Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 62

E4 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Friday, October 7, 1994 Inspired 'Redemption' a vision of humanity in living hell i TTTT men on hapless victims like Andy. But there is also camaraderie among the thieves and killers and grace, or redemption, for men like Red, and even Andy. Worse perhaps than the inmates, however, are the screws (guards) and the warden. Clancy Brown makes his rock-hard Captain Hadley the very model of a sadist who toL-nc nlaaciire in his work, and Rnh If 1 i'' pv Schlock film director Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) escorts his future wife (Patricia Arquette), in Tim Burton's biopic "Ed Wood." 'Ed Wood': A very good film about a very bad filmmaker i Morgan Freeman, left, as "Red" Andy Dufresne deliver outstanding Shawshank Redemption." through the aid of his prison big brother, "Red" Redding, acted by the extraordinary Morgan Freeman in yet another quiet exhibition of manly, or perhaps almost godlike, strength, dignity and caring. In Shawshank, Red is the man who can get anything an inmate might want.

Freeman also uses his deep, thoughtful, unmannered voice to narrate "The Shawshank Redemption," beginning with the tangled night of drunkenness and murder that opens Darabont's dark-hued film. As the credits roll, a whiskey-swigging Andy woozily pilots a '40s coupe around his hometown. The sequence ends in the double murder of Andy's wife and her golf -pro lover. Darabont then cuts to a quick courtroom scene in which Andy is hit with a heavy sentence, despite his protestations of innocence. The rest of Darabont's film depicts an innocent's life among criminals of every stripe, some guilty but still human, some twisted into brutality.

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523-5243. Cook with less fat by steaming, stewing or stir-frying your food. 1 ips 'J i is-- Michael Weinsteln Castle Rock Entertainment Redding and Tim Robbins as performances in "The Film review THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Directed and written by Frank Darabont, based on the short novel "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King; director of photography, Roger Deakins; music composed by Thomas Newman; production designer, Terence Marsh; edited by Richard Francis-Bruce; produced by Niki Marvin; executive producers, Liz Glotzer and David Lester. A Columbia Pictures release of a Castle Rock Entertainment presentation, opening today at Showcase Cinemas, East Hartford and Berlin. Running time: 143 minutes.

Andy Dufresne Tim Robbins Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding Morgan Freeman Warden Norton Bob Gunton Heywood William Sadler Captain Hadley Clancy Brown Tommy Gil Bellows Bogs Diamond Mark Rolston Brooks Hatlen James Whitmore 1946 District Attorney Jeffrey DeMunn Skeet Larry Brandenburg Jigger Neil Giuntoli Floyd Brian Libby Snooze David Proval Ernie Joseph Ragno Andy Dufresne's Wife Renee Blaine Glenn Quentin Scott Mann Excellent; Very Good; Good; Fair; Poor 1 Exciting new collection of fur coats jackets now at LERNER'S FURS 120 Washington Street, Middletown Open Tue-Sat Fri til 7pm. I received an invitation and wore my outfit from Lerner's Furs Feminine Fashions and received rave reviews. can too! Lerner's Furs Feminine Fashions 120 Washington Street, Middletown Open Tue-Sat Fri til 7pm. YARN, YARN, Outside sale October 8 9. 50t up.

Raindate: 15th 16th. Village Needle-crafts, Old Avon Village, Route 44. Wasn't hit. 0 By MALCOLM JOHNSON Courant Film Critic Next to "Stand by Me," "The Shawshank Redemption" ranks as the strongest, purest film ever made from a novel or novella by Stephen King, a monster film where the horrors are frighteningly human. The solid accomplishment of Frank Darabont's directing debut, with its seasoned sense of pacing and place, comes as something of a revelation.

But the success of "The Shawshank Redemption" should really be no surprise, because this harrowing, terrifying, yet humanistic tale of men behind bars comes from the same company that established itself with the film based on King's novella "The Body." That moving, finely drawn story of a man looking back with regret at the lost friendships of his boyhood, and a day of terrible discovery, gave Rob Reiner's film company its name, Castle Rock Productions, borrowed from the fictitious settings of many King works. And, like "Stand by Me," "The Shawshank Redemption" (originally called "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank comes from a collection of four pieces, the 1982 "Different Seasons." With or without Rita Hayworth, the film's title requires some explanation. Shawshank is the name of the maximum-security prison in King's home state of Maine (though the film was made in the abandoned Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, a grim, gray Victorian stone pile. Redemption refers to the experience of the film's central figure, the mild, boyish but unbreakable banker, Andy Dufresne, played in a subdued, brainy, oddly heroic mode by the versatile Tim Robbins. As for '40s pinup Hayworth, she is seen only as a poster on the wall of Andy's cell.

