• IN T E R V I~W If you get someone who is playing a role, • Dead Zone is political because deals the murder case) is hard on him, it a bad thing. And it uses the image of which doesn't correspond to who he with a character who tries to stay un­ prepares him to take the next step Hitler because, taking the most extreme really is, and what he really will do involved with society and begins to (when he meets Stillson, the political example, one must ask 'Would it not be when he'is in power, then you have the realize that he can't do that. The Johnny candidate). He realizes he has to do the morally necessary to kill Hitler if you possibility ofvotirig for a psychotic, who Smith character has many father-figures same thing on a grander scale even had had the chance, knowing what you will, in a psychotic rage, annihilate the in the film who keep telling him that he though that is going 10 be more painful. know now?' If you agree .to that, then world. That's very possible, It's not new must get involved, Once he is involved Basically, it's martyrdom. you've already agreed that under cer­ obviously; it was done in Dr. Strange love. he must learn the tough realities of life, So the movie does take a fairly straight­ tain circumstances political assassina­ and he must stay involved, He has the forward moral stance and even then it's tion is necessary. Who would not'have Cinema Canada: We're talking about Sherriff Bannerman character telling complicated because for him to be moral assassinated Idi Amin at the height of his Doomsday? him that 'If you have this gift (psychic he has to kill another person. He bases power? Everybody in the world wanted David Cronenberg: Yeah, To me, powers) you must use it for social good: this only on his vision, He has to believe him to die (well no, obviously, not enough that is a political question, and it doesn't You have to use what you have to help in his own vision and he's going to kill people). So once, you agree that under necessarily involve left and right. It society. Whether you want to hide away someone, In essence, the film says, that certain circumstances it would be a involves questions like how does a de­ as a recluse or not, you can't. That's under certain circumstances, it might good thing (and that is a very hard thing mocracy work, and can it still work, and immoral. That's unethical to do that. be possible that political assassination is to swallow) ... well, ' I think that most so on and so on, And in another sense, Even though the outcome of that (solving necessary, It can be a good thing and not people would agree. •

ladies to get it, or kill or maim any­ suicide with the promise of some­ is a compact, yet David Cronenberg's one who gets in his way. thing larger than life : Max was visually beautiful version of Stephen The Dead Zone's other characters seduced into believing in an immor­ King's novel. Unfortunately, that's all aren't quite as easy to categorize. One tal afterlife with 'The New Flesh,' and it is. The Dead Zone of the cops is a rapist and murderer Johnny is granted the saintly aCl)lalm in his spare' time (and gets caught bestowed upon great martyrs. Susan Ayscough • tflanks to Johnny), Johnny's fiancee, Videodrome is Cronenberg's mas­ Sarah (Brooke Adams), marries an terpiece and while The Dead Zone THE DEAD ZONE eI. DavidCronenber. The Dead Zone is David Cronenbergs up-and-coming politician while John­ works in the same vein stylistically, p. Debra H!II exec, p. Dino De Laurentila ... slickest and most controlled movie to Jeffrey 80am b.eed OD the D..... el by Stephen ny is sleeping his life away. She loves and is certainly more palatable for King el.o,p. Mark Irwin C,S.C, p. .... carol date, right in the mainstream of Johnny (and grants him one afternoon the audience seeking good, clean Spier fOm ed. Ronald Sanden ...... p. Jeft'rey commercial cinema. American script­ in bed because he deserves at least entertainment at the movies, it just Chernov c ..... d .... Olga Dlmitrov m_ comp. writer Jeffrey Boam wrote the screen­ that much) but she clings readily to doesn't command a similarly intense .. arr. MIchael Kamen ca.... Jlne' Jenkins. Janet Hinhen80n Deirdre Bowen p . .aD.. John play based on the novel by Stephen emotional and psychological res­ l her secure future with husband and M. Eckert ut Lei. John Board 3 .... Lei. Otta King, producing a nice tight I maybe child, Johnny sees no reason to live, ponse. The Dead Zone and the Johnny Ranus ard •••• Lydia Wazanl loe. maD. David even too tight) version of the story, and becomes a martyr who can only Smith character are just a little too Coal8worth p. coord. PhWpp_ KIng .... 1IUp. told through the eyes of the hero, And 'find meaning in his own death. 'normal' to be unpredictable, whereas Gillian Richardson ...t. to .... HID Randl Christopher Walken, who plays the Cronenberg's films invariably Videodrome seats you on the edge 'of Cbernov ..... to Mr, Cron.nbe,.. carol McBride Uta•• t. c ..... Rob1n MIller3Dd ...t. lead role of Johnny Smith, puts on a revolve around the philosophy that fear and keeps you there. cam. Donna Mobba .p. elL coord.