Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 21

5b JUNE 21. 1980 'Blues Brothers' a smash act j. i ST. PETERSBURG TIMES I ksw FILM opinion 2. DE8PITE THEIR good intentions and wonderful guest performers, Jake and Elwood still get in big trouble.

Before the film ends, the two low-life bluesmen are being chased by police, Nazis and rednecks. Watch for the Nazi car that flips and falls 1,500 feet and lands in a downtown Chicago street. Look for the mall being demolished by runaway machines. Notice how downtown Chicago's Daley Plaza is aswarm with bashed-in police cars. (Landis filmed it Labor Day weekend, with lots of official help from the city.) Even the bit players are impressive.

Keep an eye out for Frank Oz (of Muppet fame), Twiggy, Chaka Khan, Stephen Spielberg and several other surprises, including a "Mystery Woman" played by Carrie Fisher. The Blues Brothers stands far above the escapist pack so far this year, and that includes any space fantasy you can name. Don't miss this one and don't wait to see it on a TV screen and hear it on tinny speakers, either. Th Blot Srothf (rated ft) nan John Baluahl. Dan Aykroyd.

Jama Brown. Cab Calloway. Ray Charlaa. Carrta Fifth ar, Aratha Franklin. Hanry Oibaon and tha B4ua Brothara Band; oontaina profanity; oonault tlma dock (8-B) for thaatara and ahowtimaa.

By ROBERT ALAN ROSS St. Pataraburg Timaa Critic A loving musical tribute, a raucous comedy and an amazing demolition derby The Blues brothers is all these and more. Filmed in and near Chicago, the home of electric blues, it is extravagant pandemonium continuous and delightful. Director John Landis spent $27-million and a year filming The Bluet Brothers. He got more than his time and money's worth.

So will those who come to see the result. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd originated the roles of Jake Blues and his brother Elwood a few years ago performing soul songs for studio audiences as they waited for Saturday Night Live. Then they took it on the show itself. Having hired the world's greatest studio soul-men (including three original members of Booker MGs) for a backup band, "Jake and Elwood" recorded an album of old favorites. The LP sold a phenomenal 2.5-million copies, and spawned a hit re-make of the Sam Dave classic record Soul Man.

So wunderkind director John Landis, whose Kentucky Fried Movie and Animal House made unpredicted fortunes, was engaged to co-write (with Aykroyd) and direct The Blues Brothers. AS A MUSICAL tribute to the greatest soul-pop artists, The Blues Brothers presents James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway and John Lee Hooker acting and performing at various churches, shops, stages and street corners. The soundtrack alone is worth the admission price. But The Blues Brothers isn't just a shallow look at the world's finest soul musicians. It's not short on anything except politics, philosophy and gore.

There's a story the tale of Jake's parole from Joliet prison and his decision to follow brother Elwood 's example and help do the Lord' work on Earth. An R-rated movie, The Blues Brothers offers nothing more offensive than foul words. Behind the crashes, chases and curses lies a plot as pure as the Good Book itself. What makes it so hilarious are the punchlines and sight-gags (as when the blind Ray Charles tacks up a poster upside-down and then steps back to admire his work). John Belushi (left) and Dan Aykroyd provide the plot thread for a musical tribute, lots of laughs and a rich story line.

Unhraraal Cfty StiKttoa bis. tiwu-A lkaaaaaaaaBaHaaa LaiawaJ arrjMiiJ i.1 a Redford is a prisoner of his own good looks Summertime: beauty mixed with beastly allergies FILM opinion By ROBERT ELY 8t. Pt'bur Timt Staff Writar He has turned out an elaborate production. A $13-million affair, the film sports a cast of perhaps a thousand, the vast majority of which play inmates. Filmed almost exclusively at Ohio's Junction City Prison Farm, many of the extras actually had served time at the prison.

The grim and violent prison scenes, and the prisoners, stand by themselves, beyond the Redford aura. ROSENBERG ALSO makes credible the realities of a corrupt prison system and the political climate that allows it to exist. State officials and local businessmen, prior to Brubaker's arrival, have been using inmates as slaves for personal profit. The reformist warden's clashes with them are predictably realistic. But Brubaker is on a collision course with the status quo from the moment he reveals himself as the new warden, and it's just a matter of time before he will expend his political stock and be dismissed.

Brubaker is supposed to be the incomplete hero, the idealist who can't build the consensus he needs to stay in power because the system he is trying to reform is too corrupt and too slow to change. Everything about the prison system is corrupt, and Brubaker is waging a lonely war. Never once, though, does he seem to have a chance of succeeding. St. Patarabura Timaa EARL TOWEFtY Brubmkf.

Iratad Rh atarrino. Robart Radford. Yaphat Kotto. Jana Alaxandar, Murray Hamilton and David Kaith. Containa profanity, vlolanca.

briaf nudity. Con-autt Thaatar Tuna Clock (paga S-B) for thaatara and timaa. By JONATHAN GREER 8t. Pataraburfl Timaa Critic Some people are prisoners of the state. Others are trapped by their minds.

Robert Redford has a different problem: His blond hair, blue eyes and molded countenance make it very difficult for him to look like he's desperate, or tough, or defeated. In Brubaker, Redford portrays a tough-minded prison warden out to reform the state penitentiary. Unfortunately for Redford, he looks so much cleaner, so much healthier, so much nicer than everyone else, that it's hard to believe that he's really a warden. HE'S MORE believable in the last 90 minutes of the movie than in the first reel, when he goes undercover as a prisoner. The setting is gray, the prisoners faces are the tone of the movie is gray.

As the phony convict, Brubaker (Redford) intrudes into this gray with a golden glow. But never during his pose as an inmate does Brubaker receive unfair treatment, never once is he harassed sexually because of his boyish good looks. The warden-turned-prisoner tries to look like a face in the crowd, even though he violates the unwritten commandment of any prison, which is to mind your own business at the risk of losing your life. But Redford cannot be just a face in the crowd, and this is where Brubaker fails. The struggle to believe Redford's characterization is the film's most dominating factor.

Other characters work their way through the movie's muddle but without enough sensitivity to reveal more than surface insights into their personalities. IT IS apparently a deliberate effort on the part of director Stuart Rosenberg (Coo Hand Luke) to highlight Brubaker at the expense of his supporting cast. Perhaps the reason for this is the film's origin the true experiences of Thomas Mur-ton, a prison reformer who made headlines in the 1960s when he discovered the bodies of prisoners who had been murdered and buried at the Arkansas institutions he was hired to reform. Murton proved a political liability and was fired after only a year, but producer Ron Silverman spent the last 10 years trying to get Murton 's story on film. ment.

Consider the itch. The conventional variety requires a mere fingernail as antidote. But for the more complex forms, scratching isn't always the best solution. That holds true for itches from allergies, as many of the 20-million to 30-million allergy victims in the United States could testify. That testimony might be most impassioned now: May to September is the worst time of year for many people with allergies.

In Florida, the problem is compounded because the much-lauded fair weather also extends the polleninsect season by several weeks over most other states. Substances that cauBe allergic disease can be inhaled, eaten, injected by insects, given medically or absorbed through the skin, as with poison ivy. These substances, normally not a problem, cause discomfort for those allergic to them because the body tricks itself its defense system responds inappropriately. THE MANY REASONS for this are a product of complex biological processes that have to do with genetic coding, antibodies and cell chemistry. Which points out the sometimes maddening nature of allergies: They are highly individual.

"It depends," explains Dr. J. Wayne Phillips, one of the few allergy specialists on the Suncoast, "on the person's own unique reactivity." Whatever that response, most people who have allergies can be helped by medication. "That's the way it should be approached first," Phillips said. If that doesn't work, more complicated steps are required.

"What you're really talking about then is changing the person. It's really the last resort." Some people with allergies are inclined to suffer in silence because past attempts at alleviating the discomfort have proved useless. That need not be, according to the allergy specialist: "The majority of people can be helped by over-the-counter medicines." And improvements in these treatments are continuously being made. For instance; people who are allergic to insect stings have less to worry about since the discovery of a pure-venom treatment in March 1979, Phillips says. Previously, insect stings had been treated with a whoie-body extract the whole insect was ground up and used in preparing the medication.

This, however, was never proven to be widely effective, Phillips says. Doctors and patients alike are marveling at the new treat- pollens can be found as far as 70 to 100 miles at sea. THE POLLEN census at USF, which Phillips calls the first modern study, began in 1977. "We found out there are about 65 pollens or molds that can cause trouble in the Tampa Bay area," Phillips says. "Oak pollen is No.

1 on the hit parade. And bayberry trees the ones they make the candles (scent) out of are No. 2. Bahia grass is the worst grass. Bahia grass is the most prodigious producer of pollen in the whole Southeast." Many people on the Suncoast are experiencing the effects of these pollens now.

For people allergic to ragweed, however, the worst is yet to come: August and September are peak times for ragweed in Florida, and it doesn't really go away until November. For more information about allergies and what you can do to alleviate the symptoms, there are several pamphlets available on the subject. Following are two agencies that can provide information: The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America 19 44th St. New York, N.Y 10036 The Public Health Service National Institutes of Health Washington, D.C. 20014 Phillips notes that there is good news for asthmatics, whose problem is sometimes compounded by allergies.

WHILE ASTHMATICS don't have the range of over-the-counter options available to the person with hay fever, for instance, the doctor says, "Medicines for asthma are tremendous. There have been definite improvements in the last year. If they (asthmatics) are not doing well they should be able to walk into the local doctor's office and, if he's keeping up, they should be able to get help." For many asthmatics, however, the Florida climate has a moderating effect. "Now there are some people (who suffer) worse with the high humidity," says Phillips, "and Florida can really be terrible for them." There are still misconceptions about the source, and treatment for, allergies. In Florida, one of the reviled causes of allergic reaction is punk-tree pollen.

But Phillips, who is involved in pollen studies at the University of South Florida (USF), found that punk-tree pollen is low on the list of troublemakers. "It's not much of an allergy problem unless it's right under your window. It's mostly insect pollenated" (transferred). Other, more-troublesome pollens are those that travel long distances in the air. Some ROBERT REDFORD too pretty? 'Object as Subject' tends to overlook content ART opinion Object a Subject, 35 art works in varlad madia by 13 artist, hibitioft through Jury R.

Artist AHianca Gattary. 1629 Snow 014 Hyda Park, Tampa. Wadnasdaya and Thursday noon 3 p.m. and Wadnasdays-Saturday 0 9 p.m. For mora information, call Tampa 970 7702.

it if it By CHARLES J3EN80W 8t Patarsburg Timaa Critic I 1' 'i Linda Fernandez competes successfully with color photography, a mimicking accomplished easily in oils or acrylics. The marvel is that she does it with watercolor, a medium whose flowing nature is not exactly suited to such tight control. But that dubious reason for admiration is extra-eBthetic; that is, the reason and admiration have nothing to do with the expressive content of the art itself. Happily, that isn't true of Alexa Favata's collages, Ernest Cox'i metal wall sculptures and Don Saffs etched homages to Fred Astaire, Strachey and someone named John, all the key references in all three artists' works may be as meager and obscure as poetry to most viewers. ON THE OTHER HAND, Jeff Whipple's paintings are almost overloaded with obvious content, being carefully conceived combinations of "realistic" images that explore various psychological conditions.

Their emotional impact is short-circuited because he handles paint without subtlety. The most astounding, confounding and exciting things in this show are Roger Clay Palmer's pseudo-primitive ritual implements or tools or weapons or whatever. Two groups of peeled and scorched wooden sculptural objects are displayed in combination with written materials, poems in one instance, a double-strip of sequential drawings (but not "comic" here) in the other. These definitely carry implications of menace and appeal quite directly to whatever primitive instincts viewer may retain. pictures somewhat automatically.

The sub is displayed as a "sculpture" in this show. A persuasive argument can be made to enhance the appreciation of any still life. Miss Miller was admirably articulate and entertaining in that regard Wednesday for a small group of gallery visitors. But her talk emphasized the artists' studio procedures more than the resulting art. FOR INSTANCE, Michael Felice uses a blackboard to work out the schemes for changing relationships among objects in a succession of works.

This fact doesn't help the uninformed (or even the informed) viewer penetrate the mysteries in an individual Felice print. On their own, without verbal support, most of the still lifes in this show can be described as handsome, often well executed pictures. About Carol Todaro's, Catherine Downing's, Susan McDonough'g and Roberta Schofield's, little more can be said without resorting to arty in-talk. For example: Pam Griesinger'i large oils are more complex; the jumble of individual objects in them are rendered realistically but she takes advantage of their wide variety of teitures, including reflective surfaces, and incongruous perspectives to achieve disorienting, semi-abstract effects. TAMPA "I could not very well say simply these are local artists I like," Margaret A.

Miller said Wednesday evening. So for the current exhibition she organized for Artist Alliance Gal- lery in Tampa's Old Hyde Park, she chose the title Object as Subject. As art historian and director of the University of South Florida's (USF) galleries, Miss Miller knows that objects have been the traditional, and most familiar, subject for art. So what's new? IN THE CATALOG Miss Miller writes: "The 13 Tampa Bay artists represented in this exhibition have explored the function of objects in their work in a way that provokes meaning beyond object as form." In other words, the trick is to achieve a "content" as well a mere depiction if the creation is to transcend the capability of the camera. Laurance W.

Miller's photographs don't An appreciation of his 9-inch-round watery views depends upon something quite apart from the photos themselves the method by which he got them. He sends forth a home-made submarine dubbed "marhina obscura" that takes the Jeff Whipple's untitled oil on canvas is typical of his works that explore psychological conditions. Correction, Day Section The Valla's restaurant pictured in the A La Carta restaurant review Friday is located in Clearwater; the review concerned the restaurant in Tampa..