Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 21

Gene ying (G EY Travel: Let your conscience be your guide6C Society announcements4-5C Questions? Call Features Editor Joy Crocker at 798-1 1 71 Press Sun-Bulletin Sunday, February 23, 1997 Imairdlesu iee Holocaust witnesses driven to teach young generations -mm sw-" 1 i 4 1 J. It i. 1 3 -IV i S- 'I. Computers are making lying easier When space exploration first captured America's attention, there were reports that some people thought the moon landing, pictures from space, were faked. The idea was that, to make Americans think they were ahead of the Russians, the sinister U.S.

government went to the trouble of showing scenes not from the moon but from some remote desert in Utah. While those were probably the same folks who still believed the Earth was flat, it did tend to buttress the notion that things were not as they seemed; that, in fact, you could not believe what you've seen. Jump ahead to the annual testosterone fest called the Super Bowl, in which the high point is often not the game but the highly creative commercials. American advertisers pull out all the stops, paying millions to create minor epics to sell gym shoes, beer, automobiles and, this year, vacuum cleaners. Fred's never dead The star of the aforesaid vacuum cleaner commercial is Fred Astaire.

I should say "was" because Astaire is dead and has been for some time. But in the commercial, there is Fred in the pink of health, dancing with a vacuum cleaner. We've also had James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart pitching Coca-Cola, Jackie Gleason selling a mini-mixer and John Wayne hawking beer. Other than being actors, the one thing they all have in common is being dead. But not in the magic of computer image generation.

There, dead stars are never really dead. One of the marvels of the i i I I I I i Ti I'iii rn rT By LEE SHEPHERD Staff Writer he Holocaust is more than history. It's a grim lesson in the darker side of humanity, say students and survivors alike. "Studying about the Holocaust is crucial," said Mike Komarinetz, a senior at Seton Catholic High School in Bing-hamton, who completed a Holocaust unit during his freshman year. "We have to learn to relate to those around us, whether they be Jews or Catholics, black, yellow or red." "Is it important to study the Holocaust?" asked Sam Goldin of Binghamton.

"Let me ask you a question: Is it important to study what happened to the American Indians or the African slaves or the Armenians? We must remember the Holocaust, just as we must remember other atrocities throughout history. "Young people mustn't forget that individuals were capable of that kind of cruelty," he said. Goldin escaped Nazi-occupied France by obtaining a doctor's document falsely stating he was terminally ill. His parents, who'd remained in Warsaw. Poland, died in the gas chambers.

Komarinetz. like many classmates, knew of Hitler's slaughter of 6 million Jews, as well as Gypsies, Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, mental patients and political prisoners, even before he studied it in class. "I knew about it because of TV programs. I knew the story of Anne Frank. I'd also seen Schindler's List'' he said.

"That movie really brought it home to viewers, really made me understand what people wentthrouuh. GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Liam Neeson stars as German industrialist Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List. The film, which is shot in black and white, is appearing on television tonight because director Steven Spielberg wants the Holocaust drama accessible to as many people as possible, his spokesman says. TV makes room for 'Schindler' 7 clash preposterously and tastelessly with black-and-white scenes of concentration camps. "It worked out very well," said John Agoglia, president of NBC Enterprises.

"We were even more fortunate than we anticipated, in having a sponsor like Ford taking a higher sponsorship and forgoing commercial interruption." As to the nudity and other matters that brought the TV-M rating, Agoglia observed: "You have to judge the content as it relates to the film as a whole." Steven Spielberg isn't the only director to use film to draw attention to his- tory. For his new movie, Rosewood, John Singleton finds his source in American history. Story, Page 3C. W.i 4 L-A 'fjf By BOB THOMAS The Associated Press chindler's List never quite fit into the boxes Hollywood builds for its movies. It was black and white.

It was serious. It explicitly portrayed a topic the Holocaust that had been all but taboo in American films. Tonight, Steven Spielberg attempts to squeeze a slightly trimmed version of Schindler's List into a new kind of box network television. It promises to be a departure from standard network fare. The 1994 Academy Award winner appears on NBC from 7:30 p.m.

to 1 1 p.m., uninterrupted by commercials. The sole sponsor is the Ford Motor Company, which will offer a total of two minutes of messages at the beginning and end. plus an introduction by Ford executive Ross Roberts. The airing of the film that won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and director, is the first to carry a rating of TV-M (mature audiences only), because of the horrible acts of the German concentration camp commandant and guards, as well as the nudity of some women victims. Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy assured that the edits will be slight.

"The trims will be minor, perhaps a second here and there," he said. "Television viewers will see essentially what was shown in theaters." Schindler's List surprised the film trade by its widespread acceptance: It grossed $93 million in the United States and Canada. The figure might have reached $100 million except that it was shown free to 2 million high school students. The gross worldwide reaches over $300 million; no specifics, because Spielberg doesn't like to put a dollar figure on the film. The television contract resulted from his desire to have Schindler's List seen by as many people as possible, Levy said.

