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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1994-10-19, Page 5I Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19,1994. PAGE 5. You’re not nuts — the movie business is Do you find you're having a little trouble at the movies these days - trying to distinguish what's real from what isn't, I mean? Don't get down on yourself about it. You're not nuts - the movie business is. Consider: A brand new John Candy movie came out a few weeks back. It's called Wagons East and stars Canada's favourite funnyman as the besotted, buckskinned leader of a wagon train of settlers in the mid-1800s. The hook is, they're heading east to get away from the Wild West. Which is a pretty funny premise, and should make for an entertaining flick, especially with roly-poly Candy lolling around in the saddle. There's just one problem: John Candy's dead. What's more, he died more than half a year ago, on the set. More than half of Wagons East was shot after the star of Wagons East was no longer available for camera work. How did they do that? Simple. Hollywood faked it. They used several John Candy lookalikes with their hats pulled low or their backs turned. They hired an actor who could imitate his voice to fill in the necessary dialogue. International Scene Why so many casinos'? It wasn't long before the politicians of Detroit, taking a look at how much money was allegedly fleeing the state of Michigan and finding its way over to Windsor, decided that it was time^to have yet another vote on the establishment of a casino. Three previous votes had turned down the idea but, in the light of the new evidence showing all that money flowing into Canada, another vote was held and this time the concept was approved. Small wonder that the good people of Detroit got so excited. It could not have escaped them that, in the short time the Windsor casino has been in operation, it has earned $20 million for the Ontario government. It doesn't take much mathe­ matical knowledge to work out how much that will mean in a year and, at a time when governments all over North America are short of cash (i.e. running big deficits), such figures get in the way of rational thinking. But Michigan has just joined the eight other states that have already got into gambling and which have seen almost $400 billion wagered during the past 12 months, which is about $65 billion more than the previous period of time. Who really has been winning? Well, certainly not the gamblers as a class; somebody has calculated that in the same 12-month period which I mentioned above, the losses could be expressed as $300 for every household in the United Slates. You don't hear statistics like that very often from the groups that arc in favour of establishing yet more casinos, but there is definitely another side to the story which, I think, needs to be aired. Much of this other Hey, presto. Candy rides again. Such reincarnation isn't even new. Earlier this year another star, Brandon Lee was killed in a gun accident while filming a movie called Crow. The producers didn't even have 30 per cent of the film in the can when Lee died. They needed his face and his body in at least seven crucial sequences in order to make the movie believable. Could they pull it off? Sure - with the help of a little computer magic. Computer experts isolated Lee's face on one screen, then "painted" it digitally on to the neck of the body of another actor who then performed the movements Brandon Lee would have, had he been alive. End product: Lee in a scene in which he never appeared. There are lots of other examples. Did you see Forrest Gumpl You remember the double amputee, Gary Sinise? In real life Gary Sinise can do the Hully Gully better than you and I. He's got two perfectly useable legs. They were "amputated" by computer for the film only. In the film True Lies, the opening scene shows a beautiful mansion beside an unspoiled lake which sits at the foot of a series of snow-capped mountains. And it's a fake. A collage. The mansion sits in Newport, Rhode Island; the mountains are part of the Sierra Nevada in California and the lake is nowhere at all - computer animators created it out of electrons. The weird thing is, when you look at the By Raymond Canon side has to do with social costs and they are not significant. It goes without saying that people get addicted to gambling just as they do to other things. Ten years ago it was calculated by Gamblers Anonymous that there were 3 million compulsive gamblers in the United States. At the present time this number is believed to have risen to over 10 million with 1.3 million being teenagers. The money that these 10 million, not to mention the other less committed gamblers spend is not extra money; for every million dollars, say, that is spent in the casinos, the same amount is lost to other segments of the economy. This means that, if you frequent a casino, the money that you gamble will be money that you would have spent buying clothing, various services or eating out. To cite one local example, if the Ontario government calculates that it has earned $20 million in revenue from the Windsor casino, it should not for a moment consider that to be extra to what it would normally earn without the casino. Taken into consideration must be the tax revenue lost when people gambled instead of buying things like clothing, etc. Add to that the additional policing costs and the net result is not even close to 20 million. Such calculations are the same regardless of where the casino is located, in the United States or in Canada. The Americans have also taken to riverboat gambling. What happened there? One community in Iowa spent $1.2 million to develop port facilities for the boats that plied the Mississippi River. Unfortunately the expected wealth did not roll in; instead, other centres further down the river decided to get into the