EVIL IN CLEAR RIVER (1988) *1/2 Not the best film, but I have mixed feelings about it. Not as to whether or not it's well done-it's not, particularly-but as to whether this might have been the most effective way of getting across its message to the target audience. Let's face it, anti-Semitism and racial prejudice know no class, educational, or economic boundaries. Ignorance makes prejudice more likely, but intellect doesn't necessarily preclude it. On the other hand, pillars of the racist intelligentsia (to whatever extent this isn't a contradiction in terms) are unlikely to be swayed by a movie starring Lindsay Wagner and Randy Quaid. The well-meaning folk down at the diner and local laundrymat, however, may be. So maybe it's good that things are kept simple, that so much emphasis is placed on the way Lindsay's battle for good affects her own family. If you stand up and fight, you gotta be willing to take some hits. Brave woman, good mama. And Randy's caricature of the kinder, gentler face of bigotry can't help striking someone somewhere of being similar in some ways to someone they know. Maybe they'll put it all together, maybe they won't, maybe some good will come of at least acknowledging it and getting it out into the open. More likely to than just whackin' 'em over the head with an intellectual mallet and yelling "Ya'll dumbasses!"
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