April 10, 1997

APPS Film Festival shows old flicks
John Starling
Features Editor

It's not that often that good movies come around, much less to a small college town like Boone. We'll usually end up seeing the biggest hits of the moment and dealing with it.

But if you're a movie lover who won't settle for the run of the mill flicks, APPS has a surprise for you.

Starting tonight, APPS is presenting a four-day long Film and Video Festival, featuring such films as David Lynch's Lost Highway and videos made by Appalachian students, present and past. The Festival will be held in the Alpine Lounge tonight and in I.G. Greer the remaining three nights for the minuscule price of $1 per night.

"(Students) are not going to be able to see these movies in the area," says APPS Films' Landon Pratt. "(Many of these) are very hard to see."

Pratt's comments can be taken to heart with the list of titles being shown. Half-Cocked, The Delicate Art of the Rifle and House of Pancakes? Have you ever heard of these movies, much less seen them? Probably not.

For most students, the highlight is bound to be Lost Highway, David Lynch's most recent film, starring Bill Pullman.

Many people are already familiar with this movie because of its phenomenal soundtrack, featuring the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins. If that was enough to pique your interest, you're sure to love the movie.

In addition to these offerings, student films are being shown in three areas: Portfolio, Mixed Bag and Retro. Portfolio will exhibit the work of current graduate students, including Tom McDonnell's "Rainbow Bridge" and Susan Simon's "A Day Without Television".

Mixed Bag offers the works of undergraduates, featuring Bubba Taylor's and Rob Krissel's "Sticky" and Matt Welborn's "Jesus Saves".

Retro takes us back to the work of Appalachian students in the eighties and early nineties. These include Clyde Roper's "Deceit" and Vallery Thompson's "White Buffalo".

One of the points of the festival is to expose North Carolina film-making. In addition to the student films, which were obviously made in the state, House of Pancakes was shot on location in Wilmington, North Carolina's own little Hollywood.

"A lot of people don't realize how much film-making goes on in North Carolina," says Pratt.

If popcorn munching and watching your movies on the tube has gotten stale, be sure to come out to the Film and Video Festival this week and weekend. It'll be a rootin', tootin' hoot.

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Ford, Pitt make Devil's Own a slice of heaven
Brandon Padgett
Reporter

Devil's Own

Directed by Alan J. Pakula (The Pelican Brief and Presumed Innocent), The Devil's Own centers around two men from separate ways of life who are struggling to do what is morally right.

Brad Pitt stars as the vengeance driven IRA terrorist Frankie McGuire (later known as Rory Devaney), bent on repaying the British for hundreds of years of social and political unrest. The story begins and ends with Pitt, but it is carried throughout by Harrison Ford's character, Tom O'Meara, a blue-collar, Irish NYC cop.

O'Meara is the perfect character for Ford to play at this point in his career. It's not the typical action hero that we have come to expect from Ford. It is, however, typical of the rich and complex performances that he has produced throughout his career.

The movie begins as a young Frankie joins his family for what would be their last dinner together. To the horror of Frankie and his family, his father is gunned down in front of them at the dinner table. This sets in motion a dramatic chain of events that leads Devaney to a head-on collision with O'Meara in modern day New York City .

After the initial opening sequence, the movie settles down and begins what in my opinion is some of the strongest character development seen in a "blockbuster" in years. Hollywood should take notes from the Devil's Own and start adding character driven movies to their parade of special effects laden, big budget flops. (read: Twister, ID4, and Waterworld) Sure, they made their money but where's the story?

The interior portion of the movie was almost a movie in itself. This section developed the relationship between O'Meara and Devaney, as well as compared and contrasted the two characters personal lives. Both were seeking peace and justice but by totally different means. Pitt and Ford did butt heads, but contrary to popular belief, it wasn't behind the scenes, but on the screen.

Towards the end of the movie, the story picked up steam for what would be a very climactic finale. As a self-appointed movie aficionado, it's good to see a fitting ending to a great movie.

Amidst incredible scenery (NYC and Ireland), an impressive score by James Horner (Braveheart and Apollo 13), and mounds of controversy, the actors, starring and supporting, deliver the goods and make the Devil's Own a must see.

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Students get ripped over spring break
Amy Foster
Staff Writer

Some Appalachian students planned a Spring Break they wouldn't forget and that is exactly what they got.

Trips to Cancun were planned through Take a Break Travel. The scheduled time to fly out of Raleigh was 10:24 p.m. on Saturday, March 1.

When travelers arrived at the airport, they were told to pay $20 for gas for the plane. They paid the money. Then, they were told that their plane wouldn't leave until 6 a.m. the next morning.

So Saturday night, over 180 people spent the night in the concourse.

Sunday rolls around and still, no plane. Everybody was put in a motel Sunday night and told to be at the airport bright and early Monday morning.

Travelers arrived as early as 6 a.m. Some, before the pilots showed up. Their plane finally took off at 8:30 p.m. and it arrived in Cancun at 10:30 p.m.

Spring Break seemed to be getting shorter and shorter by the minute.

Take a Break Travel uses AV Atlantic as their charter service. Two of their three planes were grounded so one plane had to do all the work.

The return trip was just about as bad. Some flights had to leave a day early, some left on time, and some left a day late. Some people got on another airline to make it home.

Shane Owenby, a senior from Hendersonville said, "We were all really tired of being told one thing, and then something else happening. We were expecting so much from this vacation, and then it turned out to be a nightmare."

Last year, a similar situation occurred with Take a Break Travel at UNC. A class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the students and it was settled out of court, individually with the students.

"Take a Break Travel took advantage of college students. Had we been adults out of college, I believe something would have been done to speed up the process," said Christy Barrick, a sophomore from Raleigh.

Many students have talked with a private attorney to file a claim for ASU students.

Barrick has filed a claim with the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau. "We need to keep Take a Break Travel from taking advantage of other students in the future."

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