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A SOLDIER’S STORY. Starring How-
ard E. Rollins, Jr., Adolph Caesar, Larry
Riley. Directed by Norman Jewison. At
local theatres.

A Solidier’s Story, the latest film to
come from Toronto director Norman
Jewison, begins with the murder of a black
U.S. army sergeant ona mist-filled Louisi-
ana night. The Ku Klux Klan, which has
been busy murdering black soldiers during
this period — 1944 — is the natural
suspect.

To make matters intriguing, the white
army brass that run the otherwise all-black
camp, Fort Neal, seem intent on covering
up the whole affair. Two white officers are
also prime suspects.

Sgt. Vernon C. Waters (Adolph Caesar)
was a highly unpopular figure among the
black troops he commanded. So the army
laywer sent from Washington to unravel
the mystery, with only a few days to do so,
really has his work cut out for him —
particularly since Capt. Richard Daven-
port (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) is also black.

Davenport, whose status as an officer
provides a morale uplift for the enlisted
black soldiers, uncovers far more than a
murder. He also discovers the psychologi-
cal effects of racism on its victims, and that
revelation serves — or was intended to
serve — as the emotional catharsis of the
film.

It’s a combination that should work.
The fact that it doesn’t probably is due

more .to rendering into film Charles
Fuller’s orignal stage play, A Solider’s
Play, than it does to Jewison’s directing, or
the acting, which is uniformly good.

Stage plays do not necessarily make
good movies. In this case, lines that may
have -contained more emotive power
spoken by live-action actors sound some-
how wooden and theatrical on the big
screen.

Perhaps because of this, Solider’s Story
doesn’t work either as a social play or as a
mystery. The emotional scenes that should
have people caring sound contrived; when
the real murderer is revealed, it is neither
particularly surprising nor dramatically
satisfying.

That isn’t to say Soldier’s Story doesn’t
have a number of fine points. Caesar’s
interpretation of the sergeant who both
envies and despises white people is often
riveting, particularly in one scene when
Waters describes his contempt for south-
ern rural blacks.

Rollins also does an admirable job as
the somewhat larger-than-life Davenport,
playing the part with a Sydney Poitier type
cool that recalls that actor’s role in In the
Heat of the Night, another murder mystery
with more than a passing resemblance to
Soldier’s Life.

Jewison’s film also offers some cultural
realism, albeit somewhat dated. Blues affi-
cionados will appreciate the country and
piano style blues played in the local
honkytonk.

Neither a good mystery hora social film

Army sergeant Adolph Caesar (r) confronts private (Larry Riley) with alleged
evidence of crime in Norman Jewison’s latest release, A Soldier's Story.

At the end of the film the tragedy of the
murder and its circumstances is offset by
the news that, finally, the film’s protago-
nists are being sent overseas to fight the
war for which they were trained. That’s
good news for the black troops, who are
well aware of the nature of the fascism and
racism they’re about td engage.

Because Soldier’s Story will open some
eyes to that oft-ignored piece of history,
and because it admittedly breaks new

_ united — black and white —in the

aoa

Ge

a iad

ground in its presentation of conflict i
caused by racism, the film has some value, - |

But the irony of marching off to fight
one form of racism, while leaving another |
behind at home pretty much unaltered,
cannot be ignored. That can only be
resolved with some films showing people

struggle against racism. We’re still waiting.

— Dan Keeton

Theodorakis
on QE stage
October 9

The good news is that inter-
nationally-acclaimed Greek composer
and conductor Mikis Theodorakis
will be appearing in concert in Van-
couver next month.

The bad news is that the private
impresario arranging the concert date
has put ticket prices almost beyond
the means of many working people
— at $25, $30,and $35 a seat.

Whatever the price, however,
Theodorakis’ concerts are. always
major musical events. This one is
scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 9, 8:30
p.m. in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Like another Greek composer
Manos Hajidakis, Theodorakis drew
on folk traditions to create a new kind
of popular music of Greece, made
particularly distinctive by the sound
of the bouzouki.

But Theodorakis’ music also reflects
the Greek people’s struggle and many
of his compositions have been com-
bined with the poetry of Greek
Communist poet Yannis Ritsos,
including the famous “Romiossini,”
which links the Greek Civil War from
1945 to 1947 with the long democratic
traditions of Greece.

