Chronicling history by means of the Western, the one genre American cinema can claim to have pioneered, John Ford’s depiction of the West pumped with the blood of Manifest Destiny, the dreamy expressi...

In terms of classical storytelling, The Searchers, John Ford’s most compelling Western, avoids association with the genre’s established precepts. On the surface, Western form is obeyed to the mark: Th...

Opening on a boy torturing cockroaches in the street, The Wages of Fear’s first shot expounds the entire film. Deprived, the child suddenly follows after a shaved-ice merchant pushing his cart and ann...

Asymmetrical in form, he cuts a distinctive figure. His derby hat rests upon his head at an angle, its slant accentuated by the straightness of his suspenders and the forced lines of his tight-buttone...

Three French soldiers of The Great War brood in a cell. Their execution is scheduled for dawn. Cold walls surround them, offering no solace. One of them lays curled up silently on the floor, going mad...

“As a man, I’m flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol… As a symbol, I can be incorruptible.” Spoken by Bruce Wayne as he mulled over how to become a symbol for Go...

After training in the arts of deception, theatricality, and mass engagement in the Himalayas with clandestine ninjutsu vigilante group The League of Shadows, young Gotham City billionaire Bruce Wayne ...

Anthony Mann made Westerns. He experimented in other genres, of course, honing his technical skills on atmospheric 1940s film noir pictures such as T-Men (1947) and Border Incident (1949) and dabbling...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade deviates from the full-blown Saturday serial adventure formula so jealously adhered to by its predecessors. While keeping our basic escapist moviegoing desires sooth...