TS Free movie night this coming Friday at the Palace

[Danny L. Yeager]

      The local chapter of the Veterans for Peace is showing monthly 
free, popular movies on world conflict and war at the Palace Theater 
on Main Street in downtown Bryan on the first Friday of every month. 
The first will be on Friday evening, February 2 starting at 8 
PM.   Preceding the showing will be a performance by a local "garage 
band" starting at 7 PM. The primary audience we are aiming for is 
high school and college age students who may be thinking about 
joining the military and their parents but certainly others are 
welcome as well (and we hope they come too).  The first movie we will 
be showing is Peter Weir's "Gallipoli" released in 1981. It's 
PG.  I've placed Janet Maslin's review  from the NY Times below.  Our 
second movie will be on March 2 and will probably be either "Catch 
22" or "Dr. Strangelove".  For more information contact  me 
(777-8758, touchst at cy-net.net) or Ray White (218-6729, 
docrwhite at suddenlink.com).

            Danny Yeager


AUSTRALIAN 'GALLIPOLI'

By JANET MASLIN
Published: August 28, 1981, Friday

A YOUNG athlete takes a dare. A handsome runner in the first bloom of 
youth, he agrees to race barefoot against a bully on horseback, even 
though the odds are stacked hopelessly against him - and even though 
an important contest he has been training for is only days away. He 
cuts his feet badly while outrunning the hor e, but not even the 
bruises can lessen his bravado. So when the day of the major race 
arrives, he runs triumphantly. And when he decides, on this same day, 
to enlist in the army, he does so with the same reckless, buoyant 
self-confidence that induced him to compete with the horse and to 
court disaster.

Peter Weir's ''Gallipoli,'' which opens today at the Baronet, follows 
this young Australian and others like him to the fateful World War I 
battle of the title. Beginning with the footrace, and ending with the 
amphibious military maneuver that proved so catastrophic for the 
British and Australian forces, the film approaches the subject of war 
so obliquely that it can't properly be termed a war movie. Besides, 
it is prettier than any war film has ever been, which makes its 
emotional power something of a surprise. Mr. Weir's work has a 
delicacy, gentleness, even wispiness that would seem not well suited 
to the subject. And yet his film has an uncommon beauty, warmth and 
immediacy, and a touch of the mysterious, too.

Touches of the mysterious are certainly Mr. Weir's stock in trade; in 
''The Last Wave'' and ''Picnic at Hanging Rock,'' the bewildering, 
magical elements outweigh all else. In the more sweeping 
''Gallipoli,'' he relies successfully on a greater naturalism, so 
that the story of his young soldiers has the easy, uncomplicated 
momentum of a tale of action.

Yet the more elusive images, though infrequent, are those for which 
the film is best remembered. The soldiers are first fired upon while 
they are bathing, and Mr. Weir's underwater shot of these surprised, 
naked young swimmers in reddening water is one of his loveliest and 
his most disturbing. So is the image of the night landing at 
Gallipoli, with boats full of soldiers waiting quietly, utterly in 
limbo, enveloped in a blue mist.

Much of ''Gallipoli'' has the ring of a chronicle of boyish exploits, 
albeit an unusually good-looking and sweet one. Archy (Mark Lee), the 
handsome blond runner of the opening scene, becomes fast friends with 
Frank (Mel Gibson), a more ironic, less golden-limbed fellow, who 
happens also to be a track star. Together, they journey from rural 
Australia to Perth, traveling across blindingly white desert (another 
of Mr. Weir's striking images) to reach the post where they plan to 
enlist. Their path also leads to Cairo, where Mr. Weir stages a long 
sequence of soldiers' experiencing their last carefree moments at the 
bazaar, a sequence at once comic and touching. Mr. Weir, whose other 
films have had their share of mumbojumbo, shows himself here to be 
well able to work in a forthright and engaging manner.

He is also very successful with his actors. Mr. Lee, with no previous 
film experience and sunny good looks, makes a very serviceable Archy, 
and Mr. Gibson shows wit, ingenuity and range as Frank. A number of 
small roles are well handled, even those that suffer from the 
sentimentality Mr. Weir imposes on some portions of the story. Bill 
Hunter, as a major who brings a bottle of champagne off to war (a 
gift from his wife, for him to drink on their anniversary), is most 
effective despite the maudlin side to his role. So are David Argue, 
Robert Grubb and Tim McKenzie, the various young players whose 
primary job here is to await a terrible end.

Much of ''Gallipoli'' has a full-blown, almost romantic style more 
akin to that of ''My Brilliant Career'' than to ''Breaker Morant,'' 
another Australian film dealing with that country's military history. 
There's nothing pointed in Mr. Weir's decorous approach, even when 
the material would seem to call for toughness. But if the lush mood 
makes ''Gallipoli'' a less weighty war film than it might be, it also 
makes it a more airborne adventure.

''Gallipoli'' is rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''). It 
contains some nudity and strong language. Janet Maslin



Danny Yeager

Phone and FAX at home: (979) 696-8695
Phone and FAX at work: (979) 845-3436
Cell: (979) 777-8758