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![]() Legendary movie about legendary bank robbers fails to live up to its legend. Over-the-top performances and violence that is far from the current cutting-edge make Bonnie and Clyde somewhat of a museum piece. That said, with star power and style points to spare, the movie is worth watching for… |
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![]() Charlton Heston makes Michelangelo as operatic as Moses in The Ten Commandments. Facing off with Rex Harrison’s Warrior Pope in 1500s Rome makes The Agony and the Ecstasy a spectacle extraordinaire. The 2¼ hour runtime wisely starts with a 12 min. intro that covers Michelangelo’s highlight…
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Charlton Heston with the Contessina
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![]() Burton and O’Toole grandly declaim in Becket, a big historical drama and big hit from 1964. Two leading-men of the old school variety, with big voices, they’re more than capable of extreme declamation in a love story between two men – unrequited. The bromance ended badly after Burton’s great ma…
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King & Wingman, before it all went bad
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![]() Samurai cowboys save a poor village in ye old Mexico, riding in to one of the greatest themes of all time. Fifty years on, the all-star cast impresses less than the bravura music — the Marlboro jingle still arouses. The Magnificent Seven famously remakes Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai…
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Elmer Bernstein's Magnificent Theme
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![]() Terrific Western: Howard Hawks behind the camera, John Wayne in front. Also the movie in which Dean Martin proved he could act, even if he was playing his typecast role of drunkard. |
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![]() A deserved classic, this aptly titled movie features giant stars, a ginormous mansion incongruously stuck in the heart of the giant state of Texas, a running time that exceeds three hours and giant story elements. It all works amazingly well, never seeming drawn-out or boring, notwithstanding a …
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Legendary stars in a provocative pose.
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![]() Great American Movies based on Great American Novels reveal new insights at increasingly greater remove. Dating from 1955 and set in 1917, East of Eden is greatly insightful about the changes in America in the near half century between when it was set and made, and the half century plus between…
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James Dean, James Dean, James Dean!
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![]() Marilyn Monroe didn’t want to appear in River of No Return, nor did Otto Preminger want to direct it, especially if Marilyn was to star. Studio contracts forced them into it and we’re all the better for it today. River of No Return is a fine mid-Fifties Western, with surprising Italian root…
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Marilyn sings: Let it wash over you.
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![]() “Shane, come back!” could have been a Simon & Garfunkel lyric. Instead, the troubadours chose Joe DiMaggio, another icon of mid-Century American manhood. Yet, Shane endures as a cultural touchstone. Thousands of baby boomers were christened with his clarion clear name…
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Jack Palance: a badass star is born
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