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Arts centre carries on t Special to the Chronicle One of the things for which the University of Waterloo has become valued in the community is its perâ€" forming arts program which brings a steady stream of professional musicians, dancers, actors and other artists to entertain here year after year Initially, its purpose was to supâ€" plement. through the arts, the acaâ€" demic programs of the students on campus. But from the outset. siâ€" zeable numbers of towns people began to turn up for the various events, initially in the theatre of the arts and later in the humanities theatre as well. In fact, for years most of the audience has been peoâ€" ple who have no other direct conâ€" nection with UW : they simply like music. or drama or ballet, or whaâ€" tever Under his management, UW‘s performance program has conâ€" tinued unabated. This year for inâ€" stance, there has been a full lineâ€"up of 32 performances,. packed into seâ€" veral series â€" a dance series,. stage series, music series, series of oneâ€"man (or woman) perforâ€" mances, a children‘s series, and so on. There has also been an internaâ€" tional film series. Both the theatre of the arts. a miniâ€"Stratford located at the back of the modern languages building, and the humanities theatre, locatâ€" ed close to University Ave. in the J.G. Hagey hall of the humanities. are pleasant places ... though some music critics have complained about the "dry" sound, particularâ€" ly in the latter theatre. But how have things fared in view of the opening of the Centre in the _ Square in downto wn Kitchener? ‘‘First, let‘s point out UW‘s Arts Centre and its performing arts series played an important role in connection with the addition of the centre to this community,"" comâ€" ments Betty Adare, who handles publicity and advertising for the ‘‘By and large though,‘ one music critic recently summarized. ‘‘the sound in either place is far superior to anything you get at the O‘Keefe in Toronto, or in a number of alternative theatres. church halls or auditoriums in the area." With the arrival of Geoffrey Butler on the UW campus in 1975. following the retirement of Paul Berg. UW‘s offerings expanded considerably from a dozen perforâ€" mances a year to something in the order of 30â€"35. Subsequently. Butler left UW to take over as director of the new Centre in the Square in Kitchener and his place was taken over by Dan Donaldson. By Bob Whitton UW centre. We like to think we‘ve helped develop an audience for the Centre downtown. People got into the habit of seeing good theatre. hearing good music and enjoying good dance right in the community instead of having to drive to Toronâ€" to or Hamilton. So we‘re proud and pleased to have contributed." At the same time, she admits the opening of the new Kitchener cenâ€" tre has had some impact on Waâ€" terloo audiences ‘‘We haven‘t had as many sellâ€" outs as we did the year before when we actually sold out 25 of 32 performances." she says, "but we had good houses throughout the year. The Norma Edwards evenâ€" ing, for instance, didn‘t sell out but there were very few seats left by the time the show started. And this happened on a number of ocâ€" casions. Adare says that the worst of the impact of the downtown Kitchener centre on UW programs is over ‘We‘re confident that in the long run the centre will create custâ€" omers for us just as we‘ve created audiences for them," says Adare ~I think that each operation is going to help the other."‘ Donaldson agrees They feel their offerings will cerâ€" tainly ~keep up"‘. For one thing. the ticket prices to UW events are usually a bit lower than to downâ€" town events. As well, parking is cheaper. T‘ll probably get some flack from certain people downtown for saying this. but I think our theatres work better for certain kinds of performances."" Donaldson insists "I don‘t think that,. for instance. you can beat the theatre of the arts as a setting for a performance by a guitarist such as Christopher Parâ€" kening. And this is just an opinion, of course, but I think The Elephant Man would have worked better."‘ The Waterloo operation is also able to undertake a good deal of production work, everything from costuming to the construction of the sets. ‘In any event, the best thing that can happen is that the two operaâ€" tions work closely with each other."" Donaldson concludes. We are doing this now, of course. That is why we‘re delighted to see the Centre off to such a promising start. We hope they keep it up." Not many communities the size of Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo can come close to matching the wide variety of cultural and entertainment opâ€" portunities Kâ€"W citizens are rapidâ€" ly coming to take for granted. * Of course then. not many comâ€" munities have two fine arts centres and the likes of Dan Donaldson and