European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes Page 10 columns Mary Anne Dolan wednesday july 15.19s7 democratic gathering was step in right direction Good for you Bill Buckley. The gathering of democratic presidential hopefuls co hos cd by conservative Buckley and democratic party Veteran Robert Strauss on the former s pcs pro Gram firing was a major step in the right direction of news gathering. Some among our television critics say the program which featured All seven announced democratic Candi dates for a full two hours lacked punch that it failed to build any heat. Nobody screamed at anybody else and this they will say was its downfall. Those on the political beat who trekked to Wortham Center theater in Houston where the program originated will understandably wish they d snared better Lead paragraphs Forth Cir stories or at least j Unicie anecdotes. All of these things of course the absence of the blatant and the presence of some substance made for the show s finer attributes. It was a serious and civilized program about serious and rather Subtle subject matter which is politics. It concerned itself with what these men pal Schroeder who has not yet announced having sadly been turned Down at the bar believe and also with what seems to make them tick. This is Gauzy stuff not easily netted by Short eve Ning news segments or pre packaged political Advertis ing. In the instance of the Buckley program we saw and heard a great Deal and Learned some things thanks 10 Buckley always Lively and provocative and to his savvy producer Warren St incl. A libel s idea of having each candidate prepare Short film biography was a wonderfully efficient Vay of introduction demonstrating Asil did the image Mak ing approach of each As Well As their Issue priorities. Young Albert Gore filmed with his anti Rock music id use 9 01bkwk&? wife and their children stressing Clum to family values and his crisis in integrity theme. Environmental is Bruce Babbitt pos a beside Cathe dral Rock. The Kennedy esque Biden choosing again to speech Ify this time unsuccessfully. Jesse Jackson head on to camera demonstrating a restrained and moderate front runner s Demeanour. Trade Warrior Gephardt confident and serious in intent if not i appearance. Simon the old school party philosopher sincere and smart. Dukakis shirt sleeved and straight and by far the most appealing. There were gibes and parries from the clip Board toting slightly hoarse Buckley. Gore pounced on a reference to distinguished scientists looking kindly on president Reagan s Stais wan Hil Gore for miss peaking the name of James k. Polk he mid substantive questions and Cross comment about Trade unemployment the budget Nicaragua and other issues yielded substantive views from the seven. In All More than a year away from the election an estimated 10 million television viewers got a Good look at their choices so is finally gelling better at covering poli tics. Thanks in Large part to news and Issue program Ming on Public television and to can and a Spanon Cable there Are albeit tiny signs thai this relatively Young event oriented medium May be stretched enough to capture that most elusive of subjects the democratic programs such As frontline the Bill mover specials and the Columbia Media seminars take up Tough material and make instructive enticing viewing. The networks Are grudgingly moving toward idea 6 oration on abcs nigh Iline Andt this week with avid Brinkley and in the Many admirable efforts to expand on the "60 minutes format Only the pcs learn of Robert Macneil and Jim Lehrer has worked a broader discussion of topics into its nightly news broadcasts. Perhaps the network will rebound from takeover madness Long enough to again consider doing likewise. The Buckley program is an admirable Model. People Are interesting and politicians Are very interesting therefore it is simply not True As the networks insist that talking Heads Are of the seven democratic candidates who appeared on the firing line special benefited As did the viewers. George Bush who refused Ai the last min Ute to appear on the show which was originally meant to be a Republican forum lost has another Chance. Buckley Hopes to bring on the top contenders on sept. 2. Mark your Calendar. George will gangsters have a ways been american heroes when director Brian de Palma adds the ingredient of violence to his movies his unit of measurement is not the Soupcon. He favors scenes like the one in his hugely successful the untouchables when Al Capone played to reptilian perfection by Robert de Niro hosts a Black tie dinner for his hoods. Peeved to the Point of violence by an associate s behaviour Capone pulverizes the associate s Skull with a baseball Bat. It is a stomach turning scene but be fore denouncing do Palma As i have done for gratuitous carnage in movies like scar face note thai an episode very like the one depicted actually happened. De Palma s untouchables is a Correct and corrective depiction of Squal id creatures who often have lapped a vein of unseemly american tolerance. The tendency to ascribe Virtues to gangsters resurfaced in the 1970s in Mario Puzo s the Puzo s mobster was a sort of statesman a Law giver outside the Law. He was played in the movie by Marlon Brando and there was something almost stately about the s physical movements As there was about the rituals by which Little peo ple petitioned him for redress of their grievances. Furthermore a recurring theme of the godfather is that Here is a rough congruence Between business values and gangster values. Gangsters arc recognizable types profit Mani Mizars protect ing markets and enforcing contracts. Ii was in the 1920s that gangsters be came some of America s first celebrities. Capone had a flair for quips i Don t even know what Street Canada is nonpolitical philosophy when i sell liquor it s called bootlegging when my patrons serve it on Silver trays on Lake Shore drive it s called hospitality and even aphorisms you can gel much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. But he was a grotesque brute and thus it is important to understand Why when he showed up at Wrigley Field the crowd applauded. In a Brilliant stroke do Paima opens his movie with a scene of Capone being bartered while Toa dying reporters eagerly gather morsels for their avid readers. Capone was a product of prohibition bul the gangster As superstar was a product of among other things journalism and other publicity mechanisms that turned the 920s into the phrase is Frederick Lewis Allen s the Ballyhoo by now americans have Asil were callouses on their minds. Americans Are much More impervious than in the 1920i to manufactured hysteria. In the 1920s, the decade that produced the to the in discerning Eye dullest president Coolidge produced a steady Stream of publicity extravaganzas. National magazines had mushroomed advertising and publicity agents were Honing their skills and most important radio had armed. As Allen wrote the National mind had become As never before an instrument upon which a few men could there was now mass production not Only of material goods but of ideas fads publicity. There was an exponential growth in the Power to make people famous. There was a new fabricated thing the celebrity. Celebrities came from the world of Spons there has never been a decade like it babe Ruth Bobby Jones Jack dumps by Gene Tunney red Grange Knute Rockne the four horsemen daring Lindbergh Admiral Byr entertainment Rudolph Valentino Rudy Vallee and crime Capone legs Diamond and others. Theories abound. Perhaps the nation s susceptibility to fads Mah Jonggu crossword puzzles and fascination with celebrities had something to do with the dissatisfying aftermath of the War. Perhaps the Peculiar altitudes to Ward gangsters had something to do with the enormous prestige and crude popularization of science which seemed to teach that god is dead and Man is de graded far below the Angels. Certainly the gangster was an Urban Cowboy tapping the perennial american sympathy Lor the untamed outsider. His heroics As they seemed to Many people were made possible by new techno logic the automobile that made escapes easy and the availability of wartime weapon such As sub machine guns. And As Allen wrote part of the problem was the sheer size and uni eddiness of the Modem metropolitan Community which pre vented the focusing of Public opinion upon any depredation which did not immediately concern the average individual because that last Point is still Perti nent in is notable that Early in de Palm a s movie a Little girl is killed by gangster s bomb and Laic in the movie baby in a Carriage is caught in a horrify ing crossfire. Do i Alma s ing Point is that real gangsters Are not u in the godfather primarily a danger to other gangs cars. They Are enemies of the innocent with no claim on any kind of admiration. Cal Kunle l a chop
