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Pat Healy recommended Paths of Glory (1957) in Movies (curated)

Paths of Glory (1957)

1957 | Classics, Drama, War

8.9

(8 Ratings)

Movie Favorite Watch

"Outside of 2001: A Space Odyssey, these are my favorite Kubrick films. The Killing is a tense and lean noir starring the great Sterling Hayden and a cast of character actors (Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen, Timothy Carey, et al.), each of whom possesses his or her own special brand of menace and pathos. The film’s dialogue is by the best crime writer who ever lived, Jim Thompson (who worked with Kubrick and Calder Willingham on Paths of Glory as well), and it’s the music in Kubrick’s nonlinear racetrack heist caper, which I think is the best noir ever made. Hayden is one of the most curious creatures to ever grace the screen. I can never take my eyes off him, and as gruff as he is, I always feel for him. The tragic, cosmic joke at the end of this movie will break your heart—even when you’re wondering why you wanted this bum to get away with the crime. Johnny Clay is the ultimate “beautiful loser.” Paths of Glory is, in my humble opinion, the finest war film ever made. While not concerned primarily with combat and focusing instead on its multilayered consequences, the drama is as explosive as any battlefield action you’ll ever see. It lays bare the blatant hypocrisy of the powers that be, who never get their hands dirty but put innocent and well-intentioned men in the trenches to fight their battles for them. Kubrick takes us through the trenches with dazzling tracking shots that show us the weathered faces of the men who fought the Great War, some of whom will later be brought to trial and executed for “cowardice” after not being able to pull off an impossible mission. Kirk Douglas has never been better. And if the final scene in the battered cabaret, featuring Kubrick’s future wife, Christiane, singing a German folk song, doesn’t destroy you completely, you are probably some hideous sun demon."

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Kudos

My Spending - Expense Tracker

Finance and Business

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Do you know how much you spend monthly? are you still using papers to calculate how much you spend? ...

The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019)

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An ambitious art critic steals a rare painting and becomes consumed by his own greed as the...

BobbiesDustyPages (1259 KP) rated Marvel's Jessica Jones - Season 1 in TV

Mar 14, 2018

film noir style (3 more)

amazing character development

strong female characters

perfect casting

Got a little dull at the halfway point (0 more)

She'll kick your ass, steal your wallet and all without spilling her drink

Jessica Jones Season 1 was such an amazing take on the comic books and really just gave me what I've been missing from the Marvel Universe. Krysten Ritter was not someone I would have picked to play Jessica Jones but she took the role by the horns and really just blew me away.

The show has some of the not only best female characters I've come across but has some of the best relationships between female characters which a lot of tv shows and movies miss out on for some reason.

For me though David Tennant was just the one that stole the entire show every time he was on screen he just drew you in and you just could not look away from him.

Kudos

ClareR (6197 KP) rated The Wanderer in Books

Nov 21, 2018 (Updated Nov 21, 2018)

The Wanderer

Michael Ridpath | 2018 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

8.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Icelandic not-so noir

Does no one tell the truth to the police anymore? Even if they’re innocent?!
It seems that everyone wants to keep their secrets to themselves in this book, even if they think the information might relate to the murder of an Italian tourist. A camera crew, who are filming a documentary about Gudrid the Wanderer in Iceland, find her body outside a church where they’re filming. Magnus Jonson is in charge of the police investigation.
I really enjoyed the references to the Icelandic Sagas (I’ve now got a book of them on my Christmas list!), and Magnus seems to be a very nice police officer! Everyone else appears to just be looking out for themselves, to the detriment of everyone else.
Great story though! This is the fifth in a series, I haven’t read the others, and I don’t think it actually matters story-wise. I would very much like to read the others though!!

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Cat People (1942) in Movies

Jan 6, 2020 (Updated Jan 6, 2020)

Cat People (1942)

1942 | Horror

7.2

(10 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Moody and suggestive noir-ish horror melodrama perhaps shows that you can leave too much to the imagination. Serbian immigrant falls for preppy boat designer and marries him; the trouble is that she believes she will turn into a panther and rip him apart if he even kisses her. (No marriage will prosper in these circumstances.)

Very much of its period, especially in its gender politics - both of the main male characters are eminently punchable, to say the least - with a slightly awkward subtext about feminine emotions and desire. The plot is perhaps a bit too linear as well. However, it is very well directed, with a couple of sequences that invariably turn up in 'history of horror' documentaries as establishing genre tropes. It's still a slightly eggy melodrama where you don't really see the monster, so unlikely to be satisfying for many modern fans of the genre. It has still worn better than many other horror films from the 30s and 40s.