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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 7/1/94 -- Vol. 13, No. 1
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
07/02 Movie: ROCKETSHIP X-M (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
07/09 Movie: DESTINATION MOON (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
07/13 Book: GLORY SEASON by David Brin (Hugo Nominee)
07/16 Movie: THE MAN FROM PLANET X (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
07/23 Movie: THE THING (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
07/30 Movie: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
08/03 Book: MOVING MARS by Greg Bear (Hugo Nominee)
08/09 Movie: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
08/24 Book: VIRTUAL LIGHT by William Gibson (Hugo Nominee)
Outside events:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for
details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2G-432 908-957-5087 j.j.jetzt@att.com
HO Co-Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 n.j.sauer@att.com
HO Co-Librarian: Lance Larsen HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 l.f.larsen@att.com
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 908-957-???? r.l.mitchell@att.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 e.c.leeper@att.com
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. This week starts a new Leeperhouse Film Festival with new rules.
(Just what we needed, huh?) Every Saturday night at 8PM we will be
running a single classic science fiction film from the 1950s. I
have a large collection of these films on videotape and we will be
showing one a week going through the 50s and perhaps on to the 60s.
Films will be shown in chronological order by date of release.
Each week we will publish in the notice the film to be shown that
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week and the following week. For those who are interested there
will also be available at the fest voluminous published material
about the films being shown.
So who wants to give up their Saturday night to see these creaky
old films? Well, nobody I expect. In fact, I am only announcing
that I will be watching the films that that people are invited to
join me. Unlike our Thursday night films, I am making the
assumption here that I can vary the films and the times without
notice for any film that I have not already heard that someone
wants to see it. Besides Evelyn will be a little upset if you come
to the door and she is there in her special bunny pajamas with the
rabbit faces and ears sewn onto the feet. Take it from me, it is
really cute, but, well, it Boss's Private Stock. But in other
words, if you are interested in seeing a film on the scheduled
night, let me know in advance. Responding is essential. Let me
repeat that, YOU HAVE TO RSVP IF YOU'RE ATTENDING. Also a few of
these films may be recorded off of an antenna and some my have
problems with picture quality.
So on that basis, I am starting out the series on Saturday, July 2,
8 PM with ROCKETSHIP XM directed by Kurt Neumann. The score is by
Ferde Grofe, best known for composing the "Grand Canyon Suite."
Future showings planned are:
July 9: DESTINATION MOON
July 16: THE MAN FROM PLANET X
July 23: THE THING
July 30: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
August 6: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
===================================================================
2. Summer reading suggestions included:
Mark Leeper (remember him?) sticks with the classics in suggesting
Daniel Keyes's _F_l_o_w_e_r_s _f_o_r _A_l_g_e_r_n_o_n and Frank Herbert's _D_u_n_e
(although other members added the caveat "but not any of the
sequels!").
Rob Mitchell (who would probably recommend anything by Heinlein,
but decided to stick to more recent books) suggested Vernor Vinge's
_M_a_r_o_o_n_e_d _i_n _R_e_a_l_t_i_m_e, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's _G_o_o_d _O_m_e_n_s,
and John Varley's _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h. (Well, the latter does have a
Heinlein connection.)
_S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h was also recommended by Andy Hewson.
John Jetzt suggested the "Giants" trilogy by James P. Hogan
(_I_n_h_e_r_i_t _t_h_e _S_t_a_r_s, _T_h_e _G_e_n_t_l_e _G_i_a_n_t_s _o_f _G_a_n_y_m_e_d_e, and _G_i_a_n_t_s'_s
_S_t_a_r). This was just re-issued in an omnibus edition from Del Rey.
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Seth Robertson recommends the "SpaceCops" and "Wizardry" series by
Diane Duane, Dennis McKiernan's _E_y_e _o_f _t_h_e _H_u_n_t_e_r and _V_o_y_a_g_e _o_f _t_h_e
_F_o_x _R_i_d_e_r, and Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarrion" (available
seperately as a trilogy starting with _S_h_e_e_p_f_a_r_m_e_r'_s _D_a_u_g_h_t_e_r). (I
guess a series will count as only one against the limit of three
recommendations.)
