er SR steers

The Black Stallion signals, I
hope, a new, more imaginative
approach to children’s entertain-
ment, and in fact, to general

today.

Producer Francis Ford Cop-
pola’s and director . Carroll
Ballard’s screen adaptation of
Walter Farley’s popular book of
the same name, is distinguished
from countless corny child-
animal movies by its sophistica-
tion — although The Black
Stallion is not entirely free of
““corn’’ or slow-moving
moments.

In a sentence, The Black
Stallion is the story of the love
between a boy called Alex
Ramsey and a wild, black -Ara-
bian stallion.

Both Alex (Kelly Reno) and the
stallion are pitched into a stormy

entertainment by movie makers ©

The magic returns to film
with ‘The Black Stallion’

THE BLACK STALLION. Starring Teri”

Garr, Kelly Reno and Mickey Rooney.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Coming March 28 to local theatres.

later, he frees the horse from the
ropes which entangle him.

After three months on the
island — during which Alex
tames the stallion — they are
rescued by fishermen and return
to Alex’s hometown, Flushing,
New York. Alex eventually mat-
ches the stallion’s speed against
two U.S. champion racehorses in
an exciting finale race.

The three month island so-
journ of the boy and the stallion,
stands out as the most magical
and impressive part of the movie.
The superb photography by
Caleb Deschanel has a lot to do
with this, as does the sound track,
which, with drums and flute, act

cuts the movie in half. In contrast
to the freedom which Alex and
the stallion enjoyed on the island,
riding bareback at the wave’s
edge from dawn to dusk,
Flushing seems cramped and nar-
row.

To counter a potential anti-
climax, the plot line takes over.
Alex and the stallion are befriend-
ed by Henry Dailley (Mickey
Rooney), a veteran horse trainer

who sees the stallion’s racing *

potential and Alex’s determina-
tion to race him. The movie now
builds towards the big race,
sometimes a little too slowly, but
always intended to hold
children’s attention.

It’s not always great. Alex and
the stallions fortuitous meeting
with Dailley — who just happens
to be an ace horse trainer — ad-
mits some elements of corniness,

Als Ramee (Kelly Reno) atroquie’ to 06 the stelbor! from his

bonds following their shipwreck in a scene from The Black | }

Stallion.
and Alex’s pluckiness, which
earns him our respect by the sheer

hard work he puts into training

. for the race.

There are many dramatic
stunts in The Black Stallion, all of
them convincing — a measure of

Mediterranean sea one night asa brilliant counterpoint to this _ into the movie. the care put into the production marvellous entertainment for the | _—

from their capsizing ocean line. _ magnificent desert animal. ; However, those elements are _ by the director and crew alike. | whole family. See it when it |

Alex is dragged to the shores of a The return to ‘civilization’ isa _ offset by Rooney’s performance, But The Black Stallion is more comes. fF
| deserted island by thestallionand sharp transition, and, in effect, which fits him like asecond skin, than a movie of thrilling stunts, —Janice Harris }

and ditamatic moments. It is 4 |
movie which develops the largely
wordless relationship between 2 | ~
boy and astallion by a subtle and |
poetic interweaving of action an
gesture. ;

More than anything, it 8] .

Carter cold war covering up U.S. guilt in Iran —

American broadcaster, author
and lecturer, William Mandel
Sunday denounced the provocative
actions by his government in arm-
ing Afghan counter-
revoluntionaries and supporting
their raids into Afghanistan from
Pakistan bases. .

“Not even during the height of
the cold war in 1947, did the U.S.
plrsue «such provocative: actions -
against the Afghan -people,’’
Mandel said, “‘let alone attempt to
draw that country into a
U.S.-dominated sphere of in-
fluence in Central Asia.”’

Mandel’s wide-ranging lecture
on Iran, Afghanistan, U.S. and the
Soviet Union, was sponsored by
the People’s Co-op Bookstore, and
drew about a 150 people to the Kit-
silano high school auditorium.

Mandel pointed to the cultural,

religious and historical ties binding
the peoples of Afghanistan and
Iran with the peoples of the central
southern republics of the Soviet
Union.

“They - have had continuous
contact with each other for 9,000
years,’”’ he said.

“And ever since 1919, when
Lenin initiated an equal treaty with
Afghanistan, the relations between
the governments of Afghanistan
and the Soviet Union have been ex-
cellent.’’

