Word: undercutting
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Antonioni's effort is undercut to an even greater degree by the most inept cast he has ever used. Daria Halprin brings a supremely beautiful body, a maddenigly erotic bearing, and a ridiculously forced monotone to her lead role. Her youth is only physical. She speaks as if reading cue cards and says "hee-hee-hee" very quickly in her highest voice when she has to laugh...
...public timetable is that it would increase pressure on Saigon to take over the fighting, and on Hanoi to accept a political settlement instead of facing protracted combat with a beefed-up South Vietnamese army. Nixon, by contrast, contends that any such announcement would tie his hands and undercut his bargaining position with the enemy...
...Willie Boy repeatedly yields a feeling of lack of progress and climax. But it doesn't do so continually, as a unity. Sentimental situations are instead set up and undercut. Moreover, the film is filled with strange changes, apparent lapses, in tone. Economical establishment of character alternates with incompetent dialogue and playing. Subtle implication gives way to blatant statements about the situation. Redford's and Clarke's performances and even Katherine Ross's, seem insecure and inconsistent...
...court and saying: "I will tell [local school boards] to resist" the desegregation orders. The pity is that many school boards, businesses, labor unions and parents are struggling, however reluctantly, to accept the law of the land and to prepare for what is inevitable. But they are being undercut by the Governors, who seem persuaded that there are still more points to be made in the South through racism than moderation...
...went on to say that, under the state's collective bargaining law, City employees who chose to enter collective bargaining with the City Manager were not allowed to come before the council asking for pay raises. To allow this, Sullivan said, would undercut the City Manager's bargaining position...