Posts tagged as:

crime

The Thin Man (1934)

by Bill on May 25, 2009

Directed by W.S. Van Dyke There’s a heck of a lot of drinking in this movie. But there’s also a heck of a lot of fun. In fact, The Thin Man is a delight from start to finish. It begins as a standard, noir-like mystery-thriller of the period (1934). We meet some characters, most not [...]

{ 2 comments }

L.A. Confidential: moral dilemmas and style

by Bill on November 17, 2008

Recently, it appears I’ve been on a John Wayne thing. To get away from that for the moment, here’s what I wrote recently about L.A. Confidential (1997). For what it’s worth … I’ve always been lukewarm on noir films. I prefer comedies, romances and, of course, westerns. Still there are, as we all know, some [...]

{ 0 comments }

Dirty Harry (1971)

by Bill on September 21, 2008

Directed by Don Siegel I’ve always found Dirty Harry a troubling movie. Well, almost all of the earlier, image making movies of Clint Eastwood have been troubling to me, but Dirty Harry tops my list. The reason is simple: from the first time I saw it, I’ve loved the movie but I felt that I [...]

{ 1 comment }

Blood Work (2002)

by Bill on July 21, 2008

Directed by Clint Eastwood I think Hollywood must be puzzled over what to make of Clint Eastwood. You almost get the feeling they allow him to make movies out of a sense of obligation – he represents an older style within a Hollywood dominated and obsessed by youth. It would be in just too much [...]

{ 0 comments }

Chinatown (1974)

by Bill on November 20, 2007

Directed by Roman Polanski Chinatown, a wonderful movie, is an example of what a script can do for a film. It’s like finding the right music at a party. Someone feels compelled to dance, then another and another. Soon, everyone’s up dancing. And dancing well. In Chinatown, just about every artist is dancing their damnedest [...]

{ 0 comments }

Bandits (2001)

by Bill on October 22, 2007

Directed by Barry Levinson Some years ago, maybe around the time of Pulp Fiction, Hollywood developed a new kind of movie genre which I call the chimera. In Greek mythology, the chimera has a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. In other words, it’s a hodge podge. So I call certain movies [...]

{ 0 comments }