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Solomon Northup has just become an iconic American hero, some fifteen and a half decades after he lived. Americans from this day forth will know his name like they know Patrick Henry’s or Harriet Tubman’s. That’s not all. The mov…
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Steve McQueen directs Chiwetel Ejiofor
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Well produced Tom Cruise historical epic, appealing to those of us who like such entertainments. As he so often does, Cruise plays a character at once naive and smug, who reveals an admirable steeliness by the third reel. |
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The Old West ended when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hightailed it to Bolivia. Old Westerns ended when Paul Newman and Robert Redford became Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, outlaw charmers the likes of which the Silver Screen had never seen before. Four Oscars plus three additional n…
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Bewitching Musical Interlude
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A Million Ways to Die in the West is highly recommended for Seth MacFarlane fans, of which I’m sadly one. Those capable of being offended should stay away. The F-bombs rain down thick and hard, as does the scatological humor and sexual bombast. Sound funny? Yes, step right up. Heavens no, …
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Self-Absorbed in the time of Self-Rel...
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Ron Howard takes on Moby Dick, starring Chris Hemsworth, in the poorly titled but highly accomplished In the Heart of the Sea. It plays like a 19th century Jaws, albeit with a giant Sperm Whale seeking vengeance on puny humans instead of a Great White Shark. It also challenges 21st century sens…
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Whales were considered sea monsters
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Newton Knight is a newly essential Matthew McConaughey role that finally knights Newt Knight as a true American hero. Even more, Free State of Jones is an only-in-America story, so corny it could only be true. A deeply moral white man frees enslaved blacks and marries a black woman during the C…
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CBS Sunday Morning feature on Newt Kn...
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The Legend of Tarzan is a ton of fun, notwithstanding being leavened by some seriously nasty business. How much fun? Most everyone around me were laughing and cheering by the third reel. One girl took to throwing her arms in the air at each thrilling turn. In the end, the entire theater applaud…
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Dishing about Jane's sex with Tarzan
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Denzel Washington is Yul Brynner caliber, but Chris Pratt ain’t no Steve McQueen and the music in The (2016) Magnificent Seven is a very weak imitation of the all-time great theme from the 1960 original. Hence, Antoine Fuqua’s remake is a solidly entertaining Western, but will hardly go down as…
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Denzel talks Magnificent Seven
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Why don’t slaves revolt? In the South two centuries ago, in the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust or even in Asia now? The Birth of a Nation helps answer that complicated question. Unfortunately the movie itself is complicated. Its creators apparently raped a woman while college students in 19…
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Nate Parker's movie: engaging & affec...
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The American Indian Wars were mostly over by 1892. Bad blood ran deep, with bands of crazed killers roaming the land, as other combatants tried to move on with life after wartime. Writer-director Scott Cooper adroitly uses this brutal and beautiful milieu for a piercing story about a cavalry capt… |