Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 21, 1996 Page: 4 of 8
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SURROUNDINGS
MARCH 21. 1996
Jeff Adam and Diego Taylor
Megaphone Staff
With Oscar night right
around the corner (March 25),
many people are jotting down
their own list of winners. The
categories are more competitive
than they have been in recent
years, and there is a notable
absence of a guaranteed sweep
for any particular film. If we
controlled the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, here is who we would
choose to win next Monday.
We did not make a selection for
the categories of Best
Supporting Actress, Cinema-
tography, or Adapted
Screenplay because neither one
of us had seen a majority of the
movies nominated.
Best Original Song:
“Dead Man Walking,” music
and lyrics by Bruce Springsteen.
We both agreed on this song
from the film of the same name.
Like Springsteen’s work on the
Philadelphia soundtrack, this
song fits the mood and themes
of the film perfectly. A good
film like Dead Man Walking
deserves music that
compliments its artistic
integrity.
Best Original
Screenplay: The Usual
Suspects by Christopher
McQuarrie. In an area that has
become increasingly the work
of two, sometimes three
authors, it is refreshing to find
a script that is the work of one
person’s mind and hard work.
McQuarrie fashioned an
intricate and completely
captivating plot worthy of an
O. Henry short story.
Best Costume Design:
Restoration, costumes designed
by James Acheson.
The costumes of this
film were amazingly
elaborate. Every fine
detail of the period
was captured from
the courtly
extravagance of
Charles II to the
slums of London.
Best Original
Comedy Score: Toy
Story, music
composed by Randy
Newman. Like his
original song for the
movie “You’ve Got a
Friend in Me,”
Newman’s score
captures the
benevolent and
playful feel of Toy Story.
Best Original Dramatic
Score: Braveheart, music
composed by James Horner.
The music for this film was
astounding. It perfectly
matched the action of a
medieval Scottish battle for
freedom.
Best Art Direction:
Restoration, art direction by
Eugenio Zanetti. Lavish in its
extreme attention to detail, the
art design of Zanetti was the
most pervasive element
throughout the film.
Best Supporting Actor:
Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys (Jeffs
choice), Kevin Spacey in The
Usual Suspects (Diego’s choice).
Our first split decision comes
in a highly competitive field.
So competitive that we couldn’t
tie ourselves down to one
choice. Pitt in my (Jeffs)
opinion is the strongest
performance in this category
for his never letting go of the
eccentric character he had to
play. He played his psychotic,
twitchy character to the
extreme and then some. In my
opinion (the opinion of Diego
that is), Spacey’s performance
as the apparently lame but in
reality a plotting criminal
named Verbal was tremendous.
Audiences have gotten a taste
of Spacey’s particular style of
acting in recent movies such as
Outbreak and Seven. This
nominated performance is only
a sign of things hopefully to
come.
Best Actress: Susan
Sarandon in Dead Man
Walking. Sarandon is an
opal whose appearance
changes with the
different positions of the
viewer. We have known
her as the self-sufficient
desperado in Thelma &
Louise, we have also
known her as the
innocent young damsel
in The Rocky Horror
Picture Show. In her most
recent role she plays a
concerned and
courageous Catholic nun
that comes to the aid of a
death row inmate. Her
performance is one that
can be classified only as
a work of love.
Best Actor: Sean Penn
in Dead Man Walking. Penn
has come into his own. Far
away from the days of Fast
Times a t Ridgemon t High, Pen n
proves that he can handle an
intensely serious role and do it
well. As a man on Death Row,
protesting his sentence, yet
knowing his guilt, Penn unfolds
for the audience the confusion,
depression and anger of a man
condemned.
Best Director: Mel
Gibson for Braveheart (Jeffs
choice), Michael Radford for II
Postino (Diego’s choice).
