Word: portrayer
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...story of Potiphar's Wife to illustrate the insatiable nature of women's sexual desire, how women could become dangerous when deprived of sexual pleasure, and how society should therefore ensure that women are safely married away. And of course, the group of prints entitled "Eve Sets the Standard" portray woman's inherent vulnerability to evil and fatal powers of persuasion...
...fault lies with the principal actors. Although it is of course unpleasant to criticize Daniel, Michelle or Winona, it is this reviewer's loathsome task to report that none of them is anything to write home about. Their characters are predictable and devoid of development. Certainly, they portray individuals locked into position by tight-laced mores. However, since the movie purports to examine or question the hegemony of these mores, one could reasonably expect more than Daniel's impotent teeth-grinding, Michelle's little huffs and puffs while deep kissing, and Winona's starry-eyed smiles. On the other hand...
...stays outside of verboten four-letter territory. As for violence, it is less graphic and less prevalent than in dozens of older TV shoot-'em-ups, from Gunsmoke to Miami Vice. The show's chief problem is unlucky timing: as one of the few new shows this fall to portray any serious violence, it has been put in the spotlight by antiviolence crusaders desperately looking for targets. NYPD Blue is also, by the way, a crackling good TV show, probably Bochco's best since Hill Street Blues. Better than Hill Street in some ways: sleeker, more focused, less distracted...
Doug looks for affirmation of his own violent impulses in such movies as South-Central and Boyz 'N the Hood. He misses their point, embracing the life- style they portray rather than heeding any cautionary tale they offer. His favorite book is Do or Die, an account of the lives of gang members in Los Angeles. "If there were more books like that, I'd read a lot more," he says, without a hint of sarcasm...
Such calculated shock tactics seem qualitatively different from the methods of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Treasure Island or even the horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Classical children's literature is full of overt and implicit terrors because some gifted authors could remember and portray a child's view, those feelings of awe, uncertainty and fear inspired by the world outside. Fright requires no invention; conquering it through language does...