Essays and reflections on movies, their impact and influence, and the people who created them.
If the Western is the vehicle with which contemporary filmmakers investigate the past to understand the present, then Liberty Valance illuminates how unrest in the 20th century reached back to the 19th century to uncover the lies America has been telling itself ever since. Continue reading THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
Butch Cassidy. The Sundance Kid. The names are legendary—synonymous with the Wild West, outlaws and bandits, banks and train robberies. Cassidy was the thinker. The Kid was the fighter. Together, they robbed and rode along the Outlaw Trail and called Hole-in-the-Wall their own. Continue reading BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
The father has two sons and one of them is rotten. The only problem is the father sees more of himself in the rotten one than the other. This here is the West, and 20 years ago, it took men … Continue reading GUNMAN’S WALK
Concerned about what?” That was the question an attendee at the Conference on World Affairs posed after hearing about the theme of the ongoing Boulder Weekly special issue series: A Survival Guide for Concerned Citizens. “Concerned about the planet?” he … Continue reading Documentaries for Concerned Citizens: Cinematic Survival Guide, Vol. 2
We’ve been here before. Sure, it seems worse, and some of the problems we’re facing are novel, but you don’t have to look hard to find analogs and parallels from the past. As Mark Twain put it: “History doesn’t repeat … Continue reading Distress Flares: Cinematic Survival Guide, Vol. 1
You might not believe it, but the Academy Awards mean a lot. Sure, it’s nice to be nominated, but winning that 8.5-pound golden statue—designed by the great MGM art director Cedric Gibbons and, allegedly, modeled after a nude sketch of … Continue reading FLOW and INCIDENT: Two First-Time Nominees to Root for at the 2025 Oscars
When it comes to westerns, 1950 was a banner year. More than 125 features were released that year—a high-water mark the genre would never again see—and many would become emblematic of the genre: John Ford’s Wagon Master, Henry King’s The … Continue reading WINCHESTER ’73
On Friday, Jan. 24, the Denver Film Critics Society—a group of writers, broadcasters, and bloggers working in and around the Mile High City, of which I am one—announced their picks for the best of 2024. Of the 42 movies nominated, … Continue reading And the winner is…
On Friday, Jan. 17, the Denver Film Critics Society—a group of writers, broadcasters, and bloggers working in and around the Mile High City, of which I am one—announced their nominees for the best of 2024. In total, a whopping 42 … Continue reading And the nominees are…
Michael J. Cinema 
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