By Anees Aref. Often described as “psychological westerns”, these films eschewed the conventional heroes of the old west for more complicated protagonists, flawed and motivated by darker impulses….” The “Noir-Western” sounds like a contradiction in terms. One associates the western with the 19th century American frontier, wide open vistas, horses, cowboys […]
Three Sides of the Same Coin: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Criterion Collection)
By Theresa Rodewald. An unflinching depiction of the dying West and the violence inherent to the frontier….” Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) is a film shaped and defined by its past. Shot more than 50 years ago, its production was infamously fraught. Director Sam Peckinpah and […]
Bodies Bodies Bodies: Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County
By Thomas M. Puhr. Even at its bleakest – and it features some shockingly meanspirited turns of fate – the film keeps one eye on being a good time at the movies.” Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023) opens with a bird sitting atop an empty pump […]
“A Dying Man, Scared of the Dark”: Don Siegel’s The Shootist (Arrow Video)
By Jeremy Carr. Just as crucial to The Shootist is what Books leaves behind, which, prior to the beginning of the film, was nothing more than his dubious exploits and the tales that followed. By the end of the film, though, there is something more.” It obviously isn’t necessary to […]
Forgiveness of the Frontier: An Interview with Viggo Mortensen on Directing The Dead Don’t Hurt
By Yun-hua Chen. I think that, in some sense, forgiveness is more important than revenge. There’s a desire for revenge…. That’s sort of instant gratification for certain kinds of movie fans, but it’s not very interesting or realistic.” The Dead Don’t Hurt, a unique Western imbued with Viggo Mortensen’s distinct […]
Always an Outsider – Harry Dean Stanton: Hollywood’s Zen Rebel
A Book Review by Ali Moosavi. I’ve always felt like an outsider….” –Harry Dean Stanton One of my abiding movie memories comes from the 1984 Edinburgh International Film Festival. I got to watch a late night showing of the full, uncut, 229 minute version of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a […]
Tom Mix Rides Again: Sky High (1922) and The Big Diamond Robbery (1929)
By Jeremy Carr. Although many Mix pictures are lost, these illustrative entries showcase his customary assurance, his virtue, and his penchant for showmanship.” If Hollywood’s classic Western heroes are generally given little positive thought these days, the cowboy celebrities of the silent era in particular are even less familiar. In […]
A Neglected Man as Machine – Soldier: From Script to Screen
A Book Review Essay by Andrew Kolarik. There is something admirable in the blind positivity the book has towards Soldier and makes it a quiet strength, for better or worse.” What is it about some films that makes us utterly embrace them, even the derided and forgotten ones? Why do […]
Triggered: The Post-Traumatic Woman and Narratology in HBO’s Westworld
By Keith Clavin and Christopher La Casse. As the show develops, we come to learn that some of the hosts are not ‘forgetting’ the traumas inflicted upon them…. Despite a wipe of their memory caches regarding prior ‘narratives’ (earlier roles they played in the park’s performances), they seem to be […]
Katabasis and News of the World
By Ken Hall. The journey undertaken by Captain Kidd (Tom Hanks)…through Texas causes him to pass through ‘alien territory’ in a double sense. He is not closely acquainted with some of the locales which he encounters nor with the routes to those locales. Perhaps more important is the underlying strangeness of the […]