Word: earnest
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Clinton's fears about his campaign unraveling under Brown's relentless assaults were reflected in a startling reversal of debate strategy. After avoiding a rich diet of face-to-face confrontation with Brown, Clinton suddenly challenged Brown to six debates. Two of the resulting showdowns, earnest discussions of urban problems, showed how close both men are on most domestic issues. They agree that Bush has abandoned the cities. Both nod vigorously to virtually any question about increased funding for urban needs...
John M. Newman, a former U.S. Army major who teaches history at the University of Maryland, has entered this fray with a meticulously documented argument that Kennedy planned to withdraw from Vietnam had he been re-elected in 1964. Earnest yet overheated, grounded in footnotes yet prone to flights of conspiratorial conjecture, JFK and Vietnam (Warner Books; 506 pages; $22.95) reads like a strange hybrid between a doctoral dissertation and the rough draft of an Oliver Stone screenplay, and with reason: it was, indeed, Newman's dissertation, and Stone did use it as a basis for his movie...
...Leverett House Arts Society production of Amadeus (directed by Grace Fan) effectively exploits this difficult but potent script, and presents an earnest reading of Shaffer's Salieri. Arthur Wu dominates the production with his impressive control of both voice and gesture, and makes the psychological portrait of Salieri's anguish convincing. Jessie Cohen plays an irrepressible and eminently likable Mozart, and the casting of a woman in the role of the composer-child emphasizes the youthful and effeminate side of the composer's character as Shaffer interprets...
...benign fool. More troublesome are the Venticelli, played by Howie Axelrod and Eleanor Kincaid, and the three nobles, Baron von Strack (Alfred di Venturi), Count Orsini-Rosen-berg (Peter Galatin) and Baron von Swieten (Arzhang Kameri). The Venticelli are cold and supercilious while the nobles are earnest and straightforward in their delivery: thoughtful characterization would have thing the other way around. Finally, overacting is a recurring problem with these roles, since minor disputes and even neutral exchanges inevitably explode into shouting-matches, threatening to detract even from Wu's thoughtful and truly moving performance...
...moviegoers munch their popcorn before the main feature starts these days, many of them see an earnest commercial in which actor James Earl Jones urges President Bush to make a vital trip to Brazil this June. People who want to deliver the same message directly to the White House can call an 800 number and for $6.95 send a personalized "Earth Telegram" to Washington...