Word: machos
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...qualms about legislating morality: there seems to be a need to prove that whites are morally superior, to justify their legal and economic control of the country. No drinking or soccer on Sundays; no pornography (though pictures of bikini-clad women are splashed everywhere in this incredibly macho society); and, of course, no interracial sex. Nothing that would let the whites' moral fiber decline--that is, nothing that would prove too conclusively that whites and blacks are equally human. They are, of course, and the result is a kind of perverse delight in breaking the rules, rather like suburban Americans...
...guess what follows. Like every other so-called modern western, this one features a trusty old ranch hand (nicely played by Rich ard Farnsworth) who dies to symbolize the passing of the Old West. Like every old-fashioned western, Horseman slowly but surely sends its taciturn heroine into the macho hero's arms. Clark's climax, a plain old Shootout, is surprising only because it is capped by an optimistic denouement that contradicts everything that has come before...
...same goes for Paris K.C. Barklay's rendition of Sky Masterson, macho gambler extraordinaire. Barclay moves through his scenes with an understated panache, rolling off his smooth-man lines with obvious enjoyment. Unfortunately, last Saturday Barclay's fine voice was muted by laryngitis or a similar malady; rendering his songs--particularly his otherwise impeccable "Luck Be a Lady"--just a bit too soft...
...fourth lead, David Levi as Nathan Detroit, is the weakest of the four, but still manages to fill the bill. Nathan should be played somewhere along the line between macho and henpecked-neurotic, the way Sam Levene created the character in the original back in '47. Levi has a nice voice, but it doesn't help much; Nathan doesn't have to sing very often. His characterization seems somehow too neurotic, too much mama's boy and not quite enough swagger for the proprietor of a floating crap game. But he's funny. They're all funny, or at least...
Then Palmer introduced a second male, and, as he had expected, an entomological display of macho erupted. Battling to assert their supremacy and win a female, the two little beasts went at each, other like monsters in a Japanese sci-fi flick, pushing and shoving each other with their horns. If one beetle seemed to be getting the upper hand, the other often slumped on its side, blocking the first beetle's path. The more aggressive beetle would then use his horns as levers in an attempt to dislodge his opponent. Sometimes the defender flipped over on his back...