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The Claim (2000) – Review
Thomas Hardy, who wrote poetry and fiction, wrote detailed stories full of richly drawn characters struggling against society and fate. While they would seem to be the type of novels that could be made into successful movies, that hasn’t always been the case. Director Michael Winterbottom, for example, has made three movie adaptations of Hardy…
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McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – Review
On the surface, Robert Altman’s McCabe& Mrs. Miller may sound like your traditional Western film. The title character, John McCabe (Warren Beatty), is a gambler with a mysterious past who comes to town to set up a business, and he partners up with people in the town, including a saloon owner (Sheehan, played by…
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Reel 76: The Gangster Film as Allegory
This episode and the previous episode have something in common, besides the word “allegory”. All of these films are specifically anti-Capitalism allegories based in genre films. Last week it was Westerns; this week it’s Gangster films. And the only reason I didn’t put that in the episode title is because that’s a LOT of words…
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R.I.P., Robert Towne
As those who have suffered through a broadcast of an Academy Awards ceremony know, the acceptance speeches can all sound the same, with people thanking, in no particular order, the people who worked on the film with them, their families, God, and so on. However, every once in a while, you get an unexpected element…
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Getting Social
Sean usually rattles off where we can be found on the Social Media, but I thought it’d be helpful to get it all into one place. You can email us here. The show is on the Book of Face here. The show’s Instagram feed. The show’s Xitter feed (yeah, we still post there, mostly announcements…
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Reel 75: The Western as Allegory
Webster’s (online) Dictionary defines allegory as “the expression by means of fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence.” How’s THAT for an eye-opener? Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Wait, isn’t that a metaphor?” No. A metaphor, in its broadest sense, is a symbolic representation of a concept. So while…









