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: The Searchers
401. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
For my final podcast, I look at how Steven Spielberg effectively remade his first feature, Firelight to deliver a message of hope.
399. The Irishman
The gangster genre is dominated by men, but in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman the most important position is held by a woman who utters barely a dozen words.
396. L’Avventura
With this modernist masterpiece, Michelangelo Antonioni told a story that abandoned its initial plot. Booed at Cannes, it paved the way for a new cinematic form.
365. Saving Private Ryan
Released to ecstatic reviews in 1998, Steven Spielberg’s film soon suffered a backlash. Twenty-one years on it has finally come of age.
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.
327. The Godfather
Regarded as the greatest gangster picture of them all, the passing years continue to reveal new layers and meanings in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece.
313. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Critics have long called Robert Altman’s 1971 picture a revisionist western. Truth is, the western has always been revising itself.
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.
265. Great Openings – Part One
What makes for a great opening? Character? Conflict? Poetry? Hopefully, more than something we’re supposed to just look at.
251. Lawrence of Arabia
David Lean’s enduring masterpiece is a rare breed; an epic but also a portrait that refuses to explain its enigmatic subject.
238. Great Shots – Part Three
What makes for a great shot? Beauty? The lens? Lighting? Combine them and you have more than just an image.
217. Great Scenes – Part Three
What makes for a great scene? Performance? Conflict? Dialogue? Visuals? Music? Combine them and you have atomic weight.
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.
187. The Revenant
Originally pitched as a simple story of revenge, under Alejandro Inarritu’s direction The Revenant became a journey of spiritual release.
170. My Darling Clementine
John Ford made so many great westerns, he is synonymous with the genre. But that doesn’t mean he always got everything right.
144. The Searchers
The Searchers is both a cinematic monument and an extremely unsettling depiction of the racism that lies at the heart of America’s own mythology.
128. Paris, Texas
Although Wim Wenders’ picture won the Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, a lot of American critics thought little of it. Has time proven them wrong?
120. The Fabulous Baker Boys
It’s called The Fabulous Baker Boys, but it was Michelle Pfeiffer’s Oscar nominated performance that earned the film its adjective.
The Journeys of Martin Scorsese
This video-essay celebrates the career of Martin Scorsese, showing how he has taken cinema as a means of telling stories and expanded it as a means of personal expression.
Spielberg’s Techniques
This video-essay examines Steven Spielberg’s career, from his days in television up until War Horse, and shows how he uses the disciplines of cinema to secure specific emotional responses.
61. The Night of the Hunter
Released in 1955, The Night of the Hunter was greeted with scorn by critics and ignored by audiences. How wrong they were.
57. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
With 4 Oscars and over $548m at the box-office, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid remains the most popular western ever made.
28. Max Steiner
Max Steiner’s credits include some of the most popular films of all time. And while his influence is still heard today, his mentors echo down from the 19th century.
