News

The 1980s was a lean spell for western fans. After the critical and commercial disaster of Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate," Hollywood studios were understandably reluctant to pile lots of money into a moribund genre and notable horse operas were few and far between. With the likes of "Silverado," "Young Guns," and "Three Amigos!" to choose from, Kathryn Bigelow's "Near Dark" was pretty much the best of the bunch, but that was as much a modern vampire movie as a typical oater. The classic western movie looked seriously long in the tooth, and it wouldn't flourish again until Kevin Costner resurrected it with his Oscar-winning "Dances with Wolves."

Then of course there was Clint Eastwood. If ever there was a filmmaker and a star who could buck the trend, it was arguably the best western movie actor to dominate the screen. By the mid '80s, Clint had  been...

When it comes to ranking the best Western movie actors, Paul Newman rarely troubles the likes of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Gary Cooper at the top of all-time lists. Sure,  one of his most beloved movies was starring alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," but arguably his most iconic roles were brooding outsiders like Eddie Felson in "The Hustler" and Luke Jackson in "Cool Hand Luke." Even so, Newman starred in his fair share of Westerns over the course of his career, putting in big performances for Arthur Penn in "The Left-Handed Gun," John Huston in "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean," and Robert Altman in "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson." He also made two of the greatest Westerns ever with one particularly underrated director, Martin Ritt.

Ritt is arguably one of the most unsung Hollywood filmmakers, working...

It's hard to find a TV series more beloved than "Avatar: The Last Airbender." Unlike some fandoms out there, the "Avatar" audience lives in shared adoration of the show — as harmonious as the four nations of water, earth, fire, and air once were. There are 61 "Avatar" episodes split across three seasons (or "Books"). Of those, season 2 "Zuko Alone" is often singled out as one of the best, if not the best, of the whole show. "Avatar" sequel "The Legend of Korra" even did a spiritual follow-up: "Korra Alone." The exiled prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko (Dante Basco) is introduced in season 1 hunting Avatar Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen). In season 2, Zuko falls even lower, losing even the meager resources he previously had. He has to put his Avatar hunt on pause because the Fire Nation is hunting him too.

"Zuko Alone" is both a standalone episode and one that cannot be skipped.

Shane, one of the greatest Western movies of all time, is finally coming to 4K Blu-ray. Kino Lorber is releasing the film in a two-disk 4K set this summer. A critical and commercial hit upon its release in 1953, Shane influenced many subsequent films, including the elegiac superhero Western Logan.

The disc features a brand new 4K transfer of the film, taken from a scan of its original 35mm camera negative. It also features the film's original theatrical trailer and two audio commentaries. That includes an all-new commentary by author and historian Alan K. Rode, who is writing a book on the film, and an archival commentary featuring George Stevens Jr. and associate producer Ivan Moffat. The set will also include a standard Blu-ray disc of the film. Shane will be released on July 14, 2025, and will retail for $29.89 Usd.

What Is 'Shane' About?

Shane stars Alan Ladd (This Gun for Hire) as the title character,...

Cinematic legend John Wayne is known widely for his roles in Western films, but the iconic leading man also specialized in war films. Many of the same qualities that help Wayne define the cowboy archetype make him the ideal candidate to play a military man. He's able to maintain a tough exterior while exuding quiet empathy.

In Wayne's renowned war films, he portrays several different kinds of soldier. He plays characters in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, but every one of these men has the same thing in common: they believe in a cause bigger than themselves. Wayne's war films frequently celebrate the fighting spirit of an underdog and spotlight the nobility good people show in times of great tragedy.

Wayne Grapples With the Legacy of Pearl Harbor In Harm's Way (1965) Image via Paramount Pictures

Set in Honolulu in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, In Harm's Way...

The Oscars stopped giving out a specific kind of award 64 years ago, but the idea behind the Honorary Academy Award could be tweaked to reflect an often overlooked kind of performer. Over the course of 97 years, the Academy Awards have shifted and changed with the times. This meant some categories have been added to the ceremony, while others have been changed. Some potential Oscar categories (like stunts) have been suggested to be included in future Academy Award ceremonies, broadening the chances for a larger variety of films and performances to be celebrated by the Academy in the future.

