10 Films that Revised the Western

Hell or High Water is shaping up to become one of the most notable modern examples of the revisioned western. To mark its release I’m going to be talking about a subgenre of one of the most celebrated traditions of American…

Out of the Past: “D.O.A” (1950)

This movie isn’t a contender for one of the classic films of all time, but it provides viewers with a damn good time. The simple concept of D.O.A. (Dead On Arrival) is straightforward. Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’ Brien) is a…

When You Lose, You Win: The Hemingway Code in Sam Peckinpah’s Westerns

“Bloody” Sam Peckinpah was to film what Hemingway was to the novel. Peckinpah used the editing room to change the literature of cinema. He slowed down time so a moment took an eternity. The spatter of blood from a wounded…