Films

Pryor at his best

BUSTIN’ LOOSE: A Universal Picture, produced by Richard
Pryor. Starring Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson. Adult enter-
tainment.

Bustin’ Loose is the perfect summer movie: corny, gushy, and
funny (not necessarily in that order.) After thoroughly enjoying
it, I wanted to know why its reception by certain critics was
lukewarm at best.

Whatever their reasons, while some of the language in Bustin’
Loose might make you leave your preteens at home, it is a film
well worth the time and financial outlay. In his capacity as an
actor, Pryor affirms that he is among the Top Two comedians in
the world. And in this film we see another dimension of his talent,
as he developed the story-line and produced it. His serious side
comes to light in this regard.

An unsuccessful thief, Pryor is recruited by his parole officer to
transport Cicely Tyson and a group of children from Philadelphia
to the West Coast in a bus that Pryor has to rebuild from scratch.
These are children with problems, and Tyson wants to continue
to care for them after their school is shut down. Their exper-
iences on the cross-country trip make up the core of the storyline.

There is a special kind of humanity in this film. I remember
especially one touching scene that the critics have picked up on:

when Pryor’s down-home psychotherapy does more for a con-~-

fused and abused Vietnamese adolescent than any number of
post-neo-Freudians.

Another scene worth mentioning is Pryor’s handling ofa young
pyromaniac, whose obsessions with fire began when he acciden-
tally ignited a household fire that killed his mother. Again,
Pryor’s life experience gives him the tools with which to help the
child. He doesn’t need a Ph.D. in psychology. —

One curious aspect of the film was Tyson’s performance. Her
role was strong by definition, in that she does everything possible
to keep the children together and to provide for them, and when it
comes down to a choice between that responsibility and her
romance with the parole officer, she makes the right choice
without a flinch. In that side of her role, Tyson is more than
adequate. When it comes to the humor, she doesn’t carry her
weight. Any film that involves a cast made up primarily of chil-
dren has to have plenty of room for improvisation, and this would
tend to allow an actor to ‘‘come out.’’ Tyson has earned respect
from this writer because she has chosen her roles carefully over
the years, choosing not to demean herself as a woman, as an
African-American, and as a member of the human race. Perhaps
comedy isn’t her bag.

Predictably, the film has a happy ending. The troupe reaches
its destination. Near the middle of the movie, yourget the impres-
sion that love’s-on the horizon for Pryor and Tyson. It blossoms
at the finale, in a sequence that is as touching and subliminally
erotic as it is quaint and corny. Throw in the graphic background
shots as the bus heads west, an aside that provides a peek into the
reasons why Pryor was an unsuccessful thief, and a scene. with
the Ku Klux Klan (which, most of the audience thought was
hilarious, but this writer is still ambivalent about), and Bustin’
Loose can be characterized as one of those films you may want to
write home about.

— Ron Tyson

Cicely Tyson with Richard Pryor in Bustin’ Loose.

This is no ordinary
murder mystery —

Investigation, Screenplay by
Andre G. Brunelin; from a novel
by Jean La Borde; Directed by
Etienne Perier; Photography
Jean Charvein. Cast: Victor
Lanoux, Jean Carmet, Valerie
Mairesse, Michel Robin.

Crime, suspense, passion,
guilt, brutality, gentleness; (did I
leave out an ingredient?) all are
present in carefully measured
doses. They would add up to just
another slowly paced attempt at a
thriller were it not for a couple of
ingredients not often found in a
film of this sort. There is
characterization and a fair portion
of socio-economic perception.

It has often been said, back in
the days when execution was the
common price paid in this country
for murder, that it was common
only where poor people were
concerned; rich men never
hanged. That injustice became so
obvious with the passing of the
years that movies were forced,

when. the plot developed from’

some such episode, to find per-
sonal ways — revenge, retribu-
tion — to achieve ‘‘justice’’; an
interested party would simply
shoot or hang the culprit.

This film, despite a deadly slow

pace in getting on its way,
explicitly and with acid insight
shows specifically how the weal-
thy man uses his power. Therein
lies its interest.

Stephane Bretin (in the leading
role of the killer) plays with just
the right amount of wit, brutality,
male chauvinism and upper class
arrogance to say something about
society in sections of France to-
day.

Stephane is not only the boss of
his factory, but of the town. He

-controls the mayor, the sheriff,

the police; he steps on the union
shop steward and holds him
underfoot at will. He has no love
or even fondness for his wife, and
so the school teachers who come
yearly to work there become his
companions.

The plot revolves around a
murder and the detective work of
Jean Carmet, who arrives to ask
questions.

Little by little the sordid details
become revealed. Stephane
threatens to close down his tan-
nery, forcing unemployment and
starvation on the villagers. Pres-
sure is brought by them on the
judiciary. Under pressure, the in-
vestigator will not give up.

