Word: claptrap
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...scintallae are obscured by too much pretentious claptrap. Like the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties' Requests, the Beatles' "Revolution #9," or anything by Led Zeppelin, Public Image suffers from too much unearned self-seriousness. "A man's reach should exceed his grasp," Browning wrote, "or what's a heaven for?" Well, not for rock and roll. Sid Vicious got out in the nick of time...
...Dead concert footage that makes up the bulk of the movie. The initial animation sequence, featuring the Omar Khayyam skeleton-and-roses fellow, as well as other Dead album-cover regulars, is pretty impressive whether you're stoned or not. Afterwards, the music is presented unencumbered by the psychedelic claptrap groups like Led Zeppelin have thrown into their movies, or the self-consciousness of an "event" movie like The Last Waltz. Interviews with Deadheads fill space and add atmosphere, but most likely you'll be able to find both in the seat next to you or the air around...
While reading your article on NATO [Dec. 11], I could not help thinking that I had heard it all before. The confident bluster, the statistics, the little soldier having his say, etc. Then it dawned on me. When I was very young, I heard just about the same claptrap about the awesome Maginot and Siegfried lines-and we all know just how useful they turned out to be as defenses against a determined and ideologically motivated enemy. Perhaps the only hope lies in men like General Haig, who is only "cautiously optimistic"-and no more...
...friend," sighs Scottie, "but when you die, you lose all your friends." There's more in that than just a well-turned phrase. A few lines don't work, and the play could use some trimming before it settles down in New York. One rude piece of psychological claptrap ought to be immediately excised: one of those Death of a Salesman-type closet skeletons, involving the time when little Jud woke up and saw Daddy making love to a woman who wasn't Mommy. Like the self-indulgent closing scene, Slade doesn't need this gimmick--he has done...
...opening scene of Mr. Klein establishes the unforgettable obscenity of this horror. What is incredible is that the remainder of the film, which won prizes in France, sleazily exploits the viewer's dread and revulsion to keep in motion the stage machinery of a claptrap thriller...