Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...hatred between Antonio and Shylock is the conflict which fuels the plot of The Merchant of Venice. Consumed by revenge, Shylock demands that he receive Antonio's flesh for his bond. Javerbaum delivers one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches--"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?". Unfortunately, this monologue, while spoken adequately enough by Javerbaum, lacks the emotion and disgust for Antonio and the Christian world which such a powerful speech requires...
...argument in Lila is more comprehensive than that in Zen. It is satisfying as a work of pop philosophy because it raises big questions and provides unusual answers to them. Also, in Lila, Pirsig presents the musings of both the narrator and Lila, giving the plot a sense of depth which is lacking in the monologue of Zen. Lila's thoughts offer an alternative perspective on the "actual" events of the novel...
...supposed to think. The trouble is that Penelope Ann Miller, who is a lovely ingenue (see The Freshman), is entirely wrong for the role. The plot requires Larry to fall in love with Kate at first sight, shrewdly seeing what neither she nor anyone else does: that she is his soul mate in amorality. Eventually Kate is supposed to find this very sexy. But such tough-minded complexity Miller cannot find within herself. So what was once a cheerful amorality play turns into a much more conventionally moral movie -- complete with a "nicer" ending than its source...
...striking sullen poses. But it is not a useful attribute for a maker of sound movies. Neither is Van Sant's disdain for narrative. He got away with Drugstore Cowboy because its band of drugged-out dodoes were engaged in a petty crime spree that almost passed for a plot. But My Own Private Idaho is a different story. Or rather nonstory, in which a pair of homosexual hustlers (River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves) search inconclusively for the meaning of their lives. What plot it has is borrowed, improbably, from Henry IV, and whenever anyone manages to speak an entire...
...American soldier of fortune named Jack Terrell, who once worked for the contra rebels in Nicaragua, created a political storm in the Philippines last week when he implicated Foreign Secretary Raul Manglapus in a bizarre plot to murder a handful of President Corazon Aquino's opponents, including rebel Colonel Gregorio ("Gringo") Honasan...