Although there are several film noirs that use boxing as a great dramatic device, boxing films are really hit and miss, especially when it comes to true stories. You have Raging Bull as the high watermark and then really mundane affairs like the recent Bleed for This or even Michael Mann's Ali. The Bleeder falls into the middle ground: it's better than … Continue reading The Bleeder – Blu-Ray Review
Josef von Sternberg was one of the first independent filmmakers. Even when he did eventually make studio films, he still put his unique stamp on the final product. However, he had burned many bridges by the time of his last film, The Saga of Anatahan, which he co-financed himself with Japanese backers. His is best known for … Continue reading The Saga of Anatahan – Blu-Ray Review
As the title indicates, Hitler: The Last Ten Days is a film about the final days of Hitler in the bunker. If anything, the film shows that his last ten days were filled with boredom in the face of impending invasion by the Russians. The film doesn’t exactly provide any existing details – it is … Continue reading Hitler: The Last Ten Days – Blu-Ray Review
John Frankenheimer is one of my favourite directors, mainly due to his trilogy of films about paranoia in the '60s: The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May and, perhaps the best of them all, Seconds. Frankenheimer did some fine work in the '70s, most notably the four-hour-long The Iceman Cometh, but like many men of his generation he had problems with … Continue reading Ronin – Blu-Ray Review
Panic in the Streets is an early Elia Kazan film–the film he made right before A Streetcar Named Desire, which completely changed his career's trajectory. It's a slightly odd film for Kazan because it utilised expressionist photography and was pretty much a straightforward film noir. It’s usually not held up as one of his best films, but it’s … Continue reading Panic in the Streets – Blu-Ray Review
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