The Human Monster: On Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood
“There are no good and bad men; there are only damaged men … “
Category: Historical & Epic
Historical & Epic · Writers & Critics
Bowling for America: Robert Warshow, There Will Be Blood, and the Topography of Desire
“The king-times are fast finishing. There will be blood shed like water, and tears like mist. But the peoples will conquer in the end. I shall not live to see it, but I foresee it.”
Serpentine Evil and the Garden of Eden: On DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949)
Samson, meet Adam; Delilah, meet Eve
Historical & Epic · Movies · Reviews
300 Lies? Give Poetics a Chance
What’s Greek history without distortions, inaccuracies, and falsehoods? In the western Aegean, in a narrow pass by the Gulf of Malis, 300 Spartans and their Hellenic allies, led by King[…]
Fashion and Dunst: The Substance of Marie Antoinette
“The Coppola ideal is a young girl trapped in fustiness: she can be an object of voyeurism without a trace of lewdness, and remain spiritually intact even when accessorized.” Sofia[…]
Ann-Margret in Wonderland: But Bates and the Brits Are at Home in The Return of the Soldier
“Her English accent wanders around her mouth like a playful ice cube.” Have pity on The Return of the Soldier. Shot in England in 1982, the film did not get[…]
Führerkontakt: The Emerging German Perspective on the Third Reich
“In short, completely normal.” A great deal of how the Third Reich presented itself and how we have come to know it is visual. Early on, the Nazis understood the[…]
Rousseau Redux: Regis Wargnier’s Disappointing Pygmy Tale Man to Man
These “noble savages” — and the issues they embody — deserve better
The Aviator: Marty and Leo Do Howard
It all started when his mother washed his balls
Drama · Historical & Epic · Reviews
Plumbing the Depths: Renoir and Kurosawa Do Gorky
Criterion’s double-feature DVD features two minor works by two major auteurs
Activist & Political · Essays · Historical & Epic
Want Fact with That? Disney’s Hidalgo and the Commodification of Myth
Enjoy your myths that’s what they’re there for
Baden Boy: Peter Sehr’s Kaspar Hauser
Poor boy, long way from home
O Captain! My Captain! Master and Commander
Master and Commander wants to raise your mast
Animation · Historical & Epic · War
Private Snafu’s Hidden War: Historical Survey and Analytical Perspective
The famed doofus of WWII propaganda cartoons served purposes patriotic and perfidious
Shalom? Auf Wiedersehen! Werner Herzog’s Invincible
“Invincible” Herzog does it again
Essays · Historical & Epic · Reviews
Black and White Breakfast: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Corn Flakes in Alan Parker’s The Road to Wellville
Parker’s “ode to bathroom humor” plumbs surprising depths Contemporary American comedy evades realistic treatment of social issues, opting instead for escape from these issues. That the bulk of racial representation[…]
Documentaries · Historical & Epic
Beauty and the Beast: The Architecture of Doom, a Documentary
The artistic underpinnings of Nazi terror The puzzle of Hitler and the Holocaust continues to twist in and out of the popular consciousness like a particularly hardy virus, most recently[…]
Historical & Epic · Reviews · Silents
Behind the Brocade: Abel Gance’s Lucrezia Borgia
The Borgias are having an orgy Old master Abel Gance directed this juicy potboiler of family values run amok as a frankly commercial job to put baguettes on the table.[…]
Asian · Historical & Epic · Reviews
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Art Film Hidden Inside the Chop-Socky Flick
Ang Lee: third-wave feminist? The reviews of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon have been positive – but the critics, somehow, seem more impressed by the trimmings than the turkey.[…]
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