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1 I V«\ IIa WmVA.v. fIandREVIEWx-vbv E. Donnell STONEMANBy the time this appears in print, The Wild Bunch' will probably have gone But some of it* impact will still be felt and discussed for some time to come For director and co-author Sam Peckinpah has seized upon today’s preoccupation. and occupation, with violence and exploited it to a fare thee-well In the process he ha* done such an effective job of film making that even New York Time* critic Vincent Canbv'Vapparently has been taken in by the noetic” approach But instead of villifying insensate killing The Wild Bunch tend* to glorify violent death and those that deal in it.Mr Canby’s appreciation of the slow-motion shots of bodies hurtling through space, blood spewing from countless bullet holes, is difficult to assess if notaccept.According to the Canbv report, Peckinpah has created a forceful attack against violence If thi* indeed was thedirector s intent, to repel bv excess it is a faulty assumption (Peckinpah has so far remained silent I. It is highlv questionable if a viewer's appetite for blood will be satiated by gluttonv and that is whatThe Wild Buch” is. a surfeit of callous carnage.Assuming Mr Canbv s evaluation is correct, certain puzzling questions begin to gnaw at the mind W'hat is the film’s message or moral? Has any character’sbehavior or philosophy changed by thetwo and a half hours of relentlessviolence’’ Who the closing sequencev#'•BrfUP ftv ■ jifI !i mmti yUfcvi-1* ’im more 3bout tniw * M 1*' * w 1*1 W i w Inf★ ★ ★ ★SPIN in the area's economy Read » in coai in the coming specialENTITLED “A Salute to Coal.”m BMg., Morgantown, W. Vi. 2SS9Stb»ob Ntwv i MofQontown Post iOf Dominion Povt Only f©Itsrecapitulate the heroes’ image as a laughing, boisterous brave bunch instead of the group of amoral, insensitive, degenerate brutes they actually were’’ Viewed as just another (ilm. The Wild Bunch is head and shoulders above others in the Western genre Thephotography by I.ucien Ballard is stunningand it contains some of the most excitingly-edited fight sequences I’ve seen in a long time And most cliches are avoided by both director and actors Unfortunately, the producers and critics seem unwilling to allow the film to be accepted on its own merits But in imposing significant sociological values upon the film, they are doing a disservice toail concerned The result is particularly misleading to the unwary viewer And it places director Sam Peckinpah in the same uncomfortable category with the moralistic Stanley Kramer and the tasteless, hypocritical Otto Premtnger For, regardless of high-flown motives.Mr Peckinpah's technique of seeming to revel in blood and gore is exploitation of a subject that is of great con cm to everyonethese days.Staats Cots worth is a name that has appeared for more than 30 years on theatre programs alongside some of the greats in American and English theatre.Maurice Evans Judith Anderson, LauretteTaylor. Eva Le (Jallienne he has sharedthe stage with them allNow, he is in rehearsal for JohnOsborne’s new play, Patriot For Me”scheduled to open in Washington in late September for preview performancesbefore movjng un to Broadway later in theseason.Mr. Cotsworth was visiting in Morgantown recently and his hostess. Mabel DeVries Tanner, invited me to meet this charming man of long andvaried theatrical experience.Possessing almost total recall, an invaluable asset for any serious actor. Mr Cotsworth proved this point by ringing a delightful song which he heard Jo*eph Sohildkraut sing a* Liliom back in the Thirties, long years before the ideal for “Carousel’*, the musrial version of Molnar s play, occurred to either Mr Rodgers or Mr Hamerstein.In response to my man\ questions Mr,Cotsworth reminisced freely and vividly about his apprentice flays with Eva Le (Jallienne s famed repertory company down on 14th Street in New York CityThen, without skipping a beat, he movedon to the famous production of “Macbeth which introduced the team of Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson under the direction of the remarkable Margaret Webster.Peg” asked Staats to play Banquo in the Evans’ production hut Siaats felt hewas not exactly right for the part. Apparently Miss Webster’s quiet insistence prevailed and “Macbeth opened to rave reviews, including excellent notices for Cotsworth * Banquo I recall an early visit to New York's City Center theatre where She Stoops to Conquer was playing Among the names on the theatre program were Burl Ives. Celeste Holm, Brian Aheme , , and Staats Cotsworth inclined to and trained in the classics. Cotsworth’s talents have illumined five different summer productions in New York’s Central Park, where he has played everything from “Julius Caesar” to King John”,There is not a trace of the stuffiness or stodginess about Mr. Cotsworth that(Continued on Page 17)
Newspaper Details
Sunday Dominion-Post
Morgantown, West Virginia, US
Sun, Aug 03, 1969
Page 50
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Jun 2019
Other Publications Near Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown Dominion Post
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Morgantown Dominion News and Morgantown Post
Morgantown Dominion News
