Tag Archive: classics

A Month of Kurosawa: Rashomon (1950)

November 11, 2018 0 Comments

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Rashomon (1950) Reams upon reams have been written about Rashomon. It’s likely to be among the two or three Kurosawa films even casual film viewers have seen, or at least heard of, so for this capsule review series I won’t talk about it at length. I do in the book — it’s among the longest chapters — but when it comes to giving a…
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Films

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Basking in the majesty of Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

January 4, 2017 13 Comments

Let’s talk about David Lean’s landmark epic Lawrence Of Arabia. By now, the film’s reputation is well established. Considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time (it certainly ranks high on my personal list), in 1962 Lawrence Of Arabia garnered seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Peter O’Toole’s tortured performance is the stuff of legend, and its on-screen vistas have inspired filmmakers from Stephen Spielberg to Martin Scorsese to Peter Jackson. Even people who have never seen it at least know of its lofty reputation. But some classic films of yesteryear have a way of surviving on praise rather than lasting merit; people cite a film for greatness simply because you’re supposed to, others repeat what they’ve heard, and before long…
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Films

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Revisiting Ray Harryhausen’s 1958 classic, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

May 18, 2016 12 Comments

Ray Harryhausen was a mainstay of my childhood. His movies were regular features on the Saturday matinees — on television, not in theaters; I’m not THAT old! — and they sucked me in every time. How could they not? No sane young boy would be anything but engrossed by giant creatures slugging it out with heroes in sandals, and Harryhausen’s creatures were AWESOME. So not too long ago, I decided to revisit a handful of his movies, among them The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. As a kid I had no real affection for the Arabian myths, so Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad films never quite connected with me despite my huge love for his work and Harryhausen liberally mixing in monsters and myths from others cultures. I…
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Films, Geek Stuff

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Three, three, three! classic silents

October 29, 2010 0 Comments

It’s the Friday of Halloween weekend. Maybe you’re bored. Maybe you’re looking for something to occupy your time. That’s why I’m packing three, three, three horror classics of the silent era into one blog post. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Forget about song and dance and Broadway, the real Phantom of the Opera was a creepy classic that was ahead of its time. The story has been remade five times, but it’s tough to beat a silent classic with Lon Chaney. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920) Jekyll and Hyde don’t rate very highly in modern horror, but way back when it was a pretty creepy story about man’s dual nature. This 1920 adaptation is considered by many to be among the best silent…
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Films, Videos

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Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)

October 27, 2010 2 Comments

When I first began to explore silent film, one of the earliest movies to convince me of the power of the silents was 1922’s landmark horror film, Nosferatu, a Dracula adaptation in all but name. I say in all but name because the film was intended to be an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but the studio could not obtain the rights the story. A few name changes and plot tweaks and wala! A brand new story … sort of. Nosferatu is one of the great silent films and is still one of the great horror films, relying on a creepy, moody approach rather that jump-at-you scares and gore. The film is in the public domain, so that means you can watch it in full,…
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Films, Videos

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