Cinema

This Failed Blockbuster Killed Old Hollywood (and Maybe John Wayne, Too)

by Ryan Uytdewilligen

When John Wayne played Genghis Khan in a disastrous Howard Hughes production, it helped to kill RKO studios. Did it also expose the cast and crew to deadly nuclear fallout? 

After 50 Years, "The Godfather" Still Has Fresh Lessons For Us

by Sam Ben-Meir

Francis Ford Coppola couldn't have anticipated the Trump presidency and its aftermath, but his 1972 masterpiece nevertheless helps uns to understand it. 

The Cinematic Sainthood of Diego Maradona

"The passionate relationship between a legendary soccer player and an Italian city lies at the heart of The Hand of God, the new movie from Paolo Sorrentino."

Seneca Falls, NY Celebrates 75 Years as the (Self-Proclaimed?) Inspiration for "It's a Wonderful Life"

"Since the 1990s, Seneca Falls has been the site of an “It’s A Wonderful Life Festival” held on the second week of December. It’s also the location of a permanent museum, which honors the film as well."

Fact and Fiction in "The Last Duel"

by Sara McDougall and David Perry

"The film effectively depicts the violence embedded in medieval ideas of elite masculinity while taking historical liberties when it comes to the real nature and function of trials by combat, or how rape accusations worked in medieval Europe."

Is the Academy's New Museum Neglecting the Jewish Pioneers of Hollywood?

"After touring the museum’s seven stories, I discovered that Hollywood’s pioneers, who busted their tucheses building the industry it celebrates, ended up on the cutting room floor."

The "Candyman" Reboot Subverts Cinematic Tropes of Black Suffering

Director Nia DaCosta, with co-writers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, has turned the problematic racial framing of its predecessor on its head, and casts critical light on the treatment of Black characters throughout the history of film. 

How to Think About Classic Hollywood’s “Problematic” Movies

by Richard Brody

Critic Richard Brody asks whether efforts to put problematic Hollywood movies into context is adequate; there is a systematic lack of attention to characters of color in classic Hollywood that is much tougher to fix. 

A Famed Horror Director Mines Japan’s Real-Life Atrocities

In a recent interview, Mr. Kurosawa, 65, said he found it hard to understand why Japan’s war crimes remained almost taboo among the country’s filmmakers 75 years after the conflict’s end.

Why Americans Fall for Grifters: A Warning From a 1957 Film

by Jake Tapper

Journalist Jake Tapper reflects on the prescience of the 1957 Elia Kazan/Budd Schulberg film "A Face in the Crowd", which anticipated the power of inflammatory appeals in the mass media. 

James E. Hinton’s Unseen Films Reframe the Black Power Movement

Hinton’s work as a cinematographer and filmmaker achieved a similar balance between taking in the grander sweep of history and considering the nature, appearance, manner, and presence of the individual people making it.

75 Years Ago the First "Nuclear Race" Was in Hollywood

by Greg Mitchell

Despite Americans' keen interest and considerable fear in the atomic bomb after the end of World War II, the first commercial film to tackle the Manhattan Project was a bomb of a different sort. 

'Gone With the Wind' Reignites Debate as Hollywood Wrestles with its History

Debate immediately ensued at the 1936 publication of Mitchell's novel, with its nostalgia for plantation life, portrayal of happy slaves and threatening freed blacks, and sympathy toward the Confederate cause.

Every Sunday, These Historians Go to the Movies — All in the Name of Digital Community

#HATM (Historians at the Movies) and public engagement. 

A World War I Documentary Becomes ‘Event Cinema’

‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ breaks box-office records

Our film and video history is threatened by the rise of streaming video

For film historians and film buffs the rapidity with which streaming has supplanted discs and tape as a viewing mode is a bug, not a feature.

When It Matters that Hollywood Get History Right

by Robert Brent Toplin

Even when Hollywood’s got a good story to tell, the facts matter.

Why Movie ‘Facts’ Prevail

by Jeffrey M. Zacks

Studies show that if you watch a film — even one concerning historical events about which you are informed — your beliefs may be reshaped by “facts” that are not factual.