t

Bt

‘Montreal Years’ reveals
partofthe real Bethune =~

It is certainly a sign of the times
that for two consecutive years, ma-
jor publishing houses have focused
in on the Christmas book market
with new publications on the life of
Norman Bethune.

It is indicative, at least, that there
are a growing number of Canadians
who are stimulated by the extraor-
dinary life of the famous doctor,
and who want to know more about
the Communist ideology that
motivated him, and about the Com-
munist Party that dispatched him to
Spain and China.

In most of the material on

‘Bethune presented to date,

however, including Roderick
Stewart’s Bethune, last year’s CBC
production by the same name with
Donald Sutherland, and last year’s
Christmas release of the Mind of
Norman Bethune,edited by
Roderick Stewart, there is very little
about either his ideas or his party.
What we have got instead is a series
of character studies that attempt to
‘explain’ the personality traits —
or quirks — that made Bethune
great.

Hopefully it is a sign of the times
that this year’s Christmas publica-
tion on Bethune from Jim Lorimer
and Company is closer to the mark.

In fact Bethune: The Montreal

Nothing like reality i in ‘Paradise’

The U.S. film industry has been
justly criticized for presenting an
unreal picture of life in the U.S. It
rarely shows the lives of ordinary
working people and their families.
Recent films, such as_ Blood-
brothers, Saturday Night Fever,
and Blue Collar, have featured
working people, but they are
presented as brutal, primitive and
generally despicable. This false pic-
ture is very useful to the powerful
interest which dominate economic
and political life, because it under-.
mines the faith of ordinary people
that they themselves can build a
social system of higher moral quali-
ty than present one.

Paradise Alley presents one more
inaccurate picture of the working
majority. Happily, it is not an com-
pletely negative picture. It simply
bears limited resemblance to reality.

Its story concerns the three Car-
boni brothers, who live together in
New York’s Hell Kitchen right after
the Second World War. The
youngest, Vic, is a sweet, not-so-
bright guy who, at nineteen, is prac-
tically solid muscle from working as
an ice man since he was twelve. His
brighter brothers, Cosmo (Sylvestor
Stallone) and Len, turn him into a
successful wrestler. Much of the
movie involves vignettes and
subplots about the brothers, their
lovers, friends and enemies.

If Vic’s success story’is somewhat
fantastic, it is in perfect harmony
with the movie’s style. Every line,
gesture, character and plot twist is
familiar, not from our lives, but
from television, radio, novels, and
other movies. Among the
characters, for instance, are the
lady of the evening with the heart of
gold, the taxi dancer who is a
serious artist during the day, the
fast-talking tough guy who is really
warm and _ sensitive, and the
simpleton who discerns the true
value of things.

Lines are spoken in an overdone
fashion which seems to mean,
“*Sure this is a cliche, but you’ ve en-
joyed it before, you’re sure to love
it now.”

The style is to lay it on thick. The
camera angles are dramatic and.
grandiose. Unabashed melodrama

en etd ade

SYLVESTER STALLONE....like
his brothers, an_ entertaining
stereotype.

alternates with no-holds-barred

slapstick. And as far as the humor
is concerned, this unrefined ap-
proach often clicks. Early morning
at the brothers’ lair is hilarious, as

Vic sings to his pet bird and Cosmo
kills roaches with a baseball bat.
But when the subject is bittersweet
or tragic, the hokey approach falls
flat. When Len pleads with his old
sweetheart to take him back, he
uses a string of stock phrases devoid
of any real feeling. It’s hard to

believe that she relents, and im--

possible to care that she does.

The characters and their actions
are simple and clear. They are de-
cent types with contrived
weaknesses, except, of course, for
the properly dastardly villains. They
are stock characters, but they are
not a collection of degrading ethnic,
racial or sexual stereotypes. They
are sympathetic, when their ar-
tificiality doesn’t interfere.

It is not worth making a great ef-
fort or financial sacrifice to see
Paradise Alley. But it is an un-
pretentious and harmless piece of
entertainment which takes _ itself
lightly, aims to please and
sometimes succeeds.

