Word: downtrodden
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...becomes offended when his motives are challenged on issues that affect the downtrodden. It is as if caring is an adequate substitution for doing. He reminds critics that he spoke out against discrimination long before he ran for office. His defenders contend that minority activists would be suspicious of Reagan anyway because of his conservative philosophy and because they can use hostility toward him as a rallying point for their followers. That observation is valid. But part of Reagan's self-imposed mandate is to show that his conservatism has a broad reach...
Nevertheless, Pythonic curveballs keep the movie accessible for adults. Sherwood Forest teems with spit, snot, and dismembered limbs. John Cleese is a lively, simpleton "Hood," distributing art treasures to the downtrodden. "Do you know the poor? I'm sure you'd like them!" he insists with comic-book eyebrows. Michael Palin and Shelley Duvall, in dual roles as lovers across two eras, provide additional satire on old movies, with a touch of the absurd: Palin, in desperate search for a cure to his vague sexual problem, blurts out, "I must have fruit!" This can mean anything; Python at its best...
Though the increase in theft and violence cannot be pinned to any single cause, many blame the influx of outsiders, which has increased the gap between rich and poor. Among the most downtrodden: the Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians. Those descendants of the islands' original Polynesian settlers make up less than 20% of the total population of 975,000. (Of the rest, 26% are Caucasian, 25% are of Japanese stock and the balance Filipino, Chinese and Korean, among other ethnic groups). Poorly educated and relegated for the most part to the lower rungs of the economic ladder, the Hawaiians...
...proved possible, the U.S. would still be confronted with millions of people from other countries eager to come to the land of opportunity. Though some Americans may feel their economy is ailing, the nation remains almost as bright a beacon of hope and prosperity for the world's downtrodden as it did at the turn of the century...
Lane Kirkland, the delightful panjandrum of labor, rides through the Washington nights in a chauffeured Chrysler limousine, often as not in a dinner jacket, almost always with his cigarette holder at a jaunty angle. He is the field marshal for the downtrodden, having assembled 185 organizations into a budget coalition to contend with Ronald Reagan, who does not smoke but who happens to wear a dinner jacket just as often and rides in a chauffeured Cadillac limousine...