#41 — Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks, 1960) Though Elmer Gantry was released several years before the MPAA ratings system came into being, it was a bit of a trailblazer when it came to warning potential ticket-buyers of potentially challenging content. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-One
#42 — The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) Absolutely saturated with Cold War anxiety, The Manchurian Candidate is a brilliantly feverish thriller that captures a very particular time in American history, when a wholly characteristic national skepticism was turbine-spun into … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Two
#43 — Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967) Films centering on revenge are easy, perhaps too easy. The motivation for the central character or characters are built right in–only the simplest backstory is needed in order to convince the audience of … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Three
#44 — The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut, 1968) Quentin Tarantino insists that he never saw The Bride Wore Black before conceiving of his Kill Bill films, but I don’t believe him. I’m sure he’s not lying, that he’s actually convinced … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Four
#45 — They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (Sydney Pollack, 1969) Sydney Pollack knew how to put together a movie. He was a favorite director of mine, despite the not insignificant detail that he didn’t make all that many great movies. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Five
#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
#47 — Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968) Sometimes stories from the heyday of Roger Corman’s low-budget productions–when he was regularly able to attract highly skilled filmmakers who needed a break and didn’t have the option of cheapo homemade digital production to … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Seven
#48 — Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963) Eight years before Peter Bogdanovich’s exceptional adaptation of The Last Picture Show, writer Larry McMurtry had his first dalliance with the silver screen when his debut novel, 1961’s Horseman, Pass By, was transformed into Hud. This film holds a defining star turn by Paul Newman and an astonishing, Oscar-winning performance by Patricia Neal. It also inspired a vital early essay by Pauline Kael in which she laid bare her own conflicted feelings about the work in such compelling terms that it was one of the cornerstones of her legend and could legitimately lay claim … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Eight
#49 — Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) When Bob Dylan toured England in 1965, he had five officially released albums to his credit, including the just-issued Bringing It All Back Home. He was a star, but not yet an … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-Nine
#50 — Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965) According to Russ Meyer, the conception of the film was simplicity itself: “I had men kicking the shit out of women, so I thought, ‘Why don’t we do one where the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Fifty
Coffee for Two 