Art of Verbal War

Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the 20th-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order.

Set on the campus of a small New England college, the film focuses on the volatile relationship of associate history professor George and his hard-drinking wife Martha, the daughter of the college president. It's 2:00 Sunday morning, and they have returned from one of her father's gatherings. Martha announces she has invited a young couple—Nick, a young…