Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994 TAG: 9403010025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Neil Chethik
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Most painful was the performance of Laurence Fishburne. Portraying Ike Turner in singer Tina Turner's story, "What's Love Got to do With It?" Fishburne provides a study in empty machismo.
Flashing money, charm and muscle, Ike at first attracts young Tina to be his wife and business partner. Then he turns on her. As her success eclipses his, he comes to believe that his only option is to degrade, scorn and batter her into submission.
This depiction of him is disputed by the real Ike Turner. But it represents a problem facing many real-life men: how to express anger in nonviolent ways.
In "The Remains of the Day," the leading man's struggle is mostly internal. Anthony Hopkins plays Mr. Stevens, a fiercely phobic English butler who suddenly realizes, at an advanced age, that he's never truly known love. Like so many other men, he has dedicated his life to his work.
Once, years earlier, he had a chance at romance with a spirited housekeeper who seemed to care for him. But, rigid and fearful, he pushed her away. Now he and the audience are left haunted by a question the housekeeper once posed: "If you're going to make a mistake, wouldn't it be best to make your own?"
Tom Hanks, in "Philadelphia," takes us to the tension point between gay and straight America. After being fired for having AIDS, Hanks' character, lawyer Andrew Beckett, risks public exposure and attack by suing to regain his job.
That a jury agrees with his grievance is satisfying. But the movie's most uplifting element is the evolving friendship between Beckett, who is homosexual, and his homophobic lawyer, who struggles realistically with his fear of gays and eventually comes to appreciate their membership in the community of men.
Playing another victim of injustice is Daniel Day-Lewis, a nominee for "In the Name of the Father." We meet this protagonist as a directionless post-adolescent. When young Gerard Conlon is arrested and falsely convicted of a murderous IRA bombing, he immediately gives up on justice, goodness and himself.
This kind of despair - in the face of crime, disease and joblessness - is common among young men in present-day America. But Day-Lewis shows us that a father can make a difference here. His character is resurrected as he emulates the qualities of his father and cellmate, Guiseppe, who maintains a steady self-respect and quiet defiance throughout his incarceration.
The most optimistic best-actor performance is Liam Neeson's in "Schindler's List." Oskar Schindler is a competitive, egoistic German businessman who at first sees the 1930s Nazi oppression of Jews as an opportunity to make a lot of money.
Over time, however, his conscience is aroused; in the end, he turns his skills as a manipulator toward the goal of saving Jewish lives. Through his performance, Neeson calls on all men to remember our goodness as we trudge through the amoral muck so prevalent in the modern-day worlds of politics, academics and business.
MALE CALL
Men and women: How can we show anger without becoming violent? Send responses, comments and questions to The Men's Column, in care of the features department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491.
by CNB