REVIEWS Desertere
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REVIEWS of immigration officer Noel Manufort (Dermot Hennelly) for whom the war is Jack Darcus' a Heaven-sent opportunity to put the principles ofliberalism into practice : to bend the immigration rules, and to offer Desertere shelter to deserving war-resisters. One such young hero is Peter (Jon Bryden), who somewhat hesitanth' accepts Manuforf s invitation home. But Manufort's home is also that of his War, to judge by its monuments and wife, Val (Barbara March), who if she celebrations, is something to be remem does not share her husband's zeal for bered. Not so the Vietnam war. Forgotten the cause, does on the other hand desire too is that the war in Vietnam was in an the friendship' of the young men her important sense also Canada's war, that husband brings home, as she intimates some Canadians fought in it, that Cana to Peter when Manufort is called away da's high-tech industries profitted on an emergency. immensely from it. Now Vancouver film When Noel returns he has brought maker Jack Darcus has made a film that back with him yet another 'deserter', attempts to remember. still in his sergeant's uniform : it is Ulys Deserters, Darcus' fourth feature film ses Hawley searching for his runaway (after Great Coups of History, 1970; men. And so the scene is set for the Proxyhawks, 1972; The Wolfpen Prin ensuing confrontation between the Sol ciple, 1974) was one of the gems among dier, the Youth, the Liberal, and the an otherwise meagre offering of Cana Woman. dian films at Montreal's 7th World Film What transpires between the walls of Festival. With all the clarity of a suddenly the Manufort home is a domestic version recollected nightmare. Deserters pro of guerrilla war in the sense that, as in pels one back, for a relentless 110 minu Vietnam, nothing is what it seems. tes, to "American 1969" with its trains Peter is a deserter only because his and railway stations full of soldiery, the college grades were bad and he got his travelling salesmen of a nation at war. girl-friend pregnant. Noel's liberalism is Alongside such a train, tw^o young only this year's fashion in a desperate grunts, duffel bags packed and Vietnam- search for personal meaning : the year bound after boot camp, are fleeing from before it was Zen and pottery. Val's a shadow. Aboard the train the shadow marital discontent is only sexual. Only materializes into their drill instructor, Hawle/s sham desertion turns out to be Sgt. Ulysses Hawley, United States Army, genuine after all. marvelously portrayed by Alan Scarfe. In a Nietzschean transvaluation of Gum-chewing, boorish, with a slight values, Peter decides to go home and southern accent, Hawley, a three-tour fight for his country; Noel's and Val's Vietnam veteran, is headed for a five- marriage irreparably collapses; and Although Burton is known to think little Cinema Canada, No. 60), was almost day drunk between shifts of new draf Hawley bitterly accepts the defeat of his of his film roles in general, he gives this totally removed in favor of a standardized tees. During the train-ride he terrifies militaristic ideals. But if the others can his best effort, hampered admittedly by romantic background music. Thus, per the two grunts with macabre Vietnam and will survive at the price of some the myriad defects in the film's execution. haps the most exciting and interesting jokes, and sasses a staff captain who self-understanding, Peter, one realizes The same cannot be said of the minor aspect of the film vanished, and in the can't help overhear Hawle^s criticism at the film's end, will die, sacrificed to characters - Michael Wincott as the last analysis it could be seen that Circle of the conduct of the war. the remains of moribund national ideals. boorish boyfriend, Robin Gammell and of Two failed for reasons that were Disembarking at an unspecified sta But Deserters is also about our war Patricia Hamilton as Sarah's dense obvious from the outset. It was dull, tion, Hawley attempts to coerce the two within, the conflict between Canadian parents, Nuala Fitzgerald as Ashley's old dull, dull. to go drinking with him. They reply they and American identities. If the Ameri name - with the exception of Kate Reid first have to say goodbye to their waiting cans do have national ideals to fall back as Sarah's doctor, whose brief appear J. Paul Costabile • parents outsitie. The captain suddenly upon (Peter) or to rebel against (Hawley), ance cuts through the intellectual mire appears, telling Hawley his two men Canada - which at one point Hawley of the script with typical briskness. CIRCLE OF TWO d. Jules Dassin a.d. have just gotten into a car, and headed calls "This tin-pot country that can't Timothy Rowse. Frank Simpson, Sarah Miller Hay- straight for Canada which is just up the