The character: Ethan Edwards The actor: John Wayne The movie: The Searchers (1956) I know. He’s not a hero. At least not in 2026 he’s not a hero. (To think he was some kind of cut-and-dried hero in 1956 is naive, but whatever.) A Confederate veteran, a proud racist who never comes close to recanting… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #32
July 1st The place I want to start with Pompeii is its budget, because it’s a blockbuster/spectacle movie and, cynically, I have a hard time starting anywhere else with those. The numbers vary, but let’s call it $90 million in 2014 dollars. My guess is that you are watching pretty close to $90 million on… Read More Movie Diary 2023 (7/1-7/5): Please Stop Making Me Watch Clips from High Society
Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers The standout sequence of The Horse Soldiers is about the cadets of the Jefferson Military Academy, which is to say that the best part of this movie about Marlowe (Wayne) and Kendall (Holden) has very little to do with either one of them. In a… Read More The Horse Soldiers (1959)
To see my running list of the hundred greatest movie stars in American film history, click here All stars are listed with a single film which is particularly important, though not exclusively so, to understanding what makes them vital to American movies. 30) Al Pacino / Key film – Scarface In a world before the Vietnam… Read More Better than AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars: 26-30
Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey, Jr. It may be my contrarian inclinations, it may be my childlessness, it may be that I just prefer critters, but I know that whenever someone has a baby on a sitcom it bores me. It is one of two common topics in fiction (the other being… Read More 3 Godfathers (1948)
One of the Grantland legacies I’m fond of, although I’m sure the idea didn’t start there, is the championship belt (RIP Grantland, long live Barnwell and Hyden). The purpose is to go year by year and create a list of who’s at the top of some field, which is a deceptively simple task, and one… Read More Anglophone Director Championship Belt, 1918-2018
I’m joining in the spirit of the year-in-review post, even though the way I watch movies isn’t really conducive to the kind of list that one usually sees at the end of the year. (Incidentally, if you happen to be a recent music aficionado, friend of the blog Matt will have his year-end list of… Read More 2018 Year-End Review: Fifty Movies
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 10-6
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. Movies I’ve reviewed on this site have a link in the title which you can follow to read my full review. 10) The Hunt for Red October (1990), directed by John McTiernan If Red… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in Ten Genres: Veterans of Foreign Wars, 10-6
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)
Seeing Things Secondhand 