jay@umd5.UUCP (06/26/85)
I just got another chance to see "Return of the Secaucus Seven" and was very anxious to see if it would stand up to "The Big Chill" as well as I had hoped it would. Even without a score you can't help dancing (in your seat) to, ROTSS is a very entertaining and insightful look at at a bunch of sixties "radicals" who didn't turn out to be glib Yuppies (the term probably hadn't been coined when the film was released) with egos the size of their salaries. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy TBC. As one who lived through and participated in some of the goings on of the period, I found it to be more like a wish fulfilled, that somehow, getting all of my own friends together for a weekend in the country should turn out to be as jolly, enlightening, and sexually- charged as that of the characters in the film. But I'm not as clever as a Lawrence Kasdan character, I'm not as clear in my perspective on the world, nor am I likely to be approached by an attractive unwed female friend in her mid-thirties (although I know several) to engage in a noble act. (If I had some of the talent and bore more of a resemblance to Kevin Kline, however...) To me, ROTSS is more true to my own experiences. The characters looked very much like people I know and people I meet in day-to-day life. I've seen none of the actors in ROTSS before or since (John Sayles, of course, excepted). Perhaps because the cast was made up of a cast of "unknowns" it was all the more affecting. By the end of the film, I, for one, was totally convinced that the characters on the screen knew each other, cared for one another, and would each be somehow slightly different (sadder? wiser?) as a result of the reunion. There is much that can be said (and if I were doing a real comparison and contrast of the films I would certainly say more) regarding the successes and failures of both films. What I find most interesting about TBC is the presence of Meg Tilly as a manifestation of the gap that exists between the "chilled" and the next generation (ten years?). Anyway, to sum up, the grittiness of ROTSS appealed to me. Sayles also uses long takes to allow us to gaze on his characters without the intrusion of cutting. He lets us make choices as to, what to watch, what to listen for, what to think. This quality was missing (for me) in TBC and it's what I like most about the earlier film. -- Jay Elvove ..!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umd5!jay c/o Systems, Computer Science Center, U. of MD.