St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 75

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1989 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 3F BILL McCLELLAN REVIEWS FILM Warriors Often Lose The Battle For Truth Tale Of Boy, Dreams And Human Spirit II 1 'JJ 4.TV'f 7fr i I p) IkyZW'. "SALAAM BOMBAY" No rating. Running time: 1:53. By Harper Barnes Pott-Dispatch Critic at Urgt 6 ALAAM BOMBAY," a major prize-winner at kJCannes and a nominee for a foreign-language Oscar, represents an astonishing achievement by Indian film maker Mira Nair.

Using mostly street children and other non-actors from Bombay, the 31-year-old director tells the tale of Krishna, an 1 1-year-old boy who comes to the city full of dreams and ends up working in a house of prostitution. Nair, who studied at Harvard and worked with cinema verite directors Leacock and Pennebaker, uses a semi-documentary style to show us life in a chaotic, densely packed neighborhood of a seemingly vast city. She chose her amateur cast very well, particularly the young man (Shafiq Syed) who plays Krishna, a combination of Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger. Also quite affecting is Hansa Vithal, the little girl who plays the daughter of a prostitute. These two kids, wise beyond their years and yet somehow deeply Innocent, keep the movie from being unremittingly depressing, although "Salaam Bombay" Is far from a celebration of lower-class life, as "Black Orpheus" Is, for example.

A good comparison is Bunuel's "Los Olvidados," about Mexican street kids and juvenile delinquents. All of Nalr's characters, particularly a pimp who can shift from joviality to bullying in the snap of a finger and a junkie full of dreams and lies, are very sharply drawn. And the viewer has to be in Shafiq Syed (second from left) and other Indian children in a scene from "Salaam Bombay." awe of some of the scenes depicting drug and flesh peddling, knowing that Nair was filming actual illegal transactions. The world Nair shows us is, on the whole, an unpleasant one, but there is never any sense of false melodrama or of the camera selecting only shocking or hopeless images. And as a whole, the film documents how difficult it is to defeat the human spirit.

Not impossible, just very difficult. iL (In Hindi with English subtitles. At the Tivoli.) heart was broken when I was yanked away from Chicago. "She'd write if she knew where I was." Most of the fellows in that training company ended up in Vietnam. Some served in the Infantry, and some didn't Some of the fellows who did might have done heroic things.

But most didn't I have lost touch with all but one of those guys, so I can't swear that my old friends have always been 100 percent honest about their war experiences. Recalling some of our old conversations, I'd be surprised actually, I'd be stunned to learn that they bad been. Stretching a war story is not a good thing to do, but it's not so terrible, either. I suspect that American men have been doing it since the Revolutionary War. Judging from my mail, you'd think Virvus Jones, the city comptroller, was the first guy to do it.

By now, you surely know the story. Jones always claimed to be a personnel clerk who suffered a shrapnel wound, and thus received the Purple Heart. Military records, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show that he was a personnel clerk in Vietnam, but make no mention of any wound or any Purple Heart. I was there when he was confronted with those records and why the government will release a man's service record but not a man's criminal rap sheet is beyond me and I wrote a column about Jones' subsequent claim that he really had been wounded. His story was implausible, and I made fun of it, but I also said that it did not bother me very much.

At least he went, I said. I got a bunch of mall, and most of it was against Jones, and against my tolerant attitude. One letter was from a fellow who actually was wounded. He was offended by Jones' apparent embellishment about the Purple Heart. "It was the last medal I wanted, and the first one I got," he wrote.

I won't argue with a guy who was wounded. If he wants to be upset, he'll get no quarrel from me. But some of the letters were from women. They seemed to think that Jones is a dishonest person, and therefore shouldn't be comptroller. Well, there's something those women should know.

In the secret world of men, there are two subjects that we think it's OK to fib about. Not good, mind you, but OK. One is the military, and the other is women. And that's something Jones should think about. If a reporter asks him how he did with the girls in high school, for goodness sake, Virvus, don't claim you dated a cheerleader.

