Word: banalized
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...explanation is anticipated. But instead of pouring out his story, The Boy Wonder breaks down in tears and the mystery remains. Given Byrum's weakness for cliches, perhaps it is better that he avoids giving an overt answer. Such a revelation probably would have turned good drama into banal mush. Byrum hints that The Boy Wonder was not able to work in the talking pictures, and there is a nagging suspicion that The Boy Wonder must have been modeled on an actual Hollywood figure. The character recalls the Billy Brights and Buster Keatons of old Hollywood--the great talents discarded...
Scorsese, on the other hand, does not rely solely on intellectual guesswork. Travis's emotional development is sketched vividly, convincingly. When he arrives in New York, his letters and diary are fairly banal, but as his experience begins to baffle him, the tone of his writings become progressively more psychotic, until it reaches an Arthur Bremer-like level of intensity. Scorsese plays on our knowledge of real assassins, but he doesn't abuse it. He provides the context; our sense of history merges seamlessly with our understanding of Travis...
...They had more than love-they had fun." So say the ads for Gable and Lombard. Unbelievably, there is more historical truth-which is to say, the barest acceptable minimum-in that simple adman's conceit than there is in the entire length of the vulgar, banal and finally repulsive movie it is designed to promote...
...Lost at Sea" the religious imagery is gratuitous; in "Womanlove" most of what the writer has to say is, like the title, banal; "Daylight" is glutted with loaded, but not particularly related, imagery. None of these is totally uninteresting, however--unexpected phrases make them worth looking through. Only the poem about a chop suey joint and high school hangout is boring...
Particularly in Oklahoma, Bentsen had good organization, the support of some of the state's best-known politicians and plenty of money (nationwide he had spent more than $2.4 million). But his campaigning lacked force and personality, and his banal statements on the issues apparently persuaded many Oklahoma voters that he was a weak candidate. Bentsen will stay in the May 1 Texas primary as a favorite-son candidate, chiefly to demonstrate his home-state strength as a vote getter and enhance his prospects for re-election this year to the Senate. Thus, even before the first primary...