Word: caravan
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...motorcade wound through the dusty town of Maria Elena in Chile's mountainous north, the Cuban Premier spied a gymnasium housing a basketball court. He ordered the caravan to a screeching halt, recruited a government official, three carabineros and five Chil ean newsmen, then sprang onto the court - combat boots, green fatigues and all - for a pickup game...
...when he found a two-year-old Ibo child cowering in some bushes, its parents lying dead near by, he personally nursed the boy back to health. After keeping some Biafran army brasshats cooling their heels outside his caravan one night, Steiner emerged soaked with sweat and water. "I have been bathing my baby," he declared deadpan. In contrast to this episode, a trembling young Arab woman whom Steiner held captive in the Sudan testified at his trial that he had snatched her baby and thrown it in a river...
...critics as "Baskethead"? Hardly, and there are signs that Jean-Claude is not even enjoying the role of figurehead. He is not allowed to ride his Harley-Davidson and has to settle instead for joyrides in his sporty blue Toyota or flashy Lamborghini, usually escorted by a caravan of scowling secret policemen. One of the few pleasures of office was his acceptance recently of the Chinese Nationalist Order of the Propitious Clouds, Great Special Cordon grade, bestowed as part of Taiwan's diplomatic offensive to garner anti-Peking votes in the United Nations. As one sign of his restricted...
What prevents audience atrophy during all this is a recurring, if not pervasive sense of irony. Director Reichenbach appears throughout the film bobbing around and asking inane questions ("What means for you vibrations?") in heavily accented French. He becomes a buffoon in his own movie. Toward the end of Caravan, there is a long scene at Antioch College during which the students denounce the film makers as frauds, the caravan members as dupes and the executives of Warner Bros, as flat-out bandits. From the evidence at hand, it's hard to disagree. The gnomish sabotage of the film...
...parts, however, make for a highly imperfect whole. As a musical and historical event, the caravan was a total bust. The film's best sequences are those-like Antioch, or a look at a family of Colorado speed freaks dressed as cavemen-in which the tie-dyed patina of the whole project is mocked. But such moments are few. Which is a pity, because as a piece of deliberate self-parody Medicine Ball Caravan could have been fascinating...