Word: gummed
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What has aroused Einsteinophiles especially is a 12-ft.-high bronze statue of the physicist that will be unveiled in April by the National Academy of Sciences on Washington's Constitution Avenue. Critics have attacked Sculptor Robert Berks for his "bubble gum" style, the astrological connotation of the star-studded base and the statue's cost (at least $1.6 million). Others insist that no statue could really be appropriate; Einstein, after all, was so opposed to posthumous veneration that he willed his ashes to be scattered at an undisclosed place. Constantly called upon to pose for photographers, painters and sculptors...
Superman. Whoo-whoo. A piece of already chewed bubble gum, out of which the producers have tried to blow a big, big, big bubble. With all the money that went into this film it should have soared, or at least floated agreeably. But the writers have crammed too much in, and the structure is lumpy and slow, devoid of suspense, toneless and horribly bland. And I'm sorry, I don't believe a man can fly--at least not in the fractured, badly edited take-offs, where the colors stink of chemicals and you can tell that any life...
...Just plain old good times as America enjoyed peace and prosperity. Even Ike, the first dad-president, could spend his time playing golf. Nothing seemed too serious. Letter sweaters and class rings were the concerns of the day, as swarms of teenage boys tried to make out with reluctant gum-chewing teenage girls. Considering, though, that these "fabulous '50s" turned into the "turbulent '60s," it would seem that America suddenly woke up one morning and instead of finding a crew-cut Richie Cunningham on its doorstep, found Abbie Hoffman and a whole lot of trouble...
This land "of delicate, delectable emptiness," named for a vanished biblical kingdom, is also rife with American influence. Racial mixing can produce beautiful results; cultural miscegenation tends toward ludicrous juxtapositions. The snap of bubble gum is heard in the Koran school. Fashionably oversize sunglasses are worn by women in purdah while their denimed daughters in platform shoes kick up the dust in the streets of Istiqlal, the capital. Down in the slums the click of cal abashes and the muezzin's call to prayer compete with an alien rhythm, "with words, repeated in the tireless ecstasy of religious chant...
...movie follows its robber heroes from their early years as clumsy stickup men through their big score and its legal aftermath. There are some giddy set pieces, most notably a gummed-up bubble gum factory robbery, but it is the intimate moments and throwaway wisecracks that pay off best. This is due in no small part to Friedkin's cast, which is full of idiosyncratic comic actors who delight in playing amiable lowlife slobs...