Cowley College - Tiger Daze Yearbook (Arkansas City, KS)

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Jaws ' success paved the way for a personal Spielberg film project, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He began work on the story as early as 1972. After an arduous two years of production Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was released in 1977. It became another profitable movie. While on vacation in Hawaii, Spielberg met up with George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, and began discussing a new project titled Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lucas produced and Spielberg directed. The result quickly became another major box office hit. Another ambitious project Spielberg helmed was E.T. Spielberg called E.T. a personal film. The film reflects the energy and feeling he put into it. The last day on production of E.T. was very touching. The scene when Elliot was saying his last goodbyes to the thought-to- be-dead E.T. was being filmed. As Spielberg and the production crew watched the scene being played out, tears began streaming from their eyes. When Elliot said E.T., I love you, everyone burst into tears. E.T. became the most money- making film of all time. This past summer has seen two Spielberg presentations, Goonies and Back to the Future. Back to the Future has provided well for the box office becoming the summer ' s hottest movie. Locally, the movie continues to CINEMAGIC As pools of mist drift over the lawn under a full noon, midnight sky, the dreadful Jerry Dandridge, the vam- pire, and his estranged assistant move a coffin into the cobweb-ridden house next door to horror movie fan, Charlie Brewster, thus the terror begins. Finally, after a long dormancy, the vampire returns to the screen in Fright Night, a chilling, thrilling escapade into the unknown. Charile Brewster played by William Ragsdale, accidentally witnesses Jerry Dahdridge (Chris Sarandon) baring his gleaming, white fangs on the neck of a soon-to-be victim. Brewster, fully convinced of Dan- dndge ' s virulent intentions becomes C jur ' the target of his friends. , Brewster enlists the help of actor and host of his favorite television show Fright Night. Together they launch onto a dangerous fight against the vampire threat. The movie is literally a journey back to the horror thrills of yesteryear. Missing is Peter Cushing but the performance and special ef- fects compensate. Fright Night marks the dramatic return of what makes horror movies exciting and maybe the end of quickie B horror movies such as the latter Friday the 13th films. Worth your money and time is Fright Night. bring in the crowds. It ' s been held over for four weeks now, said Eric Olson, manager of the Burford Cinemas. I had to move the movie back to our larger theatre. Olson ' s experience working at other theaters is similar to that in Arkansas City. Every time a new Steven Spielberg film comes, we anticipate more business than usual. Spielberg ' s future as a filmmaker is becoming even brighter. He is presently directing The Color Pur- ple, a film set in the old south with a theme on the human will to survive. Last month Amazing Stories began airing on Sunday nights on NBC. Amazing Stories is an an- thology series similar to The Twilight Zone. NBC has agreed to buy 44 shows paying nearly $1 million per episode. In TIME magazine, Spielberg ex- plains the series ' origin. I get too many ideas and I want to act on them all. Amazing Stories is a foster home for the ideas that will never grow into adulthood. At 37, Steven Spielberg, always bursting with enthusiasm and ideas, promises more dramatic thrills for the cinema, television and viewers of all ages. Union State Bank FDIi }1 S SUMWII AI KANSAS SUMMIT : .— -— 442-5200 Daulton Construction Residental Commercial New and Remodeling 442-4391 PO Box 21 Arkansas City

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U. Steven Spielberg • Rick Behrens T Hooked On Movies Voices die down with the lights but the excitement and anticipation build. Suddenly, the screen comes to life with a burst of color and style. The Steven Spielberg Presents im- primatur automatically portents the thrill of the next two hours. For a decade and a half, Spielberg has captured audiences with films such as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. He has gathered a growing number of fans, began his own production company and in- spired millions of people. Ironically enough, the movie mogule recalls his childhood in Phoenix as uncinematic. I wasn ' t allowed exposure to motion pictures of television when I was growing up, confessed Spielberg in a 1978 interview for STARLOG magazine. My parents felt that it was anti-educational. Despite his parents feelings, young Spielberg once scooted away to the local theatre to see I Was A Teenage Werewolf. For nights afterward he was punished with horrible night- mares. When his parents went out he ' d wait for the babysitter to fall asleep then watch his favorite Television show Science Fiction Theatre. With his growing imagination, Spielberg began to channel ideas into a medium he instantly fell in love with ...film. He began to spice up boring family movies with zany footage of his own design which led to his first film with a story line. The last gun, a three-minute epic starring his frien- ds. His talent developed further as he began practicing make-up on his three sisters. If I failed on older sister, I ' d start on the middle sister, he said. After several short 8mm films, Spielberg, now 15, felt ready for a more sophisticated movie. I remember being seized by what I have not felt since. ..divine in- spiration. Within 24 hours Spielberg wrote a 140-page screenplay titled Firelight, a science fiction story about an alien invasion. He raised money to make the movie by white-washing trees. His father threw in $300 to total $500. Spielberg recruited the help of college students and made Firelight in a week. Following completion he showed the movie in a rented theatre and made $550 in one night. By now, he had fully won the approval of his peers and was on his way. Tiring of college, Spielberg tried to break into film making with a 35mm silent film called Amblin, a short work depicting two hitch hikers and their experiences traveling along the west coast. This won his first chance to direct. At 21, Spielberg received his first professional assignment. He would direct a segment of Rod Serling ' s Night Gallery. Spielberg was inspired by Serling. He was the most positive guy in the production company. He was a great, energetic, slaphappy guy. oerling even predicted that the film industry would change because of imaginative minds like Spielberg ' s. Spielberg ' s debut as a feature film director came with the critically ac- claimed Sugarland Express. On completion of the film, Spielberg happened to be in producer Richard Zanuck ' s office when he noticed a stack of unpublished screenplays. One in particular, Jaws, caught his eye. I didn ' t know what Jaws meant. I didn ' t know whether it was some sort of epic novel about dentistry or some kind of sleezy porno, he recalls in STARLOG. I remember just yery simply turning Richard ' s secretary and saying ' I ' m going to borrow one of these, Okay? In 1975, Jaws was released and quickly became one of Hollywood ' s top money grossing films. JCPenney 442-0730 219 South Summit VfSA (gg) Econo Lodge 3232 N. Summit Arkansas City, Kansas 67005 (316) 442-7700 For Reservations Call Toll Free 1-800-446-6900

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Star Wars • Bettina Heinz FROM SHOOTING STARS TO SHO OTING WARS Cowley student re ' lects on the impact of the new military SDI defense system Star Wars is the new United States proposed defense strategy aimed at replacing the current strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The power forces of the world have existed under the MAD strategy for some time and as a citizen of America ' s closest ally in continental Europe, West Germany, I am con- cerned that the US is considering adopting Star Wars. Under the MAD strategy, a balance between East and West has been maintained by United States Pershing II and Cruise Missiles being installed in allied European countries including West Germany. Currently, they work as a counterweight to the Soviet SS 20 missiles. My family and I live in the Rhineland Palatinate, and we are literally sitting on top of these American weapons. No one knows better than we do, how un- comfortable it can be living under a constant threat of nuclear war, but the MAD strategy is one which has been proven to work. The strategic concept for Star Wars, on the other hand, may be one which is unrealistic. President Ronald Reagan describes Star Wars this way: A nuclear free world is an ultimate objective to which we (the United States), the Soviet Union, and all other nations can agree. Reagan ' s description sounds good,