This month's film Book Club choice is a study of director William Friedkin that spends as much time on the failures as the successes...
Some films catch your attention for reasons other than being good. Cruising (1980) has stuck in my memory for years. It’s very weird. Al Pacino plays a cop who works undercover in New York’s gay club scene, tracking down a serial killer. Or possibly more than one serial killer; it's difficult to tell in the darkness, the double bluffs, and the uncomfortable and unclear nature of the action. Few critics liked it, even less people went to see it, and William Friedkin wrote and directed it. When I think of Friedkin's work I think of Cruising as much as I think of The Exorcist, or The French Connection. How could the same person have made these films?
Clagett's book embraces the failures as much as the successes,...
Some films catch your attention for reasons other than being good. Cruising (1980) has stuck in my memory for years. It’s very weird. Al Pacino plays a cop who works undercover in New York’s gay club scene, tracking down a serial killer. Or possibly more than one serial killer; it's difficult to tell in the darkness, the double bluffs, and the uncomfortable and unclear nature of the action. Few critics liked it, even less people went to see it, and William Friedkin wrote and directed it. When I think of Friedkin's work I think of Cruising as much as I think of The Exorcist, or The French Connection. How could the same person have made these films?
Clagett's book embraces the failures as much as the successes,...
- 4/14/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Glenn Frankel's exploration of famous John Ford's Western, The Searchers, is our Den Of Geek Book Club non-fiction choice this month...
John Ford's The Searchers is a film that has had many interpretations placed upon it since it was released in 1956. Some would say it's a plea for tolerance. Others would point out that some scenes contain a less forgiving message. The key element of Glenn Frankel’s book takes a different stance. It starts with surprising fact – that The Searchers is, in fact, based on a true story, taking its inspiration from events that played a huge part in the way settlers viewed Native Americans in the nineteenth century, and beyond.
The Making Of An American Legend charts the way that truth can become legend, and legend can become film. Of course, John Ford loved these sorts of distinctions; 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend'...
John Ford's The Searchers is a film that has had many interpretations placed upon it since it was released in 1956. Some would say it's a plea for tolerance. Others would point out that some scenes contain a less forgiving message. The key element of Glenn Frankel’s book takes a different stance. It starts with surprising fact – that The Searchers is, in fact, based on a true story, taking its inspiration from events that played a huge part in the way settlers viewed Native Americans in the nineteenth century, and beyond.
The Making Of An American Legend charts the way that truth can become legend, and legend can become film. Of course, John Ford loved these sorts of distinctions; 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend'...
- 3/16/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Victoria Schwab's extremely moving and emotionally resonant The Archived is this month's Book Club fiction choice...
It's been a long time since I read a book that moved me as much as The Archived did. I don't know what I was expecting when I picked it up — the blurb on the back makes it clear that this is a novel about death — but I was blown away by how layered and complex the story was. I am always drawn to stories that don't have easy resolutions, and this one is a good example. Carmen and Owen are completely wrong in their methods and deserved what happened to them, but at the same time they have a really good point: the way the Archive treats its "employees" is absolutely disgusting and would it really be quite as terrible as everyone seems to think if its existence were public knowledge? We're told...
It's been a long time since I read a book that moved me as much as The Archived did. I don't know what I was expecting when I picked it up — the blurb on the back makes it clear that this is a novel about death — but I was blown away by how layered and complex the story was. I am always drawn to stories that don't have easy resolutions, and this one is a good example. Carmen and Owen are completely wrong in their methods and deserved what happened to them, but at the same time they have a really good point: the way the Archive treats its "employees" is absolutely disgusting and would it really be quite as terrible as everyone seems to think if its existence were public knowledge? We're told...
- 3/2/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Glenn Frankel’s The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend (Bloomsbury) has received more attention from the mainstream press than the average film book, and for good reason: it is an exceptional piece of writing and research. What’s more, it isn’t just a look behind the scenes of a famous movie; the author explores the notorious real-life incident that inspired Western author Alan LeMay to write his novel: the abduction of nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanche Indians in 1836. Hers was not a unique story, but it took on added significance because of her family background, and one relative’s refusal to give up on finding her. Frankel is an experienced journalist and...
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- 5/21/2013
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
This week we're highlighting a conversation that Patches had with Glenn Frankel, author of the remarkable new book The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend. We also ponder why Marvel movies have such terrible scores, try to figure out our mild disappointment with Jeff Nichols' Mud, and figure out how on earth Katey never particularly got into The Simpsons. All that plus a lightning round inspired by the panic attacks in Iron Man 3. Take a listen below and find your downloading options; for more from all of us, you can follow the show (@opkino), Da7e (@da7e), David (@davidehrlich or @CriterionCorner), Patches (@misterpatches) and Katey (@kateyrich) on Twitter. We also welcome your feedback as we transition into this new format, and there are lots of new places you can find us! Find us and like us at our Facebook page or call and leave us a...
- 4/30/2013
- cinemablend.com
This week I didn't have a chance to watch any movies at home, though I did continue reading Glenn Frankel's "The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend", which I mentioned in last week's "What I Watched". Last week I was only a few pages in to the film, now I'm about 125 pages deep and it continues to get increasingly fascinating as Frankel has gone so deep into the history of the people that inspired the film and tells their story in such a compelling way it is very hard to put down. This past week Martin Scorsese actually wrote about the book and the film for The Hollywood Reporter, here's a snippet: Ethan also is genuinely scary. His obsessiveness, his absolute hatred of Comanches and all Native Americans and his loneliness set him apart from any other characters Wayne played and, really, from most protagonists in American movies.
- 3/10/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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