Geoffrey Butler to make it all hapâ€" Against a backdrop of smoke and flame, four mercenary soldiers survey the havoc they have wrought in the capital of a tiny African dictatorship in ‘"‘The Dogs of War." In the transition from book to film, I suspect that only the bones remain in The Dogs Of War. _ Certainly, in the current movie version, the prinâ€" cipal characters of four mercenary soldiers display so few fleshâ€"andâ€"blood characteristics that they (or at least three of them ) barely remain identifiable to an audience, let alone comprehensible on any emoâ€" tional or intellectual level. ; This appears to be the result of some drastic cutâ€" ting of the picture since filming was completed late last year. At least one previously announced character â€" the wife of the mercenary played by Tom Berenger â€" already had been completely reâ€" moved from a 122â€"minute version of the movie which was previewed in the U.S. last December. The verâ€" sion now showing in Ontario theatres is down to about 100 minutes, again with scenes of character backgrounding seemingly the ones to have been exâ€" cised. Not having read Frederick Forsyth‘s 1974 bestâ€" seller. I can‘t say how similar or dissimilar the movie is to the book. But. certainly. the movie as it now exists shows considerable departure from the published intentions of its makers. including its Canâ€" adianâ€"born producer Norman Jewison. Jewison. who initially considered directing it himâ€" self, has been quoted as describing it as "a personal story of real men, rather than just another action film." But what remains is not even a substantially good action film,. merely a technicallyâ€"slick mediocre one. The basic plot in the movie The Dogs Of War is about a bigâ€"businessâ€"backed military coup in a ficâ€" tional African country. The coup is carried out under the direction of four mercenaries who have been partners in similar operations in other revoluâ€" tionaryâ€"prone parts of the world The mercenaries, for the most part, seem to be amoral, apolitical individuals who are either loners craving some macho excitement or who turn to batâ€" tles afar as a refuge from marital problems. The leader of the group, who at least is given enâ€" ough screen time to make him reasonably familiar to viewers, is played by Christopher Walken, the Academy Award winner from The Deer Hunter and the sympathetic gunfighter in Michael Cimino‘s illâ€" fated Heaven‘s Gate ‘Dogs‘ film lacks bite By VICTOR STANTON WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1981 â€" PAGE 11 Actually, Walken probably would have been very good in the role as it was conceived. one indeed which would seem to have borne some similarity to that in Heaven‘s Gate. In its present truncated form, the role however lacks depth and perspective, with the result that the character remains too distant and singleâ€"dimensional to arouse much audience interest or involvement. From promotional matarial I received (and which I read after seeing the movie}. I learned far more about this character than I did through watching the picture. For instance, in the film the point is not clearly made that a woman whose picture he keeps in his New York apartment and whose father doesn‘t like him was,. in fact. his exâ€"wife. Nor are other key details about the character‘s life up to this point made clear in the movie, so that we could have some idea as to why â€" besides the money, which doesn‘t seem overly extravagant considering the risks â€" he is a mercenary . The other mercenaries, played by Berenger. Paul Freeman and Jeanâ€"Francois Stevenin. are even less than the enigma Walken‘s character could pass as. The trio are so shortâ€"changed by the way in which the present film has been edited that they seem like technicians who wandered in from a Mission Imposâ€" sible assignment Action fans, of course, aren‘t likely to object to the absence of character development, but even they are apt to be less than thoroughly entertained by The Dogs Of War. The main action sequence takes place during the last approximately 15 minutes of the movie. And while there is a lot of noisy shooting and fiery explosions during that sequence, actual graâ€" phic bloodâ€"letting is pretty lowâ€"key, suspense is nonâ€" existent and the slight plot twist at the end is easily predictable. Deer Hunterâ€"director Cimino was at one point to have directed this picture. but opted out when he was able to launch his Heaven‘s Gate project. Evenâ€" tually, producer Jewison hired John Irvin for the job Irvin wasâ€"without featureâ€"film directing experienâ€" ce, but had received critical acclaim for his direcâ€" tion of TV‘s miniseries Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. If he brought any more than basic directing skills to The Dogs OF War, it is no longer evident | _ In every respect, The Dogs Of War is a movie with far more bark than bite.