**********************

It’s hard to know where to begin with a film as important, and amazing, as Citizen Kane. I’m hard pressed to name very many pre-1950 films that I actually enjoyed (The Man With The Golden Arm is usually top of my list, alongside The Wizard Of Oz), but Citizen Kane is a new, and utterly acceptable, entry into that list. What’s even more amazing to me, after watching the film and the accompanying Oscar-nominated documentary accompanying it on DVD, The Battle For Citizen Kane, is how the story behind the film is almost better than the film itself. A superstar media legend, aged only 24, creating a film based around the life story of a still-living newspaper magnate, and the stoush which eventuated, almost destroyed a movie studio, and ruined said media legends career in Hollywood for decades. Citizen Kane is a film about, and made by, people with distinctly strong personalities who refuse to give an inch, for better or worse. Almost analogous of its director, Citizen Kane was a bright shining comet slicing through the Hollywood firmament, before burning out in a blaze of negative publicity. What am I talking about, you ask? We’ll get to that in a moment, but suffice to say, Citizen Kane is a film-lovers film, the kind of movie which is essential viewing for anybody with a love of the medium. Appreciating Citizen Kane now, some 60+ years since its release, I can understand how younger, less historically minded film fans might not appreciate Citizen Kane’s often dated techniques, but for anybody with a passion for film, a genuine, deep seated understanding of the medium, this film is essential viewing.

Get your Citizenship here – Click to read more!

**********************

A hundred years from now, when historians look back at the early part of the 21st Century, in particular cultural and popular shifts in social understanding across what was once the Western Hemisphere, no doubt mention will be made of a film about a man who became the messiah, fought an evil devil and thwarted the oncoming apocalypse. No, I’m not taking about The Passion of The Christ, I’m referring to The Matrix, a sci-fi film which came from nowhere in 1999 and changed the face of cinema forever. Make no mistake, the phrase “changed the face of  *whatever* forever” is perhaps one of the most overused cliches ever devised by the English language, but in this instance, it’s the most accurate description. Much like Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, which introduced cinema audiences to a synchronized soundtrack on film, and Star Wars, which introduced us all to the Force, Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi, or the introduction of color during the early part of the 20th Century, The Matrix cracked the mold of what could be achieved in cinema and left us all reeling in amazement. Extraordinary special effects, invented just for the film, astonishing action sequences, and some of the most head-spinning storytelling in a decade made The Matrix a box-office phenomenon, and caused a cultural shift in entertainment possibilities. Much like Jurassic Park, which gave us the first fully realized digital effects, The Matrix introduced a new level of effects and set the bar so high it wouldn’t be toppled until it’s own sequel a few years later.

Take the blue pill. Enter the Matrix. Click here.

**********************

It seemed, during the 80′s, that Arnold Schwarzenegger could do no wrong. Almost every film he appeared in was an enormous financial success. His ability to touch a nerve with audiences around the world would not only propel him to stardom, but give us one of Hollywood’s greatest ever box office draws. With a string of relatively successful box office films behind him, including the campy Conan series, The Terminator, Red Sonja and the bloody Commando, Arnie was becoming well known as a major action star. As if he needed to become typecast, producer Joel Silver and his team approached Arnie with the script to a monster flick entitled Predator. Set in a tropical jungle, and featuring an unstoppable alien creature, intent on hunting him down, Arnie saw potential for the role and for the film’s success. Directed by 80′s action supremo John McTiernan, a man who would go on to helm the 1st and 3rd Die Hard films, Predator had the perfect recipe – throw a bunch of brute-force mercenaries armed to the teeth into a jungle, and then have them chased down by an unstoppable alien killing machine. The result: cinema gold.

To see if it bleeds, and if you can kill it, click here!!!

Alfred Hitchcock has long been considered one of the most visionary directors to ever invest his heart into film. It goes without saying that his understanding of perspective, lighting, and shadow remain miles beyond his contemporaries and even more glaringly those who followed in his footsteps. But, there is one aspect of the man’s genius that many have neglected to praise as much as his ability to twist cinematography to fit a story: his understanding of metaphor.

From his work in the film Vertigo, it was especially interesting to me to note Hitchcock’s dedication to the extended metaphor of circular motion. In poetry, we call that a conceit. I always thought of it as a tool used in the same way a narcissist uses a mirror: to always stay focused on itself. In the same way, Hitchcock used the conceit of vertigo (motion sickness that takes the peculiar form of a sudden wave of dizziness) to further explore the idea of chasing something continuously without ever actually fully grasping its significance. The man, surely, was a poet.