Bob Hall recommends _F_a_l_l_e_n _H_e_r_o_e_s ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"
Number 6 or so) by Dafydd ab Hugh, and says, "While many of the ST:
TNG and ST: DSN books are utter trash, this one is really good. It
has several Niven-ish aspects (Niven's golden age, that is), with
Cardassian locked boxes (sort of like Slaver stasis boxes)
containing unfathomable devices with difficult-to-figure-out
capabilities. It also does a good job with the characters,
something most ST: TNG and ST: DSN books don't do, making them at
least interesting. (And with such inherently unlikable non-
starters as the Ferengi and Major Kira, this is no small triumph.)
The book essentially explores the potential for heroism in each of
the characters. One might argue that the answers found are too
uniformly positive to be credible, but at least it's consistent
with the Bajoran-freedom-fighter backdrop of the Deep Space Nine
storyline. The book also has several good practical features: it
is a paperback and so widely available you might even find it
discounted in grocery stores. On the negative side, the scientific
extrapolation is not nearly as well done as it is in Niven's
stories, and a few things are really bad in this vein. Also, some
might think the violence is depicted a bit too graphically in some
places, but for the most part I thought it appropriate." (He
concludes by adding, "Okay, call me a low-life for still reading
Star Trek books; I can take it. This one is definitely a cut above
the others, though.")
And Avi Hauser reminds me that there are some other holidays coming
up that I missed:
July 1 Canada Day
July 5 Venezuela Independence
July 9 Argentina Independence
July 14 Bastille Day France, and Republic Day Iran
July 17 Constitution Day Republic of Korea
July 20 Independence - Colombia
July 21 National Day - Belgium
July 22 Full Moon (for the were-wolves among us)
Avi writes, "All these dates are taken (of course) from the pocket
diary for particle physicists who always knew what's worth knowing,
and were not afraid to say I don't know--(so give me more funds
till I do)."
===================================================================
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3. The wackiest site we visited on our last trip was the Tartu
University Museum, Tartu, Estonia. When you go in, they have you
put on shoe covers. I am not sure they had a lot more to protect
than a lot of other museums we had been in, but it was a nicely
maintained building. Early on they say the museum's unique
function was to serve as a "mediator between Russian science and
international science." from this we learn that there are two
different sciences: "Russian" and "international," and that they
are going to be in conflict sufficiently that they need someone to
mediate disputes. We are met on a battlefield of that conflict.
I think that in the West we had always heard that Russian science
was a bit weird. We'd heard of mental hospitals that were really
political prisons because being politically discontented was
treated as a mental aberration instead of a capitulation to the
obvious. Among the things you see in the Tartu Univeristy Museum
are weird machines that look like something out of _D_r. _X. There is
a four-foot-high electronic whatsis that does something electric to
the air in a room for the sake of "prophylaxis." There are big
electronic machines looking like 19th Century polygraphs that are
for "psychological experimentation." There is a section that looks
like a science lab from a good Frankenstein movie. On the floor is
a battery of six huge Leyden jars (used as electric capacitors),
each about two feet in diameter and two feet high.
You really want to get the creeps? Look in the medical section.
There is a case of tools for bone operations in weird shapes, and
the pieces look as if they were made in the last century. The
instruments for eye operations, also in a carrying case, look
almost as old and are things that come to needle points or razor
edges. Next you see what looks like a huge syringe. The main body
of galvanized steel--like a bucket--is about a foot long and four
inches in diameter. It is labeled as an "enemator." Then there
was a large device for inhalation medication that came to a mask.
There were cases displaying the august textbooks used. There was a
short colorful booklet showing on the cover how atoms formed into
crystals. We translated the title from the Russian: "We Learn
Chemistry." It looked like something we'd read in third grade.
There were large panels to pull out and read about the
accomplishments at Tartu U. One had two columns of about twenty
city names each. Between the two columns was the name Tartu and
lines going to each of the forty cities. These were technical
contacts. "We talk to people in forty different international
cities about science," they were saying. In science this is hardly
an impressive accomplishment. I probably have contacts in more
international cities just to discuss films. A map on the wall
shows places world-wide where they have placed science graduates.
They have a blow-up of the United States. They often have cities
in the wrong place. Amherst, Massachusetts, is shown as being in
southeast Massachusetts. Again, such placements are not so
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impressive in science.
Other accomplishments are written on the walls. One claims that
the synthetic India rubber was invented here. Impressive if true,
but I will be surprised if it turns out that synthetic rubber
really was invented here. Other accomplishments seem more
esoteric: the discovery of fossil ice in Alaska, for example.
From the school of theology they say they have graduated Protestant
ministers trained in rooting out Catholic and pagan influences.
