Inspector Dave Toschi needs a night off. After years of chasing the so-called Zodiac Killer, Toschi thought he had found his man, only for his captain to shoot him down, citing insufficient evidence to make an arrest. At the movie theater later on, the picture Toschi watches with his wife doesn’t make him feel any better. It’s Dirty Harry, the 1971 movie in which Clint Eastwood‘s Inspector Harry Callahan does battle with a killer called Scorpio.
Frustrated by what he’s seeing, Toschi heads to the lobby for a smoke. As viewers shuffle out after him, one remarks, “Dave, that Harry Callahan did a hell of a job with your case.”
“Yeah, no need for due process, right?” Toschi responds sarcastically to indicate his frustration.
Or, at least that’s how it went in the movies. Specifically, the film Zodiac, written by James Vanderbilt and directed by David Fincher,...
Frustrated by what he’s seeing, Toschi heads to the lobby for a smoke. As viewers shuffle out after him, one remarks, “Dave, that Harry Callahan did a hell of a job with your case.”
“Yeah, no need for due process, right?” Toschi responds sarcastically to indicate his frustration.
Or, at least that’s how it went in the movies. Specifically, the film Zodiac, written by James Vanderbilt and directed by David Fincher,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
Clint Eastwood wasn't exactly Clint Eastwood when he was prepping for his directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me," in 1971.
He was primarily viewed as a Western actor who'd parlayed his television success on CBS' "Rawhide" to attain a cultish, pulpy stardom via Sergio Leone's shot-in-Spain "Dollars Trilogy." The films were commercial hits in the United States but despised by most prominent film critics. They found them silly and excessively violent, and thought Eastwood's taciturn demeanor was less an affectation than flat-out lousy acting.
Nevertheless, Eastwood kept knocking out hits, which pleased Universal Pictures enough that they were more than happy to greenlight his first filmmaking effort. Screenwriters Jo Heims and Dean Riesner had crafted a tightly structured thriller about a ladies' man disc jockey who finds himself stalked by a one-night-stand. It was a curious choice for Eastwood in that his character is vulnerable and somewhat unlikeable. He's certainly not the steely,...
He was primarily viewed as a Western actor who'd parlayed his television success on CBS' "Rawhide" to attain a cultish, pulpy stardom via Sergio Leone's shot-in-Spain "Dollars Trilogy." The films were commercial hits in the United States but despised by most prominent film critics. They found them silly and excessively violent, and thought Eastwood's taciturn demeanor was less an affectation than flat-out lousy acting.
Nevertheless, Eastwood kept knocking out hits, which pleased Universal Pictures enough that they were more than happy to greenlight his first filmmaking effort. Screenwriters Jo Heims and Dean Riesner had crafted a tightly structured thriller about a ladies' man disc jockey who finds himself stalked by a one-night-stand. It was a curious choice for Eastwood in that his character is vulnerable and somewhat unlikeable. He's certainly not the steely,...
- 2/9/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Clint Eastwood's impulse for directing goes back to his early days working on the 1959 TV series "Rawhide." As he described in an interview with Patrick McGilligam printed in the 1999 book "Clint Eastwood: Interviews," edited by Robert E. Kapsis and Kathie Coblentz, he stated that working among cattle while on horseback -- "Rawhide" is about cattle ranchers who fend off bad guys in the Old West -- gave him ideas as to how shots could look better. The story goes that he wanted to take a camera onto a horse with him and film Pov shots in the middle of the bovine action. He was denied on "Rawhide," and was not permitted to direct any episodes. It seems that, in the late '50s and early '60s, actors directing their own TV shows had yet to prove lucrative for CBS.
Eastwood wouldn't direct a feature film until 1973, making his...
Eastwood wouldn't direct a feature film until 1973, making his...
- 1/3/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
When The New Yorker's Pauline Kael wrote of Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" in 1971 that the American cop thriller "has always had a fascist potential, and it has finally surfaced," she kicked off a fierce debate about the genre that still roils today.
Taken at face value, it's difficult to dispute that the film is meant to titillate viewers with the ultimate, judge-jury-executioner justice pursued and dispensed by Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan. He despises the Miranda Warning, and complains that the United States' judicial system has been corrupted to favor the rights of criminals. The screenplay, credited to Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink, and Dean Riesner, stacks the deck to a ludicrous degree by having Andrew Robinson's Scorpio Killer orchestrate an act of police brutality late in the movie to get Callahan kicked off the case. At this moment, it feels like we're meant to throw our hands...
Taken at face value, it's difficult to dispute that the film is meant to titillate viewers with the ultimate, judge-jury-executioner justice pursued and dispensed by Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan. He despises the Miranda Warning, and complains that the United States' judicial system has been corrupted to favor the rights of criminals. The screenplay, credited to Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink, and Dean Riesner, stacks the deck to a ludicrous degree by having Andrew Robinson's Scorpio Killer orchestrate an act of police brutality late in the movie to get Callahan kicked off the case. At this moment, it feels like we're meant to throw our hands...