We have your yearbook. THE 1967 Oregon state high school heavyweight wrestling champion was in my platoon at boot camp. I don't remember his name, but I do remember that he seemed big and tough. Our platoon was Joined by three other platoons to form a company when we graduated to infantry training, and one night, when we were sitting around swapping stories with our new mates, one of the new guys made a startling announcement. He said he was the 1967 Oregon state high school heavyweight wrestling champion.

My friend, the original 1967 champion, was in a different cluster of guys that evening, so he was not there to challenge the new guy's claim. The new guy looked as If he could have been a heavyweight wrestling champion, so I didn't say anything. Word like that gets around, though. Pretty soon, a lot of guys knew there were two 1967 Oregon state high school heavyweight wrestling champions in the company. At first, the two champions ignored each other.

But each was goaded by other men, until finally, one champion confronted the other. With the eyes and ears of the company drinking the scene in, the first champ sauntered over to the second champ. "How you doin'? I hear you did a little wrestling in Oregon." "I hear the same thing about you." So a match was arranged, and that night we gathered in one of our Quonset huts. They circled each other, and they rolled around on the floor, and there were a couple of takedowns and a couple of escapes. I don't know how to score wrestling, but it appeared to be pretty even.

Neither guy could pin the other. They became good friends, and after a few days, they concocted some story about how each of them really was the 1967 Oregon state heavyweight wrestling champion. Different size schools. Something like that. A cynical person might have concluded that neither was ever a state champ.

Then again, a cynic would have had his mind full with my friends. To hear the stories, nobody had lived a dull existence. A number of guys claimed to have been dragooned into the service. "It was jail, or this." "Same way with me. Looks like we made the wrong choice." Almost everybody was engaged to Miss Kansas.

The guys who didn't get mail to read aloud "Oh, man, disten to how she misses me!" claimed to have just broken up with Miss Texas. I vaguely remember inventing a story about a beautiful girl whose Movie Gets Lost In The Wilds Of Beverly Hills "TROOP BEVERLY HILLS" Rating: PG. Running time: 1:46. second aid. She takes them to Cartier's to learn jewelry appraising, to Rodeo Drive to learn fashion and shopping, to court to learn the indignities of divorce.

When they camp, they bring a and when it rains, they check into the Beverly Hills Hotel and roast marshmallows and tell horror stories. Long's contribution to the latter Involves having to face without any prior indoctrination a new hairdresser. And then things get serious, in a real competition with other scouts and especially a troop led by Betty Thomas, who yells and bellows and is totally1 offensive. Lo acts on one level, always loud, and Nelson loiter in the background making ineffetr tual noises. O.her people make cameo appear-ances, but it appears that director Jeff Kanew and writers Pamela Norrts and Margaret Grieco Overman ran out of all Ideas in that first half-hour.

I think they went home, too. (At the Clarkson, Gallerla, Halls Ferry, Ken-rick, Lindbergh, Northwest Plaza, St. Charles, SL Clair, Union Station.) A By Joe Pollack CX the Post-Dispatch Staff FOR ABOUT a half-hour, "Troop Beverly Hills" brings a lot of funny situations and funny lines. Then it's time to finish the popcorn and settle down for a nap. Shelley Long, with hair a frightening shade of red, is the leader of a troop of rich, spoiled, self-centered Girl Scouts from Beverly Hills, though they're called Wilderness Scouts to protect the good name of the world's greatest group of cookie-sellers.

Long Is pretty seff-cenferecf and spoiled, too, and she's also rich, since Craig T. Nelson has made a Midas-sized pile of gold from selling auto mufflers. But he's leaving her for another woman, which leaves Long with lots of time and a big house. Shelley Long (center) in "Troop Beverly Hills." As a troop leader. Long shows her city skills, and in my opinion, she helps her charges get merit badges with far more permanence and adult value than those for bird-watching, basket-weaving, lanyard-braiding, trail-marking and first aid, or even Story Of Miracle Made For Those Who Believe "BERNADETTE" For example, someone tells Bernadette that her "imagination is working overtime," and when she says something to her father, his response is, "You'd better believe it." As far as the heroine is concerned, the words put into her mouth are often far too sophisticated for an unlettered country girl, and considering the fact that she was a sickly child, reared in poverty, she has the healthy glow of a modern American cheerleader.