—Marian Irving
Daily World

for a democratic.

and progressive culture $

New Year’s ss : |

BARGAIN
MUSIC
SOCIETY

Price $5.00

Mail to: ANC (SA), Box 302, Adelaide Postal Station
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 2J4

sPACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 20, 1978—Page 14

1979 CALENDAR

The calendar consists of a 17’’x27’’, 100%
linen, silkscreen print. The single sketch, let-
tering, and calendar portion is in black print. °
The print is ideal for framing.

CL) #

x

BETHUNE: THE MONTREAL
YEARS, An informal portrait, by
Wendell MacLeod, Libby Park
and Stanley Ryerson, James
Lorimer and Company, Toronto,
1978, $12.95 in cloth only,
available at the.People’s Co-op
Bookstore. a

Years is in the main a profile of
Bethune, the Communist, during his
formative years in Montreal, 1928
to 1936, when he met and joined the
Communist Party.

Here is the real man; but oddly
enough, and at some risk to
Bethune, the ‘‘informal portrait’’
of him is sketched by a CCF’er,
Wendell MacLeod, and two ex-
Communists, Libby Park and
Stanley Ryerson.

The result is nevertheless wor-
thwhile and to the credit of the
authors, the past or present dif-
ferences that they have with the
Communist Party have not been
allowed — with one exception — to
distort the picture of the Party that
Bethune knew and joined.

Part one — the book is really a
collection of three reminiscences in
essay form — starts slowly with
MacLeod remembering Bethune’s
medical achievements at the Royal
Victoria and Sacred Heart
hospitals. “A co-worker of Bethune
at Royal Vicotria, MacLeod offers
some interesting comments on
Bethune’s style as a doctor, but
most of his factual material can be
found in earlier sources.

The book gets much better with
Libby Park, a close personal friend
of Bethune, recollecting Bethune’s
political work in Montreal during
1935 and 1936. Undoubtedly there
were few people who knew Bethune
as intimately as Park, then Libby
Rutherford, and her personal notes
about him — Bethune was ‘‘normal
by today’s standards,’’ she says-
stand in contrast to the images of
the egoistic, impulsive character
that has been portrayed up to now.

But Park’s main contribution is a’

Security of the People’s Healt
which Bethune founded in 17
shortly after joining the Comm :
Party.

Stanley Ryerson’s finish 18%
best written and politically the ng
powerful chapter. Ryerson was#
political secretary of the Que
section of the Communist ©
when Bethune joined in Novenilt
of 1935 and his essay “Com
Beth”’ records some interesting”
formation about Bethune
membership in ‘‘Section 13”

The dialectic between Bethune
ideological development and
political action is skillful
presented by Ryerson who writes!
the end, ‘‘The truth was, of cours
that Norman Bethune, as a com
ted Communist, saw the issues #
ing mankind and acted on thems"
a consistent anti-fascist, 4M
imperialist, as a Canadian demo
and internationalist.’

Unfortunately, however, neal :
end, Ryerson’s discipline slips af
he allows a portion of his ow?
to grind out a confusing paragti
or so of rubbish about “
dividuals’’—there is no referent
Bethune — having their iden!
and “‘history’’ effaced in the O™
munist Party. To make it wa
Ryerson, who still claims to
Marxist, calls on Jean Paul 5
to make his point for him —
tainly the ‘‘oddest’’ feature of t
book. : ;

The Montreal Years ®
refreshing step forward in pre
ting the real Bethune, but ™
more could have been said.
authors have been true to theil ®
convictions of 1935, but they ©%
hardly be expected to #
Bethune’s politics, and the poli
of his Party, its full credit.

Although it is easy to recomme
this book for your Christmas sh
ping lists, it forces still anothet 0
clusion: For the sake of the
treal Years, and the following %
in Spain and China, and to ™
those years relevant to todays
another book.on Bethune is ne

—Fred Wilf

RE as ee

Season’s

3
d Warmest Greetings
3
3

We welcome all readers of the Pacific Tribune to participaté ‘
in our Music and Song Festival 1979 to be held for the first

time in B.C.

Ellen Linden

Uno Soderholm

Combined Finnish Canadian
Music and Song Festival
Preparatory Committee

ae ' Becca
from the

Kobzar Dancers

with a special wish for 4
peaceful and happy ~
Year of the Child |

ean nT ee