Word: rebel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...decades spanning World War II and Viet Nam, when juvenile delinquency had acquired a status halfway between fear and fad, Hollywood looked to rationalize the action of teen offenders for an audience of their peers. They Live by Night (1949), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), even Bonnie and Clyde (1967) were updated romantic tragedies-Romeo and Juliet in comic-book form. Moral judgments abounded: parents were drips, teachers pedantic fools, the police oafish brutes. It was you and me against the whole stinking world...
...until he is absolutely sure that we see them as soldiers, not as kids. There is endless dialogue about honor and Bache's honor and honoring Bache, as the film deteriorates into a series of tedious confrontations: alarmed parents and stubborn offspring, level-headed National Guard colonel and misguided rebel leader, misguided rebel leader and cynical best friend. The relationships are obvious; piled one on top of another, they become an unwieldy burden on the journey to a predictable conclusion...
Recent visitors to the country report that rebels continue to control about 25 per cent of the nation. The Farabundo Marti Front for the National Liberation (FMLN) has not won much new territory in recent months; it has not, despite large-scale attacks employing U.S. firepower, lost any ground. Within the "liberated zones," some institutional structures--primary education, food distribution and medical care--have begun to emerge. Rebel intelligence is apparently effective; word of planned army incursions reaches the resistance leadership in time for entire villages to be moved...
...group. Surely in dealing with a military academy that is literally up in arms, chat-chat is preferable to rat-tat-tat. Moreover, the film never decides whether it has come to praise or bury the military tradition. Its ambiguity is apparent in casting the likable Hutton as the rebel leader. He tries, but one just cannot believe he is the kind of ramrod who would, or could, take his peers to the brink of armed confrontation and beyond. What with Director Becker lingering too long over various photogenic ceremonies, and the writers pumping out yards of motivational dialogue. Taps...
...some respects, Henze's life mirrors that of another German composer, Richard Wagner. Like Wagner, Henze is a political activist; he sheltered Rebel Rudi Dutschke during the European student uprisings in the late '60s, just as Wagner had actively supported the Dresden uprising of 1849. And like Wagner, Henze is willing to compromise on political principle to have his music played: Wagner was a polemical anti-Semite who still chose Hermann Levi to conduct the premiere of Parsifal, while Henze is a dedicated Marxist unembarrassed by being supported in high style by his royalties. Both...