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
Joseph McBride has written extensively on the Hollywood director, always when Ford’s legacy needed rescuing. His first book on the filmmaker, which he co-authored with Michael Wilmington and first published in 1975, has been revised and expanded and will be re-released by the University Press of Kentucky on Dec. 5. Continue reading JOHN FORD
Why am I always in the wrong without knowing what for or what it’s all about? So cries Josef K. The man is on trial, though his appearance before a court of his peers is brief. The rest of the … Continue reading THE TRIAL
McBride knows his Welles: he’s been writing about him since 1970. He watched Kane 60 times before approaching Welles for an interview. Not long after he did, Welles cast McBride in The Other Side of the Wind—Welles’ legendarily unfinished final film. Continue reading WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ORSON WELLES?
The legacy of Orson Welles looms large in the history of cinema. So large, even Welles himself fell into its blackness. “The word genius was whispered into my ear—the first thing I heard—while I was still mewling in my crib,” … Continue reading A Matter of Persistence: Orson Welles
Let us raise our cups. Standing as some of us do on opposite ends of the river, and drink together. … To the movies. To good movies. To every possible kind.” —Orson Welles’ AFI Life Achievement Award acceptance speech, Feb. … Continue reading One Last Toast to the Wunkerkind: Dispatches from the 2018 Telluride Film Festival
Michael J. Cinema 