Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 667 )

• The Assassin (1961)

  

  Elio Petri's debut film, The Assassin (1961) offers a noir-inflected character study. Marcello Mastroianni plays a criminal who's caught, ironically, for... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Illustrious Corpses

  

  "One judge's murder is a crime, but four is political!"Francesco Rosi crafts a politically-charged whodunnit with Illustrious Corpses (1976). Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Lost City of Z

  

  James Gray's The Lost City of Z (2017) breaks the mold of recent epics that are all spectacle and little depth. It's a remarkable movie, functioning both as an... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Founder

  

  (2016) seems like two separate stories vying for space in the same movie. One is a scathing indictment of unbridled capitalism, using McDonald's honcho Ray... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Get Out

  

  "Some people don't want strangers messing around with their head."In his wildest dreams, comedian Jordan Peele probably couldn't have imagined that his... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• RIP George Romero

  

  I would be remiss if I didn't note the passing of Pittsburgh's own George A. Romero. Mr. Romero, age 77, is the filmmaker behind Night of the Living Dead (1968)... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: Appointment at Veracruz, 1914

  

  Woodrow Wilson was a man of contradictory impulses. He enacted progressive economic and labor reforms while racially segregating the Federal government. Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Long Goodbye

  

  "I'm a born loser. I even lost my cat."Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) was initially among his least successful pictures. Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Wonder Woman

  

  "What I do is not up to you!"DC's attempt at aping Marvel's success with a Cinematic Universe (ugh) has been an unmitigated disaster, with dour, unwatchable... Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: Racism, Riot and Mutiny in Houston, 1917

  

  Men of the 24th Infantry RegimentOn April 8th, 1916 elements of the 24th United States Infantry Regiment visited the border town of Del Rio, Texas. Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• State of the Blog

  

  Hello, everyone. I hope that you're having a nice summer and that you've enjoyed, or at least tolerated, last month's extensive history articles. I certainly... Read more

  Posted on 05 July 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: General Graves and the Siberian Shuffle

  

  America's intervention in SiberiaPicture a scene from a John Buchan or Ian Fleming thriller: a general, summoned across country without notice, arrives at a... Read more

  Posted on 26 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: The American Polar Bears Meet the Bolsheviks

  

  Americans in the Russian Civil War (source)While the 110th Infantry battled for survival in France, the 339th Infantry waited across the English Channel to... Read more

  Posted on 25 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: Somerset County's Men of Iron in the Great War

  

  SourceWhile the American Protective League waged war on phantom subversives, soldiers under General John J. Pershing prepared to fight a more substantial foe. Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• RIP John G. Avildsen

  

  A few days late with this one: director John G. Avildsen passed away last Friday. Avildsen had quite an erratic career: exploitation fodder like Cry Uncle... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Watergate: Truth & Lies

  

  As someone who's spent an ungodly amount of time reading, studying and writing about Richard Nixon, I am probably not the target audience for ABC's new 20/20... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Lawrence of Arabia Podcast!

  

  Your not-so-humble blogger was interviewed this weekend by Giuliano Marinkovic for his new Inspirations podcast. We discussed Lawrence of Arabia, especially... Read more

  Posted on 18 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: The American Protective League and the War on Slackers, 1917-1919

  

  On February 2nd, 1917, a Chicago businessman named Albert M. Briggs arrived at the city's Justice Department. Briggs, the vice president of an advertising... Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• RIP Adam West

  

  Lots of tributes coming in this weekend about the passing of Adam West, television's endearingly goofy Batman. I have nothing especially insightful to say, as... Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: The Hun's Shadow in America, 1917-1918

  

  Anti-German sentiment in the United StatesWhen the United States entered World War I on April 6th, 1917, their previous ambivalence towards the war vanished. Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES