Out

I checked out this movie from the local library and was intrigued by the plot summary written on the back. That was as good as it got! This film is a rambling mish-mash of unconnectable plots and dialog and doesn't make the slightest attempt to live up to it's own selling points.

How respectable actors like Peter and Danny became involved in this putrid mess will forever remain a mystery. They must have been drugged and kidnapped.

If you're a good, conscientious human being, you will make an effort to buy up any and all copies of this intellectual black-hole and have them destroyed with large caliber hand-guns.

This movie is a true horror.

A number of years ago, I attended an exhibition at a renovated, cavernous railroad terminal which had been made into an exhibition and performance facility. There was a show which featured avant-garde art, films, and the "headliner" was Charlotte Moorman. At that time, probably in her mid- to late-30's, Ms. Moorman, a Julliard post-grad alum and concert cellist, had earlier made a name for herself by playing in a concert topless. She was briefly arrested for this and given probation. (I've always pictured how this must have actually been quite fascinating - since she was a "busty" lady, I imagined that she had to be very deft, and careful, in moving the bow across the strings to avoid injury to herself.)

She had then become described as a performer of the "mixed-media" genre, and as a performance artist. I swear, her performance that day was exactly as I describe (I'll certainly never forget it; my mouth wouldn't close until hours later).

First, she destroyed an in-tact piano. An assistant handed her a full-size sledge hammer, and she beat-the-hell out of the instrument (she swung the tool as deftly as Alan Ladd and Van Helfin swung their axes removing a stump early during "Shane"). Then, the assistant handed her a small, hand-held sledge, with which she pulverized the smaller components which her larger tool had dislodged from the instrument.

This accomplished, the assistant now brought her cello and a very large burlap sack. She was wearing a long dress, and proceeded to lie on the floor, crawl completely within the sack, and draw her cello into it. For about five or ten minutes, she wriggled, totally hidden within, stuck an arm out, drew it back in, and did likewise with a stockinged leg. Finally she played some notes (no more than 5 or 6), and you could see the movement of her bow and the outline of the instrument. What she played was not particularly tuneful. She then emerged from the sack, her assistant took same and the cello/bow, and she took a bow as if she had just completed a concerto. And, she did not crack even a semblance of a smile during any of these proceedings.

I'm not an exceptional storyteller, but I promise what I've just described will make more sense, and be more logical to your understanding, than this movie. Strangely, though, in its pretentious, vague, incomprehensible way, this duo-titled flick holds a weird sort of fascination - as did Ms. Moorman's performance. I advise viewing it, just so you can say you did. I'm not sure I'd give it 5 stars; I'd rate it 4-1/2, but since this site does not utilize "halves," let's call it a "4." And I think its fascination may be a bit greater now, than it would have been in an earlier viewing, since nearly a quarter century has elapsed since its filming.

Peter Coyote presents a decent performance in this far less than credible movie. It has been released as a DVD featuring Danny Glover. Danny has a very small role in this 1982 independent film, so I suspect his inclusion on the jacket is because of his recent popularity - in other words - just to sell the DVD. The best performance comes from O- Lan Shepard (O-Lan Jones), who is not listed on the CD. Her role provides the only semblance of a plot in this othwise pointless film. She is also a viable addition for the reasons Peter points out in in the course of the film. The drifter (Peter Coyote) is seen in each of 10 scenes which count down from 10 to 1. They seem to point out in absurdist terms the pointlessness of life as a man with early stages of ESP drifts from venue to venue encountering slimly related mini-plots. Some of the transitions would have required a Star Trek-like transporter to work. Characters reappear like themes in a cyclic symphony, feeding on the main characters paranoia and lack of direction. If you just love absurdist theatre, you might actually like this one a little. If not, stay home.

Thank God for the numbers denoting each segment, or I would never have known when this thing was gonna end. Not much positive to say, except I did enjoy the Grandfather. He was the only spark of life in the plot. O-lan Mitchell (Dixie) provided about the only acting spark. This HAD to be a student film or experimental film, judging from some of the end credits. I want my dollar back!!! Lots of words, just no meaning or conviction. I did get a few of the mild, sly jokes that seemed to pertain to Patti Hearst. Also a bit offended by the "cookout" scene, it just seemed somehow anti-American. The jacket cover said the film was based on a novel. Was it a sci-fi novel? Hope someone knows.

There seems to be a point to this movie, but I have not figured it out yet. There is some kind of conspiracy going on, every time dynamite explodes people's personalities change (like a person with multiple personality syndrome) and the ending provides no explanation to what has been happening during the movie. It's hard to enjoy a story if you don't know what has happened. If you enjoy unusual plots that you have to look deeply at to figure out, you will love this movie. As for me, I can do without it.