Word: tautly
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...Kubrick returns to the movie mainstream, he also waters down his material with a Hollywood ending. So far, he has closely followed his source novel, Gustav Hasford's taut, scary The Short-Timers. Now -- we will say no more -- Kubrick pretties up the climax with a bogus moral dilemma and some attenuated anguish. A viewer is finally left to savor earlier delights: the dialogue's wild, desperate wit; the daring in choosing a desultory skirmish to make a point about war's pointlessness; the fine, large performances of almost every actor (Ermey and D'Onofrio seem sure shots for Oscar...
...handsome features taut, his fist balled in indignation, Biden was in danger of losing his audience by painting a vivid picture of ghetto hopelessness. So totally did he capture his listeners, however, that their approval punctuated the meticulous cadence of his clincher: "And these are not someone else's children. They are our children. ((Applause begins.)) America's children. ((More applause.)) Blood of our blood. ((A louder ripple.)) Heart of our soul." This was Biden at his best, the impassioned idealist displaying the soaring rhetoric that has become his trademark...
Nice looking fellow. Even features, crinkly eyes, a ready smile, muscles taut from gym work, autumnal hair with a fine early frost. He could be a cousin of his fellow Rocky Mountain resident Robert Redford. Then look closer and find a superhero's face as it might have been drawn by Wallace Wood for a Mad comic- book parody. The jawline, a shade too prominent, entertains the rumor of buffoonery. The smile is one of unwarranted self-assurance. His eye squint seems not to have registered that the world sees him differently: as a preening oaf. With every gesture...
...their letters -- a burst from Nigel, a counterburst from Adam -- is the British equivalent of the nautical exchanges between William F. Buckley Jr. and his son Christopher. And despite his occasional flaws, Adam remains a visitor to watch. In Texas he describes a horse proceeding with a "constant feather-taut agility, like a clever man arguing . . . the uninterrupted ease of something done right." Trust young Nicolson to discover a natural wonder: a champion mare that precisely mimics its British spectator...
Instead of the diplomatic tone of most cover letters, the letters of the three entries state their wishes candidly. "If you have even an ounce of compassion in your taut, aerobically perfect body, you will condescend to grant me an interview on one of the 435 closed schedule positions for Assistant to Mail Clerk," began the letter of first prize winner Ladd K. Biro...