The history of the Oscars includes unique categories, including informal ones like the Juvenile Academy Awards. An idea that actually predates major categories like Best Supporting Actor and Actress, those Honorary Awards were a chance for the Oscars to celebrate young performers who didn't stand much of a chance to win the major awards.

In the Texas Panhandle, communities live and die on two things: Energy and cattle. After oil and massive natural gas reserves were found in the area in the 1910s, this land that had traditionally been taken up by cattle ranches since it was colonized by European settlers in the late 1800s moved heavily toward the harvesting of natural energy resources. However, despite the tremendous amount of money and land given over to oil and gas, raising cattle never stopped on the massive ranches of the Texas Panhandle (the Xit Ranch was 3 million+ acres at one point). In fact, ranches both corporate and family-run account for a large portion of the jobs and incoming money in the Panhandle today.

Because it relies on the land, the Texas cattle ranching industry is heavily susceptible to nature, including the weather, wildfires and cow-born diseases. These can prove the difference between thriving and losing everything in the Panhandle,...

Pale Rider is a homage to 1953's Shane, with major similarities in both characters and story beats. Clint Eastwood's Preacher is a supernatural character, with hints about his ghostly nature sprinkled into the story. Pale Rider is not the only movie to riff on Shane, with various films like Logan borrowing its narrative elements.

Clint Eastwood's underrated Pale Rider took a classic Western from the 1950s and gave it a decidedly supernatural edge. Clint Eastwood's Westerns are some of the most defining of the genre, and he was one of the last major stars to make his name on "Oaters." The failure of Heaven's Gate in 1980 killed Westerns for much of the decade, with studios largely shunning them. There were exceptions, like Young Guns, but they were largely seen by producers as box office poison.

For Eastwood's part, he mostly stepped away from Westerns following 1976's The Outlaw Josey Wales.

With Richard Linklater, Edgar Wright, and Tom Cruise calling Glen Powell the modern version of an Old Hollywood leading man, it’s only fitting that Paul Schrader would chime in.

The “Oh, Canada” writer/director posted on Facebook that Powell is akin to Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, and William Holden in terms of his star power.

“Glen Powell is a movie star in the Holden/Mitchum/Newman mold,” Schrader wrote. “Now he needs to make his ‘Hud.'”

Newman starred in the 1963 Western-tinged drama “Hud,” directed by Martin Ritt, which helped cement the rise of the antihero main characters. Newman’s titular Hud Bannon lives on his family cattle ranch in Texas and battles his nephew (Brandon de Wilde) for the affections of housekeeper Alma (Patricia Neal). Newman gave a performance as an arrogant, abusive alcoholic that earned him an Academy Award Best Actor nomination. The film went on to win Best Cinematography,...

Don Siegel’s 1976 western The Shootist stars John Wayne in his final film appearance, though it’s perhaps just as notable for the muted nature of its regard for the pathology of violence. After all, Siegel is the same filmmaker who half a decade prior made Dirty Harry, in which Clint Eastwood’s renegade cop relishes squeezing the trigger of his 44-magnum revolver whenever the opportunity presents itself.

There’s a propulsive mania to Siegel’s direction of Dirty Harry, tapping as it does into the curious overlap between Harry’s police tactics and a psycho sniper’s bloodlust. Wayne’s J.B. Books in The Shootist has no such compelling correlate. He’s a former sheriff turned gunslinger, now an old man easing the pain of his terminal cancer with swigs of laudanum, and he’s aiming to die in peace. It’s 1901, and the fact that he can’t...

There are many films that have quotable last lines such as “After all, tomorrow is another day” from “Gone with the Wind.” And who can forget Humphrey Bogart telling Claude Rains: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” But the beloved 1953 George Stevens’ Western “Shane” perhaps has one of the most endearing and emotional final lines. Young Joey (Brandon De Wilde) wants his idol, the former gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd), to stay with his family. But the wounded hero continues to ride off.

