Page 8 - The Behrend College Beacon - Thursday, January 21, 1999
ebsite of the week
By Jon Stubbs
features editor
As if the Student Programming
Council doesn’t do enough for the
students here at Behrend, they have
constucted a website designed to
inform students of upcoming and
current events located at
<www.clubs.psu.edu/spo.
At this colorful website, one will
Find a menu of several venues and
events, the first of which is entitled,
simply enough, “Bruno’s.” Click
ing on this link will allow the surfer
to learn about what events are go
ing on at “Behrend’s very own
nightclub,” as the website puts it
Another link, “movies,” will let
the website user know exactly what
ACROSS
1 Nuisance
5 Group of eight
10 Lincoln and
Burrows
14 Writer Quindlen
15 Graph starter?
16 Do it alone
17 Weighty block
18 Like some
kitchens
19 Usage charge
20 Tout's offering
21 Not organized in
a league
23 Maligns
25 Lubricant
26 Flummoxed
27 With restraint
31 New World nat.
32 Hall in New York
33 "You __ There"
36 Struck, old-style
38 Caspian _
39 Hit hard to a
fielder
42 Rejuvenation
center
45 Creating little
whirlpools
46 Russia, once
50 Thousand bucks
51 Interval
52 Scattered
amounts
56 Clique
57 Domesticate
58 Rental
agreement
59 Tree stump
60 Surefire shots
61 Citrus fruit
62 Big-mouth
pitcher
63 Head of the
class
64 Evade by
circumlocution
65 Picnic pests
DOWN
1 Spaghetti, ziti,
etc.
2 Join up
3 Brisk
4 Slot-filler
5 Hunting period
6 Irritated by
rubbing
SPC-sponsored films are playing in
the Reed Union Building that par
ticular week. The website even has
a member directory (which is still
under construction) where one can
look up the names and e-mail
adresses of anyone who belongs to
SPC. And if a student wants to join,
they may apply right over the
internet via the SPC’s home page.
Another section of the site that is
under construction is the
“President’s Corner,” where stu
dents will have a chance to hear
© 1999 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Carries
Author Bagnold
Pitch of a
phrase
“Roberta" star
Makes illegal
copies
Fashion
magazine
Marketed
“Trinity" author
Horse shade
Grounded bird
Fri. follower
Media rep
Falsehood
Affirmative vote
Simple bed
Pint drink
Eliminate
Final periods of
play
Sturdy cup
Driver's license
requirement
10
11
37
40
_ of Worms
Kitchen utensils
Craftsmanship
41
43
44
SPC president Terry Brand discuss
upcoming events. Students will also
be able to provide feedback to the
Student Programming Council
through the site.
This website is useful now, and
promises to become even more so
in the days to come as it expands.
The Beacon will be featuring a dif
ferent website each week.
SPC’s \
Homepage )
Tightening
muscle
Repudiate
Brunch choice
European
measures
Florida city
47
48
49
Features
1/21/99
Wild guess
Mugger stopper
Building add-ons
Stink and then
some
“Golden Girls 1
star Arthur
The Thin Red Line :
takes forever to develop
by Michael Coursey
staff writer
The Thin Red Line , director
Terrence Malick’s first major movie
in over twenty years, is a very sym
bolic, poetic and philosophical movie
about the angst and futility of war.
It opens with two young U.S. Army
infantry soldiers who were living on
the Solomon Islands with a primitive
tribal people. They experienced the
joys of the simplicity of family life
away from the war, and away from
the technology and strife of the 20th
Century.
The movie intertwines the scenes of
nature with scenes of war, and con
stantly asks the question: “is nature
or man is the ultimate ruler of the
world?”
The movie reminds one a great deal
of the flow and tone of The English
Patient in that it takes what seems like
hours for the story to develop.
The principle characters are Sean
Penn as Ist Sergeant Welsh, a salty
Sean Penn plays First Sergeant Welsh, the courageous and cynical NCO who runs C-for-Charlie
Company in the Twentieth Century Fox release, The Thin Red Line.
At First Sight is worth seeing
Deanna Symoski
staff writer
Until last Saturday at 12:40 p.m,.
there was just something about Val
Kilmer that never appealed to me;
maybe it was his gum-snapping arro
gance in Top Gun or his overly-brood
ing, haunted-by-more-than-just-a
bad-script Batman.
