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From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: MASS APPEAL
Message-ID: <472@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 02:46:47 EST
Article-I.D.: vax2.472
Posted: Tue Mar 26 02:46:47 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 00:00:48 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 44

Somewhere in the opening credits to this film, probably during the
delightful Bill Conti theme, you get the pervading feeling that this
is a picture which is heading in a distinct direction, knows it, and,
in fact, has planned it.  While this is important in any movie, it is
especially critical in a work which has been adapted from the theater
and translated into film.  So many adapted works tend to expect that
the acting and script will carry the narrative, and ignore the
inherent static nature of plays, much to the detriment of the
production.  While MASS APPEAL may slip and slide a bit during it's
length, it reaches its destination intact, and displaying the majority
of the promise it began with.

This story is about two priests, an older, very popular man who is the
priest for an affluent neighborhood, and a young rebel who questions a
great majority of the Catholic church's doctrines; their effect on one
another is the thread the film follows.  While the older priest, played
by Jack Lemmon, does change his younger protege somewhat during the
course of the film, the major shift is in Lemmon's character, and his
re-examination of himself and his position in the community.  While I
usually find Lemmon's rather manic standup-comic Bob-Hope-in-Overdrive
style rather trying, it is his character who has these attributes, and
becomes increasingly self-conscious of them over the span of the film.

The course of this film could be compared to sculpting a statue out of
stone.  During the first two-thirds of the film, many scenes seem to
have a unnatural, rather jarring feel to them; they seem jagged
compared to their preceding scenes.  But as MASS APPEAL progresses, the
previous fumbles are supported and explained, and the picture finishes
with a complete, unified image.  It is not an epic image, or one with
great impact, but it leaves one with a feeling of completeness; rather
like a good Mass...

        "There they are!  Dirty Towel-Heads!  HEEEEEEY-OOOOH!"
        "What are you doing?  We're on your side!  We're with the U.N.!"
        "You-Win, huh?  I'll show you what we think of you One-Worlders!  Eat
         Lead, Bedouin Thugs!"

					Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
					John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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