Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404020105
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
At one end are serious, fascinating documentaries like "Mysteries of Peru." This is a two-tape set of programs produced for British television in the mid-1980s. It's focused on the "lost" civilizations of the pre-Inca Chimu culture and the more famous lines on the Nazca desert. Most people were probably introduced to those mysterious drawings by Erich von Daniken's book "Chariots of the Gods" and other wildly speculative works.
Producer-director Peter Spry-Leverton demolishes those wacky theories in the first 20 minutes of "The Lines." In doing so, he raises other serious questions that are even more fascinating and enigmatic. First though, he explains the basics. He uses the familiar aerial shots to show the lines and huge drawings of animals and geometrical shapes. He goes on to explain how the lines are created - an easy process accomplished by disturbing different colored layers of the desert surface. After that, he turns to the possible reasons behind these markings.
Much of that part of the film concerns Maria Reiche, a German mathematician who has spent 40 years studying and mapping the lines. Her presence and the rigor of her life and work give the story a human dimension that's often lacking in this kind of popular anthropology.
When Spry-Leverton turns to questions of who drew the lines and why, he may not have as much solid evidence to back up his answers, but he is just as persuasive. It's not giving away too much to reveal that the ancient Nazcans had an affinity for a particular psychedelic cactus that produces hallucinations of flight. His real answers, though, are much more complex with a serious religious meaning.
The second tape, "Enigma of the Ruins," lacks the immediate dramatic hook of "The Lines," but it's just as intriguing. What happened to the large pre-Inca cities and the huge irrigated, terraced fields that produced food for the people who lived there? How could a people who had no written language have been so sophisticated with mathematics and engineering?
"Enigma" does not completely succeed in revealing who these ancient Peruvians were and how their society worked. Though some of their traditions and rituals have survived until today - in altered but recognizable forms - it's clear that in many basic ways, they were not at all like us. As Spry-Leverton puts it, they were "people highly intelligent, but whose minds worked in ways vastly different from ours."
Overall, "Mysteries of Peru" is weighted more toward the National Geographic's approach than the National Enquirer's. At the same time, the subject lends itself to a deep sense of mystery, and no matter how commonplace the reality behind that mystery may be, the tapes are never boring. Also, the stark beauty of the high Peruvian desert is captured vividly.
(These tapes may be difficult to find in video stores. They are available for $19.95 each from the distributor, Atlas Video, 800-999-0212.)
Veering wildly now from the sublime to the ridiculous (as home video does whenever it gets the chance), we find ourselves on "Dinosaur Island."
It's a low-low-budget s-f comedy about some soldiers whose plane crashes on an uncharted island populated by the titular critters and good-looking women in leather bikinis. That's more than you really need to know about the alleged plot. Co-producers/directors Jim Wynorski and Fred Olen Ray have a combined track record of more than 30 alternative classics, and they set a new low for themselves here. Virtually everything about the flick has a recycled look to it, from the familiar locations to the Tyrannosaurus who also appeared in "Carnosaur." This time out, however, he looks like he'd be more at home overlooking a miniature golf course.
As the title and advertising promise, this is mindless, sexy fluff, a little racier than "The Benny Hill Show" but cut from the same cloth.
Next week: Horrors!
THE ESSENTIALS
Mysteries of Peru: The Lines and Enigma of the Ruins ***
Atlas Video. 50 min. each. Unrated, contains no objectionable material,\ beyond some sexually explicit archaeological artifacts.
Dinosaur Island ** 1/2
New Horizons. 85 min. Rated R for nudity, sexual activity, unconvincing\ violence.
New releases this week:
The Age of Innocence: ** 1/2
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Columbia Tristar. 133 min. Rated PG for subject matter.
Martin Scorsese's adaption of Edith Wharton's 1920 novel of thwarted love and manners amid old New York society aspires to the languid pace and visual gorgeousness of films like "Howard's End" and "A Room With a View." On the technical level it is a smashing success. But on the level of story, Scorsese introduces subtle and not-so-subtle changes of emphases that introduce an anachronistic 1990s element into a story set in the 1870s.
- SETH WILLIAMSON
A Bronx Tale: ***
Starring Robert DeNiro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato. Directed by DeNiro. HBO. Rated R for violence.
Actor Robert De Niro's debut in the director's chair isn't perfect, but is a solid first feature. It's a compelling story about a boy growing up in an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx who struggles with the good influences of his honest, working-class father and the bad influences of the neighborhood mobster.
- MARK MORRISON
Fearless: ***
Starring Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Hulce. Directed by Peter Wier. Warner. 120 min. Rated R for strong language, some violence.
This is an intriguing and flawed drama, a film that tries to deal with the most serious subjects - life, death, afterlife. If, ultimately, it fails, then it fails on a much higher level than most movies ever dream of. Playing a survivor of an airline crash, Jeff Bridges delivers a remarkable performance, and he's given strong support by Rosie Perez. Should find the audience on video that it missed in theaters.
The Beverly Hillbillies: **
Starring Jim Varney, Erika Eleniak Cloris Leachman, Diedrich Bader, Dabney Coleman, Lily Tomlin. Directed by Penelope Spheeris. FoxVideo. 90 min. Rated PG for mild comic violence.
Bless its pea-picking little heart, this movie is faithful in content and spirit to the TV original. At best, that is a mixed blessing. Like the series, the one-joke movie isn't very funny. Director Spheeris just doesn't have a talent for slapstick or physical humor. Beyond a few sight gags and throw-away bits, there are no laughs.
by CNB