Word: plain
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Moses went on to build many more monuments. F.D.R. went on to erect social programs as promiscuously as Moses built state parks. But the point of such activism was plain: government was to produce something tangible, visible, usa- ble for the ordinary working-class -- now called middle-class -- American family. That was the theory of the New Deal, with its unemployment insurance, old-age pensions and assorted public works. That was the animating vision that allowed American liberalism to dominate national politics for four decades...
...does not prevent Alexander from creating a beautiful scene. "I saw, on drawing back the tent flaps," she writes, "snowdrifts gleaming on the towering black peaks and, a long way beneath them, a wobbly line of light from the pilgrims' lanterns descending the far hills and inching across the plain." The ice cave at Amaranth lay ahead, offering Siva's boon, "a release from the fear of death, not from death itself...
...reactions of the people listening while someone is talking. Her camera follows like the eye to show the smallest, most unusual details, from the Jane's tacky jewelry to the plush red shag carpet. Her actors are not merely "m e t h o d" they are just plain bad. But it doesn't matter, you're too busy scoffing, guffawing and trying to make sure the snot doesn't fly out your nose from laughing. Without the crazy plot this film would remain a time-period classic for its decor and dress. Chesty is always equipped with her frilly...
Ultimately, if it falls short of the more profound psychodrama Havel may have been getting at, Rouse's production succeed's on a lighter plain, in the genre of self-ironic comedy...
...Cedras regime summarily booted out nearly 100 human-rights monitors sent by the U.N. and the Organization of American States, contemptuously delivering to their headquarters in Port-au-Prince a plain white envelope containing a single sheet of paper ordering them to get out within 48 hours. They did, to the applause of some of Cedras' tough-talking supporters. "These people were poison," says Mireille Durocher Bertin, a lawyer. "They poisoned Haitian society with their lies and unverified reports...