Perhaps, however, the greatest folly ward, Jerome McCann CFDC trainee Rex Brom- even get in on the action" - has only a in Circle of Two lies in the pretentious field sc. Thomas Hedley. from the novel "A Lesson road. "But they're my best men," Hawley weak liberalisnr as the semblance of a ness of Jules Dassin's direction. This of Love" by Marie-Terese Baird d.o.p. Laszlo George says, flabbergast. "If those are your best national ideal, one that threatens to script needed a light touch if it was to C.S.C. cam. op. Harold Ortenburger 2nd unit men, this countiys in trouble," the cap collapse under the slightest pressure, photo^ Jean Badel edit David Nicholson creative work at all. Instead, Dassin, perhaps cons. Fima Noveck sd. rec. Owen Langevin, Jim tain answers. exposing the cavernous nihiUsm beyond. embittered by years of exile from North Franck sd. asst Randy Milligan sd. ed. Wayne Just up the road, Canada is the office And yet even this feeble facade offers America, the failure of his later projects, Griffon, Dennis Drummond p. man. Danny Rossner most notably A Dream Of Passion, to unit man. D. Robert McCart loc man. Gail Singer, Fran Soloman p. des. Claude Bonniere, Francois De gain any positive recognition, and a Lucy p. des. Anne Pepper, Barbara Tranter asst sense of having been passed by, attempts , art d. Joyce Liggett, Don McQueen paintings, to moralize. Thus Ashley speaks gravely art adviser Harold Barling Town asst art advisor of the artistic vision, and is seen to be Brian Nowell easels VV.H. Town scenic artist James Williams sitetcli artist Phillip Moody betrayed by a gallery owner he once graplilcs David Johnston, Bruno Cywinski cost considered a friend. But Dassin omits to des. Theoni V. Aldredge, Donna Thomas ward. show any real indication of Ashley's Brian Sands, Muriel Sampson. Sarah Miller Hayward talent, in spite of contributions of the ward, co-ord. Gayle McLeod malceup Barbara Palmer, Ron Berkeley (for Richard Burton) music distinguished Canadian artist Harold Paul Hofferi, Antonio Vivaldi, J.S. Bach stunt co Town, whose work is used for the paint ord. Dwayne McLean stand-ins Rosl\'n Foreyth, ings. George Cunningham p. asst Robert Imeson, Andrew Adach, Ray Harris pub. Stephenson, Ramsay, A mention of Fima Noveck's contri CDonnell p.c. Circle of Two Productions (Film bution to Circle of Two is in order. In Consortium of Canada, in association with Jerume Simon and Milton Zysman Productions! p. Henk 1981, he was brought in, following the Van Der Kolk exec. p. William Marshall assoc. p. Rim's negative response in Europe, to Bob Rodgers colour35mm re-edit the picture. His main intent, he runningtimelOSmin, Lp. Tatum O'Neal, later said, was to rid the film of its Richard Burton. Nuala Fitzgerald, Robin Gammell, staginess. Thus much extraneous Patricia Hamilton, Kale Reid, Donann Cavin, Norma material about Sarah and her school life Dell'Agnese, Michael Wincolt, George Bourne Sr., Leo Leyden. Elan Ross Gibson. Gordon Jocelyn, Bob appears to have been excised, though at Aarons, Pat Patterson, Brendan McKane. A. Frank the cost of making the already thin Ruffo. Morison Bock, Bibi Caspary. Les Carlson, character thinner still. In one area Linda Anionnacci, Eileen Kim, Judy Noble. Annette Noveck did considerable damage. Paul Stevens, Wendy Tumman, Yanka Van Der Kolk, Elias Zarou. Larn- Ewashen, Lee Majors, Ryan O'Neal Hofferf s original score, which included (in original version only!, Maggie Morris. Doug performances by the Paul Brodie Quartet, Smith. Pamela Hyatt. Jimmy Leone, Grace Stephens, Moe Koffman, Erica Goodman and the Daisy White. Ann Butler, Bill Yack, The Bishop • Guerrilla warlare in a Canadian living-room: Alan Scarte, left and Jofin Bryden in Dasertara Bishop Strachan School Choir (see Strachan School Choir, October 1983 - Cinema Canada/29 SHORTS enough of a refuge for Peter and Hawley British Army. They have constituted a to seek shelter, as a respite from the major fighting force since 1815, right up catastrophes of their national history. to the recapture of the Falklands. Often In the age of disintegrating principles, excluded fi-om standard Western text Canada, perhaps, still holds the possi book accounts of both World Wars, the bility of an interior - Deserters shows contribution of the Gurkhas has been Canada only as interiors (Manuforfs formidable. Yet, we are living at a time office and home). If this possibility of an when military prowess seems more a interior, by its vastness, is crushing to sad irony than a noble endeavor. This is the native-born, it offers to the voluntary the challenge with which Sarin's docu exiles, to those who have abandoned mentary grapples - to both honour the the official ideals, a vantage-point from excluded from history and reveal the which some self-understanding can ironies of their situation.