And the annual Financial Support of hello, im john lithgow. Welcome to american cinema. Sam fuller, a great director and a veteran, says the only way to make a war movie realistic is to have someone with a rifle stand behind the screen and shoot at the audience because war is so gruesome that nothing on the screen can ever really capture it. During world war ii, hollywood produced films which softened war realities with tales of heroism and valor. The platoon of bataan and guadalcanal diary portrayed an america true to its ideal, if not its reality; a model of ethnically diverse americans working together. There was always a tension between hollywoods portrayal and filmmakers experiences. Directors like john ford and sam fuller, who had really seen battle, brought a deeper urgency and understanding to the films they made. They left a legacy for the next generation. When it came to vietnam, the conventions of hollywood didnt match the soldiers reality. Filmmakers like francis ford coppo
Hello, im john lithgow. Welcome to american cinema. In the man who shot liberty valance, john fords great film a newspaperman says, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. That may not be Good Journalism but it makes a good western. The history of the western is often a history of legends, billy the kid, wyatt earp, the gunfight at the ok corral. Not the real west, but a mythical place full of images that are uniquely american the open frontier, the outlaw, the solitary, often reluctant hero. The western is also landscapes; a unique stage on which dramas from the American Experience get played out. A young man rebels against his stepfather in red river. An uncle becomes obsessed with finding his niece in the searchers. A reformed killer is caught up in a vengeance out of control in unforgiven. Since the great train robbery of 1903, hundreds of westerns have been made. Its the Great American form, our equivalent of classic greek tragedy, where we replay and reinterpret stories o
And the annual Financial Support of hello, im john lithgow. Welcome to american cinema. In the man who shot liberty lance, john fords great film a newspaperman says, whethe legendecomes fact, print the legend. That may not be Good Journalism but it makes a good western. The history of the western is often a history of legends, billy the kid, wyatt ear the nfht at the ok corral. Not the real west, but a mythical place full of images that are uniquely american the enrontier, the outlaw, the solitary, often reluant hero. The western is also landscapes; a unique stage on which dramas from the American Experience get played out. A young man rebels against his stepfathern red river. An uncle beces obsessed with finding his niece in the searchers. A reformed killer is caught up in a venance out of control in unforgiven. Since the great train robbery of 1903, hundreds of westerns have been made. Its the Great American form, our equivalent of classic greek tragedy, where we replay and reinterpr