“Shane………come back,” Joey cries out.

Be prepared to bring you handkerchiefs to the Academy Museum’s 70th anniversary screening Dec 10 at the David Geffen Theatre. Ladd, in his strongest performance, plays a world-weary gunslinger who wants to hang up his six-shooter. He ends up working for an honest, struggling rancher Joe, (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and young son...

It's hard to believe it's been 70 years since Fred Zinneman's "From Here to Eternity" came out. Not that we were all there of course, but time has been really kind to the all-star, Best Picture-winning drama. Unlike many of the rah-rah war films emerging from America during and post-World War II, "From Here to Eternity" argues not that war is hell — since most of the movie takes place during peace time — but that men, even in the army, are subconsciously determined to make life hell whether there's a war on or not.

Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Sinatra star as soldiers stationed in Hawaii immediately prior to World War II, whose stubborn pride and barely contained insecurities lead directly to many avoidable tragedies. Clift plays Private Prewitt, a formerly promising boxer who refuses to box again after accidentally blinding a fellow soldier, and endures criminal abuse just because...

John Wayne often saved the day in dozens of Westerns and war dramas, but there were plenty of great movies where The Duke wasn't the hero. As far back as the late '20s, John Wayne was getting into gunfights, but after he shot to stardom in the '30s with Stagecoach, he became a superstar on the silver screen and a larger-than-life hero that upheld justice by deciding right from wrong with a pair of six-shooters. After his career stabilized, he was able to experiment a little with his on-screen persona and occasionally share top billing or even play a villain.

From the '40s until the '60s, it was rare for actors to branch out too much from the role they occupied with the big studios, who felt audiences were used to only seeing them one way. Some of the best performances of Wayne's career came from being allowed to add nuance,...

The relationship between fathers and sons is complicated. It can be tough, tender, loving, combative, disappointing, violent, the stuff of Shakespearean and even Greek tragedy. It’s little wonder there have been countless films exploring fathers and sons including “East of Eden,” “Finding Nemo,” “Back to the Future,” “Field of Dreams,” “Nebraska,” “Fences,” “Beginners” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

One of the most indelible is Martin Ritt’s “Hud,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary. And time hasn’t diminished the power of this unapologetic drama starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and Brandon De Wilde.

Newman had played characters of questionable morality such as his Oscar-nominated turn “Fast” Eddie Felsen in 1961’s “The Hustler,” but he had never played anyone quite like Hud, the ultimate heel who never met a bottle of booze he wouldn’t drink or a married woman he didn’t seduce. Living on a cattle ranch in a tiny,...

Hollywood’s last big all-star war epic in Black & White? Otto Preminger took a happy film company to Hawaii for this enormous saga about the Naval push in the Pacific Theater of WW2, with none other than John Wayne as the competent commander leading the charge. Soap-opera scenes aside, it’s a thrilling epic directed with Preminger’s well-known reserve. The star-gazing isn’t bad either — Kirk Douglas! Patricia Neal! Henry Fonda! Paula Prentiss! The finish is a huge naval battle with impressive live-action special effects, and given a moody music score by Jerry Goldsmith.

In Harm’s Way

Blu-ray

Paramount Viacom CBS

1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 167 min. / Street Date June 29, 2021 / Available from Paramount Movies / 13.99

Starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carroll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Barbara Bouchet.

Cinematography:...

“Two smoldering women made all the danger worthwhile!”… heck, we didn’t even see ’em catch fire. John Wayne is charismatic and Andrew V. McLaglen’s direction is decent for once in this formulaic ‘easy listening’ pot-boiler from the Wayne school of laid-back ’60s entertainment. After winning the Vietnam War, our intrepid action man extinguishes 101 out-of-control oil fires, which appear to happen every twenty minutes. When nothing’s burning, there are plenty of domestic tangles to straighten out with the womenfolk. In support are Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Bruce Cabot and Jay C. Flippen. It’s old-fashioned but not embarrassing — Wayne still has his charm.

