Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, John Agar, Ben Johnson She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a better synopsis than a movie, which is hardly an uncommon problem for a movie, but rarely has that been more disappointing for me as a viewer. In practice, it makes for a lumpy flick without much feel for when… Read More She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Dir. George Stevens. Starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean In recent television dramas, much has been made of the inclination towards male antiheroes at the expense of virtually any other type of protagonist. Since the form hit its heights with Tony Soprano, Don Draper, and Walter White, it’s become fashionable to simply give us… Read More Giant (1956)
Dir. Terrence Malick. Starring Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Ramon Bieri Picture links back here I’m not sure I’ve ever reacted to the end of a movie before like I did with Badlands; I’ve never been given a clearer, more concrete grip on character motivation and thought it obliterated the movie’s feel. (The last movie I… Read More Badlands (1973)
Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, Ben Johnson, Maureen O’Hara In The Battle of Midway, John Ford appears to have won a bet he made with someone that he couldn’t fit every patriotic American song into a movie. Only a few minutes of the documentary are really about the battle itself; no small part of it… Read More Rio Grande (1950)
Dir. John Huston. Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. Starring George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Paul Stevens Patton does not ever get quite to “gentle” in Patton, but he comes uncharacteristically close in a tent for wounded soldiers in Italy. He pats shoulders and the feet of beds comfortingly, thanks men for their service, and for one man… Read More Let There Be Light (1946) and Patton (1970)
Dir. Richard Attenborough. Starring Ben Kingsley, Roshan Seth, Saeed Jaffrey Two scenes in Gandhi – a movie which, at just over three hours, is less lengthy than its reputation – have always stood out to me as terribly impressive and, more importantly, as filmic blueprints for fighting back against stronger powers. One of them is in… Read More Gandhi (1982)
Dir. Philip Kaufman. Starring Ed Harris, Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn The Right Stuff, when it’s functioning at its highest levels, is a story about the death of the Western, and no one could have been better equipped to play the leading role than Sam Shepard. History will remember Shepard the playwright, but to me he will… Read More The Right Stuff (1983)
Dir. Nicholas Meyer. Starring William Shatner, Ricardo Montalban, Leonard Nimoy 1:34:51– What I will say is that the dude holding Terrell looks exactly like a sad Will Ferrell. When I wrote that back in May of 2013, I was in the habit of writing about movies and TV with linear recaps rather than the more… Read More Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) – Redux
Dir. Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer. Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Doona Bae Mark Harris, whose best work as a film critic concerns the larger trend of American studios making the safest decisions possible to the detriment of American film, has spent years on the topic by now. I don’t know what his opinion… Read More Cloud Atlas (2012)
Dir. Ronald F. Maxwell. Starring Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen I can’t think of another movie made in the past quarter-century which should have seen big screens less than Gettysburg. This isn’t a statement of the film’s quality, but of its marketability, because let’s face it, this is a unicorn of a film. Longer… Read More Gettysburg (1993)
Seeing Things Secondhand 