On Screen

...hey are a lot hotter in Manhattan, with Sylvester Stallone around In Nighthawks he plays Deke Da Silva, a New York City undercover cop, a la Al Pacino's rendition of Frank Serpico In fact, with his long black hair and aviator glasses, Stallone even looks like Pacmo DaSilvadoesnothaveSerpico's problems with graft, all he has to deal with is Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer), a pub-hcity-mad terrorist who, after blowing up buildings, takes a tramful of passengers hostage high over the East River just to show his bosses in Europe and the Middle East that he can bring mighty Manhattan to its knees Naturally, Da Silva outwits him, albeit not before we are bombarded with silly action, bloodshed and chases in what amounts to a scenic tour of the Island—including a chic disco, the streets of the Upper East Side, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the subway Much of this running around evidently takes place because the director Bruce Malmuth and screenwriter David Sha-ber had a lot of time and plot holes to fill Though one hardly expects thrillers to be strong on logic and characterization, Nighthawks demands undue credulity from the audience We are asked to believe, for example, that Da Silva, a cop announced to have slain 52 enemy soldiers in Vietnam, almost quits the special team assembled to kill Wulfgar because he is reluctant to use his gun The film's predictabilities are rather tiresome, too Wulfgar'sattempttomurder Da Silva's estranged wife (Lindsay Wagner) seems like a scene from one of the recent horror movies that feature maniacs stalking beautiful women Worse still, Da Silva's outsmarting of Wulfgar by dressing in drag is telegraphed in the first three minutes Throughout this absurdity Stallone maintains an inscrutably stolid expression that I suppose is meant to suggest something about the character—perhaps stupidity, or an inability to understand English Hauer does a better job, yet it's not hard to make an impression by playing a crazed, amoral killer Per-sis Khambatta (as a terrorist named Shakka) and Wagner are merely attractive window dressing Billy Dee Williams as Matthew Fox, Da Silva's partner, at least gets to groan dramatically when Wulfgar knifes him Unless you absolutely have to get out of the house, I would wait for Night-hawks to show up as a network movie of the week (edited, of course, not that the small amounts of gore and the four-letter words will be missed) No sense paying for something that you can get for free in six months...

...On Screen KNIGHTS ERRANT BY ROBERT ASAHINA FORMER members of the Kennedy White House are not the only ones still dreaming of Camelot Others must include John Boorman, who has just produced and directed Excahbur from a screenplay that he and Rospo Pallen-berg based on Thomas Malory's Le MorteD'Arthur, and George Romero, the writer and director of a modern-day Arthurian romance entitled Knightrid-ers Of the two films, Excahbur is the more impressive spectacle It has noble knights, damsels in distress, shining armor, clattering swords, powerful wizards, and wicked witches aplenty It has splendidly campy cinematography by Alex Thomson that transforms a tableau of battling knights in a dark forest into a live-action Frank Frazetta painting, all back-lit and gleaming It has a cast of first-rate British actors previously unknown in the U S , except for Nicol Williamson as Merlin Best of all, it has enough special effects (The Lady in the Lake, Merlin's magic), costumes (suits of armor that call to mind Darth Vader) and stunts (jousting, sword lighting) to satisfy the most voracious tanlasy freaks What Excalibui does not have is coherence The Arthurian legend is certainly familiar, even to those who know it solely from the movies Admittedly, too, Boorman presents more of Malory —from the rise and fall of Arthur and the dissolution of the Round Table to the search for the Holy Grail—than has been available in a single film before, and he does manage some arresting transitions At one point, Morgana starts to kiss her boy, Mordred, and by the time she finishes he is a young man On the whole, however, Excahbur is so episodic that it verges on unintelhgibi-hty (The themes were juggled more gracefully in the otherwise inconsequential Joshua Logan adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot) Toooften, thedirector leads usdown paths that stray very far from Camelot itself The inordinate length of Perceval's quest tor the Holy Grail, to cite j ust one example, unbalances the story Boorman lacks the running time to recount the search with the nutt\ aptness ot Erich Rohmer'srecentPmevo/, and by nevertheless dwelling on the subplot he loses track ot Arthur s crumbling kingdom as well as the tragic conflict with Lancelot Since Excahbur is undeniably fun to watch, one would suggest that it is perfect for children, if not for the bared breasts and severed arms Boorman has inserted in a feeble stab at "realism " A few of the sets are too gimmicky and obviously artificial But most of the locations—a castle in rocky Cornwall, a frozen moor dusted with snow, a muddy moat surrounding a