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…

2001: How the Solar System Was Won

Photo: MGM I remember watching this film for the first time when I was a teenager, or perhaps 20 years old. When it was over, I was so stunned and…

Snow White and Disney’s Most Bad-Assed Villain

Photo: Disney In 1937, Walt Disney certainly had made a name for himself, having supervised and participated in the creation of such enduring animated characters as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck,…

Shot in the Dark: Clouseau Finds His Mojo

Herbert Lom and André Maranne. Photo: United Artists When Blake Edwards's The Great Race was released in 1965 it was touted as "the great laugh show of all time". That…

Vertigo: I Put a Spell on You

James Stewart and Kim Novak. Photo: Paramount One of Alfred Hitchcock's three 1950s Technicolor masterpieces (the others are Rear Window and North by Northwest). Curiously enough, at the time of…