"Arrangements are being made for the film to be shown in other major countries," Levy added. "It will appear in the same format as on NBC. Since most of the countries have state-owned channels, that should be easy to manage." NBCnot being state-owned, there was the delicate matter of how to sponsor Sunday's showing. The standard run of TV commercials would WW f5 COURTESY LANCE SUSSMAN This photo of Sam Goldin as a child is from In Our Midst, a book of Holocaust recollections of Southern Tier residents. Schindler's List will be broadcast, without commercials and almost in its entirety, from 7:30 to 1 1 tonight on NBC.

The film tells how Oskar Schindler, a factory operator and azi party member, helped save the lives of 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. It's the stories of real people that matter most, said Rabbi Lance J. Sussman of Temple Concord, author of the soon-to-be-published In Our Midst: How the Holocaust Touched One American Community Ever since discovering a lock of hair in his grandmother's dining room buffet, Sussman has been "of the opinion that the best way to teach children about the Holocaust is through personal con tact with survivors and witnesses to the greatest crime in the annals of history." When he asked about the lock of hair, Sussman See MESSAGE Page 3C This Nazi-era "racial low said. "I don't know if looking at things calmly it will cause a spate of these things." Some already were in the pipeline. Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind was long planned by Sony for a 20th anniversary re-release this year (the date as yet unannounced).

But can other movies match tne success of Star Wars? "I'm not sure there are many pictures powerful enough to bring back after 15, 20 years," said Stephen Light-man, president of Memphis-based Malco Theatres Inc. AMC's Fay agrees: "Star Wars was an experiment that worked. I don't know about any others." (MS a A v. r. ing I om Hanks interact with images ot John r.

Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. And several years earlier there was a fictional documentary of a man called Zelig, played by Woody Allen, who seemed to be on the scene of every major 20th century event. There will come a time very soon, I suspect when entire movies will be made from recomposed, digitized images of late movie stars. At least they'll work cheap and not talk back to the director.

Playing to paranoids But when does clever become potentially dangerous? Not trying to seem too paranoid, I believe there is a possibility of great harm as the processing of old images into new pictures becomes common. Misleading and confusing an already skeptical public will be easier when images can be so easily manipulated. It is now possible to put the image of an actual person on the famous "grassy knoll" of the Kennedy assassination, thereby providing even more ammunition for conspiracy buffs. A leader could be shown in any number of compromising positions: leaving a whorehouse or participating at a crime scene. Images like those, spread by the gutter press of the tabloid newspaper and television world, can wreak endless havoc on lives and reputations.

And by the time the fakery could be proved, the damage would have been done. Remember a few months ago when reporter Pierre Salinger came up with Internet "ev idence" that Flight 800 was attacked by an oul-of-control military missile? The "evidence" existed only in the fevered imagination of conspiracy buffs, who spread it around cyberspace. You ain't seen nothing yet. Quote of the week "Truth exists; only lies are invented." Georges Braque Sniff writer Gene Grey's column appears every Sunday. His e-mail address is ggrey(d juno.com passport," which belonged to a Jewish woman in Germany, also is part ot in uurMiast, a collection ot survivors memories.

Few films set to follow resurrected 'Star Wars: By LYNN ELBER The Associated Press LOS ANGELES The unexpected box-office power of Star Wars should have competitors licking their wounds over moviegoers lost to a 20-year-old film. And it could have them licking their chops over the potential for exploitation of their own studio film libraries. Not so fast on either count, release would be risky. "There just aren't that many Star Wars," said Phil Barlow, distribution president for the Buena Vista unit of Walt Disney Inc. which knows a thing or two about re-releasing movies.

When Star Wars returned Jan. 31 20th Century Fox was cautiously optimistic. But it took just two weeks to rival Gone With the Wind's 1967 $70 million reissue gross and hit a record total $400 million. While it seems Star Wars is pushing other movies around, the result is more bruised egos than injured bottom lines. Star Wars did cheat the $115 million Dante's Peak out of the chance to debut at No.

1, but the volcano movie did set a record February opening with $18.1 million. "If Dante's had opened in the $7 (million) to $10million range, you would have said, 'Wow, this isn't But the level it opened at was the level you would have expected," said Richard Fay, president of AMC Film Marketing. Star Wars has contributed to a box-office expansion. Last weekend was one of the biggest four-day moviegoing weekends ever with about $120 million total, said Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

However the Star Wars bonanza ends up, it seems huge enough now to whet the appetite for reissues. "I imagine there is a lot of reassessment going on," Bar say industry executives, exhibitors and observers. Star Wars has enjoyed spectacular success in its return to theaters, remaining one of the biacest-grossing films in U.S. GANNETT NEWS SERVICE The Empire Strikes Back, from which this scene is taken, was re-released Friday. Part one of George Lucas' other movies or release plans, space trilogy hasn't done seri- they say.

And betting on other ous box-office damage to pictures to do as well in re- history. Yet experts say its mpact mav be less dramatic and more singular than first appears..