Dunce's Corner
Richard Gere, already Hollywood's self-proclaimed champion of the
oppressed Tibetan people, goes one step further in exposing Red
China's democratic failings in his latest role.
The full extent of Gere's acting gravitas is brought to bear on
the communist regime's outdated legal system in Red Corner, a
laughably atrocious movie that plays like Midnight Express meets
Petrocelli.
Gere is Jack Moore, an innocent American capitalist abroad trying
to sell Babewatch-style American television culture via satellite
to the repressed communist cadres. Unfortunately, Gere, being
Gere, gets sidetracked by a cute model, but the morning after he
finds himself with more than a hangover and a pang of guilt.
Instead, he is arrested and charged with the model's rape and
murder.
This movie would have been better, albeit a tad brief, if Big
Brother had done his job properly, summarily convicted Gere and
shot him in the head. Alas for us viewers, though, Gere gets to
be a gallant miscarriage-of-justice victim for the best part of
two hours, challenging the system with unrelenting improbability
by speed-reading the Chinese legal code, evading assassination
attempts, and even winning over his state defence lawyer in the
process. Yes, she is very pretty. Good guess. Even staunch Gere
fans will find this one hard to take, and if Jiang Zemin's
leadership of the new China bears any resemblance to that
portrayed by California's scriptwriters, the Tibetans should have
no trouble turning the tables and colonising the entire place.
The Apostle, veteran actor Robert Duvall's personal opus,
features him as writer, director, executive producer and star of
an overlong and overbearing morality tale set in the American
South.
Duvall plays Euliss ``Sonny'' Dewey, a Pentecostal preacher from
Texas who loses everything when, in a jealous drunken rage, he
lashes out and fatally injures his wife's new lover. On the run,
he sheds his old identity, renames himself the Apostle, and ends
up finding a new vocation in Louisiana, where he sets up the One
Way Road to Heaven Church before the movie grinds to its
predictable outcome.
The film opens with an ambulance-chasing Duvall attempting to
``save'' a severely injured road crash victim, a disquieting
insight into a fervent and narrow religious mentality that
pervades the entire work. On a dramatic level, not enough happens
to retain audience interest, and it is difficult to empathise
with Duvall's character, as he mumbles scripture to himself or
shouts it at others for over two hours. Maybe I'm just an
irredeemable atheistic cynic, but the only real blessing I
encountered was the credits.
BY MARTIN SPAIN
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