Author: ccradio
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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…
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Reel 74: The Wages of Greed
Sure, Gordon Gekko told us all that greed, for lack of a better term, is good. And that film sometimes takes the blame for a bunch of unfortunate things that took place in the 1990s. But there are films out there which note that there’s a darker side to greed (and, to be fair, Wall…
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Reel 73: More John LeCarré
With this episode we conclude our mini-series on spy films, with a second set of films based on the novels of John LeCarré. We start with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a 2011 film directed by Tomas Alfredson and starring more high-power talent than you can shake a stick at. They spent so much money on…
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Reel 72: Films Based on John LeCarré
Our look at spy films takes a decidedly more serious turn, as we go from the wackiness of The In-Laws and Top Secret! to the Cold War grittiness of today’s films based on novels by John LeCarré. We begin with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, from 1965. This film, directed by Martin…
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Reel 71: Accidental Spies
Don’t you hate it when you’re just out there minding your own business, doing your job and the next thing you know you’re involved with a South American crime cartel, or you’re behind the Iron Curtain? That’s what happens in this episode of the show. We find some fairly ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances.…
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Reel 70: Love During Wartime
Roughly two-thirds of this show’s life ago, we did an episode titled “Life During Wartime“, in which the war wasn’t always neatly spelled out. In today’s episode, it’s Love During Wartime, and again the war isn’t quite so obvious, except that it’s referring specifically to the Cold War. We’re looking at a pair of films…
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Reel 69: When Icons Meet
In a way, this episode is an unofficial third in our recent series of fairy tales, in the sense that it depicts a couple of “What if?” scenarios, except this time around we’re using people who really existed. First up is Insignificance, from 1985, and then it’s One Night In Miami… from 2020. Interestingly, both…
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Reel 68: More Modern Fairy Tales
In this episode we continue our theme of Modern-Day Fairy Tales, even though in one case it’s not necessarily set in the present day. So let’s just call it a present-day telling of a fairy tale and leave it at that. And that’s where we start this time around, with 1993’s The Bride With White…
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Reel 67: Modern Fairy Tales, Part 1
Apologies for the delay to this episode, but I got Covid last week at the same time as a sinus infection, and I was definitely laid low for awhile. Not a cool way to spend your birthday week, to be sure. Anyway, thanks for your patience. In today’s episode we’re looking at two films that…
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Reel 66: The Remake Was Better 2
As noted in the previous episode, once in awhile a film gets remade that actually manages to eclipse its predecessor for one reason or another. This is the second of two episodes wherein we look at two films that stand as a good example. We begin with The Thomas Crown Affair, from 1999. It was…