Word: voodoos
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...present-day reality. Things begin to tie in: Chamberlain's dreams... the Aborigines... the strange events in the weather. But it's too easy. Weir has spent a great deal of time building tension, creating atmosphere, invloving the audience, and to resolve the entire plot with the old voodoo hocus-pocus is an irritating letdown. Furthermore, Weir gets increasingly caught up in making The last Wave a disaster-movie morality-play--maybe these primitive people aren't so primitive, maybe the white people have destroyed a much more advanced civilization (shades of Chariots of the Gods). "Why didn...
...through the movie, and it is all downhill form there. The vague moral dilemma of Weir's explanation is unconvincing. But then again, how could it be convincing? One is supposed to empathize with the Aborigines, but they are constantly shoved into the old ooga-ooga voodoo role. Their acting is far too intense to be taken lightly, and seeing them prancing around an obviously paper-mache underground temple makes one very aware that the director is faking it. The moral dilemma is an excuse for not being able to come up with a better ending, and it makes...
Even impersonal names stir improbable emotions. Phone clients have continued to howl as Ma Bell has systematically abolished exchange names (Butterfield, Murray Hill) in favor of numbers. When a disease got named for their organization, some American Legionnaires protested as though fearing voodoo-like contamination. Real estate developers act as if they expect fanciful street names to impart class to entire neighborhoods. But should it be assumed that only classical music is played on Symphony Circle in Vienna...
...many Americans, the international hand-wringing over the sagging value of the dollar abroad is as mystifying as a voodoo ritual. If the dollar's fate overseas is considered at all, it is thought to be a problem for foreigners and international bankers and not for those concerned with the day-to-day matters of Main Street. Nothing could be further from the truth. The dollar's tumbling exchange rate affects Americans and their economy in a number of practical and mostly harmful ways. Among the areas of greatest impact...
...with tingling memories of the rites and delights of other nations' tables. Julia Child's 1961 book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her superbly low-key, artfully maladroit TV demonstrations were immensely influential in persuading her fellow citizens that serious cuisine is not some kind of Gallic voodoo but rather the art of the eminently possible...