Their library has pictures of graduates and faculty, dueling suits,
and other artifacts, including a beer stein made from a human
skull. You definitely get the feeling you are in eastern Europe,
but the century is a bit harder to judge!
===================================================================
4. THE LION KING (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: With the exception of _B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d
_t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t this may be the best Disney animated
feature since _F_a_n_t_a_s_i_a. Rather than distorting an
existing story, the filmmakers have created a myth
brand new, but with elements going back to Jason and
Pelias or Hamlet and Claudius. Some of the artwork
is spectacular. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4)
With the success of _T_h_e _L_i_t_t_l_e _M_e_r_m_a_i_d Walt Disney Studios returned
in a big way to making animated feature films. It looks like it
was a good decision, since some of the best animated feature films
they or anyone have ever made were made by Disney in this period.
The formula has always been to take a well-known fairy tale or
children's classic and retell it, usually distorting it nearly out
of recognition. I have often wondered why they don't just write
their own stories like they do for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
They have finally chosen to do a film that is their own story
entirely--well mostly. Actually rather than taking a fairy tale
and very freely adapting it they have chosen to retell an
archetypical myth and move it to an African setting. The story is
basically "The Return of the True King." Simba is really Jason or
Arjuna or Hamlet or Aslan returning to defeat the usurper on his
throne. It was a good idea for a film and it is told with a good
deal of style.
The story begins with a prologue of all the animals in a kingdom
coming to see their new-born prince, the young Simba. It is a
powerful scene beautifully rendered with impressive art and music.
The latter is rendered by Hans Zimmer's beautiful interpretations
of African folk music, much like his work on _T_h_e _P_o_w_e_r _o_f _O_n_e.
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Young Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) is the son of the
great and powerful Mufasa, the reigning Lion King (James Earl
Jones). One wonders how much a wildebeest an antelope really loves
this reigning family, given that he might well become the family's
next meal.
As a cub Simba is fascinated by everything in the world including
his brooding uncle Scar (Jeremy Irons). Scar has been waiting for
the day Mufasa would die and Scar would succeed him. With the
birth of Simba that hope has been snatched away ... unless
perchance something nasty should befall both Mufasa and Simba.
Perhaps with an alliance with the smirking hyenas--currently exiled
to the dark regions of the kingdom--something nasty can be arranged
to happen.
In the classic Disney films like _S_l_e_e_p_i_n_g _B_e_a_u_t_y and _S_n_o_w _W_h_i_t_e _a_n_d
_t_h_e _S_e_v_e_n _D_w_a_r_f_s the villains are usually far more interesting than
the heroes. The margin is still there, but is starting to narrow a
little. Belle in _B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d _t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t was every bit as interesting
as the villain Gaston. This time around Mufasa and Simba are still
just a bit handsome and empty. So it is hardly surprising that
Scar is the most watchable character in the film. The smirking
hyenas, however, hold their own for audience attention. Their
clowning around making fun of Mufasa really is a lot of fun,
villains or not. A carefree meerkat and warthog who figure into
the later portions of the film make far more interesting sidekicks
with far more personality than Disney himself would have created.
Note how much more engaging they are than the mice in _C_i_n_d_e_r_e_l_l_a,
for example.
For no apparent good reason, name actors are chosen to voice many
of the character. Matthew Broderick is the young adult Simba, but
does not seem to need to do a whole lot anyone else his age could
have done. Jeremy Irons does give some real personality to Scar,
though after hearing him attempt to sing on of the film's songs, my
suggestion is that he should hold on to his day job. James Earl
Jones does Mufasa and surprisingly we interpret his deep voice as
noble, even after hearing it so often as the less-than-noble Darth
Vader. But again only Irons seems to give his character much that
any moderate actor could not give him.
Some of the artwork with majestic African scenery is the best that
has appeared in a Disney film. Disney, of course, always had great
animation, but often his artwork often left something to be
desired. It might be cute, but was rarely impressive. Here the
art and animation work beautifully together. An early scene of
birds flying over a waterfall brought gasps from adults in the
audience. There are more nice experimental touches in the visuals,
playing with focus or having characters appear out of dust. This
is a film in which the visual interest goes well beyond the
animation.
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Moments of direction are also very good. After the prologue the
screen goes silent for the title of the film to appear and it is
far more dramatic than any chord that could have been played. This
also has one of the better scripts of Disney animated features. I
think that The producers realize that much of the audience is
parents bringing children, and there are many creative allusions
and puns in the script that children will miss but adults will
appreciate. There is even a liberal dash of Swahili, and those who
can recognize it can appreciate that. And for the kids who like
that sort of thing, there are moments of grossness. And there were
children in the audience who seemed to liked being pleasantly
grossed out by realistic details like animals eating insects and
grubs.