Rita Hayworth comes into Andy's permanent one-room residence Pat's Pointers Welcome to Pat Trexler's needlework column. This week's design is the It's a Small World Ornaments, No, Z-1 00294, pictured here. To call for color information, price, or how to order, please dial 246-1 000 or (800) 246-8070. The four-digit Source number is 6001 A touch-tone phone is required. We'll give you the price and color information and tell you how to order the instructions or the kit for making this design.

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MAESTRO ALI AKBAR KHAN Tix: Discounts for Srs. Students ENGLISH CONCERT ORGANIST NICOLAS KYNASTON "Mr. Kynaston's choice of music was eccentric but pleasing, especially in his tehnically secure, rhythmically propulsive performances." The New York Times Oct. 9 at 3 TRINITY COLLEGE CHAPEL Summit Street, Hartford $5 General $3 SeniorsStudents laivfa Gunton etches Warden Norton as a gimlet-eyed, thin-lipped, utterly corrupted figure of terrible power, happy to steal whatever he can. The evil dictatorship of the warden and his minions is contrasted with the democratic friendships between the men who surround Red Redding.

William Sadler sketches a persuasive portrait of one of the inner circle as the slow-witted but fair-minded Heywood, and Gil Bellows gives a heartbreaking performance as Tommy, a young thief whom Andy helps educate, even as the former banker juggles the warden's books. The extremes within the prison community are sharply contrasted by James Whitmore as the sweet old codger Brooks Hatlen, who runs the prison library but cannot survive on the outside, and by Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond, the sick "sister" who assaults Andy. As fine as the ensemble is, however, Darabont proves equally adept at presenting the dangerous and barbarous world inside the fortress of the damned. Working with Roger Deakins as director of photography and Terence Marsh as his production designer, the neophyte director sets out a vision of prison as an unlikely place for redemption. Even Rita Hayworth or Raquel Welch cannot brighten or warm a cell within the chill, dark walls.

And in the yard, the light looks pale and thin. In Shawshank, only a man like Red can offer hope of redemption and deliverance from evil. Rated this film contains vulgarities, a gang sodomizing in pris- on, the terrors of solitary confine-'. ment, the double murder that opens the picture, and other acts ol horrific violence. pics Joe Cornfield's WHOLESALE WALLPAPER WAREHOUSE 40-80 off all wallcovering made.

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A Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. release of a Touchstone Pictures presentation, opening today at Cinema City, Hartford, and Showcase Cinemas, Berlin. Ed Wood Johnny Depp Bela Lugosi Martin Landau Dolores Fuller Sarah Jessica Parker Kathy O'Hara Patricia Arquette Criswell Jeffrey Jones Reverend Lemon G.D. Spradlin Orson Welles Vincent D'Onofrlo Bunny Breckinridge Bill Murray Georgia Weiss Mike Starr Paul Marco Max Casella Conrad Brooks Brent Hinkley Vampira Lisa Marie Tor Johnson George "The Animal" Steele Loretta King Juliet Landau Ed Reynolds Cllve Rosengren Dr. Tom Mason Ned Bellamy Excellent; Very Good; Good; Fair; a Poor Wood attains a heroic, seminal stature.

In the paradise of outre" cinema, Wood should be revered as St. Ed. ious Bill Murray, two of Wood's kid actors are playing out a war drama scene. Then (years before "Angels in a winged seraph descends on wires, giving Sarah Jessica Parker her big entrance. Parker is cast as Dolores Fuller, the long-suffering girlfriend, gofer and leading actress in the Wood stable.

Dolores bravely copes with the revelation that Ed has been wearing her angora sweaters, and even troupes through "Glen or Glenda?" This cross-dressing drama lifts Wood to the writer-director-actor status of Orson Welles, or so Ed opines. But ultimately, after her lover hands a lead to a rival actress, Dolores bails out, leaving the field to the even more loyal Kathy O'Hara, endowed with sweet dopi-ness by Patricia Arquette. Lugosi, who checks into a drug treatment center only to be booted out for lack of funds, never lives to see his final screen appearance, in the infamous "Plan 9 from Outer Space." But even with the formidable Landau out of the picture, "Ed Wood" remains alive and witty especially when the ever-enterprising director fleeces churchmen out of funds to create his magnum opus. There are also terrific moments, scary, weird and eloquent, from George "The Animal" Steele as the monstrous Tor Johnson, from Lisa Marie as the slinky, snooty Vampira, and, briefly but wonderfully, from Vincent D'Onofrio as Wood's model, also a cursed Hollywood legend, Orson Welles. With characters like these and its gothic look, bursts of lighting and spooky music, "Ed Wood" has everything a movie crazy could desire.

