THE SILVER SCREEN

Fairy dust, feminism, gender f___, George Lucas & Ron Howard

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Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) undertakes an epic journey to deliver a child-princess into safe hands.

CAN THIS LOVE AFFAIR BE SAVED?

OH BRAD, I BLEW IT IF ONLY I HAD GONE TO THAT HOT SAFE SEX WORKSHOP MAYBE IT WOULD HAVE WORKED OUT WITH ARNIE!!

SOB

WHAT DO YOU

MEAN HE JUST

CALLED YOU

AND SAID

THE SAME THING ABOUT

ME??

IT'S NOT TOO LATE!!!

Don't blow it! Come to one of our Hot Sex or Healthy Lifestyles Workshops. Call 329-6923 for more information on the next available workshop.

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Seattle Gay News

SBEWELLEQUIPPED.

The Northwest AIDS Foundation

Condom use can reduce your risk of getting AIDS but they are not 100% safe. For more information, call 587-4999.

May 27, 1988, Section 2

Illustration by Lynda Barry.

Photo by Keith Hamshere

by John Runyan

Willow

directed by Ron Howard (now playing at the Guild 45th, Oak Tree, and other theaters)

wil'low, n. [ME. wilow; AS. welig, willow]

1) a collaboration between Hollywood's own Ron Howard (of Cocoon and Mayberry fame) and George (Star Wars/Indiana Jones) Lucas;

2) state-of-the-art, out-of-this-world special effects superceded by swordfights and cart races;

3) the Middle Ages with '80s attitudes; 4) a children's movie with ravening wartdogs (crosses between boars and Dobermans);

5) an adult entertainment with Brownies that screech back and forth like Laverne and Shirley's Lenny and Squiggy with French-Canadian accents; 6) a surprising amount of naked male flesh on half-clothed heroes and Brownies;

7) a mesh of male-established genres. in which lead roles are played by five strong women and a scene-stealing baby.

girl;

8) a scene-stealing dwarf whose sometime traveling companion is the dwarf villages' best (earringed-andponytailed) warrior;

9) a heterosexual love story in which the main hero kept ending up crossdressing, and needed a fairy's love potion to fall in love with a (very masculine) princess (there's going to be lots of little kids out there wanting to get into gender-fuck after seeing these positive role models!);

10) No. 1 at the box-office (does Willow have legs? Especially competing with Rocky Balboa and Crocodile Dundee?); and

11) flawless craftmanship, pleasing to the eye, sometimes to the heart, failing to leave you breathless, but fun all the same.

ZELLY from page 20.

and Me, she pulls the affection between Zelly and Phoebe into a sensuous, physical realm that makes the love between them so tangible we can feel it spilling over from the screen. Affection between children and adults displayed with such candor is still a taboo in our society. If Miss Rossellini's choice to confront that tragic fear can help a few children and parents to find the courage to become more demonstrative in their love for each other, Zelly and Me will have more than succeeded.

Ms. Rossellini introduced director/ boyfriend David (Blue Velvet) Lynch to act as Zelly's love interest. She extends the necessary warmth and support, so all he has to do is to relax into his part. To find this multi-talented painter/writer/ director/actor as part of this constellation of talents made me the hope that this is only the beginning for future collaboration.

It is hard to decide where Tina Rathborne's initial intention ends and where Isabella Rossellini's interpretation and influence begins, partly because there seems to be a real understanding fusing their efforts. The resulting bond between them adds a freshness and honesty to the film's emotional texture, which is exhilarating enough that the film doesn't need to resort to a melodramatic ending to keep our interest. What motivates the plot is an understanding of human nature, which can and consequently must, provide the drama the final confrontation draws from.

The on-going mirroring of inner artistic conflict, actual plot, and the film's creative process, as such, makes for a very tight product that allows us to fathom just how much must have been left on the cutting room floor to keep Zelly and Me this simple and straightforward.