Ethan Coen released this instant classic and the essential Jerry Lee Lewis documentary not long after the great rock and roll icon was called to glory (or not!). Coen makes wonderful and extensive use of key interviews and archival performances, letting the legend unfold visually and in time with the outstanding music, thus forgoing over-explanation and distracting asides. The power of the music speaks for itself, and no one before or since has ever been able to so thoroughly master early rock and roll, country, gospel, and blues. A fitting tribute to one of the giants of American music who at long last was admitted to the Country Music Hall of Fame too.
Reviews
15 Reviews
Mean Streets
7 December 2023
Immense insights into the filmmaking world as it turned on a fulcrum in the heavy and turbulent days of the making of Midnight Cowboy (1969) and an explanation of how a gay British filmmaker could make a wildly successful and popular X-rated film about a bisexual cowboy hustler and his tramp friend as they battled to survive on the dirty streets of New York City. Jon Voight provides essential commentary and the chaotic zeitgeist of the late 60s is carefully explored.
Film lovers will appreciate the insider's perspective and the tales about the production and others will gain a keen sense of the volatility of American culture during those years.
Film lovers will appreciate the insider's perspective and the tales about the production and others will gain a keen sense of the volatility of American culture during those years.
Fire of Love
(2022)
World on Fire
7 December 2023
A sublime, rigorously scientific yet mystical documentary about two married French volcanologists who devoted their life to deepening our understanding of volcanos and perpetually took bigger and bigger risks to get near the action. Though firmly grounded in science, both Katia and Maurice Krafft were incurably addicted to the astonishing and deadly displays of live volcanos and ultimately perished in the slopes of Mt. Unzen in 1991. But the rich and rewarding lives they led before that tragedy are vividly captured in this film, including their vast library of astonishing footage near the sources of major volcanic eruptions. This footage gives viewers an immediate experience of the unequaled power and beauty of the volcanos, and a glimpse of the mystical attraction of these displays where worlds are both destroyed and created and help explain why the two lovers never strayed from their path despite seeming to be moths nearing a flame.
Kona Coast
(1968)
The Dark Age before Hawaii 5-0
17 June 2023
Though appallingly bad in most every way, this film doesn't quite get enough belly laughs for its foibles to elevate it to a cult bad cinema classic. The central and killing conceit is that "crusty old fisherman" Richard Boone is an unstoppable babe magnet, stirring the loins of nubile teens, his own ex-wife Vera Miles, and elder woman such as 20s movie star Joan Blondell as he pursues the killers of the daughter of one of his friends. Looking like a drunk old tourist in the same miserable beach ware for the entire film doesn't enhance his appeal. The diabolic murderer he seeks looks much like a deranged Paul Anka in Aloha wear. Ludicrously silly psychedelic sequences when the victims are high, a bumbling plot, weak dialogue, and not so convincing Hawaiian night clubs lower the score further. As for the film's "commitment to local actors", they seemed to have mercilessly dubbed out the few actual Hawaiians who got minor roles.
The Bad Man
(1941)
Western Wheelchair Sleigh Ride
21 July 2020
Young, skinny, and angry, future president Ronald Reagan plays the good guy to Wallace Beery's rhinestone-studded Bad Man, an over the top bandito performance that is both silly and offensive, as he seems to veer from a Mexican accent into a Russian one, and back again. Lionel Barrymore is persistently loud and annoying as a yammering, wheelchair-bound curmudgeon fighting to save his small ranch in Mexico, with nephew Reagan's help. Lots of yelling, chaos, and cheap humor. As a comedy, not very funny. As a romance, unconvincing. As a drama, truly ridiculous. However, the final scene of Barrymore flying down dusty desert roads with his wheelchair tied to the Bad Man's horse is a hoot!
The Return of Frank James
(1940)
James Gang Muddle
14 July 2020
This sequel to Jesse James (1939) reinvents historical facts, misses its mark, and has not aged well. Henry Fonda ably plays the famous outlaw's older brother Frank as an amiable, folksy, and seemingly nonviolent character. Simplistic scenarios and cheaply comic moments that verge on satire deflate the intensity of the drama. In her first film, Gene Tierney looks great, but is shrill, whining, and righteous as a dim bulb newspaper woman.
Santa Fe Trail
(1940)
Lumpy and Loose with the Facts
14 July 2020
A grab bag of pre-Civil War historical characters are lumped together in a single West Point graduation class for narrative convenience and to battle the notorious abolitionist John Brown. A young Errol Flynn is J.E.B. Stuart, and his action buddy partner Ronald Reagan is George Armstrong Custer, and they fight together in Kansas, romance Olivia de Havilland, and attack John Brown at Harper's Ferry. In reality, Custer was not in Stuart's class, never went to Kansas, and did not confront Brown. Raymond Massey steals this unbalanced film with his intense and polarizing portrayal of the God-fearing Brown. A performance that contrasts heavily with the forced romance and peppering of cheap comedy here and there.
