Word: brennans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Surprisingly, Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, the dissenters in Washington v. Davis, did not quarrel with Justice Powell's interpretation of the Constitution in the Arlington Heights case. They dissented solely on the ground that it should be returned to the lower court to apply that interpretation. Observes Georgetown Law Professor Jerome Shuman: "The new decision continues the shift from judging the effects of discrimination to assessing the intent of the zoning laws, and intent is far more difficult to prove." Adds the director of a fair-housing organization: "The decision raises the standards of proof much higher...
...begs to be taken much more seriously. The Maysles followed a group of four door-to-door bible salesman in their journey through New England and Florida. In the breadth of the settings, there is a suggestion of something grand, perhaps a statement about loneliness in America. When Paul Brennan, the protagonist, tells his companions that the bible business must be good in Alaska, one is reminded of the scene in Five Easy Pieces where a hitchhiker proclaims the virtues of cleanliness in Alaska to Jack Nicholson...
Despite this subtle thematic dishonesty, the portrait the Maysles present of Brennan is perhaps the most affecting ever done in documentary film. On the road in New England, he is depressed--sales are down and his increasing anxiety shows in every gesture, the fear that he may never sell another bible. The trip to Florida gives him a second life, as evidenced in his little dance of anticipation in the umpteenth motel room of the week. But Florida is more of the same--agonizingly long sales sessions with reluctant customers that resemble the attempts of a spurned lover to keep...
Slowly, progresspvely, Brennan begins to come apart. Having completely lost his confidence in himself and in this confidence game, he becomes almost schizophrenic in his sales pitches, alternating between the most hollow mouthings of salesmen's cliches and bizarre confessions of inferiority to his brother who went to MIT. And as he deteriorates, the other salesmen take their distance from him; they smell the Fear and it makes them uneasy, knowing it may be waiting to claim them in the next city...
That was on July 27, and Brennan was the first. Three days later, in Clearfield, Pa., Legionnaire Frank Aveni, 60, died in much the same way. And so did three other Pennsylvania veterans. On Sunday, Aug. 1, there were six more, ranging in age from 39 to 82, scattered in towns all around the state. All of them had attended the Legion convention that was held in Philadelphia from July 21 to 24, and all had the same signs and symptoms-headaches, chest pains, high fevers and lung congestion...