One problem with the story is the whole theme of the hyenas. They
are almost too likable for the film's own good. Certainly they are
cynical, but considering their exile they have a right to be.
Their motivation is that by any means necessary that they not go
hungry. Somehow that does not sound like so villainous a
motivation. The lions who have exiled them are certainly not
missing any meals. On the face of it such a Grand Order, a circle
of life that exiles one of its species, deserves to be toppled.
Why are hyenas chosen as the villains? Probably because we find
them unpleasing in appearance. In any case the film seems to take
the (racist?) point of view that the hyenas are intrinsically evil
and in a well-run world should be banished. When the hyenas are
given freedom the land withers, though just why is never really
explained. The film seems to have a subtext of all the pretty
animals do cooperate and get along under a benevolent dictatorship
except for the ones who are born into an ugly and evil species.
These uglies get thrown out of the society because if they got
enough to eat it would spoil everything. The grand order of things
assumes that hyenas should stay confined to their ghetto, outside
"the circle of life" and the natural order of things is destroyed
by letting them into the circle. One can question the message
children will get from this. Outwardly the film has a love of
African rhythms and language and yearns for a united world--
everyone but hyenas united. But the core is just a bit ugly and
scary.
With that one objection, and clearly this film is not unique in
that regard, I would say that this is a rewarding film for both
children and adults. Walt might have found reason to object to
parts of it, but he never made a better animated feature. I rate
it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
5. WYATT EARP (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
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Capsule review: Instead of short films that
inaccurate portray the Wyatt Earp and the gunfight
at the O.K. Corral, Costner and Kasdan bring us a
big 189-minute biopic of Wyatt Earp that
inaccurately shows his whole life. Costner does not
do too much for Earp, but Dennis Quaid's Doc
Holliday is a genuine tour de force. Still, the
film just does not entertain or edify sufficiently
to justify the length. Rating: high 0 (-4 to +4).
A discussion of historical accuracy at the end of
this review may contain minor spoilers.
Last year I reviewed _T_o_m_b_s_t_o_n_e and both criticized and praised the
film for being half-accurate as a film version of the events around
the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Well, I see the error of
my ways. At least I have to say that there is a whole lot more to
an historical film than accuracy. _W_y_a_t_t _E_a_r_p is even a little more
accurate than even _T_o_m_b_s_t_o_n_e on some points. But just recreating
historical facts does not make for a good film. The two films are
faithful to the historical detail about equally, but _T_o_m_b_s_t_o_n_e is
certainly the more worthwhile. The definitive film about Wyatt
Earp, if it is even possible, still remains to be made.
Basically the title of _W_y_a_t_t _E_a_r_p tells it all. This is a
biography of Wyatt Earp from the time he was a teenager to his
retirement. When the film opens Wyatt is in the Oriental Saloon
waiting for the most famous gunfight of his life and probably of
the American West. Then we flash back and now Wyatt is a teenager
on his family farm in Missouri, anxious to go off and join his
brothers fighting the South. Instead he finds himself giving in to
the will of an autocratic father (Gene Hackman). Wyatt's real
father, incidentally, was not a lawyer as the film would have it,
but a farmer and a cooper. Over some protest, Wyatt's father
announces one day that the family will move west. Wyatt goes and
finds the West beautiful but also lawless and violent. He returns
to Missouri to learn to be a lawyer and to raise a family. When
his wife dies he returns west and tries his hand at being an
alcoholic, a low-life, a horse thief, and a mugger in the hopes
that he will soon be able to add "corpse" to his resume. This
doesn't work out for him either.
Getting back on his feet, he decides to hunt the mighty buffalo (or
"titonka" to you Costner fans). Wyatt befriends Ed and Bat
Masterson who come along with him as mule skinners. Later when
Wyatt accidentally shows his prowess at subduing drunks he is asked
to become a lawman, he brings the Masterson's along with him. And
the rest is history--not that script writers Dan Gordon and
Lawrence Kasdan did much of a job of researching it.
Costner plays Wyatt as Costner. He glides through the part doing
little we have not seen from him before. That is really a pity,
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since he desperately needs a role that will give him more to do.
