I first saw Unforgiven soon after its 1992 release. Everyone else was calling it a masterpiece, but I was deeply disappointed. Last Saturday, no longer remembering clearly why I didn’t like it, I saw it again. Now I view it in much the same way as Apocalypse Now. For most of its runtime, it is [...]
Filed under: Second Thoughts, Spoilers, Westerns | Tagged: Clint Eastwood | Leave a Comment »
I started the day at the Kanbar Award presentation honoring screenwriter David Webb Peoples. After an introduction and a selection of clips from his films (which include Bladerunner, Unforgiven, Hero, and 12 Monkeys, Peoples was interviewed on stage by novelist James Dalessando, an old friend of his. A few notable Peoples comments: Peoples started out wanting [...]
Filed under: Festivals, First-person Report, SFIFF, Westerns | Tagged: screenwriting | Leave a Comment »
I wanted to see Cowboys and Aliens as soon as I saw the advertising. Partly, it struck me as a cool idea. I also wanted to support any big-budget Hollywood summer movie that wasn’t a sequel, prequel, remake, or adaptation from a TV show, best-selling novel, or comic book. Besides, a new western is a [...]
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Two years ago this month, I wrote a post bemoaning the lack of respect John Wayne receives from Bay Area cinephiles. Now the Stanford is running a John Wayne series with some of his best films–and some oddball choices. Among my favorite Wayne’s, it’s got Fort Apache, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Rio [...]
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They keep dribbling out more news about the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival. Last week, they announced that Robert Redford will receive the Peter J. Owens Award for acting. (No, Peter J. Owens wasn’t an actor; he was a philanthropist.) He’ll receive the award at a big, expensive, black-tie affair April 30. But the [...]
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I finally saw The Big Country on the big screen last night–at the Rafael. I was wrong to give this sprawling, 1958, pacifistic western a B. This is A material. This was the second of the Rafael’s three-part, weekend-long Academy Color Restorations series. Part 3, Jean Renoir’s The River, starts tonight at 7:00. The restoration [...]
Filed under: Film Preservation, First-person Report, Westerns | Leave a Comment »
On first viewing, I loved 3:10 to Yuma enough to give it an , despite a lot of problems I had with the last act. But the weeks went by, I’ve found myself more and more bothered with the movie’s inherent problems. So I’m officially downgrading it to a . Don’t get me wrong; most [...]
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