Film directors have lionized killers as long as there has been film. With time comes absolution and insulation for directors who discover the misunderstood romantic heroes inside serial murderers. No better example than "Bonnie and Clyde." In the past three years we've seen exhaustive -- and excellent -- works on revolutionary Che Guevara, … [Read more...]
The case of Sherlock Holmes on Blu-ray
Many actors have tried, but none has surpassed Basil Rathbone's embodiment of Sherlock Holmes. The razor-sharp profile, hawk nose and cocaine eyes seem torn straight from the pages of Arthur Conan Doyle. This is, undeniably, one of the great pairings of actor and character in film history. Odd to think, then, that the first Holmes film with … [Read more...]
The crime spree of Fernando Di Leo
"Audiences need to see violence in certain movies," the Italian director Fernando Di Leo said of his work. "It's a way to de-stress." Di Leo should know. As a scriptwriter, he helped bring us the spaghetti western classics "For a Few Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More," seminal works in the strain of brutal-yet-stylized violence that fills our … [Read more...]
Basil Dearden: Up from the ‘Underground’
Quick, name four Basil Dearden movies. Anyone? Congrats if you came up with one -- even if it was "Khartoum." British director Dearden made a swarm of films from 1940 to 1970, almost all forgotten outside his native land. The overdue DVD set Basil Dearden's London Underground shines the Criterion Collection spotlight on a quartet of the … [Read more...]
‘The Yakuza Papers’: Gangsters high and low
They have sniveling down to a fine art in Kinji Fukasaku's "The Yakuza Papers." Sniveling, weeping, groveling and myriad other abasements of the spirit. There's little nobility found in the clashes between Fukasaku's low-rent Japanese gangsters, only the "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" promised in the subtitle. "The Yakuza Papers" consists … [Read more...]