Hellfighters

Blu-ray

Mill Creek

1968 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date May 4, 2021 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 19.99

Starring: John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Jay C. Flippen, Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner, Barbara Stuart, Edmund Hashim, Valentin de Vargas, Frances Fong, Alberto Morin,...

James Stewart’s final western of the 1950s is a high-gloss family show with more than its share of spirited desperados and adventuresome women. But it’s really the split-up project that ended the productive Stewart-Anthony Mann filmmaking combo. The ‘folksy’ touches could only have come from Stewart himself, who hopefully didn’t show up to parties with his accordion in tow. Opposite Stewart as a ‘good bad guy’ is Audie Murphy, who rises to the standard set by his high-class co-star. If old-time railroads have appeal, this is the show for you: an un-billed co-star is the spectacular Denver and Rio Grande.

Night Passage

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: James Stewart, Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Dianne Foster, Elaine Stewart, Brandon De Wilde, Jay C. Flippen, Herbert Anderson, Robert J. Wilke, Hugh Beaumont, Jack Elam, Olive Carey, Ellen Corby,...

By Todd Garbarini

Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills will be presenting a Digital Cinema Package (Dcp) screening of George Stevens’s 1953 film Shane. The 118-minute film, which stars Alan Ladd as the hero and Jack Palance, Ben Johnson, Elisha Cook, Jr., will be screened on Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 3:00 pm.

Please Note: At press time, actor/producer David Ladd (son of actor Alan Ladd) will participate in a Q&A after the screening at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre on Sunday, August 26.

From the press release:

Shane (1953)

65th Anniversary Screening

Sunday, August 26, at 3 Pm

Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre

Q&A with David Ladd, Actor-Producer and Son of Alan Ladd

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 65th anniversary screening of one of the most beloved Westerns of all time, George Stevens’ production of 'Shane.' The 1950s happened to be a golden age for cowboy sagas,...

Let’s go back to 1959, when just implying that two teenagers might have first-hand knowledge of sex is socially unacceptable dynamite. This adapted play about an unwanted teen pregnancy is actually quite good, thanks to fine performances by Carol Lynley and Brandon De Wilde, who convince as cherubic high schoolers ‘too young to know the score.’ And hey, the teen trauma is set to the intense music of composer Bernard Herrmann.

Blue Denim

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1959 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date April 17, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Carol Lynley, Brandon De Wilde, Macdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt, Warren Berlinger, Vaughn Taylor, Roberta Shore, Malcolm Atterbury, Anthony J. Corso, Gregg Martell, William Schallert.

Cinematography: Leo Tover

Film Editors: William Reynolds, George Leggewie

Original Music: Bernard Herrmann

Written by Edith Sommer, Philip Dunne from the play by James Leo Herlihy and William Noble

Produced by Charles Brackett

Directed...

It’s the dream of most actors and actresses to receive an Oscar nomination and, if they’re lucky, to win. But what happens when you’re up against a co-star from the same movie? Does one triumph or do they split the vote? Click through our photo gallery above of all the times this has happened throughout Academy Awards history.

Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson both scored Best Supporting Actor nominations for their work in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” It has been 26 years since Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley were both nominated for “Bugsy” (1991). Unfortunately for the duo they split their support and Jack Palance won for “City Slickers,” ironically a former victim of vote-splitting against his “Shane” co-star Brandon De Wilde (they lost to Frank Sinatra, “From Here to Eternity”).

See 2018 Oscar Best Picture predictions by experts: ‘Three Billboards’ pulls into tie with ‘The Shape of Water’ as voting ends Feb.

It’s the great Anthony Mann-James Stewart western that Mann didn’t direct: Stewart goes it alone, over-filling a good western idea with ‘cute’ scenes and conservative messages Mann had no use for. But it’s an exciting picture, and one of co-star Audie Murphy’s best — and it’s the first feature in the splendid oversized format known as Technirama.

