by Bill Grinnell High Noon was about a lot more than just a man standing up to evil. Westerns used to be more that just Westerns. I’m willing to bet most people don’t know that. Westerns (along with Sci-Fi) were used for years as a way to disguise social and political commentary. Audiences would look… Continue reading High Noon: A Hidden Allegory for McCarthyism
Category: Articles
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Oscars
by Bill Grinnell The Academy Awards ceremony is the biggest event of the year for me. I actually refer to it as Film Geek Christmas, and yes, as much as I hate to admit it, this day is more important to me than Christmas. While there are some volatile races this year, most of the… Continue reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Oscars
Banner Year: 1939
by Bill Grinnell Part of our limited series Banner Year 1939 1939 is consistently considered to be Hollywood’s greatest year. More well received, popular, and well remembered films came out in 1939 than any other. It’s called a Banner Year. Unfortunately, the term is currently so bandied about that it has lost almost all of… Continue reading Banner Year: 1939
Frame by Frame: Blake Edwards
Picking a Scene Apart: There’s more here than the audience perceives: I’m beginning a new series of articles where I literally pick a scene apart to show the reader what each little bit of the scene means. What that part establishes about a character or a character relationship. What is being done subliminally, symbolically, and… Continue reading Frame by Frame: Blake Edwards
How the American New Wave was Born
It’s been called a lot of things. The New Hollywood, The Film School Generation, or simply as The 70’s. More recently, the 13 years between 1970 and 1983 have come to be known as The American New Wave. It was a period of much excitement, upheaval, and change that had the unintended after effect of… Continue reading How the American New Wave was Born
What you will find here
With the lockdown, people have more time to explore films they never thought of before. Despite popular opinion, there are films more than 40 years old that are still watchable, relevant, and entertaining. More than just the handful everyone can name like The Wizard of Oz (1939) or It’s a Wonderful Life (1946.) That’s why… Continue reading What you will find here