Gibson has a talent for directing
not recognized by a wide
audience before this. Long
typecast as a smug action hero,
Gibson shows that he is a man
of many talents. Braveheart is
a movie on an epic scale, and
Gibson is the driving force
behind this movie. Not only
did he direct it, but he also co-
produced and acted in it. The
hardwork paid off in the
production of an absolute gem
of a movie. Radford has
directed one of the most
personal and passionate films
of the past few years in II
Postino. The relationships that
develop between all of the
characters in the movie are
unbelievably sincere and
natural. Frequently, screen
relationships, although
pleasing to the viewer, are
contrived and are thus
seemingly unnatural. All of
the relationships in II Postino
are of substance. This is the
end result of good acting a good
script and the guidance of a
visionary.
Best Picture:
Braveheart. In a tough category
with some glaring omissions
(Dead Man Walking, Leaving
Las Vegas), Braveheart comes
out on top. Gibson took on a
movie and a script that many
would find too large to handle
and crafted it into a fast paced
epic.
Look for us in the cheap
seats on Oscar night.
Austin art exhibit displays talent of SU student
Matt Holder
Megaphone staff
On Friday March 15
Mexic-Arte art museum, located
at 419 Congress in Austin,
began an exhibit entitled
“Young Latino Artists,” which
featured a work by junior
Arthur Palacios entitled “The
Last Day.” The “Young Latino
Artists” exhibit runs until April
20th. Mexic-Arte’s hours are
Monday through Saturday, 10
am to 6 pm.
_Palacios' piece is an
analytical drawing of a skeleton
on a white sheet with a graphite
pencil draped over a chair. On
the back of the sheet is
randomly scattered Spanish
words written in charcoal from
memories of numerous
ritualistic prayers from
Palacios’youth. Hie title of the
piece, as Palacios stated in his
statement that accompanies the
work, is derived from Palacios’
fear “that our last days as
complete human beings is
arriving.”
“My piece is a reaction,”
Palacios said. “Growing up
Mexican-American, the strong
ties to the traditional culture
were still there. It seems to me
that now we are on the back-
end of the destruction of the
family. Money is the ultimate
end in corporate America, and
this looses sight of the
traditional values of a culture
the family.”
“There is a spiritual side
to my work,” /Palacios
continued, “and in our society
there is no room for spirituality.
But traditionally in the Hispanic
community there is a spiritual
side. The words on the back of
my drawing are from memories
of prayers for cleansing the
spirit. You lie down on the
ground with a sheet spread over
you and you are prayed over in
hopes of removing fear. It is a
spiritual experience that allows
you to carry on. I don’t think
that this mixes with corporate
LATINO
ARTISTS
YOUNG
America and cyberspace.”
Palacios elaborated
further on his work by stating
that the skeleton, “represents a
death on our spiritual side and
a reliance on our rationale
which is ultimately fallible.”
“The chair is a symbol
of structure and order,” said
Palacios, “something that is
man-made. This is opposed to
the sheet which lacks a
structure and is a part of the
ritual. This dualistic theme is
carried out further in my work
in the white sheet and black
charcoal. The skeleton is a
more analytical structure and
the prayers on the back, though,
are arranged more chaotically.
It’s more spiritual.”
“He’s doing a sort of
Junior Aldo Bohm. “As things
progress a lot of tradition is
lost. It’s replaced by this gray,
bland existence. He’s trying to
maintain a traditional culture
in light of these changes. The
fact that you have a skeleton, a
symbol of life ending, being
used symbolizes this because a
skeleton is also a legacy of
something that is gone.”
“I liked what he had to
say,” said sophomore
Cassandra Carberry. “I can see
the struggle he has dealing with
the tensions between American
culture and his traditional
culture. . I can relate to this
because as a Korean-American
I know what it is like to live in
two cultures.”
“His piece is on a chair,
below eye level,” continued
Bohm. “It’s like a tombstone. It
turns, in a way, the viewer into
the force that is taking these
traditions away. Not blaming
you, but reminding you that
you are in some way a part of
the group washing away these
traditions. It makes you more
self-conscious about these
things and aware that you can
do something to extend the life
of these positions.”
“Art is a human
experience,” said Palacios. “It
is not particular to any culture. ”
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Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 21, 1996, newspaper, March 21, 1996; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634551/m1/4/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.