Tag: history
Faith no more: Why Scorsese’s Silence is a haunting work of art
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ The desolate words of Jesus Christ on the cross offer one way into Martin Scorsese’s new film, Silence. The film inhabits the character of a 17th Century Jesuit missionary to Japan who is forced to recant his faith. The ‘silence’ being referred to in the film’s…
100 Years of D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages
We have another decade to go before the United States turns 250 – and sixty years total before the tercentennial in 2076 – but now, before 2016 comes to an end, we can at last – and certainly not least! – celebrate the 100th Anniversary of one of the earliest epics (and earliest motion pictures…
The Blue and The Grey: The American Civil War on film
So many films have been made about this long and tragic civil war that I would not attempt to examine them all in one post. However, it is interesting to see how film-makers have dealt with the subject over the more than one hundred year history of cinema. As long ago as 1915, D.W. Griffith…
Reviewing Florence Foster Jenkins: The Challenge of Dream-Chasing
There’s a pivotal moment at the end of Florence Foster Jenkins, the latest from director Stephen Frears, in which a gravely ill Jenkins (Meryl Streep) gently confronts her husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) about a negative review of one of her concerts. The review isn’t necessarily incorrect – it states, rather bluntly, that Foster is…
Six great Prisoner of War films you might not have seen
Ever since there has been war, there have been prisoners of war. In times gone by, they might have been sold into slavery, recruited into the winning side, or just killed out of hand. As societies became more civilised, they began to treat prisoners with more care, putting them in camps under guard, and providing…