My 1/2-Ass Movie Blog

  STAR WARS:EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guiness. Dir. George Lucas, 20th Century Fox, 1977 Over the 18 months since starting this blog, I've avoided writing about STAR WARS. That fandom has become so toxic and unpleasant it has grown difficult to write about the film or the franchise without touching off controversy and often inane debate. It felt like maybe it just wasn't worth the potential heartache, but it's an enormously influential film in my life and, after watching it again the other day - I believe I've seen it over 1,000 times but have no idea the actual number - I decided I'm tired of not talking about what I love on a blog dedicated to just that. I'm not pointing fingers when I say the fandom has grown toxic. I am pleased to say I had nothing to do with running Kelly Tran offline, nor will you find me in any of those tiresome threads where clueless white guys complain about diversity in George Lucas'...

  DUEL Dennis Weaver, Cary Loftin. Dir. Steven Spielberg, Universal, 1971. Not long ago, I ran across an old interview with HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter in which he professed to hate the New Hollywood movement of the '70s, a movement which includes Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. Carpenter does not single directors out by name, and I have to wonder if he hated Spielberg, because a good argument can be made that he & Carpenter employ a similar approach in their filmmaking, at least in the sense that both infuse story & thematic elements from one kind of genre film into others. Carpenter has long touted Howard Hawks's RIO BRAVO as his favorite film, yet he has never made a traditional Western. Instead, Carpenter took the ideas he loved from BRAVO - and Hawks in general - and used them in ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. Ditto Spielberg. Though he exec-produced BACK TO THE FUTURE III & AN AMERICAN TALE:FIEVEL GOES WEST, he, too...

  TRUE GRIT John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall. Dir. Henry Hathaway, Paramount, 1969 For those who read the title of this piece, "No Comparison," to mean that I prefer the Coen Brothers' 2010 version - it's ludicrous to call it a remake - over Henry Hathaway's 1969 take, I've got bad news. Though the plot of both films is, with two exceptions, identical, these films have very little in common, to the extent that doing a head-to-head comparison does both films a disservice. Preference is a willful creature. The heart wants what it wants. We love what we love, regardless of whether it makes sense. I prefer Hathaway's version, but that doesn't make it better than the Coens' or vice versa. What do I prefer in Hathaway's 1969 production? Quite a bit. Barry Pepper's reading of secondary villain Lucky Ned Pepper may well be one of his best performances, but I'll take Robert Duvall over Mr. Pepper. Domhnall Gleeson gives an ...

  EL DORADO. John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Ed Asner. Dir. Howard Hawks, Paramount, 1966 Of his work, John Wayne was known to say, "I'm not an actor, I'm a reactor." Various talents have disputed that idea over the years (particularly the late Peter Bogdonovich, whose commentary for El Dorado I just watched this morning.) I happen to love Wayne, in general, & a number of his performances rate particularly high in my pantheon, but I don't know that I'm qualified to say if he's acting or reacting. Whichever, it cannot be disputed that, for Wayne, the quality of director, and the quality of Wayne's relationship with that director, went a long way toward deciding the quality of Wayne's work in the finished project. Of those directors to whom Wayne responded so well, two take precedence: John Ford & Howard Hawks. Ford more or less discovered Wayne, though Raoul Walsh was the first director to cast him as a leading man in 1930's THE...