Word: tokenism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Line, the ones who, hearing any noise from the subway tunnel-closing doors or turning wheels or the wheezing sound of rushing air-dash down the steps, sure that they will miss the train. My caller was stopping already, before he had even paid for his token, to look at the map and decide how to get where he was going...
...does Harvard put so much energy (as we will see) into generating this piddling amount? Why are pledges to the Senior Class Gift due before the bursar's card expires? A token show of financial appreciation forges the Crimson bond of the future. A senior who gives on his way out the gate, is more likely than one who does not to feel part of the University and to give to Harvard in the future. It's like voting: those who have done so in the past do so at a higher rate in the future...
BECAUSE NO CHARACTER in the film can verbalize his thoughts or emotions, the cast relies extensively on token gestures and allusions to convey its message. Sometimes, in the case of the blasting air-raid siren, the allusions are subtle: other times, as in the case of the returning paraplegic soldier from war, the statements are more blunt. In virtually every instance, however, the director weaves this type of commentary skillfully and creatively into the central dance scenes, enabling the film to maintain an artistic symmetry. Even the scenes fraught with tension--potentially sore appendages to an otherwised highly synchronized...
...WITH HALF THE MOVIE to go, she finds herself torn between her love--punctuated with every token of affection peculiar to the PG genre--and her amorphous fear of having a relationship with a rock star. With his lime waiting for their second date, she flips. "Doesn't it bother you drawing attention to yourself like this...
...being buried, and is noticed by one of the mourners (who wouldn't, it's hard not to in his preppiered sweater), who invites Andrew back to his village for a feast. But Schatzberg doesn't develop a relationship between the two, so the man merely serves as a token. This is the funeral that Andrew never attended for his mother, and the tears shed for the old man are those he wants so much to shed for his mother. Schatzberg belittles and manipulates human grief at this moment, and it is only the fascinating glimpse of the village...