The Godfather Trilogy
Adapting Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel, Francis Ford Coppola drew up several themes lying dormant within its pages and augmented them in a uniquely cinematic fashion to create a masterful saga.
Tag Archives: Taxi Driver
385. Unforgiven
Originally titled Whore’s Gold, Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning western exposes the psychosis, bigotry and misogyny at the heart of the genre’s mythology.
379. Midnight Cowboy
This 60s’ American classic mixes avant-garde with mythology to examine male identity, intimacy, sexuality and trauma.
377. Mindhunter
Mindhunter marks the fourth time David Fincher has depicted serial-killers. Far from resorting to tired clichés, with the second season he has again broken new ground.
351. Heat
Ever since its release in 1995, Heat has been held as the greatest ever heist movie. But it has another, completely different film living and dying inside of it.
337. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
This western gives fresh examinations of celebrity and post-traumatic stress disorder.
336. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Films about writers are tricky propositions but you can roughly divide the genre into two eras; pre- and post-Mishima.
335. There Will Be Blood
Yes, Daniel Plainview is unlikable. But where is it written that characters have to be nice? They only have to be interesting.
334. La Belle et la Bête
Fairytales transcend not just generations but cultures. Which may explain why La Belle et la Bête exists in so many guises and confronts so many issues.
323. Saturday Night Fever
While mostly remembered for John Travolta’s dancing, his white suit hides misogyny, racism, homophobia and gang rape.
321. Die Hard
What makes a classic film? The plot’s originality, director’s vision, or the star’s magnetism? Paradoxically, any, all, yet none of the above. It’s the audience.
287. Reds
As the US embraced Reaganomics and Hollywood found the formula for the modern blockbuster, Warren Beatty embarked on a project examining the origins of American communism.
281. Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver was written in ten days by first-time screenwriter, Paul Schrader as a means to exorcise his festering, masochistic, narcissistic anger.
275. Deliverance
When we think of American cinema in the seventies, all too often we all too quickly think of the great directors. But what of the cinematograph-auteurs?
267. Great Openings – Part Two
What makes for a great opening? Character? Conflict? Poetry? Hopefully, more than something we’re supposed to just look at.
260. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’s influence is so great it reaches far beyond horror and into sci-fi, thrillers, and historical romances.
250. Slow-Motion
Once considered avant-garde, slow-motion is now the mainstay of every action film. Here are some of the best and most innovative uses of the technique.
234. Great Shots – Part One
What makes for a great shot? Beauty? The lens? Lighting? Combine them and you have more than just an image.
232. The Age of Innocence
Best known for his crime dramas, Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s romantic novel is one of his most incisive works.
229. The Conformist
Few films are as layered as The Conformist. But whether you see it as an exercise in style, character study, or philosophical thesis, it’s a flat out masterpiece.
212. American … What?
Beauty, Gangster, Hustle, Psycho, Sniper. With so many films using “American” in their title, is the appellation losing its significance?
209. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Thirty-five years old, Spielberg’s classic was inspired by more than just the Saturday matinee serials he watched as a child.
208. The French Connection
William Friedkin’s Oscar-winner may be a gritty thriller but it owes an enormous debt to a classic of 19th century American literature.
191. GoodFellas
GoodFellas is more than just a breathless tale of middle-management in the Mafia. It’s one of Martin Scorsese’s many films in which he seeks enlightenment.
