It's kind of funny how you can read the description of a film, think it sounds completely out of step for a filmmaker's work, and then actually watch it to discover that it ends up fitting perfectly. A slice of life tale of a small boy in the London suburbs during World War II felt… Continue reading Hope and Glory
Category: War
Hell in the Pacific
I love these sorts of tiny little films from accomplished filmmakers. This is two actors (literally no more than two at any point in the film) in a battle of wills and wits on a beach. It's the sort of thing that, just at the sound of it without any mention of names, comes off… Continue reading Hell in the Pacific
The Bridge on the River Kwai: A Second Look
I'm still in amazement at how well The Bridge on the River Kwai comes together in the end. David Lean had been working up his way through the British film industry through a series of smaller films, and he entered the epic game with a serious bang. Taking Pierre Boulle's novel and pushing it into… Continue reading The Bridge on the River Kwai: A Second Look
Gone with the Wind
Now...this is a MOVIE. Huge, sentimental, melodramatic, earnest, detailed, ambitious, impressive, and eager to entertain across four brisk hours, David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind has dominated the popular cinematic consciousness over the past few decades for a reason. A few reasons, really. Made at the height of Selznick's professional and creative powers, after… Continue reading Gone with the Wind
All Quiet on the Western Front
A film that simply will not let you miss its message, All Quiet on the Western Front was the flip side of Carl Laemmle Jr's effort to transform the movie studio his father gifted him, the other being the early monster movies Dracula and Frankenstein. Those were handsome, expensive literary adaptations designed to bring prestige… Continue reading All Quiet on the Western Front