Word: strains
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...surprising that Poles, alone among East bloc peoples, are trying to shake up Communism. Rebellion is a dominant strain in Polish history, often against Russia and usually with catastrophic results. Russia helped partition Poland out of existence in the 18th century, and Polish uprisings were crushed by Catherine the Great in 1794, Nicholas I in 1831 and Alexander II in 1864. Poles accuse the Soviets of murdering 10,000 Polish officers in the Katyn Forest during World War II and of standing idly by while the Nazis brutally put down a heroic uprising in Warsaw by Poland's underground...
...terribly convoluted, but not especially interesting; John Avildsen's direction alternates between flatness and strain. Scott gives an imitation of his old force, but there is a lack of conviction in his playing that is, perhaps, understandable. If he is going to make this kind of film, he should learn from Brando how to take the money and hide out behind the makeup. As for Keller, she is just impossible, an actress whose monotony of tone dims everything she touches...
...Haig had his own problems. Conflict of interest was no apparent hazard: Haig is now president of United Technologies Corp., which does nearly 25% of its $9 billion business with the Government, but he has been in that job only a year and could cut his ties with little strain. The real trouble was that party factions on both the right and left found fault with Haig, who had been Richard Nixon's last White House Chief of Staff. Although Haig is often credited with having kept the Government functioning through the last agonies of the Nixon regime, liberals...
...Zhao's worried tone there is still a strong strain of optimism. Beneath his journalist's skepticism and the constant questioning of the logic of past Chinese policies, he retains, as Thomson says, "a faith in the ultimate outcome of justice in China--which means faith in China itself." Zhao still believes in the strength of the revolution. At heart, he is an unswerving Chinese patriot...
...MORE IMPORTANT strain of military-minded popular music has cowered passively before the prospect of world war, not promoted it with a whoop and a shout. New wave music, with its hypnotic repetition, machine noises and nihilism, had always rejected a rosy view of the future in favor of visions of chaos and destruction. But "Life During Wartime," the Talking Heads' 1979 hit, was the first indication that New Wave music dealing in the particulars of war not only could be popular, but seemed to satisfy some collective hunger of the public imagination...