Night Passage

Blu-ray

Explosive Media (De)

1957 / color / 2:35 widescreen / 90 min. / available at Amazon.de / Die Uhr ist abgelaufen /Street Date August 10, 2017 / Eur 17,99

Starring: James Stewart, Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Dianne Foster, Elaine Stewart, Brandon De Wilde, Jay C. Flippen, Herbert Anderson, Robert J. Wilke, Hugh Beaumont, Jack Elam, Olive Carey, Ellen Corby, Chuck Roberson.

Cinematography: William Daniels

Film Editor: Sherman Todd

Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin

Written by Borden Chase

Produced by Aaron Rosenberg

Directed by James Neilson

Universal-International didn’t spare the production values for their big-screen western Night Passage.

The latter part of William "Wild Bill" Wellman's distinguished career is a little patchy, as much due to studio interference as anything else, but a fair bit of positive attention has focused on Track of the Cat (1954) a sweaty family melodrama about the hunt for a rapacious wildcat in the snowy wilds near Aspen, daringly filmed in color but with almost no actual color (the snow was crucial here).We've been looking at the wrong film. An almost exact opposite of Track of the Cat exists, one which trades that film's showy ambition for a quieter, but equally radical aesthetic. Where Robert Mitchum and his kin snarl at each other in Track of the Cat, in Good-bye, My Lady all is peaceful between old-timer Walter Brennan and his young nephew Brandon DeWilde (the kid from Shane). Where Track of the Cat uses a daring palette and widescreen compositions, Goodbye, My...

Hollywood tackles the big issues! This adapted play about an unwanted teen pregnancy is actually quite good, thanks to fine performances by Carol Lynley and Brandon De Wilde, who convince as cherubic high schoolers 'too young to know the score.' And hey, the teen trauma is set to an intense music score by Bernard Herrmann. Blue Denim 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives 1959 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date March 16, 2016 / available through Amazon / 19.98 Starring Carol Lynley, Brandon De Wilde, Macdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt, Warren Berlinger, Vaughn Taylor, Roberta Shore, Malcolm Atterbury, Anthony J. Corso, Gregg Martell, William Schallert. Cinematography Leo Tover Film Editor William Reynolds, George Leggewie Original Music Bernard Herrmann Written by Edith Sommer, Philip Dunne from the play by James Leo Herlihy and William Noble Produced by Charles Brackett Directed by Philip Dunne

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Sex education today is erratic, with no established standard, but...

A tyrant is trying to force decent people off their land to take it all for himself. The decent people are willing to stand their ground, but are looking for ways to avoid violence. They’re trying to teach their children not to solve matters with guns, and if something should happen to the men in battling this tyrant, their families would be left with nothing. Yet it becomes increasingly clear the tyrant must be stopped. Along comes a young man with the skills and resolve to do their killing for them, and with no apparently attachments to anyone else to leave behind. He’s their hero, their greatest hope; they can honor him, thank him, even give him work; but we can never truly repay the way he put his life on the line so that we might enjoy our freedom.

This is the plot of Shane, George Stevens’ 1953 western.

Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...

'Sorrell and Son' with H.B. Warner and Alice Joyce. 'Sorrell and Son' 1927 movie: Long thought lost, surprisingly effective father-love melodrama stars a superlative H.B. Warner Partially shot on location in England and produced independently by director Herbert Brenon at Joseph M. Schenck's United Artists, the 1927 Sorrell and Son is a skillful melodrama about paternal devotion in the face of both personal and social adversity. This long-thought-lost version of Warwick Deeping's 1925 bestseller benefits greatly from the veteran Brenon's assured direction, deservedly shortlisted in the first year of the Academy Awards.* Crucial to the film's effectiveness, however, is the portrayal of its central character, a war-scarred Englishman who sacrifices it all for the happiness of his son. Luckily, the London-born H.B. Warner, best remembered for playing Jesus Christ in another 1927 release, Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, is the embodiment of honesty, selflessness, and devotion. Less is...

Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...