business and the boats that would normally have come to Iowa gave up the idea in hopes of increased revenues elsewhere. scene - you can't tell any of that. What's it mean, the fact that the Truth/Reality divide is blurring even more? I'm not sure, but it's pretty scary. We are being systematically taught not to believe our eyes. And we're learning. A survey a few years back showed that 12 per cent of Americans don't believe astronauts ever landed on the moon. They believed it was an elaborate PR exercise orchestrated by NASA choreographers somewhere in wilderness Arizona. What happens when we no longer trust anything we see? Well, we'll become more passive I guess...like graduate Couch Potatoes. That too, may be happening. Last month a crowd of tourists at the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey in France stood by like a herd of Holsteins and watched a woman drown trying to save her child. The mother was walking with her six- year-old along the beach when her child fell into water-filled hole. As the frantic mother tried to save it at least a dozen tourists stood and watched without trying to assist her or to call for help. They probably thought it was a mini­ drama for visitors. If they thought about it at all. Finally, rescuers from the town managed to save the girl. They couldn't reach her mother. And one of the tourists - an American lugging a VCR - was heard to murmur "I got the whole thing on tape. So much for the alleged pot of gold' at the end of the rainbow. I think by now you get the point. While there is undoubtedly a little bit of the gambler in everybody, the situation has now reached the point where it does not just provide a bit of entertainment, it is approaching the mania stage. Have we become a civilization that is hooked on the "something for nothing" idea as if our financial problems were going to be solved by lotteries and casinos. Hands up all those who can honestly say that they have won more than they have spent in their quest for instant wealth. Do you think that the situation is any different here than it is elsewhere? The people of Spain, France, Britain, Switzerland, Germany, etc. all take part in sport pools, lotteries and the like and the vast majority of them come out losers - just like their Canadian cousins. To my mind any commercial that emphasizes what you can win when you gamble is as misleading as the one that states simply that one product is 20 per cent better than another. In neither case are you being provided with full facts. Got a beef? The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and should be accompanied by a telephone number should we need to clarify any infor­ mation. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Sex and local politics The little town was in an uproar— Ellie Walker wanted to run for councillor. Last week an episode of The Andy Griffith Show proved to be rather timely with municipal elections coming up. But, my oh my, Aunt Bea, did it ever show how times have changed. It's decades ago in the tiny town of Mayberry and municipal elections are approaching. Andy has good naturedly arrested a fellow who drinks too much and who thinks the only way to keep his wife in line is with a punch now and then. Now, while Andy doesn't exactly cotton to this approach he does enjoy a little chuckle about the whole situation. However, when Otis draws it to Andy's attention that his own Ellie has decided to run for council things aren't so funny. He becomes even more nervous after his Aunt Bea says that a woman councillor will make them just like city folk. Then with pressure from some of the Mayberry men, Andy agrees to try and talk Ellie out of "this foolishness". As he walks out of the office, he is taunted by Otis's words of wisdom. "You can talk if you want, but when it comes to women the only thing that will work is to hit them with a leg of lamb." What results is a classic unenlightened battle of the sexes with the men holding back the money and the women refusing to cook, clean and do laundry. As a longtime fan of The Andy Griffith Show, I have always enjoyed its simplicity and old-fashioned outlook. However, this one aspect of the pre-60s movement was something I would have been happy not to be reminded of. It was mildly reassuring that by the show's conclusion, Andy had seen the error of his ways and with grudging acceptance told the men that even though Ellie was a woman, she was also a person and had every right to serve on Mayberry's council. This sort of backhanded acknowledgement wouldn't make Andy and company very popular these days. Though some women today still feel they are not treated as equals, I think even the most disgruntled feminist would have to admit radical changes have occurred over the past three decades. Notwithstanding the members of the female sex in provincial and federal governments, locally there are two women running for reeve of their municipality and three of the five candidates for one township council are women. Of the two villages and six townships we cover, all but two municipalities have at least one female candidate. Whether male or female the job of a municipal policitican is one that is not always easy. Elected officials will often find themselves caught between two sides with no easy answers. They must answer to the people they represent and follow the dictates of higher government. Compensation is minimal for the hours put in and the thanks received. It will ultimately tum the idealist into a realist. It is good to see that in many of our readership municipalities there are enough candidates to hold an election so that ratepayers have a chance to choose their officials. I commend the candidates, male or female, who are volunteering time and self to represent their municipality. Whether they are up to the challenge remains to be seen, but if they do fail most would agree sex should have nothing to do with it!