On the Waterfront: The End of Mob Rule
Marlon Brando. Photo: Columbia In 1949, investigative journalist Malcolm Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles he had written for the New York Sun. Titled "Crime on…
12 Years a Slave: Land of the Unfree
Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures The historian Sue Eakin was born in Louisiana five decades after the end of the Civil War and she specialized in…
Gravity: More Science, Less Hollywood
Sandra Bullock. Photo: Warner Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and the most famous person working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was surprised the other day to…
Amour: In Sickness and in Health
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. Photo: Les Films du Losange Welcome to the ever-fascinating journey of the cinema of Michael Haneke. When I started writing this review I began by…
It’s a Wonderful Life: Wing and a Prayer
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Carol Coombs, Jimmy Hawkins, Larry Simms and Karolyn Grimes. Photo: RKO This Christmas I decided to catch Frank Capra's last masterpiece again. Having seen it several…
Bonnie and Clyde: Love on the Lam
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Photo: Warner The term most commonly used to describe Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is probably "landmark film". It may seem a little odd to begin…
Saving Private Ryan: Spielberg in Combat
Tom Sizemore and Tom Hanks. Photo: DreamWorks Steven Spielberg directed several masterpieces over the years, but this one might be the most controversial. The general sentiment expressed by snobs is…
The King’s Speech: Royal Pains
Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Photo: The Weinstein Company After watching this brilliant drama, I knew I had to consult YouTube for the speech King George VI made after Britain's…
Sunset Blvd: The Walking Dead
Gloria Swanson. Photo: Paramount Gloria Swanson used to be big. She had a pretty decent career as a silent-movie star, but shortly after transitioning into talkies she was abandoned by…
Ben-Hur: The Gospel of Judah
Charlton Heston. Photo: MGM The kind of film that starts with a five-minute overture, Ben-Hur is about as classic a 1950s Hollywood blockbuster as they come. Burt Lancaster was reportedly…