From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Fri Jan 03 2003 - 14:25:06 EST
Calvin College film series will ride into town with Westerns
Friday, January 03, 2003
By Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood
The Grand Rapids Press
Saddle up West Michigan movie buffs, it's time to mosey over to Calvin
College to reflect on a good ol' American movie icon: John Wayne.
The college plans to kick off a new film forum in February with a
month-long series titled the "Myth and History in the Western." A John
Wayne movie -- "Stagecoach" -- will lead the charge.
This genre study marks the first of what Calvin faculty hope will be a
long series of movie discussions at the new Bytwerk Theatre.
"We want to improve film culture on the Calvin campus and make the
screenings available to anyone from the Grand Rapids community," said
Calvin film professor Carl Plantinga.
Film should be fun, Plantinga said, adding that it also should be
recognized as an important cultural art form.
Plantinga said the college plans to invite some well-known folks with
movie knowledge to campus for future discussions. John Loeks, president
of Jack Loeks Theatres, is among those who have agreed to lead a
discussion.
The series begins with the Feb. 7 screening of the 1939 movie
"Stagecoach," followed by consecutive Friday screenings of other famous
Westerns including: "High Noon," "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "McCabe
and Mrs. Miller."
James Bratt, a Calvin history professor, was a student at Calvin when
the school started hosting movie discussions in the late 1960s. The
Christian Reformed Church had just lifted a ban on movie viewing, so the
concept of organized movie discussions was novel on the Calvin campus.
Through the years, Bratt has continued to look to American cinema for
lessons in cultural history. Bratt will lead the "Stagecoach" discussion
following a screening of the movie that he said revived the Western
genre and made Wayne a star.
If you look beyond the basic entertainment value of the movies, Bratt
said the Western is an "allegory of World War II and the Cold War."
Those who turn out to watch the swaggering cowboy on Calvin's big
screen will be able to enjoy surround-sound while lounging in
custom-made chairs from American Seating, but they won't be able to
munch on popcorn.
"We do not allow food and drink in the theater," Plantinga said. "This
is a movie-lovers series, not a popcorn-lovers series.
"We don't have the budget to hire people to clean up," he said.
The series is free and all shows start at 7:30 p.m. Parking is
available outside the DeVos Communication Center located on the east
side of the East Beltline.
For updates and future movie screenings visit Calvin's Web site at
www.calvin.edu.
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