A lesson in ‘Bonfires’ TOM WOLFE’S Bonfire of the Vanities ilustrates what life is like in race-and-crime-torn New York. He has done for that city what Dickens did for London, and when it was announced that Bonfire would become a movie I said that Hollywood would never do the story the way it was written. It hasn’t. But the film is by no means the dead loss it is claimed to be. One U.S. reviewer wrote, “This Bonfire is made of twigs." Neat. But only half true. There are a few bits of real wood in the thing. The book itself pulls few pun- ches. It shows how Wasp power has been replaced by Jew power. It shows how a teeming and vicious black underclass has turn- ed whole districts like the South Bronx into no-go areas for whites. And it shows the corruption of American race politics, with whites as the victims. It is also a portent for all white societies that retreat before the onslaught of other races, and the topic is hot enough for the book to be almost unique. The only one that beats it is Jean Raspail’s Camp of the Saints. You wouldn’t have known all that from the book reviews, though. Liberaldom simpers when it comes to gut issues like race. So although the book was acclaimed, the critics folded its truth in blah. How ironic that the same people now complain that the movie is not the book! Enough of the book remains, though, to make the film worth seeing. An example is the scene in which Sherman McCoy and his nympho mistress lose their way in the Bronx and experience its black terror. ‘‘Wheah ah all the white peo- ple?’ she wails in her Southern accent. The core of the plot, in book and movie, is the political demand for blood. White blood. And McCoy is the sacrificial lamb, he being a big-time bond dealer and therefore a fine target for liberal manipulators. There is a car accident, you see, which leaves a young black ina coma and black voters have to be shown the law is even-handed. in Toronto, there are similar cries when the police happen to shoot blacks. “White ass’’ (as the motor- e Fair Taxation The next best thing to being on council yourself District resident for over 26 years Married with two children Advanced Life Support Paramedic ¢ Strong Municipal Leadership e Environmental Programs e Increased Emergency Prepareciness e Balanced Community Develooment Doug Collins mouth Jewish mayor puts it) must be sacrificed on the altar of racial equality. So the hounds are turned loose — a Jewish district attorney and compliant cops. The accident takes place when McCoy and his mistress lose their way. Panic-stricken, she takes the wheel of the car. A parson-politi- cian tells the mayor he can forget the black vote unless someone is brought to justice. It doesn’t mat- ter much who, as long as the vic- tim is white and wealthy. None of that poor white trash stuff. McCoy is found and girlfriend points the finger at him. “Shahman nevah lets anyone else drahve his cah,”’ she lisps. In terms of the story as told in the book, so far so good. We see the howling colored mobs, too. “That’s the Third World out there,’’ says the trembling mayor. True enough. And here, art reflects life only too well. Last year, such mobs raged outside the courthouse when the black teenagers who had gang- raped and almost killed that young white woman in Central Park were being tried. *‘She lied.”’ “She asked for it,’’ they scream- ed. Sadly, the producers couldn’t go further in telling the story as it i — = ON THE OTHER HAND Wednesday, March 6, 1991 -~ North Shore News - 9 SAVE 20%-30%-40% ON ALL OF YOUR VINYL SIDING NEEDS! CANADIAN CLOSET By Free home estimates earn 986-4263 1385 Crown St., NVan. was written. As director Brian DePalma has put it, that would have made the movie ‘‘too racially polarized.*’ Quite. The result is that Tom Wolfe's Good Jew, the judge, becomes the movie’s Good Black, an unlikely creature who shouts and bangs his gavel a lot and gives a boring speech about decency. In the same way, Chaplin spoiled The Great Dictator by giving a lecture about democracy. Bonfire the movie also has a sil- ly happy ending. McCoy beats his oppressors and exits smiling. But in the book he is ruined and becomes a permanent defendant RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMITMENT Anthony, JASICH on legal aid. COMMITTED TO: The parallel is not exact, but it — Stopping the logging of our reminded me of the Zundels and watersheds Keegstras who have been dragged , .. through the courts for years — Responsible municipal because pressure groups didn’t spending like what they had to say. There are other silly changes, but there is enough in the movie to alert your grey matter. Mean- while, some of our jellybelly coi- umnists and commentators should be dumped into the South Bronx for a few weeks. It would do them For District of North Vancouver no end of good. If they survived. The movie is no Jonger in the ALDERMAN theatres. But the video will be 7 ; . worth getting when it is available. : z ~ ; ‘ And do read the book. —~ Ensuring the voice of District residents is heard on future development 550,000 people work hard to | protect Canada's ‘Species. Fae Pi SAVINGS UP TO 65%-75% 8 -TURKMEN “GUM OTABRIZ “NAM cTRAIEEL 2) eISFAHAN ... AND MANY MORE ORIENTAL RUGS OPEN 7 DAYS - 10 AM. TO 7 PM. No. 7 Rear of Lonsdale 987-3365 North Vancouver (beside Lonsdale Quay) aD. fo more esormoncn coniact OH 1273 C0109 arerwe Oftawa, Ontano K2A 321 (613) 725-2194 x kas “University students are the loneliest people in the United States followed by divorced people ... 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