- 12/30/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
It's always interesting to see what happens when a director tries their hand at a film unlike any they've made before or since. Consider David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a whimsical romantic fantasy drama far removed tonally from the grim thrillers and dark character studies the masses are accustomed to seeing from the "Se7en" and "Social Network" helmer.
John Carpenter's "Starman" is his "Benjamin Button," at least in that respect. There are times the 1984 sci-fi film recalls the director's down-and-dirty action flicks, just as there are visuals and scenes that speak to his horror oeuvre. But for the most part, "Starman" plays out as a love story by road movie, albeit where one of the leads is a visitor from a distant planet. That would be the titular character, a cordial extra-terrestrial being who crash-lands on Earth after their spacecraft is shot down by...
John Carpenter's "Starman" is his "Benjamin Button," at least in that respect. There are times the 1984 sci-fi film recalls the director's down-and-dirty action flicks, just as there are visuals and scenes that speak to his horror oeuvre. But for the most part, "Starman" plays out as a love story by road movie, albeit where one of the leads is a visitor from a distant planet. That would be the titular character, a cordial extra-terrestrial being who crash-lands on Earth after their spacecraft is shot down by...
- 10/6/2022
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Mark Harrison Feb 12, 2019
Looking for something to watch this Valentine’s Day? Here’s why John Carpenter’s sci-fi romance Starman is worth another look…
This feature contains minor spoilers for Starman. If you haven’t seen the film, please read on with caution.
John Carpenter hasn’t made too many conventional date movies. Films like Halloween, Escape From New York, and his thematic Apocalypse trilogy don’t typically get couples in the mood for love. Nevertheless, he made a doozy of a romance in the form of 1984’s Starman, which stars an Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges and an equally great Karen Allen as an unlikely couple who take a road trip across America.
Starting with the 1977 launch of the Voyager 2 space probe, which carries a golden record full of samples of Earth culture and greetings in 57 different languages, the film is about an alien who answers mankind’s invitation to extra-terrestrial life.
Looking for something to watch this Valentine’s Day? Here’s why John Carpenter’s sci-fi romance Starman is worth another look…
This feature contains minor spoilers for Starman. If you haven’t seen the film, please read on with caution.
John Carpenter hasn’t made too many conventional date movies. Films like Halloween, Escape From New York, and his thematic Apocalypse trilogy don’t typically get couples in the mood for love. Nevertheless, he made a doozy of a romance in the form of 1984’s Starman, which stars an Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges and an equally great Karen Allen as an unlikely couple who take a road trip across America.
Starting with the 1977 launch of the Voyager 2 space probe, which carries a golden record full of samples of Earth culture and greetings in 57 different languages, the film is about an alien who answers mankind’s invitation to extra-terrestrial life.
- 2/12/2019
- Den of Geek
It’s the loose-censored early 1970s, and screen bandits shootin’ up the American movie landscape are no longer suffering the once-mandated automatic moral retribution. Walter Matthau launched himself into the genre with this excellent Don Siegel on-the-run epic, about an old-fashioned independent bandit who accidentally rips off the mob for a million. It’s great, wicked fun.
Charley Varrick
Region B Blu-ray
Indicator
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Charley Varrick the Last of the Independents; Kill Charley Varrick / Street Date January 22, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, Felicia Farr, Sheree North, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Rudy Diaz, Charles Matthau, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell
Cinematography: Michael Butler
Film Editor: Frank Morriss
Original Music: Lalo Schifrin
Written by Dean Riesner, Howard Rodman from the novel The Looters by John Reese
Produced by Jennings Lang, Don Siegel
Directed by...
Charley Varrick
Region B Blu-ray
Indicator
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Charley Varrick the Last of the Independents; Kill Charley Varrick / Street Date January 22, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, Felicia Farr, Sheree North, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Rudy Diaz, Charles Matthau, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell
Cinematography: Michael Butler
Film Editor: Frank Morriss
Original Music: Lalo Schifrin
Written by Dean Riesner, Howard Rodman from the novel The Looters by John Reese
Produced by Jennings Lang, Don Siegel
Directed by...
- 1/20/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The first film set I ever visited was for John Carpenter’s Starman. I was 13, and the film was shooting just outside Chattanooga, Tn, where I lived at the time. When I was leaving the set at the end of the day, the unit publicist (the great Peter J. Silbermann) gave me a copy of the script by Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon and Dean Riesner, the first actual film script I ever read. It could have been anything I read first, but I’m glad that as I started try to break down structure and character and the crazy magic trick that is writing words on a page that then come to life on a film set, it was that script which I was studying. It’s a lovely piece of writing, and there’s a reason Jeff Bridges got nominated for an Oscar playing the lead role of...
- 4/1/2016
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
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