craggy fort?are misty images out of a child's dream world The actors look like figures from a pre-Raphaehte painting—particularly Chene Lunghi as Guinevere, with her frizzy hair and ethereal expression, and Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, with his highborn bearing and sculpted features Refreshingly, everyonespeakstheKing's English, bringing to the screen the kind of intonation and timing that Amencan audiences associate with "quality" Too bad a quality comic book is still a comic book George Romero's goal mKmghtnd-ers is difficult to figure out The director's reputation rests on his low-budget horror films, perhaps the finest ever made Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies, Martin, and especially Nigh toft he Living Dead, a genre classic Knightnders is atypically neither a shocker nor a cheapie This handsomely produced movie does open in Romero's characteristic offbeat style The precredits sequence has the camera track behind a black bird as it flies through a forest in the early mormng and awakens a nude man and woman The man rises, bathes in a stream, and flagellates himself with a branch, while the woman gets up and dresses in a medieval gown He then dons a suit of armor and together thes climb aboard his trustv mount—a Honda CB\ 1000 Thustncongruoush attired, they roar down the highway to a field in rural Penns\l\anta where the trailing fair the\ belong to is setting up tor an afternoon ot selling handicrafts, putting on a mime and music show, and staging the mam attraction, a jousting tournament tor armor-clad knights on motorcycles The masochistic knight, BilK (Ed Harris), and his lad\, l.inett \ni\ Ingersoil), preside over the festivities as Arthur and Guinevere Being the organizer and head of the wandering troupe, Billy enforces a strict code of honor among the knights, the various support personnel (mechanics, announcers, sidecar drivers) and the merchants They all have apparently joined the anachronistic band for a sense of community unavailable elsewhere But leading them is a grave responsibility, for Billy is beset by "people who can't tell the difference between me and Charles Manson or Jim Jones ' He also must contend with impatient autograph hounds, pushy agents seeking to turn his group into a commercial Las Vegas act, local police officials demanding their customary bribes, and even some rebellious knights discontent with their share of the pie The leader of the malcontents, Morgan (Tom Savim), bests Billy in a joust and thinks he deserves the crown When his coup fails, he decides to sell out and takes half the band with him Billy tries desperately to keep his Utopian community together as it falls apart before his very eyes, stubbornly insisting that the black sheep will return to the fold Sure enough, the knights errant do eventually come back, having learned that commerce corrupts A final showdown with Morgan must take place though, and when Billy loses the throne to his rival he rides off into a head-on collision with a truck—finishing his life, but presumably not that of the Kmghtnders Romero takes this nonsense quite seriously, he really believes that the probity, devotion and camaraderie shared by the Kmghtnders are attacked by the commercial interests of hustling promoters, the crassness of the beer-swill-mg crowds, and the strong-arm tactics of crooked cops Indeed, Kmghtnders can probably be viewed as Romero's romanticized image of the Pittsburgh film-making company he runs with Richard Rubenstem, which has managed to win commercial and cntical success while guarding its independence from both the Hollywood and New York establishments Unfortunately, this film fairy tale of purity versus evil is only cartoon-deep The good guys are impossibly virtuous, and the temptations dangled before the erstwhile deserters are, well, less than tempting When Morgan leaves for what Romero apparently regards as a hotbed of vice—Washington, DC ?he is dished up some decadence by his would-be agents But who would want a starring role, semi-nude, in a tasteless cologne commercial, a quickie with a bored wife, or a few moments in the sun beside a pool in the backyard of some D C house7 The evil in Kmghtnders would have to be more interesting for the division in Billy's clan to seem compelling In addition, the director takes so long to set up the conflicts that audiences may walk out before they are set into motion As we wait for the drama Romero indulges in endless footage of jousting that belongs at the climax of the film, not 10 minutes after the credits, and a moony romanticism so blatantly homoerotic that I find it difficult to believe it was unintentional Kmghtnders is likely to disappoint Romero's many admirers, of whom I am one In his seeming determination to make a "meaningful" film about rectitude in a fallen world he has forgotten the strengths of his previous work?swift pacing, perverse humor, oddball perspectives, and visceral impact Unlike his earlier efforts, which resist easy characterization, Kmghtnders can be reduced to its advertising slogan "Camelot is a state of mind " I'm afraid that things arenotveryhotm Camelot T JL...