·Jon Belyeu performance that will assure him a the powerful subconscious will , In Cronen berg' s ,succession of films, .p. elL forem.n Calvin Aeoi'd art eI. Ba",-ra place in the star system forever. erupt, catapulting Mr, Normal into the Mr. Normal character has become Dunphy ....t. art eI. Dan Davit .el .ec. Tom Johnny Smith is the usual version reality's horror show. However, the more and more deeply embedded in Couller ",ard_ m.ater Arthur Row... U ...... mi._. Denise Woodley m ...... p Shonagb of Cronenbergs MI'. Normal: average horror shows are not horror or science the middle class of North America. labour hair Jenny Arbour p. ace.. Heather looks, average income, and a predict­ fiction by conventional standards. Architectural settings, iIB well as the Mclnloeb ....t. .ccta. Lyn Luclbello, S_ able futUI'e as a school teacher about They're more on a par with Hitch­ mood created through technical McKibbin prop. m ••ter Peter Lauterman ..... to marry the nice girl he loves, and cock's Psycho, where the dark reces­ details, establish the character as a prop. Don Miloyevich eet dreuera Gareth Wilson, Gary Jack, Tom Reid eeL mb. 8ryanDay settle into what might have been ses of the mind harbourinnate fears, comfort-seeking cre'!ture who likes boom op. Ml.cbaeILacrolx ...... ,...... BlU marital bliss ; kids, dog and station desires and un"ontrollable images ; stability. A feeling of safety pervades Varney. Steve Maelow, Gregg Landaker ..., wagon' complete. But after a brain­ where reality and fantasy become the homes and institutions of these grip Maris Jansona griP" Chrlatopher Dean. damage accident, and five long years twisted and blurred, trapping the films until the visionary powers David Hynes, Marie. Sliver gaffer Jock ar.ndIt be.. boy Scotty Allen ga... op. Gary' PbIppI in a coma, Mr. Normal becomes a hero in a cage of mental torture. within the hero uproot the illusion of elect.lra Cohen. John Herzo.e..... c ..t-Peter psychic capable of seeing past, present The Dead Zone's Johnny Smith, is security, and cast him into a state of Lavender unit pub. Prudence Emery_eda. and future events. The visions of imprisoned by psychic visions which self-destruction. The self-destructive Elaine Foreman, Michael Rea traklee eeL 11m future events situate our hero in he can neither deter nor escape from: and ' violent insl;incts ' completely Dunphy traInee .rt eI. Jo-Ann Ladenbelm dr.ftam.a"A1freda'oryboardartlatJlmCN!g socially moral dilemmas, and after his visions dominate his reality, and dominate characters such as Johnny cam. ....m... David Wood. oDd...... t .. foreseeing Doomsday (the big bomb's his day-to-day life is dictated by su~ Smith, Max Renn, and even Rose (in cam. lobn Stoneman .ttlle Rick Poner p."'" big bang), Johnny Smith has to decide conscious forces beyond his control. lIabid), none of whom find pleasure Andreas 8lackweU olflee .._ Andrea POI/IIII, whether or not to save the world, Max Renn, Vldeodrome's Mr. Normal, in their unknown powers-only pain, Carolyn ¥cKanzle ....rd. _ Maureen GuI'II8y .... elL Marie. Molin, Micl1aeI Kay...... LalrcI Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) is a met with a similar fate when his suffering, disease and death. McMUITIlY, CIarkJohnoon.DIIl'8kHowriDawid deranged political 'candidate, who waking and dreaming states became Cronenberg's films are like omens, Zimmennan, Gianico Pretto, Sorum tJookad. sees himself as president of the United an interchangeable nightmare con­ depicting the unconscious and the Michael Newman, D. HaITY Pe..... d ___ States. He wants power, and is wllling trolled by the world of video. Both unknown as homfying, with the Joe Curtin head Clarp. John IIaJIIcaun. KIrk Cheney c."... My'" Roth, Robert W.ieDa.,.. to kiss any number of babies and old films offer the gloomy resolution of underlying warning to keep that su~ palat..... Nick Kooonic. "any Pavelloll. J&Mt conscious locked away where it Is. Cormack, Steven MeU atoat coo.... DIck W. Johnny Smith's psychic talents lock. careyLot«n _ .. J.bI'en ~ DawId grant him no serenity or pleasure. Rigby, Peter Co:.. G"IItIW'a!kar,n.."yneMClMa. LeoUe Munro, Shane His life is one of sexual frustration Jel'!>me Tlbef'shlen ...... ·WI...... ,. ~J_ and moral dilemmas. Tortured by his scott, ,Rkibard Cotf\I'C!Ve ...... own desires, needs and Wights, his ~ vI4Ieo ...... fate is worse than Jieath.> . aO~ ""'_10, ' 11 Yet The Dead ZOne doesn't have 'Cronenberg's usual barrage of visual horror, though the blood and guts are right on cue : nothing I.s- too shock­ ing or jarril!g. The 8creenplay hali condensed and simplified the book., cOmpart.mentalizing t!l.e psychic events into neat little packages and the ending of The Dead Zone ties up any loose pieces, safely prlnging the world back to a state of normalcy. Videodrome didn!t have that same wrap-it-~-up ending. The viewer was left to question the- effeCtB of consumer Images on our minda, bodies and futures. Where Video­ drome destructures the idea of con­ sumption of media and the concept of the single-banded hero, The Dead Zone simply restructures these illu­ • A place in the star system forever : Christopher Walken in The Dead Zone sions - at the coat of intricately developed a!ld compl!x charactera.