The skit begins with an overly sniffling film commentator speaking about his favorite cheese westerns. He then segues to a bit about his favorite director of the moment, Sam Peckinpah, and his latest film Salad Days. He introduces a clip from the film, which depicts a number of preppy-dressed men and women relaxing in the …
With Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Altman was again breaking down the Western, only this time, he was focused on one critical aspect of the genre and of America’s Western heritage: the making and maintenance of a myth.
“El Dorado” is a refreshing genre classic, at once suggesting topical concerns while conserving an enduring arena for its Hollywood icons to do what they do best. It incorporates much of what distinguished Howard Hawks’ cinema: his uniform themes, style, and tone.
Westerns may appear as diverse and unruly as the characters they contain, but beneath the ten gallon hats and spurs lie a handful of basic mythologies. This guide selects one movie which epitomizes each legend plus another four outstanding examples, each one given a capsule review and illustrated with a classic movie poster. Click on …
Curiously, with all the bold, ambitious, fresh talent storming into Hollywood in the 1960s/1970s – directors who’d cut their teeth in TV like Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer; imports like Roman Polanski and Peter Yates; the first wave of film school “film brats” like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese — one of the most …
Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid Directed by Sam Peckinpah Written by Rudy Wurlitzer 1973, USA Sam Peckinpah was not an easy man to get along with at the best of times and the battles he faced in making Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, now widely considered as amongst the top dozen Westerns ever …
The French gave us the word “demimonde” – literally, half the world. But what it has come to mean in English, or so says Webster, is “a distinct circle or world that is often an isolated part of a larger world.” Storytellers have always held a fascination with the dark side of human nature; that …