Word: shit
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Lunghai railway from Paochi through Sian to the gap through which the Yellow River flowed and the railway ran. The Japanese, on the far side of the river, habitually shelled this gap by day. The station at the break, where we spent the evening, stank of urine, stank of shit, stank of bodies. All around us were acres of huddled peasants, bundles of flesh lying in the cold on the ground, waiting for the next train to take them east, to the rear area and food. Babies cried; but no one paid any attention, even if a baby was crying...
...have ever smelled. Even the escorting officer could not stand the odor and, holding his handkerchief to his nose, asked to be excused. Abandoned babies were inserted four to a crib. Those who could not fit were simply laid on the straw. They smelled of baby vomit and baby shit, and when they were dead, they were cleaned...
...MORNING was dark and drizzly, ugly in a way that only New York can be. Snarling people, filthy streets, dog shit everywhere. Three cups of coffee hadn't done much for the head. Still bleary-eyed, still in a fog, still feeling the pitchers of beer from the night before. Groping my way down Broadway, wondering why the hell I was heading to the Museum of Modern Art to see Guernica and the rest for the hundredth time...
West Side Story. Well. Well well. Hmmm.... Yes. Hate to say it, but I think this film is shit. That's a highly personal opinion--the movie won a ton of Oscars and has left millions sobbing away for poor Natalie Wood. Steal "Romeo and Juliet"--or borrow it under the pretense of "relevantizing" it (as if it weren't already relevant), throw in some beautiful and awful songs and bits of schlockified Copland by Leonard Bernstein, give it a pseudo-daring "tough" script by ol' Arthur Laurents.... well, the ingredients are right for a classic stage, and then film...
...then. This is the last WHAT of the academic year, and hence I'm writing my last column until next fall. Movies, however, go on and on and on and on--thank God. You'll be working hard no doubt--shit, I will be too--but for your sanity's sake, as well as your soul's, get out and enjoy a few movies. Here are some things which will be around from now until the end of May, whizzing by at Harvard Square, or relaxing a spell at the Brattle or Central. Old favories, must-sees...