Coroner Creek
(1948)
Randolph in a Rage
8 July 2020
Randolph Scott ushers in the new era of the mature, more complex Western for adults, with this tale of an enraged cowboy living only for revenge against a ruthless and evil cattle baron (who even has a scar!). Traditional by today's standards, but well done and enjoyable. The brutal fist fight scene, complete with some gruesome finger breakings, was quite harsh for the era. The film was a big hit, but though breaking new ground, it still had a nice and tidy moral resolution.
Fort Apache
(1948)
Monument Valley Hoedown
8 July 2020
The first film in Ford's cavalry trilogy was an instant Western classic, with Henry Fonda as a bitter commander who feels exiled at remote Fort Apache, and John Wayne as a desert battle trained officer who treats Chief Cochise with the respect he deserves. Historically cited as one of the first films to treat Native Americans with respect, Ford cast hundreds of Navajo to play Apache parts, and ultimately the plot portrays the ensuing massacre after Fonda misjudges and underestimates the Apache forces. Beautiful cinematography, ripping battle scenes, strong characters, and a gripping plot.
Return of the Bad Men
(1948)
Filmed in 1-D
8 July 2020
Stranger than your standard oater, but still simple and stereotyped. Randolph Scott somehow ends up taking on most of the outlaws of the historical West in one fight: the Dalton Gang, the Younger Gang, the Doolin' Gang, Billy The Kid, and the Sundance Kid! Robert Ryan is the black hat, portraying the Sundance Kid as one dimension of mean and evil. A woman outlaw switches sides to add a romantic triangle for Randolph and Gabby Hayes adds some comic ham as an unconventional banker. All this and the new land rush in the Oklahoma Territory.
Red River
(1948)
Get A Long Little Dogies
8 July 2020
Though slightly dated with its hero worship of Texas cowboys, and angelic choruses that mark movement of settlers west, Hawk's masterpiece is far and away the greatest film ever about a cattle drive, and a gorgeously realized tour of the 1860s frontier. Not just an epic tale about the birth of the Chisholm Trail, Red River is an intense character-driven drama powered by great performances down the line, particularly John Wayne as the Ahab-like leader pushing the team beyond its limits, and a young, brooding Montgomery Clift as his gunslinger adopted son. A true classic that excels on every level and embodies the Western myth.
The Law and Jake Wade
(1958)
Death Valley Daze
8 July 2020
A reasonably engrossing film powered by steely Robert Taylor and wicked Richard Widmark, featuring some spectatcular Cinemascope vistas of Lone Pine, Death Valley, and the Alabama Hills. Taylor, now a Marshall, gives ex-gang partner villain Widmark too much rope, which he uses to kidnap Taylor and his lady and drag them to the desolate Death Valley ghost town where Taylor had stashed their bounty.
Jubal
(1956)
Jackson Hole Cinemascope Classic
8 July 2020
One of now-celebrated San Francisco writer and director Delmer Daves' best films. An intense drama and well-formed character study set on a ranch spread in the Grand Tetons. Ernest Borgnine gives a simple-minded cowboy Othello performance as the ranch owner with a lustful wife. Newly-hired ranch hand Glenn Ford battles co-worker Rod Steiger every step of the way, with great acting on both parts, but once again (as in Run of the Arrow) the method acting Steiger comes up with a bizarre "Southern" accent. The plot builds at a leisurely pace, but with great force. The final half hour is compelling and action-packed.
Hud
(1963)
Keen Ranch Hand Melodrama
8 July 2020
An engaging and mournful revisionist ranch drama Western with superb acting and elegantly rustic black & white cinematography. Paul Newman is so good as a wild and selfish anti-hero ranching son, that you get a glimpse that there is some positive light in his dark soul. Patricia Neal earns her Best Actress Oscar in only 21 soulful minutes of screen time, the least ever for that award. And Melvyn Douglas earns his as the moral, enduring yet exhausted Texas patriarch. Based on the 1961 Larry McMurtry novel.
High Noon
(1952)
A Pillar in the Western Pantheon
8 July 2020
Not likely there were many Grace Kellys around in the Wild West, especially as Quakers, but aside from that generous anomaly this film is the revered classic of the archetypal showdown. Breaking with Western mythology, Gary Cooper is afraid, disturbed, and demoralized as a small-town Marshall forced to take on a gang of bad guys without anyone to help. His nuanced, reflective, and soulful performance earned him an Oscar and an instant place in the pantheon of Western film heroes. Expertly filmed in real time, tension rises with every tick of the old-time clock, and a stock of excellent side characters add spice to the chili. Katy Jurado stands out as a strong Mexican woman with a shady past who plays a key role in the denouement.
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