Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 667 )

• The Shoes of the Fisherman

  

  Michael Anderson's The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) was an instant fossil: terrible in its day, even worse forty-six years later. Long, sonorous and boring,... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• RIP James Garner

  

  We'll finish out this weekend acknowledging the death of screen legend James Garner. One of cinema's most affable leading men, Garner starred in innumerable... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Witness for the Prosecution

  

  Billy Wilder directed Witness for the Prosecution (1957) before turning to his late-career comedies. Working off an Agatha Christie play, Wilder delivers a soli... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Book Review: The Siege (1969, Russell Braddon)

  

  Braddon, Russell. The Siege: The Full, Horrifying Account of the Kut Disaster. New York: Viking Press, 1970. Originally published 1969. 352 pp. Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Hud

  

  Martin Ritt's greatest work is Hud (1963), less modern Western than Texas chamber drama. Certainly it's one of Paul Newman's best roles, warping his charming... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Women in Love

  

  Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969) is an excellent adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel. Women's sexual content aroused controversy, though compared to... Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Bofors Gun

  

  Largely ignored upon release, Jack Gold's The Bofors Gun (1968) is a serviceable service drama. John McGrath adapts his play about clashing personalities in... Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Great Escape

  

  John Sturges built a career on macho ensemble pieces, with The Great Escape (1963) his finest achievement. Its mix of star power and improbable derring-do made... Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Lady Caroline Lamb

  

  In her study of Robert Bolt's oeuvre, Sabine Prufer dismisses Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) as a "Regency version of Ryan's Daughter" - far kinder than... Read more

  Posted on 10 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Agony and the Ecstasy

  

  The Agony of the Ecstasy (1965) is curiously frustrating. Drawing on Irving Stone's novel, Carol Reed excels in showing the battle of wills between... Read more

  Posted on 05 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Howards of Virginia

  

  Hollywood's always struggled with the American Revolution. There aren't many films to begin with, and most of the extant ones stink. That includes The Howards o... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Edge of Tomorrow

  

  Another summer blockbuster season's upon us, cluttered with the usual franchise noise. Loosely based on a manga, Edge of Tomorrow (2014) provides a sci-fi riff... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Baby Doll

  

  Elia Kazan returned to Tennessee Williams with Baby Doll (1956), possibly his most controversial film. It sparked a major censorship debate, accompanied by... Read more

  Posted on 29 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Taxi Driver

  

  Even more than Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's auteur status stands on Taxi Driver (1976). Bleak, violent and unsettling, it explores the thin line between hero... Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Bunker (1981)

  

  Adolf Hitler's grim final days inspired many films. Oliver Hirschbiegel's extraordinary Downfall (2005) has eclipsed workmanlike dramas The Death of Adolf Hitle... Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Nuremberg

  

  The Nuremberg war crimes trials are a natural morality play replete with human drama and ethical debates. Yves Simoneau's Nuremberg (2000) makes... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• April Morning

  

  I vaguely remember watching April Morning (1988) in junior high, and it holds up better than the treacly Johnny Tremaine. A Hallmark Hall of Fame production,... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Fault in Our Stars

  

  (2014) is the latest among a barrage of YA lit adaptations, now rivaling superhero flicks as blockbuster fodder. Fortunately it's a good one: Josh Boone's... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Intimate Enemies

  

  (2007) offers a French perspective on the Algerian War for Independence. Rather than explore political and imperialist concerns, director Florent Emilio Simi... Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Longest Day

  

  (1962) is the archetypical all-star war movie. Using a multinational cast of thousands, Daryl F. Zanuck recreates the June 6th, 1944 Normandy landings in... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES