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                        Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
                    Club Notice - 12/18/92 -- Vol. 11, No. 25


       MEETINGS UPCOMING:

       Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
            Wednesdays at noon.

         _D_A_T_E                    _T_O_P_I_C

       01/06  The Best (and Worst) of 1992
       01/27  THE ENGINES OF CREATION by K. Eric Drexler (Nanotechnology)
       02/17  ENTOVERSE by James P. Hogan
       03/10  STEEL BEACH by John Varley
       03/31  WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison
       04/21  ARISTOI by Walter Jon Williams
       05/12  THOMAS THE RHYMER by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy in a modern vein)
       06/02  WORLD AT THE END OF TIME by Frederik Pohl
       06/23  THE USE OF WEAPONS by Iain Banks
       07/14  SIGHT OF PROTEUS by Charles Sheffield (Human metamorphosis)

         _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.
       12/12  SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
                       (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
       12/19  NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
                       (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)

       HO Chair:     John Jetzt        HO 1E-525  908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
       LZ Chair:     Rob Mitchell      HO 1D-505A 908-834-1267 hocpb!jrrt
       MT Chair:     Mark Leeper       MT 3D-441  908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
       HO Librarian: Nick Sauer        HO 4F-427  908-949-7076 homxc!11366ns
       LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen      LZ 3L-312  908-576-3346 mtfme!lfl
       MT Librarian: Mark Leeper       MT 3D-441  908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
       Factotum:     Evelyn Leeper     MT 1F-329  908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
       All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

       1. Well, the great Northeast storm of 1992 is over.  Our  area  was
       considered to be a disaster area.  I wasn't worried.  Your remember
       for the last four or five years it has been Evelyn's responsibility
       to  clear  the  driveway  and  by  extension  to  take  care of all
       outside-of-house  damage  due  to  the  elements--mostly  hydrogen,
       oxygen,  and  nitrogen.   Whatever  it  is  that looks out for her,
       squirrels, and idiots was protecting the  house.   Now,  we'd  left
       outside  a  garbage  can that was empty and hence fair game for the











       THE MT VOID                                                  Page 2



       up-to-90-mile-an-hour winds to pick up and throw around.   We  were
       at  work when the storm hit its stride and I knew I would never see
       my beloved garbage can again.  I'd painted the house number on  it,
       but  not  the street or the town.  I expected we would never see it
       again.  Driving home I saw a similar  can  blowing  down  a  street
       about  five  miles  from the house.  I was tempted to see if it had
       our house number.  We got home and found our can  had  moved  about
       fifteen inches.  I don't know how Evelyn does it.

       I guess I should not chuckle at destruction done by the storm,  but
       on  the  major  road near my house I saw only one thing that really
       was destroyed by the storm (aside from some trees down).  It was  a
       sign  and  it was pretty messed up by the storm.  I suppose had the
       owner known to put up a couple of pieces of plywood, it could  have
       been  save, but who expected such a bad storm?  The sign was out in
       front of a small house and proclaims the  owner  is  a  palmist,  a
       tarot  reader, and a seer.  The future is no mystery to this woman,
       supposedly.


                                          Mark Leeper
                                          MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
                                           ...mtgzfs3!leeper



            Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well
            deceived.
                                           -- Jonathan Swift





































                                  A FEW GOOD MEN
                         A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                          Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper



                 Capsule review:  _A _F_e_w _G_o_o_d _M_e_n is an
            entertaining courtroom drama with some good dialogue.
            The script raises issues and then unfortunately
            handles them in a very superficial manner.
            Nicholson's Colonel Jessep is so despicable and vile
            that the film bypasses a discussion of issues and is
            more the story of the slaying of a monster.  Rating:
            low +1 (-4 to +4).  Very minor spoilers.

            Rob Reiner has proved himself to be a fine director, though his
       scripts have occasionally been better directed than written.  His
       latest film has just such problems.  _A _F_e_w _G_o_o_d _M_e_n is his film
       version of Aaron Sorkin's Broadway play with Sorkin himself writing
       the screenplay.  Any court martial play invites comparison to Herman
       Wouk's "Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," and in several major aspects,
       Sorkin's play falls short.

            Marine Pfc. William T. Santiago, stationed at Guantanamo, Cuba,
       just did not measure up to the high standards set by the U.S. Marine
       Corps.  He is killed in a hazing incident perpetrated by Pfc. Lawson
       Downey and Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson.  A mis-matched set of Navy
       lawyers is given the task of providing the defense in the court
       martial.  And over the whole idea is the shadow of Col. Nathan
       Jessep (played by Jack Nicholson), who commands the Marines at
       Guantanamo.  We know almost immediately that Jessep is the source of
       all the evil that has taken place.  Little effort is spared in the
       script to make Jessep as vile and politically incorrect as possible
       The goals of our three defense lawyers--Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway
       (played by Demi Moore), Lt.(j.g.) Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom
       Cruise), and Lt. Sam Weinberg (played by Kevin Pollak)--are first,
       to stop conflicting with each other; second, to put together a case
       to help Downey and Dawson; and third, if possible, to at the same
       time bring down the incredibly nasty Col. Jessep.  The result is a
       fun, entertaining, Kleenex-like sort of movie that is a long way
       from the classic that some critics are claiming it to be.

            While I enjoyed the film, it did not work for me as a drama for
       three very strong reasons.  The first is that the three lawyers are
       trying to defend two men who to better their position in the Marines
       were willing to stuff a rag in a man's mouth, seal his mouth and
       bind him with duct tape, and (in so doing) cause the man's death.
       It is a little hard to root for the lawyers defending them.  It is
       even harder to root for this team of lawyers.  In their own way they
       are every bit as unprofessional as Jessep.  Kaffee and Galloway
       start out at each other's throats for the good reason that neither











       Few Good Men             December 13, 1992                    Page 2



       is particularly good as a lawyer.  Cruise's Kaffee, slick and just a
       bit slimy as a lawyer, is lackadaisically doing his job and prides
       himself on his long list of low-effort court cases.  Moore's
       Galloway is hopeless in her efforts to control Kaffee, and it is
       only Pollak as the sweet, healing, wise, Jewish lawyer who is able
       to hold the team together.   These are flat, unengaging characters,
       and they are not written very well.  But the film could have
       survived that if Nicholson's Jessep had been better written.

            The third complaint is in the portrayal of Jessep.  If the
       other characters are flat, the disgusting Jessep is linear.  It is
       difficult to believe that this tactless, rather disgusting man could
       be given a position of prominence as he has been in this film.  And
       it is a serious mistake to oversimplify the negative characters of
       the film, making them easier to detest.  At no point do we see
       anything in the film from Jessep's point of view.  How much would it
       compromise his character to show a little merit in his arguments?
       Bringing him down has much more dramatic impact if it is regrettable
       but necessary than if it is dragon-slaying.  That brings me back to
       how much better a similar story was handled in the play "The Caine
       Mutiny Court-Martial" or nearly as well in the film _T_h_e _C_a_i_n_e
       _M_u_t_i_n_y.  _A _F_e_w _G_o_o_d _M_e_n is a film whose conflict was asking to be
       fleshed out, but which preferred not to risk having the audience
       agree with the wrong side.

            In the final analysis, we have a film that is entertaining
       without being provocative, but is enjoyable for mindless
       entertainment.  From me it gets a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.  I
       am a little surprised at the positive critical comment it has gotten
       elsewhere.