The most recent French film about the childhood of a saint was Alain Cavalier's "Therese," whose heroine was a driven, impassioned young woman. Bernadette, by contrast, is a bland child, acting as a medium for messages both to and the vision of the grotto. The acting is acceptable, though the actors have some difficulty with the overiy simplistic situations and dialogue, and Delannoy and Arnaut researched the project diligently? staying as close to the facts a possible. As a result, the film is not object tionably preachy, nor does it attempt to proselytize by using high drama or even gimmicks showing the ap pea ranee of the vision. We see what the bystanders saw nothing while Bernadette spoke and prayed.

Basically, the film was made by believes and is aimed at That portion of the audience will enjoy the film a lot more than others, even though, on another level, the tale is of some historical import. (At the Crestwood Plaza.) dette was a cefebrity and politicians, newspapers, physicians, clergy and royalty were split between pro-miracle and anti-miracle forces. "Bernadette," starring 17-year-old Sydney Penny in the title role, is a documentary-style film about the French girl, her life and the commotion she created before her death at the age of 36. It's a sincere effort on the part of director Jean Delannoy, who also wrote the screenplay In cooperation with Robert Arnaut, but It's slow-moving and too long. The major problem to me was the dialogue.

The dubbing of French to English works adequately, but the writers, or the translator, uses far too many contemporary phrases In a film about people of the 1850s. Rating: G. Running Time: 1:58. By Joe Pollack Of the Post-Dispatch Start BERNADETTE SOUBIROUS grew up in the eldest daughter of a poor miller. She was a sickly child, suffering from chronic asthma, but she was a diligent daughter, taking care of her younger siblings and helping her mother around the house.

On Feb. 11, 1858, she was collecting wood in a grotto at Massabielle, outside of town, when she had a vision. Before long, people were receiving miraculous cures from the grotto water, the 15-year-old Berna- WORD WATCHER "Speaking of the mayor, our present Incumbent Is Tom Roberts." Is that a fair sentence? It should be graded poor, which is 'less than fair. The expression present Incumbent is a redundancy because an incumbent is the present officeholder. Was it proper for an ad to offer authentic replicas of a Rembrandt painting? Not if exact wording is a criteri-I on.

What they should have offered were copies or reproductions. A replica, in the fine arts, is an exact -copy of a work made by its original creator. SCIENCE Was It that we thought Grandpa was a good trooper or a good troup-er, and when he cussed, did he swear like a trouper or a trooper? A trooper is a cavalryman or a policeman; a trouper, a professional actor. A person who confronts the vicissitudes of life with strength and courage is said to be a good trouper. One who cusses long and loud is said to "swear like a Is this correctly said: "The school is a long ways from Educated people would use the singular way.

When ways is preced- ed by it is always incorrect. Q. What happens when you crack your knuckles? Does it cause arthritis? A The bones and the series of ligaments that form the knuckles and many other joints have a little innocuous except for being obnox-ious." 1 he joint that is usually one between the hand and the' finger, is typically spared from wear and-tear arthritis, called osteoarthritis, he said. According to the results of his formal study 6f elderly people who remembered cracking their knuckles in theii-' youth, knuckle-cracking did not produce any osteoarthritis there in old age. elasticity, which means that they can be "cracked," said Iv.

Robert L. Swezey, director of the Arthritis and Back Pain Center in Santa Monica, Calif. "What basically happens is that you separate the two bones by pulling or bending," he said. "This abruptly creates a space between the bones, a vacuum. Then the flu-Ids normally present in the surrounding tissues rush into that space with the sound of a tiny explosion." The fluid is gradually reabsorbed after the knuckle-cracking maneuver, so there is a time lag before that joint can be cracked again, said Swezey, who is also a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Cracking the knuckles does not damage the joints, he said, adding, "Knuckle cracking is apparently POMD 7 K. i. USDA CHOICE C1HIARBEMMLEB SmiMN TIPS B1TOER Save now on the Finest in Rattan Outdoor Furniture. "T- i With coupon below. Complete dinner Includes USDA Choice Sirloin Tips with grilled onions and mushrooms, your choice of baked potato or tries, and Ponderosa's All-You-Can-Eat Grand Buffet'" with over 80 items.

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