40th anniversary

Blade Runner is the best designed and most meditative American science fiction film this side of 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, this statement is not without qualification forty years after its initial release. For my purposes here, I may…

"So give me a stage, Where this Bull here could rage.." The 1980 classic Raging Bull is one of the greatest biopics of all time. Nowadays we are fed one after another, and the genre is soaked with uneven, unbalanced outings. Above all of…

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery, and in the forty years since it’s release, Airplane! has been flattered by countless imitators. I have often turned to friends and asked them if they like movies about Gladiators. I’ve…

"It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank, half pack of cigarettes, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it." In 1978, the Blues Brothers were born. It was the beginning of the story to the iconic, and cinematic band…

The Who's 1972 double magnus opus Quadrophenia is often regarded as the pinnacle of both the band, and songwriter Pete Townshend's creativity. It's a recording that pushed forward with a concept, a la their 1969 masterpiece Tommy. However,…

“The bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it.”- Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen). On May 10 1979, Francis Ford Coppola finally edited down over one-million feet of film to give us his Vietnam War epic…

“Oh you'll probably get away with crucifixion!” In 1979, all Christian hell broke loose with the cinematic release of Monty Python’s full-length movie Life of Brian. Hailed as the finest moment of the comedic troupe, and hugely…

Star Wars is unquestionably a film lessened by everything that has come after it. For one, we can’t even simply refer to it as Star Wars; it has to be labelled Episode IV: A New Hope. This is to say nothing of how every frame, every shot…