Word: tragical
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Edward Zwick, the director, and Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff, the screenwriters, are under the impression that they are bringing forth a tragic epic, not a silly melodrama, and therefore much blood must be spilled before whoever is left standing at the end is granted peace and wisdom. That most of the dying results from a bootlegging operation Tristan starts up during Prohibition tends to short-circuit whatever impulses toward terror and pity we might still have. Running hooch in from Canada is not an occupation we usually associate with profound drama, especially when it is centered on a figure...
People who knew him in the '40s and '50s remember that Kline liked to talk about Gericault and Velazquez, about old silver and 18th century political cartoons, rather than the gaseous rodomontade of "tragic chaos" and "existential risk" that got loaded onto Abstract Expressionism by such artists as Barnett Newman and such critics as Harold Rosenberg. In short, he was very interested in style, a suspect idea then but one that his paintings are none the worse for raising. We can't see Kline the way the art world did 40 years ago, when critics wrote about his "desperate shriek...
...Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Britton and his 74-year-old escort, James Barrett, as their car approached the Ladies' Clinic where Britton was a women's health care provider. The reaction from the anti-choicers? The American Life League denounced the murder as "a horrible, tragic, heinous, serious crime." Operation Rescue's Patrick Mahoney declared that "Paul Hill represents a minority, fringe element of the pro-life movement...
Huang puts in a very strong performance as Himiko, who, though technically dead, is caught in a limbo between this world and the next. As the tragic Himiko, who is trying to come to terms with her new life, her abusive husband and her daughter, she is convincing. She captures the almost schizophrenic character effortlessly and without melodrama. One carp: the foot stamping -- once, twice, and yes, it's very effective, but once with every exit, it's distracting...
...tragic that the pro-life movement, which opposes abortion through non-violent activities such as prayer vigils and marches, will be linked in the public wind with killing--the very thing that pro-lifers oppose with such determination and courage...