To those who consider westerns mindless shoot-em-ups, and dismiss John Wayne as a talentless reactionary symbol, I can think of no better answer than Howard Hawks' Red River. And outside of a movie theater, I can think of no better way to see it than in this new Criterion Blu-ray release. In Tom Dunson, Wayne … Continue reading Red River on Blu-ray: Of men and cattle
Category: Home Theater
Comedy and Popularity: Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman on Blu-ray
It might be possible to watch Harold Lloyd's 1925 masterpiece, The Freshman, without laughing, or without hoping that the protagonist will win the popularity he so deeply wants. But it wouldn't be easy. Every shot in this film is brilliantly designed to make you either laugh or care--or both. Lloyd's "glasses" character truly came into … Continue reading Comedy and Popularity: Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman on Blu-ray
Kurosawa has fun: My Blu-ray review of Hidden Fortress
In Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa used the samurai genre to examine the limits of human knowledge and objectivity. In Seven Samurai, he told an epic story of small-scale war and a feudal system in crisis. In Throne of Blood, he adapted Macbeth to meditate on fate. In The Hidden Fortress, he pretty much just had fun. … Continue reading Kurosawa has fun: My Blu-ray review of Hidden Fortress
German Expressionism on a Hollywood Budget: My Blu-ray review of Sunrise
A marriage sinks as low as it can go, then rises again to the joys of marital bliss in F. W. Murnau's first American film, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. The story is as simple and as simplistic as a story can get, yet the beautiful, expressionistic telling of that story turns it into … Continue reading German Expressionism on a Hollywood Budget: My Blu-ray review of Sunrise
Kurosawa Says Noh to Shakespeare: My Blu-ray review of Throne of Blood
Akira Kurosawa went out on a limb when he made his loose Macbeth adaptation, Throne of Blood. Highly stylized and heavily influenced by Japan's noh theater, the picture holds you emotionally at an arm's length. You're never invited to identify with or even empathize with the characters. This is Kurosawa at his coldest, as if … Continue reading Kurosawa Says Noh to Shakespeare: My Blu-ray review of Throne of Blood
Music, Fame, and American Insanity: My Blu-ray review of Robert Altman’s Nashville
For an all-too-brief time in the 1970s, the Hollywood studios financed and released serious art. They greenlit films without likeable heroes, clearly-defined villains, or conventional, three-act plots. They even financed Robert Altman, who did his best work during that time. And Nashville was unquestionably one of his best. It's tragic, funny, thoughtful, and filled with … Continue reading Music, Fame, and American Insanity: My Blu-ray review of Robert Altman’s Nashville
Life as we all must some day know it: My Blu-ray review of Tokyo Story
Before watching the Blu-ray Sunday night, it had been years since I'd last seen Yasujirō Ozu's 1953 masterpiece, Tokyo Story. I remember loving the film, but I wasn't ready for the emotional wallop it delivered. Perhaps my own mental state contributed to the experience--I've seen my son get married and lost two close relatives this … Continue reading Life as we all must some day know it: My Blu-ray review of Tokyo Story
Comic Perfection: My Blu-ray Review of City Lights
A great comedy seamlessly mixes a good story, an intelligent observation on the human condition, and a lot of laughs. Everything works together, and only on the third or fourth viewing do you become aware of how the filmmakers balanced all these ingredients, so that the gags and the emotional reality compliment each other instead … Continue reading Comic Perfection: My Blu-ray Review of City Lights
To Late for Halloween: My Blu-ray Review of Nosferatu
The big question about Kino's forthcoming Blu-ray release of Nosferatu, newly and beautifully restored: Why release a classic vampire movie three weeks after Halloween? Now, on with our review. Before Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, or even Bela Lugosi, Max Schreck created the first screen Dracula. He was not the elegant, sexy aristocrat of the night … Continue reading To Late for Halloween: My Blu-ray Review of Nosferatu
Laughing at Hitler: My Blu-ray review of To Be or Not to Be
The Nazis conquered Poland with frightening speed. But they prove no match for Carol Lombard and Jack Benny in Ernst Lubitsch's World War II comic masterpiece, available on Blu-ray August 27 from Criterion. Lombard and Benny play a married pair of egotistical stars of the Warsaw stage, heading a theatrical troupe of slightly lesser egos. … Continue reading Laughing at Hitler: My Blu-ray review of To Be or Not to Be
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