Patricia Neal ca. 1950. Patricia Neal movies: 'The Day the Earth Stood Still,' 'A Face in the Crowd' Back in 1949, few would have predicted that Gary Cooper's leading lady in King Vidor's The Fountainhead would go on to win a Best Actress Academy Award 15 years later. Patricia Neal was one of those performers – e.g., Jean Arthur, Anne Bancroft – whose film career didn't start out all that well, but who, by way of Broadway, managed to both revive and magnify their Hollywood stardom. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating Sunday, Aug. 16, '15, to Patricia Neal. This evening, TCM is showing three of her best-known films, in addition to one TCM premiere and an unusual latter-day entry. 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' Robert Wise was hardly a genre director. A former editor (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons...

It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.

Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.

As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.

57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...

We all would like to believe that we have that someone special to look up to for guidance and direction. From time to time we practice the art of worship for the mentor that appears larger than life to us. Whether our designated mentors that we choose to follow are inspirational or insidious it does not matter because that yearning to follow in their footsteps are so great that we blindly give anything to replicate that original blueprint.

Maybe if one dreams of being a famous astronaut you designate Neii Armstrong or John Glenn as your mentoring heroes? Perhaps your foray into film criticism was ignited by Judith Crist, Vincent Canby or Siskel & Ebert? How about emulating your favorite actor or singer and following their paths to success?

In Follow My Lead: Top Ten Mentors in the Movies we will look at some movie characters that served as mentors to...

It's Brandon de Wilde month in the entertainment world. No, TCM is not devoting a week or even 24 hours to the memory of the innocent, winsome, soulful young actor who kept having to learn life's tough lessons in movie after movie, from “Shane” to “Hud,” until his untimely death at age 30 in 1972. See photos: 9 of Elaine Stritch's Most Memorable Roles (Photos) Instead, de Wilde lives on in two performances this month; one is on-screen in “Fury” with Logan Lerman‘s too-good soldier who can't kill, and the other is on stage in the musical version of “The Fortress of...

Now what would the movies be like if everybody on the big screen was a conformist and blandly played by the rules? Every now and then it can be quite therapeutic to have a bad apple shape our rigid outlook with a dosage of cynicism in cinema. Whether intentionally unruly or merely questioning the status quo movie rebels can be compellingly entertaining for various reasons.

So who are your choice big screen rabble-rousers that like to stir the pot and cause dissension in the name of justice or just plain anti-establishment? In Trouble With a Cause: The Top 10 Movie Rebels let us take a look at some of the on-screen troublemakers with a taste for colorful turmoil, shall we?

The selections for Trouble With a Cause: The Top 10 Movie Rebels are (in alphabetical order according to the film titles):

1.) Brad Whitewood, Jr. from At Close Range (1986)

In director James Foley...

Kids say the darnedest things! Isn't that what Bill Cosby taught us back in the 1990s? Well, the legendary comedian was right, obviously, especially when it comes to memorable movie quotes. We wanted to take a look back through the decades at some of the most hilarious, touching, unforgettable lines said by kid characters (most are live-action, but there are a few animated characters too). We even asked some of our friends and readers what their favorites were and came up with this list of 25, but it just as easily could have been 50.

And if you notice we paid extra attention to the '80s and '90s, let's just say that's when many of us were growing up; we're sure younger (and older) readers could come up with an entirely different lineup of quotes. Feel free to share them in the comments!

"So never kick a dog / Because he's...

‘Shane’: Alan Ladd stars in classic Western to be screened at the Academy The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a 60th anniversary screening of George Stevens’ classic Western Shane, starring Alan Ladd as a lone and mysterious gunslinger, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 7, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Besides Ladd, Shane, a 1953 Paramount release, also stars Jean Arthur in her last movie role, in addition to Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance. (Photo: Alan Ladd in Shane.) "A gun is a tool, Marian, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything," Alan Ladd’s Shane tells Jean Arthur’s homesteader wife and mother. "A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." That may sound like your usual National Rifle Association bullshit, but in the...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the classic Western Shane with a screening of a new digital restoration from Paramount Pictures on Monday, September 16, at the Academy Theater in New York City, with a special video message by director Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine); and on Monday, October 7, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, with an in-person introduction by director James Mangold (The Wolverine).