(more…)

**********************

While today this film will seem somewhat dated with its glorification of violence and sexuality, you have to remember that in the late 60′s, when Bonnie & Clyde was first released, it was one of the most controversial films ever. Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow were a young couple on the run through depression-era America, robbing banks and killing folks, joined later in their career by Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife, and WD Jones, who was a young small-time hood known to police and a childhood friend of Barrow. Together they cut a swathe through small-town USA, causing plenty of headaches for the police, federal agents and Bank tellers everywhere. While their fame as a crime gang grew, the target on their backs was always growing in sympathy, until both Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down by a posse on a small country road in Louisiana. Chief among their pursuers was one-time Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who eventually tracked down Barrow and killed the duo as they paused to assist one of their family. Read the Wiki page on their story here.

Follow the gunfire to more of our review here!!!

**********************

Epic, terrifying, epochal war film, set during the twilight of the German successes of World War II’s sea battles, Das Boot (Eng: The Boat) is a monument to the bravery and human triumph of those sailors asked to do the unimaginable. Unlike Hollywood-ised examples of submariner conflict, such as U-571, Das Boot shows us that even the men on the German side were questioning their orders in the face of certain defeat. These guys aren’t the square-jawed Matthew MacConnaughey types; the men of the titular U-boat in question are husbands, brothers, lovers and sons – men who never once consider themselves brave or heroic, just soldiers who have a duty to their country.

Go deeper underwater with more of this review of Das Boot!!

**********************

One of Disney’s shortest animated features, featuring a lead character who doesn’t speak through the entire film, is still as appealing now as it was at the time of release, way back in 1941. This fact is a testament to the creative quality that makes Dumbo such a genuine family classic. It’s a simple tale, gorgeously animated and well performed, featuring some truly jaw-dropping ideas and imagery, which allows the audience to become drawn into the more “human” elements of the film. Considering the main cast are all animals, that’s no small feat.

Continue our exploration of Dumbo here…

******************

There are two moments in Apocalypse Now that have entered the pop-culture zeitgeist, moments that are spoofed, parodied and played upon whenever somebody wants a historical touchstone for war, or the madness of it. Robert Duvall’s oft-quoted line about loving the smell of napalm, and the epic helicopter attack utilising the score for Wagner’s Ride Of The Valkyries. However, ask anybody under the age of around 25 what films they come from, or indeed anything else about that film, and you’ll probably receive a blank look. Which is a shame, because Apocalypse Now is a film worthy of inclusion into whatever pantheon of Great War Films you seek to fill. Director Francis Ford Coppola suffered a nervous breakdown whilst filming this monster, star Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and Marlon Brando…. well, behaved exactly like Marlon Brando would; yet for all its famed production troubles (and I use the term “troubles” in the lightest sense, because this was an apocryphal film to make) Apocalypse Now remains an enduring icon in Hollywood’s history. Today, we take a look back at the film itself, look beyond the anecdotes and myths, to see if it really does hold up after all these years.

Delve deeper into the redux, here!!!

**********************

This review is based on the extended Director’s Cut version of Aliens, long thought by fans to be the definitive version of the film. Key story elements removed for the theatrical version, such as setting up the LV426 colony at the opening of the film, additional character development for Ripley during the opening act and various other narrative enhancers throughout which add to the story.

If it was possible to exceed what Ridley Scott did with Alien, then James Cameron did so with Aliens. In what can only be described as a tour de force of science fiction, James Cameron cemented his place as a genuine A-list director, following his breakout mainstream debut with Terminator, with the follow-up to Alien. Set some time after the events in Alien, with Ellen Ripley being found drifting in the remains of the Nostromo’s escape pod, some 52 years after she blew the Alien Queen out the door, Aliens manages to return our heroine to the planet she never wanted to return to. Aliens is not your typical action-sci-fi fare, however, in that it takes its time setting up the scenario, the characters, and the plot. Avoiding Ridley Scott’s original noir-ish tone from film 1, Cameron eschews the more traditional scary movie feel for a gung-ho, testosterone injected thrill ride, balancing both character development and hard-core thrills in equal measure. To say Aliens is a masterpiece is an understatement of an order of magnitude. What Cameron achieved set the benchmark for science fiction (and the Alien franchise) film and, until he revised that benchmark again in Terminator 2, would never be bettered.

Flick it of safety and come for a ride with us! Click here to ready the rest of this article!!!