He has also produced major sym-
phonic works, and a ballet “Anti-
gone” as well as several film scores
including that for the well-known
Costa-Gavras’ film “Z”.

Jailed following the colonels’ coup
in Greece in 1967, he was finally
released the following year because of
the massive international pressure
brought to bear from around the
world.

He was recently awarded the Lenin
Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. He

- currently sits as a member of Parlia-
ment for the KKE, the Greek any

munist Party.

The B.C. Federation of Labor has put
Famous Players Theatres across B.C. on
the ‘do not patronize” list as the theatre
chain’s lockout against members of the
Theatre Employees Union entered its
second week.

The Newspaper Guild at Pacific Press
has also put an embargo on advertising
copy from the chain, effectively closing the
columns of the Vancouver Sun and Province
to Famous Players which, like the other
major chain, Odeon, depends heavily of
newspaper advertising.

After stalling in negotiations since Feb.
29, Famous Players imposed the lockout
Sept. 12 in a continuing effort to wrest con-
tract concessions from TEU members.

Although the TEU, a component of the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees and Moving Picture Machine
Operators, is not a major union on the
province’s labor scene —it has 216
members in Famous Players theatres across
the province, most of whom work fewer
than 20 hours a week — it is nevertheless a
target of the same corporate drive for con-
cessions that has affected most unions in the
province.

Famous Players itself is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the huge U.S. multinational
Gulf and Western.

Throughout the more than six months of
bargaining, Famous Players has demanded
two major rollbacks, union representative
Derek Jones told the Tribune.

The chain wants to strip workers of pre-
mium pay for Sunday work, “one of the few
fringe benefits our members have,” and has
demanded that we agree to contract lan-

Famous Players on boycott list

“guage allowing management to do our

work, he said.

“We were told from the outset that giving

up the time-and-half premium for Sundays
was a prerequisite to signing a contract,” he
added.

TEU members, who work as cashiers,
ticket-takers, ushers and concession stand
workers in the various theatres — the
union is also certified at Odeon — earn
from $5.50 to a top rate of $6.86 depending
on the position and the length of service. A
few people, those with several years’ senior-

10 » PACIFIC si SEPTEMBER 26, 1984

Locked-out theatre workers maintain picket outside Famous Players’ Capital 6 in

Vancouver. Pickets say they meet with about a 50-per cent eave resp

from patrons.

ity may work as many as 27 aie a week
but most work only a few shifts a week, on
an on-call basis.

“Our people were getting pretty edgy

because their hours were being cut back,”
said Jones. “If we agreed to clauses allowing
management to do our work, there would
be even fewer hours and fewer people.”

Union members were also being told on
the job that the days of their union “were
numbered” he noted.

Despite that, TEU members have main-
tained a solid front on the picket line, even
though most have never been in a dispute in
their lives.

Also involved indirectly are members of
another IATSE component, the Projection-
ists Union, who have been honoring TEU
picket lines. The Labor Relations Board

was to begin hearings last week on an appli-_

cation from Famous Players to order a halt
to the projectionists’ support.

Some theatres, particularly those in
downtown Vancouver have opened with
management staff and non-union projec-

tionists and the chain is continuing to get
advertising space in some community
newspapers. pe

But TEU is hoping that the Newspaper —
Guild ad embargo and the province-wid
boycott of Famous Players will put som
weight behind the members’ stand.

“We have a tremendous fight on
hands and we don’t have a lot of our 0
resources,” Jones told the Vancouver
District Labor Council Sept. 18 in w
council support.

Labor council delegates voted u
mously to publicize the boycott of U
Famous Players theatres where the union
certified. : =

The theatres on the “do not patro!
list” are: Capitol 6, Denman, Downto
Fine Arts, Stanley, Vancouver Centre
Vancouver; Park Royal in West Vancouve
Richmond Square; Columbia Theatre, Né
Westminster; Guildford, Surrey; Lough
Mall, Burnaby; Capital 6 and Coronet,
toria; Fiesta Twin Theatre, Nanaimo;
the Prince Rupert Cinemas. —