On the other hand, the U.S.,
which has only had 35 years of
serious contact with the peoples of
Iran and Afghanistan, don’t see
them as a peoples with a strong
sense of shared history, he said but
rather as an oil area — their
“‘oyster”’ as it were.

A key to U.S. policy, he said,

(

| production.

O'Casey centenary

March 31 marks the centenary of the birth of the Irish playwright
Sean O’Casey whose great realist plays — from Shadow of a
Gunman in 1923 to The Star Turns Red in 1940 — have been
translated in scores of languages and performed on stages
around the world. Centennial tributes and special productions of
his works are planned for many cities although, strangely, no
Vancouver theatre company had scheduled an O'Casey play for

=

a,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MARCH 28, 1980—Page 10

was the Shah of Iran whom the
CIA had installed.on the throne in
1953 after overthrowing the demo-
cratic Mossadegh government.

Encouraged and supported by
the U.S., the Shah tried every
means possible to bring Kabul, the
capital of Afghanistan, into what
one U.S. authority on central Asia
called a sesterilted, _Tehran-
centred axis.

“Tt was the Shah, not the
Kremlin, who touched off the
Afghan uprising, in April, 1978,
culminating in the overthrow of the
Daoud regime‘ by the People’s
Democratic Party of

_ Afghanistan,’ he said.

He cited reports in the
Washington Post from May 1979,
showing that the U.S. was already
arming and supporting .rebels
raiding into Afghanistan from
Pakistan in an attempt to bring
down the regime and establish a
pro-U.S. base there.

However, Carter didn’t reckon
on the ousting of the Shah and the
subsequent dismantling of the
Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, or
even the re-election of Indian prime
minister Indira Gandhi.

‘*The issue now before the peo-
ple of the U.S. is whether they want
to follow in the ill-fated steps of the
Shah and try to eject the Soviets,
repress the Afghanistan com-
munist movement, and set the
stage for counter-revolution.

“Their continued provacative
actions could certainly result in that
area’s destabilization,’’ he added.

Mandel also touched on the

repressive role of Hafizullah Amin, ~

whe murdered the PDPA prime
minister, Noor Mohammed
Taraki, and assumed leadership of
the Afghan government in Septem-
ber, 1979.

«Amin took almost a Enid!
direction in rushing land reforms
through in such a way as to an-
togonize both peasants and
landlords,’’ he said.

‘Peasants became so alienated
from the Amin government, that
they tore up their land deeds and
followed their landlords into
revolt.”*

He also rushed through reforms

on the status of women, the over-

whelming number of whom were
Moslem and hostile to radical
changes in their status.

WILLIAM MANDEL... U.S.
author, broadcaster in Vancou-
ver. :
“‘The Soviets learned early not to
send Moslem women to school
with men teachers, knowing it
would take many years before they

would accept them. ‘‘Amin at-
tempted to speed up the process,
the result bein that Moslem men
rose up and killed many of the men
teaching in Afghan schools,’’ he

said.
Mandel called Amin a ‘‘strongly

nationalistic figure,” who
understood neither the interna
tional situation nor how to con }
solidate the revolution i
Afghanistan.

He added that there were several
indications that he was possibly 4
CIA agent, “‘although everything .
about him is still not known.” 5

Mandel was also sharply critical
towards his own government. —
When asked by a member of re |
audience about the success of th
Olympic boycott campaign, he a
replied, ‘‘the boycott will fall on its :
face.”’ q
Not only will if fail, he said, but 4

-
Z|

Carter is just beginning to feel the ~

heat of a reactivated youth popula —

tion roused to protest by threats tO i
re-institute the draft.

“Carter is hoping to set off ay
cold war fever to cover up U. ;
guilt in Iran and the incredible rate
of inflation during his elections d
year,”’ he said.

But that policy, too, will fail, he
emphasized. ‘‘It’s been years since a
33,000 people demonstrated i0
front of the White House.” 2

Annual storewide
sale

20% to 80% discounts i

Fri., March 21 to Sat., April 5 i
Open till 9 Thursday and Friday S|

@ Art books © Children’s Hl

-@ Socio-economic ®@ History 4

® Geography © Biography and auto- — |
biography @ Sports © Russian
language books, aids @ Records

i ® Dictionaries ;

People’s Co-op Bookstore 4

353 West Pender, Vancouver
—- 685-5836

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