sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (11/20/83)
This is a new film by Robert Altman of David Rabe's play, which premiered in 1976. Why it ever got the attention and accolades then, and why it's garnering praise now escapes me. It's the typical war-is-hell army-as- microcosm mishmash which was popular right after the Vietnam war, and time has only exposed Rabe's creaky, stereotype-laden plot. It's a setup, wherein Rabe examines soldiers waiting to be assigned during the Vietnam war. He mixes two black recruits, one a jive-ass operator, the other an Uncle Tom type, one midwestern Great WASP Hope, one homosexual stereotype, and two drunken, foolish commanding officers, and lets them stew until his plot machinery runs down inevitably towards a bloody conclusion. It's not clear just what Rabe is trying to say--it's sort of "militarism is repressed homosexuality" combined with a generally nihilistic world view. It's high melodrama, but the situation is so artificial and mechanical that I felt unmoved and detached during the movie, and angry and cheated by its end. Miss it. /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer