MacLaine chirps idiocies for which everynwoman in the socialist countries, who isnnot employed by the secret police or thenparty’s propaganda outlets, would stonenher on the spot, and which the New YorknTimes News Service reporter enthusiasticallynconveys to the rest of America,nwhile the ultra-liberal Tempo pages ofnthe Chicago Tribune immediately hastennto echo with a reprint of such a trustworthyninterview. Incidentally, ThenTurning Point was the first Americannmovie to be officially shown in Cuba inn17 years, obviously because of MissnMacLaine’s friendship with Mr. Castro,nand anyone who knows a little bit aboutncommunist “cultural freedom” cannimagine the communist reviews, innwhich capitalist America is condemnednfor making it impossible for women tonbe ballet dancers and mothers of three atnthe same time. And between the communistnreviewers and New York Timesninterviewers, the truth about what anCuban woman would give for the “oppression”nunder which Deedee, MissnMacLaine’s movie character, lives, for hernfurniture, kitchen, cars, and cosmeticsnthat prolong her MacLaine looks pastnToumalismnChicago TribunesnSemanticsnSemantics means, among othernthings, the study of the correspondencenbetween words and reality. Readingntoday’s newspapers, we begin to wondernif we do all use the same language tondefine the same reality. A ChicagonTribune rock critic—a puzzling occupationnas rock music, by its own credo,nappeals to impulses and instincts, whilencriticism is a function of reason—writingnabout the Sex Pistols, the latest effluviumnof the rock subculture, sets them againstn”the British establishment.” In one sense,nthey are the British establishment, andnmorally far inferior to the old colonialnone. They earn astronomical amountsnforty (as no woman under communismndreams of looking this way after 30,nunless she happens to have married Titonor Yevtushenko) gets hoplelessly lost.nBut the liberal interviewer is not satisfiednwith Miss MacLaine’s love for Cubanand suggests that perhaps Nixon is guiltynof persecuting her as an artist—to whichnMiss MacLaine gently agrees, thoughnpointing out that”… when I was on thenenemies list and… everybody knew it, Indon’t think that I didn’t work because ofnthat . . .” She does not spell out thatnbecause of that she was touted andnpromoted by every media outlet innAmerica, her words were trumpetednthrough the feminist press, while hernautobiographies were pushed by thenliberal reviewers up to the best-seller lists.nHer opposition to what most of us considernthe heart of America was for her anmoney-making enterprise.nA. Polish actress of rather morenserious dimension than Miss MacLaine,nwhom the Western press has featured ofnlate, comes to mind. Her name is HalinanMikolajska and she is considered to benthe best interpreter of Shakespeare andnof money, hold sway over a large, brainlessnand manipulable following, prescribenbehavior and fashion, and exercise bigotry,neven physical terror, against thosenwho disapprove of them. Anyone who,nin the impoverished Britain of today,nvomits just for fun in the waiting lobbynof the Heathrow Airport, and can affordnto pay for the clean-up, has overcome, ifnindeed he hasn’t replaced, the Britishnestablishment.nThe Tribune’s critic sees an antiestablishmentariannfeature in the Pistols’nuse of “naughty words” in public. Butn”naughty” words constitute, these days,nthe very fabric of almost every dialoguenIbsen in Eastern Europe. But she darednto oppose the Warsaw communist regimenand spoke out against the torturing andnmurdering of Polish workers held by thenPolish secret police after the wave ofnrecent labor unrest and strikes in thenPolish factories. Miss Mikolajska wasnarrested by the communist authorities,nbeaten during interrogations, released,nthrown out of her apartment, which asnany other is owned by the Polish government,nand permanently deprived of anynopportunity to work. This is just onenexample of an actress’s fate in this communismnwhich seems to Miss MacLainenworthy of extolling in the New YorknTimes—and let’s not forget that Polandncompared to Fidel’s Cuba is considered anmodel of a free society.nThus, even if The Turning Point maynbe seen as an inoffensive movie—thenvery presence of Miss MacLaine onnscreen makes it, at least for this reviewer,nsomehow offensive. The Turning Pointndoes not exist in a vacuum. The promotionalnhoopla of the film and star has anlife of its own by which the public isnused and abused. Dnin the movies, even those rated R (undern17 requires accompanying parent or adultnguardian). This means that the kids innthe audience can listen to everything ifnthey are brought by parents, relatives,nmature teachers, governesses or wetnnurses to the movie house. Moviesnportraying lives of university scholars,npolitical heroes and society’s most beautifulnpeople are studded with obscenities,nformerly shunned even by irate drillnsergeants. Profanity has become thenofficial tongue of the establishment. Or,nrather the real, power-wielding establishmentnis those who talk in four letternwords. nnChicago Tribune Book World’s SympathiesnRom your enlightened, evenhanded,nliberal, broadminded, impartial, fair,nreasonable, moderate, cool, middle-ofthe-road,nserious, responsible, leadingnnnSunday cultural caterer, the ChicagonTribune’s book section, where a certainnMr. Walton, a Henry Wallace panegyrist,nreviews the notorious The Romance ofniS5nChronicles of Culturen
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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