Reviews and Blog Posts: film series

It is a uniquely Colorado experience to be nestled in the breathtaking alcove of Red Rocks, watching the sun set over Denver, while reveling in a warm Summer evening and anticipating a beloved film. Each event is full of music, film and camaraderie. I have fond memories of seeing Saving Private Ryan and The Big Lebowski in years past.

Steampunk has its roots in the scientific romances of the mid-19th century but really took flight (steam powered of course!) in the 1980s and most recently in the aught-aughts. A group of writers (Jeter, Blaylock, Powers) working in southern California would meet up at their local watering hole and realized they were all writing similar works, as a joke they called it "Steampunk".

I saw Johnny Guitar about ten years ago and I liked it just fine then. Now it is one of my favorite films of the 1950s. Here's why:

10. Joan Crawford in a Western! WWJD -- What would Joan do? What wouldn't she do?

9. The landscapes, filmed in TruColor, are spectacular and somehow just a bit alien.

8. Johnny Guitar makes a great case against the blacklisting and witch hunts of the McCarthy Era.

Toward the end of her life, Joan Crawford was asked to comment on the 1954 film Johnny Guitar. She answered that she thought she was wrong for the part and she wished she hadn't made the film. I'm glad she did -- and so are a lot of fans of Crawford and the Western genre. 

The Harvey Girls is a Hollywood original, but it feels like a Broadway musical brought to the big screen.

I mentioned to a friend this weekend that Marlene Dietrich's starring role in the popular film Destry Rides Again was a comeback performance for her. My friend asked how Dietrich could have a comeback when her career was strong and steady all the way through. Which is how most movie fans think of Dietrich. 

A lot of actors, musicians and even politicians have played the name game -- changing up their name for something more befitting someone whose star is destined to rise. Hollywood movie star Joan Crawford built a formidable career after the studio held a contest in which fans got to choose a new name for starlet Lucille LeSueur. It's very possible Barry Manilow found it easier to write the songs that make the whole world sing after he legally left Barry Alan Pincus behind. John Denver may have felt Henry John Deutschendorf was bumming his Rocky Mountain High.

No contemporary filmmaker has created a body of work that showcases so singular a vision as Tim Burton. With a gothic palette and an Emo sensibility, Burton creates memorable, quirky and thoroughly original stories on film. He dares his audience to dream unreal dreams while tapping into our universal desire to be unique and our fears of being alone, rejected or, worst of all, normal. Walter Chaw, filmfreakcentral.net, hosts with after-film discussion