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Becket
Great 66 Points 1964

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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WikChip Image King & Wingman, before it all went bad
The Warlords
Really Great 66 Points 2007

As essential to understanding China as Gone with the Wind is to understanding America, The Warlords brims with operatic history, passion, blood and beauty. GWTW romanticized the 1861 American Civil War; This 21st Century Chinese production romanticizes the – a – Chinese Civil War, also f…

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WikChip Image Slaughtering 4,000 men splits bloodbr...
Best of Enemies
Perfect 66 Points 2015

The future of TV politics hit the ABC News airwaves during the 1968 presidential nominating conventions. Best of Enemies, a transcendent documentary, brings it all back to life. William F. Buckley debating Gore Vidal is the proximate focus, but the larger story is the rise of opinion-centric TV…

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WikChip Video Brilliant and Brilliantly Entertaining
The Desert Fox:...
Really Great 66 Points 1951

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel – the Desert Fox – was Nazi Germany’s national hero, their military icon. Hitler needed him, couldn’t kill him, so he had Rommel kill himself. Absolute evil, thy name is Hitler.

That and more make The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel a touchstone World War II movi…

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WikChip Video Start with the end: Churchill on Rommel
Marshall
Great 66 Points 2017

The American hero who almost single-handedly defeated institutional racism personified his unique first name. Lots of Marshalls, just one Thurgood, which is why Marshall is a poor title for this stirring biopic. OTOH, Thurgood sounds like a thoroughly good historical drama about Thurgood Mars…

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WikChip Video Thurgood Marshall, American action hero
The Death of St...
Good 66 Points 2018

Cults of personality hit peak absurdity when their object dies, as vividly satired in The Death of Stalin. Unfortunately, this political comedy is more smart than funny. Hence, its LOLs are few and far between.

Stalin funny? Yeah, even though he stands nearly alone in megalomaniacal evil, be…

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WikChip Video The Banality of Evil, Satired
Operation Finale
Perfect 66 Points 2018

The banality of evil gets a powerful debunking in Operation Finale, an awkwardly if accurately titled docudrama about the Mossad’s 1960 capture of Final Solution logistics chief Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Little Adolf was famously said to embody “the banality of evil” as he dissembled during …

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WikChip Video The (real) Man Who Got Eichmann
Hotel Mumbai
Great 66 Points 2019

The 2008 Mumbai attacks were of 9/11 savagery and comprehensiveness, yet have faded from Western consciousness. Hotel Mumbai recreates them with stunning alacrity, moving quickly from the Islamist terrorists coming ashore in rubber boats to starting to shoot-up train stations, restaurants and e…

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WikChip Video A Measure of Justice
Midway
Great 66 Points 2019

Visual and historic greatness trumps the wooden acting in Midway, making it a great war movie that is an absolute must for we history buffs and patriots. The Battle of Midway was the Greatest Naval Battle Ever, won by Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson, stolid) & pilots like Dick Best (Ed …

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WikChip Video Useful 23 min on Greatest Naval Battle
Richard Jewell
Really Great 66 Points 2019

The FBI’s reputation takes a big blow in Richard Jewell, making Clint Eastwood’s movie about 1996 timely in 2019. Last week’s Justice Department IG report crushed any belief that the upper echelon of the FBI is the least bit trustworthy. That came years after the FBI didn’t pay attention "when …

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WikChip Video Mike Wallace interviews Jewell 6 year...