Film
The Marx Brothers: As great as you’ve always heard.
Like the musicals of the 30s and 40s, the Marx Brothers are a more recent acquired taste for me. Years ago I saw a movie called Brain Donors (a modern version of the Marx Brothers style) and could not have disliked it more (despite starring the always excellent John “da Jesus” Turturo as Groucho). At…
Read More“The Western”: An American Mythology.
At not quite 250 years old, America is a new country. As is the case with all new nations, this relative youth brings with it a lack of a unifying ideology for its inhabitants. If a group of people are to organize themselves into a common society separate from the other existing societies around them,…
Read MoreNot So Awesome Movies – Highlander (Russell Mulcahy, 1986).
I am a pretty big fan of portraying myself as a PFC (pretentious film cock for those not in the know). I throw out names like Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer as if they are all that is needed to prove I belong to some elite cinematic club. But even someone who consumes such a careful movie…
Read MoreThe Safari Films of John Ford and Howard Hawks
John Ford and Howard Hawks are very tempting to lump together when talking about great American directors. And indeed, their careers roughly parallel each other in length and time period, they are without question two of the greatest directors of Westerns (and if you catch me early enough in the morning I might even admit…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 4 – McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
There are few things I think of as fondly as American Westerns, but the movies of Robert Altman sure come close. So when I heard Altman passed away at the age of 81 on November 20th, I thought it would be a good time to revisit his “Western” McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I use quotes…
Read MoreMantras in the catchphrases: The Searchers, The Misfits, The Long Goodbye
I thought I’d take a bit of time to write about some of my favorite movie mantras. I’m talking “mantras” in the loosest sense of the word, basically just any phrase that the central character repeats more than once that shows some insight into how they live their life. The three examples I’d like to…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 3 — Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton, 1923)
Chaplin or Keaton…that is the question. Actually, not really, they are both great (along with Lloyd, Langdon and the rest of them). Still, I always answer with a resounding “Keaton!” and Our Hospitality is a perfect example of why. Our Hospitality is the third full length film from Buster Keaton. Buster had little control over…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 2 — Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)
To start, I’ll say that I’ve never liked musicals. I really hadn’t seen any of the “classics” (aside from Westside Story in junior high), but pretty much whenever anyone breaks into song and dance I start counting the minutes until it is over (except for a few exceptions…the song in Rio Bravo is just fine).…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 1 — The Wages of Fear (H. G. Clouzot, 1953)
Having recently seen Wages of Fear for the third time, I have to say it is just as intense as the first time I watched it. This is really one of the only movies that literally makes me breath a sigh of relief once it is over (a few seconds after the “FIN” is also…
Read MoreA brief look into why John Wayne was so awesome.
To start with, I’ll admit that John Wayne didn’t have a great range, and most of his roles were just variations on the persona he created for himself. But honestly I can’t think of anyone that has greater “charisma”/”screen presence” than John Wayne (though Cary Grant comes to mind). Now, when I say he was…
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