MCCORMICK'S QUICK TAKES ON FILMS THAT SERVE COMMUNITY.

Lifeboat (20th Century Fox, 1944). Like Frank Capra and John Steinbeck Alfred Hitchcock always had a soft spot for tales extolling the virtues of democracy and the "ordinary Joe," especially when pitted against tyranny's more cunning agents.

It's a theme that runs through Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, North By Northwest The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Torn Curtain. And it's at the heart of this WWII patriotic effort about a motley crew of shipwreck survivors crowded into a lifeboat. Forced to overcome political and class differences while struggling with a traitor in their midst, this floating experiment in democracy challenges a group of strangers to get along with one another and pull together in the service of something bigger than themselves.

Tallulah Bankhead is terrific as the poor little rich girl who learns the virtues of democratic life, and Walter Slezak does a nicely nasty turn as the Nazi in the woodpile. ****

Hoosiers (Orion Pictures, 1986). This laid-back tale of an Indiana high school basketball team on the road to victory is a study in character and community, taking a long, loving look at the frail and often fractured creatures that make up a small town--and at the small but extraordinary ads of faith and love that transform any place into a home.

Gene Hackman is at his best as an ex-college coach looking for redemption and a winning team in an Indiana cornfield, a man who finally finds himself by giving a group of young people and their neighbors something to cheer about

Barbara Hershey does a nice job as a teacher who loves and hates the close comfort of a small town. And Dennis Hopper steals the ball and a couple of scenes as a broken but inspired assistant coach whose performance is as good as any play on the court. ***1/2

Witness (Paramount 1985). Peter Weir's award-winning drama about a wounded Philadelphia cop hiding out among Amish farmers borrows a note or two from films like Edward G. Robinson's Brother Orchid (1940) and John Wayne's Angel and the Bad Man (1947).

It's Weirs vision of a community of neighbors held together and nurtured by a common faith and a shared set of practices that seems so attractive--both to the intruding officer (Harrison Ford) and the film's audiences. Certainly the barn-raising scenes, replete with a quilting bee and a score reminiscent of Aaron Copeland, evokes a sense of community and belonging sure to touch even the most calloused of hearts.

But Weir is careful to show us the sometimes claustrophobic closeness of tightly knit communities, along with the price of sharp boundaries between those who belong and those who must go elsewhere in the world to find a place. ***1/2

Twelve Angry Men (MGM, 1957). We don't normally think of juries as communities. But Sidney Lumet's slow-moving piece about the transformation of a homicide jury provides an excellent example of the civic virtues required to make democracy work

Henry Fonda is again cast as the conscience of a community. in the course of the narrative, he, as Juror #8, probes and challenges the judgments of his peers, revealing the bias, ignorance, sloth, and indifference behind each vote.

Having an opinion, it would seem, is not the same as voting one's conscience or exercising one's duties as a citizen. A certain amount of reason, good judgment justice, even courage and compassion are required. Lumet's film provides something of a challenge to our own democratic practices, to the thought and effort we put into our participation as citizens. ****