Been a while. Bike accidents, vacations, life, etc.
Anyway, went to see Apocalypse Now (1979) the other day at Chicago’s Navy Pier IMAX, which, unlike the local multiplex version of the format (snarkily referred to as “LieMax”), happens to be the real deal (60’H x 86’W
Back on April 18, 1945, as the Battle of Okinawa raged in WWII’s Pacific Theatre, arguably the most beloved reporter in the field, Ernie Pyle, was felled by enemy fire. Nine years later, while covering the First Indochina War, photographer Robert Capa, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the man solely responsible for the only photos of D-Day’s first-wave landings, was killed by a landmine.
Lonesome Dove, the epic 6.5-hour miniseries, is indeed my pick for the greatest book-to-film adaptation ever. Before we dig into the particulars of the series, let’s quickly take a look a the source material, a sprawling novel (843 pages hardcover, 945 paperback) written by Larry McMurtry.
(1993, Dir: Joe Dante)Recently, while taking in the newest and very gratifying Spielberg/Hanks collaboration, Bridge of Spies, I couldn’t help but recall Joe Dante’s 1993 classic, Matinee, which dealt with much of the same high-stakes Cold War paranoia, albeit comically.
Every hear of The Criterion Collection? No? Well, it’s the company I hold responsible for my crack-like addiction to the latest and greatest home video formats of the last 20 years. Founded back in 1984, The Criterion Collection entered the home video marketplace with a lofty but admirable goal, conveniently printed on each of its releases: “…to gather the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest quality.”