American History X’s Eerily Prescient Take on Today’s Neo-Nazis
Tony Kaye’s 1998 crime film American History X connect today’s Neo-Nazi hatred back to poisons long carried by Americans, dating back to the country’s original sin of slavery.
crime film
Robert Siodmak’s Auf Wiedersehen to Hollywood
Robert Siodmak’s reverse immigration film, Deported, and drama about capital and labor, The Whistle at Eaton Falls, were the last he’d make for Hollywood.
Alfred Hitchcock Plays with Trains in ‘Number Seventeen’
Alfred Hitchcock’s Number Seventeen isn’t a great film but a good one that reminds us of what a casually obsessive craftsman he was.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1963 – 1970
These three Kurosawa films represent the end of one phase of his career and the beginning of another. High and Low is a police procedural that is regarded as one of his greatest films, while Red Beard represented the end of his so-called “Creative Period”.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1950 – 1952
Today’s Kurosawa 101 explores two of the greatest films in Kurosawa’s catalog, Rashomon — the film that made Kurosawa and Japanese cinema known throughout the world — and Ikiru — perhaps the greatest film ever made about impending death.
Guilty Pleasure ‘Master’ Falls Just Short of Crime Film Mastery
Master achieves escapist fare early by heaping on layers of vulgar poetry and happily overt symbolism.
Harry Belafonte Fights Racism in Film Noir ‘Odds Against Tomorrow’
By the late ’50s, some Hollywood filmmakers were producing films that reflected changes in public attitudes and addressed the concerns of the nascent Civil Rights movement. Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow, featuring Harry Belafonte, is a stellar example.