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Life Insurance and Annuities &Aire OF CANADA Martin Elfant, CLU 4223 Richmond, Suite 213, Houston, TX 77027 Printers Stationers Mailers Typesetters High Speed Web Offset Publication Press Counseling Designing Copy Writing Editing Trade Computer Sales and Services Complete Computer Data Processing Services %FUTURA PRESS AUSTIN TEXAS FILITILJP1111111 512/442-7836 1714 South Congress P.O. Box 3485 Austin, Texas 78764 In a hurry for copies, collating, binding, printing, or word-processing? Call Ginny’s. ginnys ‘ COPYING SERVICE Austin Lubbock San Marcos L 111111111111111, THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21 r I I with human nature that he doesn’t trust himself to create drama without an arsenal of weapons? When Bill is packing up for the trip on which he finds Tommy, his daughter asks, “Are you taking the fireworks this time, Dad?” It’s the daughter’s only line of dialogue, and it is an unintentionally hilarious glimpse of what family life must be like with a father who spends “all his spare time” searching the jungle for his son. It is as if the real invisible people are the women in the movie. As Tommy’s biological mother, the tough and complex Meg Foster is sadly wasted in a role that calls for her to do nothing but look gorgeous and happy for a while as she koochi-koos her kids, and gorgeous and worried later as she sticks flowers in a vase and eyes her man. Tommy’s Indian mother has even less to do, cooing when he brings her meat, sighing when he is ready to become a man, and dying when he leaves her undefended. If Tommy has no real mother at all, he has two superdads. For all the movie’s talk of the importance of family, it all boils down to the father-son bonding involved in becoming A Man. It’s probably no coincidence that Boorman’s own son plays Tommy, the young hero whose fathers must help him grow up even as he helps his “daddee” become a better man. Tougher. Stronger. Better at handling shotguns. Despite all the pyrotechnics, The Emerald Forest is well worth seeing for its striking footage of the endangered Amazon. Its vivid images and shocking contrasts made “me leave the theater mourning the demise of those magnificent plants and animals. Too bad I couldn’t believe in its human characters well enough to miss them, too. 2600 E. 7th St. Austin, Texas 447-4701 vegetarian food r1J, _*41, iNy’r OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 10-6 AND OPEN SUNDAY 10-4 WATSON & COMPANY BOOKS