— Lester Cole

circulation over the long tem

Standing up for your rights in H-Block _

Coffee
speedup

Those who take coffeé
bréaks to ease work-indu
tensions may be defeating thet!
own purpose, medical 1
searchers said recently. :

Reporting to the closing ses
sion of the meeting of thé
Federation. of Americal
Societies for Experimental
Biology, a team from Indian?
University said research
shows that coffee with caffeine
interferes with the ability
trained individuals to reducé
muscle tension.

The group, headed by Df
Mary F. Asterita, said it found
that decaffeinated coffee —
even though it still contains?
small amount of caffeine —
had no similar effect.

Dr. Asterita described caf
feine as a more potent nervous
system stimulator than othe!
drugs in its group, and the oné
most widely used.

She said her group chose t0
measure its effect on muscle
tension because that is tht
most common response @
stress among people.

The team said it first trainel
a group to exercise voluntal)
muscle relaxation, then dé
vided that into two groups, ont
of which received caffeine.

Dr. Asterita said the
experiments revealed thal
those given caffeine were nol
only less able to decrease mus”
cle tension but had more mus,
cle tension than the non-ca
feine group. She said respif@
tion and blood pressure rate
were also slightly higher in the
group that received caffeine

The team concluded tha
coffee should be kept"
persons enrolled in stress’
reducing programs, such ®
heart attack victims, and said!

. should be avoided by anyone

seeking to relax.

Dr. Stephen J. Fisher sail

his team from the University ®
Washington has found evi

- dence that the structures, c@”

led baroreceptors, influen®

and could be important in
control of hypertension.

The Writings of Bobby Sands, Irish
Prisoner of War Committee, Box 5085,
Station “E”, Hamilton, Ontario. 34

pages. $2.

The space for ‘occupation or profes-
sion”’ in the official electoral form for the
Member of Parliament for Fermanah and
South Tyrone is marked ‘‘political pris-
oner’’. His number at Long Kesh was
1066.

He was 27 years of age when he died
May S after 67 days of protest by starva-
tion. More than 100,000 people accom-
panied him to his grave.

The Vatican, the European Human
Rights Commission and countless
groups and individuals petitioned
Thatcher’s government on his behalf, on
behalf of his comrades and on behalf of
the demands for which they died. Since
his death, others have followed, sticking
to their beliefs despite all pressures.

This hero of the Irish people, of
course, is Bobby Sands.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 26, 1981—Page 10.

When he died he was serving.a 14-year
sentence. He had spent four years in
H-Block previously.

A small collection of Sands’ writiies:

- scribbled on sheets of toilet paper and

smuggled out of prison, have been com-
piled in a 34-page booklet, ‘‘The Writ-
ings of Bobby Sands’’. The introduction
tells us he was ‘‘the most prolific of the
H-Block blanket men, writing under the
pen-name ‘‘Marcella’’ (his  sister’s
name).””

The agony, terror, pride and sheer
determination of the men and women in
the prison is described, almost as a diary.
The collection gives some idea of why
they do what they do, why death in
struggle is preferable to the conditions
under which they suffer.

‘*The heavy steel door of the punish-
ment cell slammed shut behind me. In a

bewildered daze I vaguely heard the -

jingle of keys ... an ungodly silence fell
leaving only the sound of my-sharp, rasp-
ing breaths.

... Naked, alone and condemned, I
began to pace the small, freezing cold
cell; my thoughts in an entangled mess,
riddled with panic, worry, fear. Con-
demned! ‘We’ ll be back in eight hours’,
that’s what they said. Jesus, what time
is it now? Eight hours, that’s all I have
left.

“Tt will hurt. I know it will hurt.
Everyone says it hurts. Oh, God, it’s not
happening to me. It’s not happening,
I’m trapped ... I can’t appeal, I can’t
plead, they won’t even listen, they just
laugh, they’re glad, they revelinit ...’’

.Sands wrote this in 1979. There’s
more. The reader doesn’t get off lightly.
You’ re forced to deal with Sands’ panic.
You wait with him minute after minute
for the guards to reappear; for the beat-
ings, forced bathing, the scrubbing with
brushes, the internal probing ...

But throughout (how could he have

continued otherwise?) is 1066's op-
timism, his love of country and his

people. He draws on his memory of his
family: ‘‘ Take heart, son, take heart,
his father says to him.

‘Don’t be humble, you’re my sot
and I'll always stand by you,” |
mother counsels. ‘‘I miss you, an
love you, come home,”’ his wife’s voice
says to him out of the darkness.

Almost as if in answer, Bobby Sands
writes: ‘‘I am a political prisonera® '
freedom fighter. Like the lark, I t
have fought for my freedom, not ‘only
captivity ... but also on the outs! "|
where my country is held captive.

‘*T refuse to change to suit the peopl
who oppress, torture and imprison 4
and who wish to dehumanize me. Liké
the lark, I need no changing. It is a
political ideology and principles my ©
tors wish to change ... similar to
little friend I have the spirit. of rresdoo!
that cannot be quenched ..

a oil