#46 — Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964) It’s not as if precarious social topics weren’t tackled in American cinema prior to the nineteen-sixties, but such efforts clearly benefited from both the new, bracing levels of frankness creeping into … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Six
In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967). I guessed that this film would seem painfully dated. Instead, Jewison’s police drama about a black Philadelphia homicide detective called upon to help solve a murder case in a small Southern town where rampant bigotry still rules the culture holds up nicely. It’s somewhat an artifact of its time, but a dramatically sound one. Jewison makes his points with care, always grounding the conflicts in believable situations populated by well-drawn characters. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in clean, gripping storytelling. Rod Steiger won an Oscar for his … Continue reading Jewison, Pollack, Roemer, Sommers, Spielberg
Coffee for Two 