For New York, click here

For Los Angeles, click here

Based on Jack Schaefer’s successful 1949 novel, the film recounts the age-old story of the duel between good and evil through the eyes of Joey (Brandon De Wilde), an impressionable young boy who idolizes a mysterious gunslinger. Shane (Alan Ladd), the man without a past or a future, inserts himself into the battle over land being waged between homesteaders and a cattle baron, and in the process,...

Award-winning actor renowned for her work on Broadway and roles in classic films such as East of Eden and The Haunting

Unable to make sufficient money from her novels, the great American writer Carson McCullers took advice from Tennessee Williams and allowed one of her masterpieces to be adapted for the theatre. The resultant success of The Member of the Wedding (1950) widened her fame, and made a Broadway star of Julie Harris, who has died aged 87.

The play's main character is Frankie Addams, a gawky 12-year-old who longs for companionship and the "we of me". Although the second juvenile role, in what is essentially a three-hander, went to a child actor, Brandon de Wilde, the complex part of Frankie fell to Harris, who was then 24. Born in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, and trained at the Yale School of Drama, Harris had made her Broadway debut in It's a Gift in...

Julie Harris, one of Broadway's most honored performers, whose roles ranged from the flamboyant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera to the reclusive Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst died Saturday. She was 87. Harris died at her West Chatham, Mass., home of congestive heart failure, actress and family friend Francesca James said. The actress won five Tony Awards for best actress in a play, displaying a virtuosity that enabled her to portray an astonishing gallery of women during a theater career that spanned almost 60 years and included such plays as The Member of the Wedding (1950), The Lark (1955), Forty Carats...

New York (Associated Press) — Julie Harris, one of Broadway's most honored performers, whose roles ranged from the flamboyant Sally Bowles in "I Am a Camera" to the reclusive Emily Dickinson in "The Belle of Amherst," died Saturday. She was 87.

Harris died at her West Chatham, Mass., home of congestive heart failure, actress and family friend Francesca James said.

Harris won five Tony Awards for best actress in a play, displaying a virtuosity that enabled her to portray an astonishing gallery of women during a theater career that spanned almost 60 years and included such plays as "The Member of the Wedding" (1950), "The Lark" (1955), "Forty Carats" (1968) and "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln" (1972).

She was honored again with a sixth Tony, a special lifetime achievement award in 2002. Her record is up against Audra McDonald, with five competitive Tonys, and Angela Lansbury with four Tonys in the best actress-musical category and one for best supporting actress in a play.

The 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival continues to expand, with newly added appearances by legendary stars at screenings of some of their most memorable films, including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Barrie Chase, Polly Bergen,Coleen Gray, Theodore Bikel and Norman Lloyd, as well as producer Stanley Rubin, Clara Bow biographer David Stenn, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) film collections manager Katie Trainor and director Nicholas Ray’s widow, Susan Ray. In addition, TCM’s Essentials Jr. host and Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader will present screenings of Shane (1953) and The Ladykillers(1955).

And The Film Forum’s Bruce Goldstein will present a special screening of Frank Capra’s The Donovan Affair (1929), complete with live voice actors and sound effects to replace the film’s long-lost soundtrack.Mel Brooks is slated to talk about his comedy The Twelve Chairs (1970). Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan...

This is part of Fred Zinnemann Week, hosted at Shadowplay.

I've found that, for some people, the classic-status ubiquity of certain scenes in From Here to Eternity or High Noon, plus the damned aura of taste and quality which surrounds an AFI-favored filmmaker like Fred Zinnemann, can be intensely off-putting. I've also found that I prefer some of the director's less celebrated works. In other words, I think he deserves his high reputation, but perhaps for reasons and films that aren't so well-trodden.

One of Fred Z.'s undoubted attributes was an eye for acting talent. If he had only introduced Brando, Clift and Steiger to the screen, he would deserve to be remembered, but in fact he directed the first films of Julie Harris, Brandon De Wilde, Tony Franciosa, William Hickey, Don Murray, Claude Akins, Shirley Jones and Meryl Streep. And he directed early film appearances of Jessica Tandy,...

