"There's plain few problems that can't be solved with a little sweat and hard work." Western is a genre as old as cinema itself, and it has in it everything that America represents or did at one point. However, as much as it is an American genre, it does lack one of the key aspects of its culture: religion. I am not talking about the imagery of Christ or the occasional encounters with preachers and churches, but rather the hope and sense of community that people found in their faith. I have read many reviews about this film and comparisons with Shane (1953) are all too common, especially on Letterboxd, and while I have yet to see the movie, I can see its influence, especially in the way it tries to portray heroism and doing the right thing for others. Pale Rider is a product of a dying genre, one that started to become smaller and more emotional. Long are the days of Native American fights with the Coloni...
"A new age has begun, an age of freedom. And all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it." It is hard to describe a movie from the past two decades that has had as much impact on young men as 300 . Even when we compare it to films like Fight Club , Drive , or John Wick , 300 seems to speak in a way that almost any man is captured by its aesthetics and mythology. To dismiss a movie, especially one with such magnitude and power as "popcorn entertainment," is at best, ignorant, and at worst, a facilitator of its message and, in the case of this film, its cryptofascist message. Let us be clear for a second: movies, like any other art form, are not created in a vacuum by soulless and thoughtless people. The zeitgeist, culture, time period, and events all affect the media we consume, produce, create, and enjoy. German cinema from the 1930s and 40s served as a way to understand the Führer pro...