2 THE ARTS One of the best in recent years THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER. Starring Klinton Splisbury, Michael Horse, Christopher Lioyd, Juanin Clay and Jason Robards Jr. Produced by Walter Coblenz. DI- tected by William Fraker. Gallop, do net walk, to see ery Sacnanine nee Range one of the best family films to come out in recent years. It deserves an Oscar for its anti-racist content alone. In these days of the horrible Atlanta killings, it is something to go toa film and see an entire audience of kids and grown-ups alike cheering as the Lone Ranger rescues Tonto from a lynch mob. One can only hope that the message of brotherhood and justice that this film conveys — without ‘‘preaching’’ — will get through to audiences around the country. Young John Reid (Marc Gilpin) rescues the young fixdian boy Tonto (Patrick Montoya) when he is pursued by the Butch Cavendish gang of outlaws who have been plundering both In- dians and whites on the Texas frontier. The Cavendish gang later attacks the Reid ranch and kills John’s parents. Tonto takes John to live in his Indian village and they become blood brothers. Years pass ... but the Cavendish gang are still around. They attack the stagecoach on which John Ried (Klinton Spilsbury), now an attorney, is returning to Del Rio, Texas, to see his older brother Dan (John Bennett Perry), a Texas Ranger. With him is Amy Striker Juanin Clay), a young newspaper reporter. She is going to visit her Uncle Lucas Goha Hart), who runs the Del Rio newspaper. Ina magnificent scene which spoild have made the late director John Ford pleased and envious, the stagecoach passengers cap- ture the outlaws and take them to Del Rio.. Many people who see the film may not catch the significance of _ the book-that John Reid gives back to Amy Striker as they leave the stage. It is ““A Century of Dishonor’ by Helen Hunt Jackson (author of the novel ‘‘Ramona’’), a book so anti-racist and pro- Native American that when it was published, President Theo- dore Roosevelt, no friend of the Indians, personally denounced i it week of tes, It was not, and is still worth pose them, hang him in his own office while John and Amy are attending a fiesta. John joins his brother and the Texas Rangers who ride out to catch Cavendish, but Collins, one of the Rangers, secretly in the pay of Cavendish, leads them into an ambush where all the Rangers are killed. Ah, but wait! John is badly wounded but still alive. Tonto Films . (Michael Horse), who has heard the shooting, checks the bodies and finds the silver amulet around John’s neck identifying him as Tonto’s long-lost brother John. When John recovers from his wounds, he and Tonto find a wild white stallion, a horse later to be called Silver. John Reid knows that the Cavendish gang thinks all the Ran- gers are dead. To hunt Cavendish down, he must conceal his true ee ee ee He . the Lone Ranger. oo he succeed? Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd), a deserter own “‘Republic of New Texas,’’ works out a plan to kidnap Preanibek Ulysses S. Grant (Jason: Robards Jr.). The Lone Ranger and Tonto lear of it and try to rescue the kidnapped President. But how can they? Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting chapter. . Two Native Americans star in this film, Patrick’ Eas of Cree and Yaqui ancestry — and incidentally one of the best- known silversmiths in the U.S. Juanin Clay, who plays Amy, is of Basque-Spanish background. Together with Klinton Spilsbury, a native of Arizona, they give us a fresh, new and very professional performance of this classic tale. Jason Robards Jr. of course is a veteran actor and his portrayal of the tough, whisky-drinking U.S. Grant was entirely convinc- ing. Robards, after being resuced by the Lone Ranger and Tonto, is given what I think is the best line in the film. Puzzled, fingering a silver bullet, he asks . . . well, all of us who listened to Rosini’s “William Tell Overture” ‘over Radio Station WXYZ (Detroit) in _ the 1940s know damn well what he asked: “‘Say, boys, who was that Masked Man anyhow?” Hi-yo Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again! : — Tom Foley THE RAW EDGES — voices from our time, by Dorothy Livesay; 31 pages, Turnstone Press, St. John’s College, Uni- versity of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2M5, Man. For more than five decades this. modest, soft-spoken woman has produced a remarkable output of poems, memoirs, stories and ar- ticles, but most of Dorothy Live- - say’s two dozen or so books are Dorothy Livesay’ S Voices collections of her poetry. She has =| a rare skill and the inspiration to © F evoke, in a few lines and even a $ few words, a vibrant image, a «= concise thought and a depth of feeling and dedication unique in z our literature. 1 Her latest work, The Raw : Edges, is a slim book, printed on heavy green paper in an attractive format, with a few stanzas or less per page. Sit back, relax, read the lines unhurriedly. Let their beauty enter, let their ideas sink in. Soon their meaning becomes crystal-clear and it grows on you as you discover their fresh, pas- sionate appeal. She paints, in a few economical but vivid strokes, pictures of people who have been turned into mere objects, automatons inhabit- ing inhospitable, inhuman envi- ronments, people lost in a com- DOROTHY LIVESAY puterized nihilism, people pro- grammed for nuclear destruction. The words of these brief poetic invocations are spoken by The Sibyl (the prophetess), The Pain- ters (He and She), the Poet, The Commoners (He and She) and the Scientist. Livesay’s Poet voice defiance: We may go down bombed set on fire then dying but the word the poem has been hurled to the tombed target our epithet defying Her Commoners sing of hope: When there’s no refuge left on the scorched earth . : we will yet command ourselves to | sing of experiences never dreamed of marvels found existing. still gifts for another universe And her Sibyl invites us to. Sing then for the inner ear’s hearing so each man and woman common and uncommon L may achieve an instant of plain — prayer be bird on wing meadowlark soaring high through unsullied air Read, re-read and read once > more aloud. Listen to Livesay’s | quietly eloquent lines of distilled — beauty. ; from the Civil War Union Army, insane, desiring to found his _ the Isleta Pueblo people, and Michael Horse, who is of Zuni, - “ae —— PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 24, 1981--Page 10... Apartheid remains unchanged. - FACELIFT APARTHEID. Judy Seidman. intema- tional Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, London, England. 1980. 87 pp. There are several countries in the world today where the governments survive only through a brutal reign of terror. Ordinary trade union rights and freedoms do not exist. Democracy is, at best, an illusion. Civil rights are trampled under foot. All of them are right wing governments that maintain impérialism’s position in their countries through the organized and concerted suppression of liber- — ty. The grand daddy of them all, the despotism which has been in power the longest, is the Repub- lic of South Africa. A recent publication from the. ecient De- fence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa contains a wealth of information about how apartheid works. It shows that all the changes that have been initiated in South Africa in the last few years have all been window dressing. There have been no attempts to liberalize South African society. Facelift Apartheid shows how the oppression and violence directed against Blacks has dramati- cally increased since the Soweto rebellions of 1976. The Apartheid War Machine demonstrates that under Prime Minister Botha’s leadership, the mili- tary forces have assumed a more central role in the | administration and control of the country. ~The resistance that began in Soweto in June, 1976, and which rapidly spread to other South Af- rican communities, was undoubtedly inspired by the liberation of Angola and the defeat there of the South African defence forces. The spark that ig- nited the rebellion was the refusal of Black stu- dents to participate in an educational system de- signed to teach them to accept apartheid. The - Blacks were bludgeoned by an orgy of government violence that left, by unofficial estimates, close to 5,000 dead. After Soweto, the South African government ‘was faced. with a very bleak picture. The ring of friendly states on its borders had been cracked. In November, 1977, the UN instituted a mandatory arms embargo. World opinion was revulsed at the severity of the repression against the Soweto stu- dents. In 1978, government scandals forced the resignation of Prime Minister Vorster. The new prime minister, P.W. Botha, saw the . cupy the house. to enter skilled trades, by allowing the registration — ., sures up its sleeve: detention, banning, house al _— Oscar Ryan need for changes that would allow him to present a more liberal face to the outside world while main- taining the strict enforcement of apartheid inside the country. In Facelift Apartheid, Judy Seidman f details all of these changes, and shows how they © were never intended to weaken. the system of | apartheid. On the contrary, they. have been de- signed to strengthen it. By government policy, in the near future there = will no longer by any Black citizens of South Afri- ca. All Blacks will be citizens of the bantustans, the — 13% of South African territory where Blacks are forced to live. This change of citizenship willhave _ far reaching effects for the Black majority. For one — thing, it will increase the enforced separation of the _ races. For another, it is designed to deflect criti- | cism of the government for discriminating — against its own citizens, because it will no longer — have any Black citizens. The government no doubt — : hopes that it can use this type of change as one” avenue to regain international acceptance in sports, cultural, trade and other exchanges. i Other examples that she gives show how the changes are riddled with contradictions. As one of — the more absurd instances, Blacks were given the — right to buy their own homes. But after buying — them, they do not necessarily acquire ownership of them. They can be forced out of the area at any time while buying a home, and they lose all rights to that home. If a Black dies while buying a home, the family docs not necessarily have any right to oc- - “Seidman gives a host of other examples, all off which changes are designed to win international acceptance by removing most of the forms of “‘petty apartheid.’’ A number of the changes in South Africa are also designed to try and win over — .> sections of the Black population by allowing them of Black unions, and by extending certain iS to} Black businessmen. None of these changes can work though, be- cause there is still no freedom for anyone in South Africa, Black or white, to challenge the funda- mental nature of apartheid. For anyone who tri South Africa still has a long list of repressive mea- rests, political trials, a well organized state police and an enormous defence force are at its dienes