They Were Expendable (1945)

Once again, Clint Eastwood reaches after profundity and compassion but can grasp only conventional emotions and beliefs

Edward Burns’s young career as a director has gone from promising (The Brothers McMullin) to flabby (She’s the One) to utterly self-indulgent and silly in his latest and, I hope, last film, No Looking Back. The big idea here is to take that over-familiar and by now thoroughly boring conceit of the 1950s (most recently…

A well-made and emotionally satisfying study in elemental human passions that is splendidly down-to-earth — in more ways than one

Never a big fan of the late Stanley Kubrick’s, I went to see Eyes Wide Shut with no very great expectations. As in so many of Kubrick’s films, the cineaste predominates over the dramatist or the moralist. He is one of those directors — Bertolucci is another — whose approach to the movies is what…

[See discussion under “My diary” entry for June 29, 2011] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

A moving and beautiful portrait of the natural bond between teacher and pupils that is also a stealth critique of today’s educational orthodoxy