Word: rituals
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That's the kind of picture it is-everybody wears his world-weariness on his sleeve while gallantly enacting some ritual of self-sacrifice, preferably a futile one. The Legionnaires are a carefully assorted lot, the exotic equivalent of the cross sections found in bomber crews in World War II movies-a soulful French muscian, a what-ho English blueblood, a hulking Russian who once guarded the Czar's family, and so on. Hackman and the chieftain of the hostile desert tribes (Ian Holm) are, naturally, old and respectful friends, although somehow Scriptwriter David Zelag Goodman neglected...
...something of a standard product, it is also rather predictable. When a married bureaucrat (Jean Rochefort) conceives a passion for a flashy Paris model (Anny Duperey), we have no doubt that he is going to bed her in the final reel - after first undergoing a series of ritual humiliations befitting a middle-aged fool who tries to play the swinger...
Still, there are ritual subtleties. Business relationships, for example, can be complicated. At first phone contact, a person may be "Mr." or "Mzzz"-slurred slightly so as not to be entirely the feminist "Ms." Then both names-"Hello, Paul Anderson?"-may be used for a couple of calls. Whereupon, first names seem permissible. Some companies take ostentatious care to have everyone use first names-though secretaries often remain "Ellen" while the boss is "Mr. Jackson." The jaunty practice of using initials is often helpful: everyone becomes E.C., J.B., T.L., and so on. Clare, a young woman who wants to make...
...have a lot of friends who have gone to Star Wars many times, but up until about a week ago, none of them had actually seen it. They enjoyed the ritual of getting to the Sack Charles Cinema at 8 p.m. to buy tickets for the 10 p.m. show, only to find that the 10 p.m. show had already been sold...
Riding its phantom win streak, Cal State pulled the stunt in its CWS opener, sending the fans into hysterics and the No. 2-ranked Minnesota Gophers to the showers, 7-4. Fans piled into the stadium an hour before Cal State games to witness the ritual, but the Diabalos kept their honor, abandoning the act once the win streak was broken by Lewis of South Carolina, 6-2. Cal State was eventually eliminated by Southern Illinois 9-7, after coughing up a five-run lead...