Word: films
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that Justice is completely devoid of heroism. Al Pacino stars in the film, playing an idealistic attorney who tries to buck the system. His is a difficult and tedious task. Pacino gets into so many screaming matches and moral dilemmas that he often seems to be acting all the roles in Dog Day Afternoon at once. As it happens, he acts them well, but not well enough to distract us from the enveloping silliness of the movie that surrounds...
...principle. But by inflating their target to ridiculous proportions and then firing at it with cannons, the screenwriters have lost their subject completely. The true and complex inequities of American jurisprudence remain untouched; the white-collar scandals that have actually afflicted contemporary Baltimore are never even mentioned. This film would have us believe that the courts would be first-rate if only a few bad guys (played by John Forsythe and Jack Warden) were removed from the bench. Such simple-minded solutions only add to the real problems that this movie mindlessly dramatizes...
...thing is certain about Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the most prolific of West Germany's New Wave film makers, his movies could not be mistaken for those of any other contemporary director. Who but Fassbinder would shoot a scene from the point of view of a character's ankles, or punctuate a film with shots of telephones? What is more, Fassbinder's idiosyncrasies are more skillfully performed with each film. The opening of The Marriage of Maria Braun is a particular gem: as our eyes take in an Adolf Hitler wall poster, the image explodes to reveal...
...Germany's Economic Miracle. Since his style expresses complex emotions and ambiguous political history in broad theatrical gestures, he never makes his case. Eventually the strain between form and content becomes irritating. The final shot is a portrait of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who is thus equated with the film's opening image of Hitler. No sale. If Fassbinder wants to take such dangerous stands, he will have to abandon his facile mannerisms and arm himself with the most powerful tools...
...Show, a TV icon; it is the moving force behind a hit from last season, Taxi; and it is now making The Associates into perhaps the brightest, if not the highest rated, sitcom of the new season. Movie audiences can also sample his wit in his first film, Starting Over, which stars Jill Clayburgh, Burt Reynolds and Candice Bergen...