“The thing about improvisation is that it’s not about what you say. It’s listening to what other people say. It’s about what you hear” Paul Merton It’s something of an unwritten rule for any stage performer that you must, at the drop of a hat, be able to think on your feet and react off …
Whether storming a beach or a besieging castle, marching on foot or charging on horseback, in a historical epic or a fantasy extravaganza, battles scenes are some of the most complex and intricately choreographed of all action scenes. Capable of zooming in to a one-on-one fight between two foes or zooming out to show a …
#10. Chinatown (1974) Lost to: The Godfather Part II Well, no one will argue that it should have won, but still. Roman Polanski’s film made a true leading man out of Jack Nicholson. It grabbed eleven nominations, only taking home one. That being said, that one was for Original Screenplay, written by Robert Towne, which may …
1. Jaws We almost never lose site of the beach and the ocean in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 timeless film Jaws – over someone’s shoulder, outside the window, just beyond the swing set in the back yard, the threat of the great white is ever present. Far from their home in the Big Apple, Amity Island’s …
If you think back to some of the most successful Hollywood blockbusters of the last three decades, chances are that Tom Hanks has starred in a fair few of them. Hanks may have debuted as a comic actor with his feel-good all-American persona, but he’s also shown himself to be a complex and sensitive artist …
My Way Directed by Kang Je-gyu Written by Kang Je-gyu and Kim Byung-in South Korea, 2012 When Steven Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan, he set the modern day standard for an epic, moving war film. But for all his achievements, they were all but negated by his equally majestic failures in War Horse. However, in …
I’ve always been a war film buff, maybe because I grew up with them at a time when they were a regular part of the cinema landscape. That’s why I read, with particular interest, my Sound on Sight colleague Edgar Chaput’s recent pieces on The Flowers of War (“The Flowers of War Is an Uneven …
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2:4 War is a nation’s ultimate commitment of blood and treasure. As such, the stories a people tells about its wars – and don’t tell …
Recently we posted the winners of this year’s American Cinema Editors (ACE) Awards, and I was happy to see that Angus Wall (A.C.E.), & Kirk Baxter won the award for Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) for their incredible work on The Social Network. As an editor myself, every cut in a movie goes noticed and …
First Posted on FilmBusters on 05/18/10 So it has been ten weeks and the HBO mini-series The Pacific has drawn to a close. So I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the production now that I have had the opportunity to watch it in its entirety. In broad strokes, I have to …