We’ve seen numerous attempts to revitalize the Western genre, whether it be the gleefully deranged spaghetti westerns of the 1960s, the acidic revisionist westerns that contained an excessive amount of violence in the 1970s, or the move towards more hyper-realistic depictions of the frontier in more recent years. There’s merit to all of these, and…

Despite being revered as one of the nation’s greatest artists, Robert Altman was known to engage in telling stories that showed a different side of the United States of America. He was not entirely enamoured with many of the popular and idealistic concepts that swirled around the national consciousness, and used many of his films…

Sidney Poitier was a revolutionary by every definition of the word – as an actor he broke boundaries, and as a social activist he spent decades fighting for marginalized communities, using his status as one of the most prominent artists of the past century to influence and challenge oppressive structures, which often included taking on…

When it comes to titles, few are as appropriate in describing a film as Little Big Man, a film of staggering length about a very small and supposedly inconsequential individual whose voyage through various stages of American history have made it one of the more cherished works of the New Hollywood movement. Directed by Arthur…

One simply cannot discuss New Hollywood without talking about Walter Hill. A filmmaker whose career as a director and writer stretches back to the very beginning of the movement that helped the industry develop into the ambitious cultural utopia it is seen as today, his legacy is undeniable, even if his films tend to vary…

“Hogue lived and died here in the desert, and I’m sure Hell will never be too hot for him” There are many filmmakers that we associate with New Hollywood, the artist who defined the movement away from very traditional forms of storytelling, to more subversive, provocative and daring, which set the standard for several generations…

At the perfect intersection between the work of Mel Brooks and John Waters sits Lust in the Dust, a film so heavily indebted to the latter, that a couple of his collaborators appear in major roles, with a few others being considered for supporting parts (and Waters himself being courted to direct the film, with…

Here are two unimpeachable truths – John Ford was the greatest director of westerns in history, and John Wayne the best actor to ever work in the genre. There’s a third truth that combines them both, in the form of the fact that when Ford and Wayne worked together, no one could come close to…

When it comes to classics of the western genre, you can’t really go wrong with High Noon, the fascinating film by Fred Zinnemann, who directs the story of a semi-retired US marshal who is forced to defend his town (and his honour) from the encroaching danger of a gang who are in pursuit of revenge…