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Call Julie toll free at 1-800-927-3348 Stephen Chevrolet-Olds Rt. 10 Granby, CT By MALCOLM JOHNSON Courant Film Critic Putting Tim Burton and Johnny Depp together again results in yet another remarkable collaboration that moves from offbeat comedy to the edge of darkness. And while "Ed Wood" probably won't do the kind of business enjoyed by "Edward Scissorhands," this deliciously bizarre bio-pic should instantly become a movie cultist's treasure. Although its advertisements and trailers convey the message that this tale of Hollywood's legendary worst director ever will be a camp romp, Burton's black-and-white film shows a serious side, too. As ridiculous as Depp's grinning, one-take, shoot-and-run auteur seems, the story of Edward D.

Wood Jr. evolves into an emblematic one about the urge to create, especially to make movies. In a time when no-brain video "artists" produce valueless visual essays in pretentiousness, in the era of the moronic, slapdash music videos, in the aftermath of Andy Warhol's anti-movies, Wood attains a heroic, seminal stature. In the paradise of outre cinema, Wood should be revered as St. Ed.

As edifying as Burton's look into Wood's filmmaking techniques are, however and at least three Wood masterpieces are dissected in the course of the film a more potent arid poignant story unfolds, one that even inspires outrage. This is the subplot involving Wood's son-to-fa-thjer relationship with a great figure in-the history of movie horror, Bela Lugosi. In "Ed Wood," Hollywood's original Dracula, whose image and aocent put his stamp on the elegant Tfansylvanian vampire for the ages, Lugosi is somewhat like Vincent Piice's role in "Scissorhands." He is th master monster, who virtually creates his heir. 'As acted by Martin Landau in a performance worthy of an Oscar, Lugosi shambles through "Ed Wood" as a strange and compelling variation on the fallen star. Living ofJ a measly pension in a tiny, face-lejs bungalow crammed with memorabilia that would be worth a count's ransom today, tracking his a0ns with morphine needles and hevering on the edge of the grave, Landau's Lugosi presents us with an oddly magnificent ruin, tottering, willing to do anything and accept any pathetic salary to work again, yet full of dignity and fire.

Landau's readings of Wood's wacko, purple dialogue reverberate with surprising depth and power. He is a giant among the pygmies and freaks and losers who populate the world of Wood. Xugosi enters that zany world only after the terse, witty screenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry has set the story in motion and introduced its cast of characters. The first nut to turn up is the phony clairvoyant Criswell, acted with cynical self-aggrandizement by Jeffrey Jones. After the credits a series of gravestones carved with the names of the cast Stefan Czapsky's camera trucks through a Gothic corridor to a casket, from which Criswell arises to deliver his portentous monologue (both the headstone credits and the casket speech are drawn from Wood films).

Burton then cuts to a dismal opening night at Wood's Los Angeles art theater. As the director commiserates with his buddy Bunny, a white-painted, effete fellow delicately rendered by the always hilar- A SONY THEATRE 615 PINE ST. PLAZA, BRISTOL 589-7070 matinees u.oo, all shows before too pm the scour TERMINAL VELOCITY 2:00 7:50 5 00 10:10 nil PC 13 PC13 ff pen PB K13 P013 0UIZSH0W TIM COP THE RIVER WILO THE SPECIALIST 01 TOW 1:30 4:15 6:55 9:35 3:20 5 25 8:10 10:15 1:40 00 7:15 9 50 2 20 4:35 7:35 10 00 1:20 3:45 6 30 9:20 CLEAR I PRESENT DANCER 2 40 5 45 8:35 FORREST GUMP 3:00 6:10 9 00 PASSPORTS NOT ACCEPTED III mm BB Jt The cMhtlllng of a QridlitTJraeM 'p MB IE in lllfflMPiriL PJMUiiii DmifWiinoiiiTmini minimi mvm wmmumwmmmmmmm iiiiu ina mm mmm II ill WUWIIU HMiMILIIUIWIIIIUIJIJII iMLltllWtiKIitilH Lilliiy Elll EST AMI 51 IN Nit HIAINMENT 1821 Mt i lUtN WAIfcHUUHY HUTl XIT 28 OFF 1-84 iOUTHINGTON I EX SILVER SOUTH LANE, E. HARTFORD 56M8I0 INTERSTATE 84 EXIT 58 Saturday at: 5:45 Sunday at: 2:00 shown with: CLEAR PRESENT DANGER jprJTal Saturday at: Sunday at:.