He has been in some good films, but it is becoming clear he wants
to play the hero roles of an Errol Flynn without the dramatic range
of a John Wayne. But if it looks like this film didn't give him
much opportunity to stretch himself, look what it did for Dennis
Quaid. As Doc Holliday, Quaid submerges himself into a Georgia
accent, a moustache, and a beard, and is nearly unrecognizable.
(The real Holliday wore no beard, by the way.) There are a host of
other familiar faces including Mark Harmon, Catherine O'Hara, Tom
Sizemore, and Betty Buckley. Clearly not much expense was spared
on the cast or even the sets, yet the film has not much sparkle or
style. James Newton Howard's score is never engaging. With all
the beautiful Arizona scenery available Kasdan rarely lets the
camera take much advantage of it.
Under Kasdan's direction the film ends up being somewhat ponderous
and oddly dull. Events take a long time to develop. While no film
has ever so well caught the complexity of the events surrounding
the corral gunfight, and that is the difficult part, the gunfight
itself is staged very inaccurately. The actual scenario of the
fight is easily available so that piece of the script could have
written itself, but apparently it just was not researched or Kasdan
did not care. I am not certain, but I seem to remember in this
film five men facing down the Earps rather than the actual four.
It seems as if somebody who knew something about the Earps wrote an
outline for the film that said at this point put in the gunfight,
and then someone who didn't know as much wrote the description of
the fight. The film is accurate on a high level, but very
inaccurate on low-level details. And it is about an hour longer
than it should have been to sustain audience interest. For what
they got right, I am tempted to rate it higher, but it also makes
some big mistakes. I rate it a high 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Minor Spoilers:
I have heard some critics praising this film as finally being an
accurate representation of Wyatt Earp. I suppose that they mean
that because this sees to be a warts-and-all representation of
Wyatt. Actually this film just shows more of his life than most
previous films, but it also is full of inaccuracy. As I say above,
it is almost as if the writers started with an accurate outline of
Wyatt's life, then invented the details they needed to flesh it out
without checking on the truth of the details. Not that accurate
details are easy to come by. Wyatt is one of the most fabled
characters of the West and there seem to be all sorts of stories
about him. But many of the details that were thrown into this
version, while lending a believable historic texture, only distort
the facts.
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I don't know how emotionally scarred Wyatt was after the death of
his first wife, but he and some of his brothers were supposedly
involved in a twenty-minute street fight with two of his wife's
brothers not long after the death. This torching of the house in
grief was made up of the whole cloth.
Ed Masterson tells Wyatt that Bat picked the name Bat because he
couldn't stand his real name, Bartholomew. And Bat is unhappy
about divulging this secret. Actually, he was born William Barclay
Masterson, not a particularly stigmatizing name. The story
certainly added a realistic texture to the script, but it didn't
come out of anybody's research.
The film shows Earp as being a crack shot and an honest lawman.
None of this is true. In fact he took bribes, pocketed fines, and
at least on one occasion nearly shot himself with his own gun.
Most of his legend was little more than legend.
Big Nose Katie Elder (Isabella Rossellini, who strongly resembles
her mother, Ingrid Bergman), explaining her unexpected good looks,
says people get nicknames for all sorts of reasons. She points out
her nose is not actually big. That is a nice piece of texture.
And it is good script writing. But the real Big Nose Katie Elder,
based on her portrait, was an ugly woman with a large nose. In
fact, most of the Earp/Holliday women are portrayed far more
attractively than their real counterparts. That is standard in the
syntax of cinema. Probably only Josie Marcus would still be
attractive by today's standards. Of course standards of beauty
change, but it would be nice to see a film in which the people and
not just the scenery and buildings look right.
There is a problem with Wyatt's distaste for prostitution and his
reforming Mattie and getting her out of the profession. Again, it
is invented. Some sources think that he actually was half-owner of
brother James Earp's whorehouse. In any case, Mattie was
apparently not in that profession before Wyatt Earp knew her, as
this film would have it, but did become a prostitute after Wyatt
abandoned her.
Hype has been around throughout all of history, and perhaps the
emotional need for hype has been with us even longer. Wyatt was a
convenient person to make a hero in his own time and in ours. And
in truth he was one of the most colorful figures of the old West.
But even the most admiring of his serious biographers conclude that
Wyatt Earp was a long way from being a real hero or even an
admirable character. If he fits any of the classic molds, it would
be "scoundrel." And in showing more than usual of his negative
side, though less than the truth, perhaps this film has its
greatest virtue.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
m.r.leeper@att.com