But in his most recent film, At First
Sight, Kilmer drops the hero act and
reveals a side of himself that really
makes the ladies swoon.
Based on a true story documented
by the book, To See and Not See by
Oliver Sacks, At First Sight is the
story of Virgil Adamson, a massage
therapist in the Adirondacks, who has
lived a simple but content life since
he went fully blind from an eye dis
ease at the age of three. When “Amy,”
played by Mira Sorvino, is forced to
take a vacation from her architecture
firm in New York City, she becomes
one of his clients. In a scene likely to
please both the girls and the guys they
dragged to the theater, she receives the
rub down of a lifetime.
It’s not long before the two find a
special fascination with each other.
Then for reasons suggested by the
script, though actually worth a bit of
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old guy who has been through the
grinder and is just trying to lead his
men through the horrors of war.
Nick Nolle portrays Colonel Tall,
and does an impressive job. The cen
tral characters are Jim Caviezel as Pri
vate Witt and Ben Chaplin as Private
Bell. These two soldiers eventually go
AWOL and become caught up be
tween the knowledge, peacefulness
and serenity in the safety of nature.
The central figures were Sergeant
Welsh and Private Witt. Private Witt
was soul searching for humanity in
all of the madness of war, while Ser
geant Welsh represented the Army, the
country, getting the mission accom
plished and getting home.
One of the key characters was Cap
tain Stores, played by Elias Koteas.
He is a lawyer by trade, but hesitant
as a infantry officer; he’s always wor
rying if the objective is worth his
men’s lives.
One comes away from the movie
feeling that the director tried to show
the futility of war by the endless
skepticism, Amy contacts a leading
eye surgeon and the opportunity for
Virgil to gain his sight back seems at
hand. With only one visual memory
and the desire to see Amy’s work,
Virgil agrees to surgery and under
takes the hellacious task of relearn
ing life with all five senses.
Kilmer’s intelligent portrayal of
innocence is, by far, his greatest tri
umph as an actor. Without likening
himself to Forrest Gump, he is able
to find enchantment in the simplest
of things—from listening to the rain
to discovering cotton candy. Ever
present in Kilmer’s face is a childlike
enthusiasm coupled with a child’s
desire to please.
Seeing, it seems, is as much Virgil’s
gift to Amy as it was her gift to him.
So when obstacles arise and she be
comes more of a tour guide than a
girlfriend, Amy’s frustration gets the
best of her.
Sorvino, whose character is rather
underdeveloped and a bit rigid, does
her best to go from passion-inspired
euphoria to condescending resent
ment without really letting the audi
ence hate her. She plays someone we
can all relate to: someone with good
intentions.
At 128 minutes, the film moves
story
charge up the hill. Men come face to
face in a life and death struggle, even
tually realizing they’re just the pawns
in a rich man’s game.
A great deal was left out, histori
cally. One example is, the fact that
the U.S. used the power of oil embar
goes on Japan forced them into some
of their imperialistic motives.
Wars have always been waged by
rich powerful men, with greed and
wonder-lust at heart, with the blood
and intestines of young men spilled
fighting the real battles.
I wouldn't recommend this movie
to anybody that doesn’t have an open
mind or doesn’t want to really think.
Therefore, many people probably
won’t like this movie. I really enjoyed
it except for the cameos by George
Clooney and especially John Travolta,
who portrayed a General, and was as
lifelike as a mannequin.
along steadily with supporting roles
from Kelly McGillis (another Top
Gun alumni) as Virgil’s overprotec -
tive sister and childhood guardian,
and Nathan Lane as a visual thera
pist who makes the most of his lim
ited screen time. This, however, is a
wise choice by director Irwin Winkler.
Although Lane is humorously en
tertaining, he has a typical character
run into the ground by almost any
Robin Williams movie (see Good Will
Hunting for example).
Aided by a melancholy score
sprinkled with favorites by jazz leg
end Louis Armstrong, the soundtrack
compliments the action rather than
dictating it.
In fact there are virtually no mo
ments in the film that insult the audi
ence with a shrewd play for tears the
way some movie about a sinking boat
did a couple years back ... what was
the name of that one?
Instead, the audience will be reach
ing for the tissues because of a good
story, not cheap tactics like
overdramatization.
At First Sight, though a bit over
done at times, is a great reminder of
what’s important in life and definitely
worth “seeing.”