Word: benjie
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...accept the fact that Benji is not a Doberperson pinscher or a Gerperson shepherd [Aug. 20], but your chauvinism is revealed when you say he is named "co-chairperson of a humans' charity committee." Humans? Shame on you. Why not hupersons...
...even a purebred dog like a Doberperson pinscher or a Gerperson shepherd. So how does a mutt like Benji, though he is a movie star, get to be named co-chairperson of a humans' charity committee? It seems that the Marine Corps Reserve, launching its 32nd Toys for Tots campaign to provide Christmas gifts for underprivileged children, thought that dressing Benji in a space suit might lure more contributions. Television's Love Boat captain, Gavin MacLeod, agreed to be Benji's co-chairperson, ignoring the vaudeville maxim, never follow a dog act. "Listen," said MacLeod...
Benson's real forte is his imaginative use of the moment: he can collapse any one of the film's various motifs into a single shot. At one point we find Benji's grandmother saying, "Thoughts can hurt more than real things," unaware that her grandson is greedily eyeing her pocketbook; at another instant we see Benji praying to God--in the solitude of his bathroom; at a third moment we find Caldwell, Benji's young junkie friend, lying in a coffin dressed in a three-piece suit that he never would or could have worn while alive...
...title implies, there are no absolute heroes in this movie; each character has major faults (Butler his harshness, Benji his self-righteousness). By the same token, however, there are no villains. Nelson's attempt to censure "the system" seems unjustifiable in his context, as the individuals who make up that system in the film, ranging from teacher to dealer, are, on the whole, very humane...
...this film purports to be a well-rounded study of character development, it fails after a certain point: while Benji and Butler come to a closer understanding of one another and learn to adjust to each other's differences, there is a certain reservoir of tension between them that can never be resolved, not even in the film's closing shot of their final embrace. If, on the other hand, the film tries to represent a 'slice of life,' a sampling of the ghetto experience, then it succeeds. The unrefined and somewhat static nature of the characters can only...