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Musicanoicj,naan(/ cjCl^ncaBy GLENN GRAMIGNA“He's so real its frightening, cracked a duely terrified observer of the early nineteen-sixties folk revival about Bob Dylan. And though his eighty months of fame have led him through a myried of varied moods and styles since those rustic ear ly days, it now seems plausible that even the listener of nineteen sixty-eight might be prudently engaged by his powers. For though his social tastes and instincts may have often nonchalantly wandered, his feeling for the poignant and the lyric has invincibly remained.For once again, in this newest series of ballads since his nearly fatal accident, Dylan offers us a startling portrayal of man’s perennial infirmity. And once again it is the terrifying hovering of death which provides his melancholy inspiration, through which all human ambitions are reduced to a pointless chess game, as in the title number, John Wesley Harding or all human uncertainties are advanced to desparation, as in All Along the Watch tower.”Yet, despite his usually sullen leanings, it now seems credible that even the ever eonspicious possibility of death may be approached with a certain new prospective Dy the balladeer. For along with the usual sermons devoted to our imminent damnation, he has deftly revealed a touch of wise gentility in his latest wailings.Dear Landlord, please don’t put a price on my soul,” begins ™e suitably bluesy ballad in conventionally self-righteous Dylan style. But eventually, as the song progresses, the singer proves that his concern is not concluded with a personal protestation for a right. And anyone can fill his life up with things he can see, but he just can’t touch,” he subsequently observes and soon the tune is skillfully transformed into a mutually empathetic dialogue, ,ending with the humble proposition that, If you don’t underestimate me, I won’t underestimate you.” And similarly, in the mournfully scored poem, I Pity the Poor Immigrant,” a potentially didactic set of verses is cogently applied to the purposes of a quaint and touching tribute to the universial fallibility of all good men who passionately seek some Holy Grail in vain.Yet, even where the newly noted charms of reconciliation are most thoroughly exhibited, the presence of the existential shadow and its invincible potential for predominance are never far away as songs like Franky Lee and Judas Priest,” a Faustian tale of the uncti-ousness of hell’s allurements, The Drifter’s Escape,” aorillstudy of the bitter randomnessTHEBLUE BIRD SHOP1310 POST ROAD FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUTSocial Stationary and Engraving Gifti Gift Wrappingsparty gifts - playing cardsSTAMP IT!IT'S THE RAGEREGULARMODELlwy3 LINE TEXTTh# finast INDESTRUCTIBLE METAL POCKET RUBBER STAMP. W * 2,Send cheek or money order. Be sure to include your Zip Code. No postage or hand!fug charges. Add sales tax.Prompt shipment. Satisfaction Guaranteed THE MOPP CO.P. 0. Box 18623 Lenox Square Station ATLANTA, GA., 30326of mankind’s fate, so eloquently prove.And finally, there is the pair of love songs which conclude the album and which dispense, I think, the singer’s resolution of his celebrated problems to the extent that he has formed one up to now. For it is here that he expresses most concisely his conviction that what salvation is available to men is to be found not in noble formulations but in a willing condescension to the simple and the aboriginal in life with such engaging passages as Close your eyes, close the door, you don’t have to worry anymore, I’ll be your baby tonight” from I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.” Oreven more expressively, Kick your shoes off, do not fear, bring that bottle over here, I’ll be your baby tonight.”Of course, as the wise reviewer must uncessingly remember, any view of so intangible a substance as a Dylan album can only be accepted after the most ruthless kind of questioning and doubt. But, on the other han, I feel there’s a commonality of feeling which transcends such intellectuality in Bob Dylan’s work* For as “Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice has pungently observed, His images repeat the same inner message over and over like a rock mantra: I need, I have needed, I will need!”Flicks'Graduate—With HonorsBy JOHN BOLANDIn the years since the war,the literary establishment, mindful, perhaps, of the carnage and genocide in its recent past, and apprehensive at thepossibility of nuclear destruction in its future, has drawn a portrait of the hero as an innocent aghast at the harshness of life, as a neurotic lamb confounded and paralyzed by the brutality of the global slaughterhouse.Holden Caulfield and Gene Forrester, the respective creations of J. D. Salinger and John Knowles, are the heroes (possibly) of the last decade; but for the less paranoiac sixties a new image of hero is needed. Of course the world is chaotic and hypocritical, and values are dead; but after their funeral, men must live on.It is obvious that a faith inpersonal relationships is a faith which appeals to this age. It seems to many to be the only faith still possible. In this film, the personalities are particularly attractive. Dustin Hoffman plays a perfect lead, bringing to the role all the openness and unsentimental naivete that it requires. Anne Bancroft, the vampish adultress, is a fair match for Hoffman. She is full of chic, sophistication, and will power. Katherine Ross, playing Elaine, is someone beyond description. Her beauty and zest are rare, and I believe that for her sake anyone would go to Scarborough Fair.Benjamin Braddock, the protagonist of Mike Nichol’s The Graduate,” is much more the figure of our times. As the film begins, he is returning home upon his graduation from college. In a very telling opening sequence, he is transported along a conveyor-belt passage in the airport; with a mute, dispassionate expression on his face, he hardly looks askance. His problem, as he sees it, is that he is a little bit worried about his future. In truth, his problem is that he has not yet graduated from vegetable to man. The film gives us a peek at his education.That education is through people, not through books. Benjamin encounters materialism first, the guiding light of his parents and their friends. He meets hedonism in the form of Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s partner. Neither turns him on fully, nor does anything else, until he meets Elaine Robinson, the daughter of his seductress. With her he falls in love, and becomes a new man.Technically, the film is years ahead of its time. Within the basic chronological outline of the plot, there are episodes of cinematic impression. Symbols — the waters of isolation, the sunlight of salvation, are introduced, inter played, drawn in and out as the mood changes. 'this leads to the death of time; the thoughts of a moment take minutes to show. Plot becomes the servant of theme. The mood conveyed is that of Benjamin, upon whom the camera is always focused, and whose reactions are the reactions which the viewer sees. With the addition of music by Simon and Garfunkel, the film becomes an experiment in mixed media presentation. Artistically, it makes for a near masterpiece.There is a wealth of meaning in The Graduate” which defies any mere critical analysis. Because of the richness of the humor (though sometimes weak), the lushness of the photography and the score, and, especially, the rapport which the viewer establishes with Benjamin and Elaine, the forces of good,” the film becomes a completely invigorating aesthetic experience. It is a winner, one of the best of the year, and certainly a work which wins first honors anywhere.£
Newspaper Details
Fairfield Stag
Fairfield, Connecticut, US
Wed, Mar 13, 1968
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
GB 02 Mar 2023
Other Publications Near Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield University Voice
Fairfield Summer Report
Fairfield Stag
Fairfield Fulcrum
Fairfield County Fair
