Word: tragic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...isalmost identical to the theme for Night onEarth, and this sense of deja vu is especiallypresent on the rather one-dimensionalinstrumentals--the album is definitely a treat. Nomatter how much you're heard Waits, hissemi-Coherent ravings on The Black Riderstill manages to evoke a genuine sense ofunfulfilled and tragic longing...
...character of Dieyi, and thefact that actor Leslie Cheung is up to thischallenging role is what makes the movie asuccess. Cheung, despite being a Hong Kong popstar accustomed to playing leading man roles, isperfectly cast. His Dieyi is in some ways the mostfeminine character of the movie, a tragic figurefaithful to the man be loves. The son of aprostitute, Dieyi comes to depend upon Xiaolou forguidance and purpose. The young Dieyi is already asexually ambiguous figure, and this ambiguity isincreased by being forced to sing lines like "I amby nature a girl, not a boy," and participate in aprocess designed...
...other hand, you can't really blame Roy Lichtenstein for not living up to Sophocles. Tragic elevation -- or at least the version of it promoted by the rhetoric of late Abstract Expressionism -- was exactly what he reacted against when he started out during the early '60s. Was real American art loaded with signs of commitment and authenticity -- Pollock drips, De Kooning stripes? Then Lichtenstein would go to the opposite extreme and paint thin copies of the least arty things within reach: romance and adventure comic strips...
...leading lady desired by every man. The fellow actor who marries her knows and accepts her ethnic identity -- a remarkable thing in the Deep South of the 1880s, yet never explored in the script. Her moments, superbly acted and sung by Lonette McKee, have an emotional power and tragic heft far beyond almost anything else in the show. But she vanishes halfway through the first act, save for two fleeting glimpses later...
...perenial downfall: weak continuity. Poor Jack's character shifts a few too many times for comfort. The romantic subplot is weakly developed, tedious and extraneous. Interestingly, in Burton's book version of the film, Iushly illustrated by the author himself, the romance angle is completely excised. It is tragic that with every other aspect so fully realized, Burton could not muster up a solid storyline once...