Posted in: Disc Reviews by Sean Boelman on July 16th, 2024
Given that Glauber Rocha is considered one of the most important filmmakers in the history of Brazilian cinema — and Latin American cinema in general — it’s surprising that it took this long for one of his films to be released by the Criterion Collection. The filmmaker’s sophomore feature, Black God, White Devil, one of his most acclaimed works, takes the honor of being his first movie to get the Criterion treatment. Black God, White Devil is considered one of the most influential films of the Cinema Novo movement, which happened in Brazilian cinema as a reaction to other social filmmaking movements like Italian neorealism and the French New Wave. In Criterion’s recent quest to expand the label’s Latin American cinema offerings — Victims of Sin and Soy Cuba are notable recent releases — the Cinema Novo movement marks a necessary addition.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 4th, 2024
"I, Bass Reeves, do solemnly swear that I will execute all lawful precepts directed to the Marshall of The United States for the Western District of Arkansas without malice or partiality, perform the duties of Deputy Marshall and take only my lawful fees. So help me God."
He was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger. Bass Reeves is one of the biggest icons of the old west and perhaps one of the least remembered. He served for 35 years and managed to bring in over 4000 wanted men for their day in court and likely the noose. It's a huge story, and the filmmakers of Lawmen: Bass Reeves have taken on the enormous task with just 8 episodes of this limited series with no follow-up planned or on the books. Were they able to meet such a challenge? That's going to require some explanation. The series was based on the first two of a series of books written by Sidney Thompson, who serves as a consultant on the series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 9th, 2024
"People scare better when they're dyin.'"
Mention the name Sergio Leone and you immediately think of Clint Eastwood and their Man With No Name trilogy. The truth is that Leone was the master of the spaghetti western and largely responsible for making Clint what he is today. When the Italian director decided to try his hand at Hollywood, he was welcomed with open arms, except they weren't interested in anything but an American copy of a spaghetti western. Leone had something else in mind. He had a "been there, done that" attitude about the westerns and wanted to do an epic called Once Upon A Time In America. But Hollywood was hearing none of that. So they compromised. If Leone delivered a stylistic western, the studio would spring for the epic he wanted to make. The result of that parlay turned out to be Once Upon A Time In The West.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 14th, 2024
"You know your weapons. It's a lever-action breech-loader. Usual barrel length's thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It's converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred-and-ten-grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred-forty-grain paper patch bullet. It's fitted with double-set triggers, and a Vernier sight, marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further."
It almost happened again. Lightning almost hit Tom Selleck for a second time, and I don't mean in a good way. Tom Selleck was having fun and a tremendous amount of success playing Magnum P.I. on television. It was a character he got on the strength of a recurring character on The Rockford Files, and it was a huge hit. But in 1981 it didn't seem so much like a blessing. Casting calls went out, and he was approached to play an archaeologist trying to beat the Nazis to some kind of a McGuffin or another. The Magnum commitment kept him from taking the role, and it went to Harrison Ford, who turned it iconic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2023
"Man gets shot that's got a gun, there's room for reasonable doubt. Man gets shot that hasn't got a gun, what would you call it? But, you knew that already; otherwise you wouldn't have set things up the way you did."
Rio Bravo (1959) stars John Wayne as John T. Chance, a small-town sheriff facing the fight of his life. His town is infected by a gang of 30-40 men, professional bad guys on the payroll of Nathan Burdette (John Russell), whose brother, Joe, Chance has locked up for murder. Burdette is dead-set on freeing Joe, and the only help Chance has got is his former deputy, Dude (Dean Martin), who’s been drunk for two years since he got involved with the wrong kind of woman, and Stumpy (Walter Brennan), an old, trigger-happy cripple. The trio has six days until the U.S. Marshall comes to collect Joe, but that’s a long time to wait when you’re surrounded by the enemy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on February 18th, 2023
“We deal in lead, friend.”
In the fall of 1956, Anthony Quinn watched a special screening of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai and had an epiphany: this Japanese masterpiece, inspired by the great American westerns of John Ford, would, itself, make a great American western. Quinn acquired the rights and contacted his then close friend Yul Brynner and pitched the idea of him playing the bad guy and Brynner the good guy. Brynner screened Kurosawa’s film and called in producer Walter Mirisch, who in turn contacted director John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the OK Corral, The Great Escape). Sturges loved the concept and immediately set about acquiring the rights, ultimately forcing Quinn out of the picture. Quinn sued, but lost.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 28th, 2022
"It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid."
Clint Eastwood might have gotten his film career started with bit roles in the sci-fi classics Tarantula and Return Of The Creature, but he made his mark in Europe with Sergio Leone and his famous spaghetti westerns. He became The Man With No Name in a trilogy of films, and it would create the character of Clint as much as it would any film character. Eastwood was smart, and he used the time on those films to learn. He was observant and took in all of the technical aspects of the business of making movies, and it continues to serve him 60 years later, as Eastwood has become as much of an icon behind the camera as he ever did in front of it. His first directing job was Play Misty For Me, but he returned to those still fresh spaghetti-western roots for his second time in the director's chair and his first time directing a western
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 9th, 2022
"Nothing had prepared me, no books, no teachers, not even my parents. I heard a thousand stories, but none could describe this place, it must be witnessed, to be understood, and yet I've seen it and understand it even less than before I first cast eyes on this place. Some call it the American dessert, others The Great Plains, but those phrases were invented by professors at universities surrounded by the illusion of order and the fantasy of right and wrong. To know it you must walk it, Bleed into its dirt, drown in its rivers, then its name becomes clear, it is hell, and there are demons everywhere. But if this is hell and I'm in it, then I must be a Demon too and I'm already dead.."
We're a visual people, and so most of you will recognize Taylor Sheridan from his role as a chief of police in Sons of Anarchy when the controlled puppet regime had finally left the scene. It's not a remarkable role, and it's not a complete surprise that Sheridan found his calling more recently behind the camera.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2022
"Let me speak to you directly and from the heart."
My first exposure to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance wasn't the film at all. It was the song (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was a 1962 hit song by Gene Pitney and was written to be included in the film. I wouldn't really be taken with the song until James Taylor would cover it and have his own hit with the song in 1985 with his album That's Why I'm Here. By then I'd seen the film but only on late-night television broadcasts which offered bad transfers and plenty of commercials that caused the film to be chopped by over 26 minutes. The funny thing about the song is that while it was written to be included in the film, it actually never appears. Director John Ford thought it sounded too modern and suggested it would only weaken the film and insisted it not be used
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 29th, 2021
Long before super-hero films became the rage of American cinema, the Western was the original bread and butter that would draw in its audiences to flock to the silver screen. Hollywood cranked out so many Westerns I seriously doubt anyone knows just how many of these films were shot by the studios, not to mention the others that were re-cut with scenes inserted with new stock footage just to re-title a film and put it back out onto the screen. There are some directors that elevated the genre, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Clint Eastwood, Sam Peckinpah, and then there’s John Sturges who is mostly famous for helming The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. Sturges had a strong 30 year career directing and though he had a few misses when his films were good they were really good so when the offer came along to review one of his Westerns I hadn’t seen I was happy to jump aboard to review the Last Train From Gun Hill.
