Word: evils
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...censor's. In the original script for one Halloween episode, Vanessa and a friend were to dress up as a witch and Captain Hook. Poussaint vetoed both, arguing that witches perpetuate an offensive image of women and that the captain's hooked hand reinforces the idea of handicaps being evil. The youngsters wore more innocuous costumes instead, with Vanessa dressing up as an African princess...
...more persuasive and reasoned his philosophy of judicial restraint will sound." Armed with an agile mind and a caustic wit, Bork is expected to be a formidable opponent for his critics on the committee. "Any Senator who decides to just jump in and portray Bork as some racist, some evil Neanderthal, is going to be in deep trouble," says Republican Committee Member Alan Simpson of Wyoming. Many hopeful conservatives, remembering the turnabout in public opinion during the Iran-contra hearings, envision Bork as "Ollie North without the medals...
Writing a novel about slavery in the U.S. would seem to be a fail-safe endeavor. The audience for such a book is already converted: the evil of owning men, women and children as chattel is shamefully obvious to everyone, and the heroes and villains are easy to tell apart. But it is precisely the contemporary consensus on human bondage that makes serious fiction on this subject so rare and so difficult to achieve. Imaginative literature at its best does not reinforce received opinions but disturbs them, puts them to the test of experience relived. And what is obvious...
...artlessness. Sayles is reluctant to juice up the drama; maybe he's above such Hollywood devices. Though he can locate the dread gracelessness of real carnage in the film's climactic gunfight, the rest of the movie is lumbering as well. He pits a few good men against corporate Evil, then stereotypes their sanctity. Joe may be attracted to Elma, but the pacifist in him would never show lust: he doesn't do widows. And by the time the noble blacks start harmonizing with the noble Italians, you may be ready to cheer for the villains...
This is where Matewan hits pay dirt. As a union Judas, Bob Gunton pours cautious reason into the miners' ears, then sets Joe up for a fall -- a fine, taut, implosive job. And Kevin Tighe plays a company enforcer with a tight smile who has seen all the evil in the world and caused more than his share of it. With his round, ruddy face, Tighe always seems on the verge of derisive laughter or flash-fisted rage; it's enjoyable guessing which fever will surface first. The rest of the movie is less entertaining, a righteous homily without...