. Edwards's idea of what sexism is about seems to be more connected with men who get too much sex or who proposition strange women in the street, actions more common in Edwards-Never-Land than in my world. It does not seem to have much to do with equal pay for equal work or even about filmmakers doing films about naked women in hot tubs. Incidentally, equal pay is notably _n_o_t and issue in this film. The main character is paid more as a woman than she was as a man for the same job. _S_w_i_t_c_h is a film that leaves a very bad taste in your mouth, and more so the more you think about the film. _S_w_i_t_c_h this one off. For the sake of a good, if not very well-chosen, acting job by Barkin and for some competence in being entertaining I rate this film a charitable -1 on the -4 to +4 scale. OSCAR A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: A delightful surprise. _O_s_c_a_r is a throwback to manic screwball comedies of the 1930s that takes chances and has them off. Undemanding as a star vehicle for Sly Stallone, _O_s_c_a_r is packed with eccentric weirdos, funny hoods, and lots of nutty dialogue. It has been a good long time since I laughed so much at a comedy. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4). Fifteen years ago Sylvester Stallone became a major star with a single film, _R_o_c_k_y. Since then he has made nothing but macho action films. But surely now he realizes that he cannot keep playing low- personality action figures on the screen. Even John Wayne discovered he had to put some acting and character into his roles. And Wayne was considered more charismatic on the screen than Stallone. So the time has come for Stallone to cross over into comedy. His choice of comedy shows unexpectedly good taste. It is not only a very funny comedy, but it is a comedy unlike comedies that have been made for many years. Although originally written in French in 1958, it is very much in the style of some of Frank Capra's screwier comedies, such as _A_r_s_e_n_i_c _a_n_d _O_l_d _L_a_c_e and _Y_o_u _C_a_n'_t _T_a_k_e _I_t _w_i_t_h _Y_o_u. It also takes some chances in that it has the claustrophobic feel of a filmed stage play: 95% of it takes place in one house and much of that is just in the course of one morning. But it is such a gem of a stage play that it may just do the trick for Stallone. The plot defies describing in any detail, since a big part of the fun is just making the plot more and more convoluted, until the characters themselves are totally bewildered about what is going on. The film opens with a surprisingly unfunny scene between mobster "Snaps" Provolone (Stallone) and his dying father (played by Kirk Douglas). Almost undoubtedly this scene was written just for the film, since it is poorly written and it does not take place in the Provolone house, as most of the rest of the film does. Poppa makes Snaps promise to go straight. Flash to a charming credit sequence featuring what looks like a Puppetoon opera singer singing the "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's _B_a_r_b_e_r _o_f _S_e_v_i_l_l_e. Flash to a month later and Snaps's morning starts with an unexpected meeting with his accountant, who admits that he has been embezzling from Snaps but explains it is all okay because he will soon be one of the family since he wants to marry Snaps's daughter. Except it turns out to be a daughter that Snaps does not happen to have. Well, sort of. If that sounds a little strange, you ain't heard nothing yet. That is just how it starts. Give the film another five minutes and stranger will happen still. Oscar May 18, 1991 Page 2 The heart of this film is an incredible array of minor characters, some very funny, far too many to mention. The film is well chosen to let the bit parts do the most to pull the film along and place small demands on the leading man, who appears to be up to the small demands that are placed on him, and even if he were not, the pacing, the script, and the minor characters would still make this film worth seeing. _O_s_c_a_r makes it as one of the funniest comedies in a long time. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. A KISS BEFORE DYING A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: Matt Dillon plays a man trying to prove that in America you can make yourself the heir of a financial empire if you are willing to buckle down, work hard, and kill people who get in the way. Sean Young plays dual roles as sisters, each of whom is courted by the killer. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4). One of the better thrillers of the 1950s was the 1956 _A _K_i_s_s _B_e_f_o_r_e _D_y_i_n_g, based on the novel by Ira Levin (better known for _N_o _T_i_m_e _f_o_r _S_e_r_g_e_a_n_t_s, _R_o_s_e_m_a_r_y'_s _B_a_b_y, and _T_h_e _S_t_e_p_f_o_r_d _W_i_v_e_s). This was quite a nice little film with Robert Wagner as an ambitious man anxious to marry into an industrialist's family and willing to commit multiple murders in order to make his dream come true. Having courted one daughter (played by Joanne Woodward) only to see his plan endangered when she accidentally becomes pregnant, he murders her, makes it look like a suicide, and under another name starts courting his victim's sister. _A _K_i_s_s _B_e_f_o_r_e _D_y_i_n_g has become one more classic thriller remade in the 1990s. Matt Dillon stars as Jonathan Corliss, just a poor humble boy who has decided to marry one of the two daughters of copper magnate Thor Carlsson (played by Max Von Sydow). He is all too willing to murder anyone who gets in the way of his becoming an accepted member of the Carlsson family. Having murdered the pregnant Dory Carlsson, he makes his move on Ellen Carlsson. (Both Carlsson daughters are played by Sean Young.) Ellen is convinced that Dory's death could not have been suicide but has no reason to suspect her lover, who now calls himself Jay. Bit by bit, Ellen unearths more information about Dory's death and other apparently related murders, not knowing how close at hand the real killer is. Corliss is no Hannibal Lecter, but the viewer does have to give grudging admiration for the cleverness of his unscrupulous plan and the single-mindedness of his purpose. Although Ellen made the understandable mistake of taking this man as her lover, one must also be a little impressed with her Carlsson's detective work. We have a clever amateur detective and her clever, murderous quarry sharing the same bed. And screenwriter James Dearden has given the Levin story a harder edge this time than last with just a touch of social comment to ameliorate the crimes. This is a pleasant, diverting little thriller, much like the original. I rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. THE PSIONIC MENACE by Keith Woodcott Book review by Frank R. Leisti Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti When the human species splits in its evolution when man has reached the stars, this author proposed that it splits into a psi contingent, a space-faring force, colonists and the original species on Earth. Underlying this story is the future direction of mankind -- to which offshoot will be the one that carries mankind's banner throughout the universe in glory. Philip Gascon starts out by having a nice night out with his girlfriend away from civilization, far enough from both the maddening crowds of the city and the open space of the psi community that lives apart from humanity for their own sake of sanity. Then, with the unnatural sounds of the wimpering, cowering child of the psi group, his life is changed forever. His girl leaves him, takes his car, gets it wrecked and he is left in the middle of a psi family trying to control their child from the unnatural fear that the universe is going to end. Unfortunately for the family, they also have felt this fear or warning that the universe is going to end, so they also are edgy and concerned. Philip is quite shocked when he encounters this group, especially when the child runs directly into him. He fears the psi elders reading his thoughts, about what he has done, mainly the guilty feelings that he has. His fears are put to rest when he is told that he is a rare person -- a psi-nul, one who's thoughts can not be read. From that moment on, his life is changed. He is arrested and then selected to head Earth's claim on the universe against the Starfolk. With Philip's background in cosmo-archeology, he becomes the pawn in a deadly game where he needs to save a planet, and solve the end of the universe. Not a small task for anyone special. This book, written in 1963, brings together interesting aspects of science fiction -- the evolution of a psi capable species -- and nature's response with a psi-nul being, as well as interplanetary travel and an encounter with fully evolved beings. The plot, although simple is enjoyable and the characters that support the plot are both tragic and human in many terms. I would rate this story as +1 on the Leeper scale.