I apologize for the delay in posting this week's installment of "What I Watched", but I had a bit of a wireless router issue I had to deal with this weekend and while I rewatched the entire original Planet of the Apes franchise this week, I am saving that commentary for later this week with the upcoming release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so I decided to watch a movie this morning so I had something to contribute. That said, let's get into it...

Shane (1953) Quick Thoughts: Earlier this week I was trying to come up with something special to do surrounding the release of Cowboys & Aliens. I considering doing both a top ten list of my favorite westerns and a top ten list of my favorite alien films, and while the alien side of things would be quite easy there were still a few classic westerns...

In honor of the 83rd Academy Awards, Extra" brings you AFI's 100 Best Movie Quotes of all time! From "The Wizard of Oz" to "Taxi Driver," see if your favorites made the list.

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie QuotesGone with the Wind (1939)

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." — Clark Gable as Rhett Butler to Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

The Godfather (1972)

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." — Marlon Brando as Don Corleone...

Could you imagine winning an Oscar at age 6?! These kid stars may have been too small to reach the podium, but all were recognized by the Academy. Check it out!

Academy-Award Stars under 18Keisha Castle-Hughes

Keisha Castle-Hughes was 13 when she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in "Whale Rider" (2003). She is the youngest actress to receive a best-actress nomination.

Abigail Breslin

Abigail Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006). She was only 10 at the time.

Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Atonement" (2008). She was 13.

Haley Joel Osment

Haley Joel Osment was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The Sixth Sense" (1999). He was 11.

Anna Paquin

Anna Paquin was only 11 when she won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the critically acclaimed movie, "The Piano" (1993).

Justin Henry

Justin Henry was...

When does a child actor stop being merely precocious and enter the pantheon of acting gods? You know the gods of which we speak; they look down from their mighty pedestals as we shower them with tributes year after year… The Oscar Nominees.

Well, in order to walk through that threshold into Hollywood’s elite circle, these young folks have to have chops, serious chops. Or be really, really cute. Either way, it takes sacrifice, hard work and possibly some crazy-ass stage parents.

In honor of this year’s youthful nominees Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”) and Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”), and for your continued cinematified education, we present the youngest ever Academy Award nominees and winners from throughout the history of the awards.

Justin Henry, ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ (1979)

Age: 8

Nomination: Best Supporting Actor (Youngest Nominee)

A troubled family is at the center of 1979′s “Kramer Vs. Kramer,” where Henry...

Chicago – The 1960s movie stars, captured forever on celluloid in their era, still thrive and survive. At the recent Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show, Oscar winner George Kennedy (”Cool Hand Luke”) and cult star Carol Lynley (”Bunny Lake is Missing”) spoke about the long time passing 1960s.

The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is a biannual event in Chicago where attendees can meet and greet the stars, collect autographs and find cool collectibles at the comprehensive memorabilia market. The next show in the area is scheduled for September 25th and 26th, 2010.

HollywoodChicago.com was there at the last show in March, and spoke to George Kennedy and Carol Lynley. Photographer Joe Arce was also there to capture their images at the event.

George Kennedy of “Cool Hand Luke,” “Airport” and “The Dirty Dozen”

George Kennedy is best remembered for his numerous character roles in big and famous films. After starting in television...

Chicago – The film buff’s essential network, Turner Classic Movies, is having a film festival next month in Hollywood from April 22nd to the 25th, and as promotion for that festival, Eva Marie Saint will introduce “North by Northwest” in Chicago.

Chicago is part of the “Road to Hollywood” series that TCM is doing in conjunction with the April TCM Film Festival. Tuesday, March 30th, Eva Marie Saint and TCM host Robert Osborne will introduce North by Northwest at the historic Music Box Theater. The event is sold out.

Eva Marie Saint was born on the 4th of July in Newark, New Jersey. She did extensive work in early TV and radio before scoring on Broadway in “The Trip to Bountiful” in 1953. At the same time she was training at the famed Actor’s Studio, and was cast in her first film, “On the Waterfront.” by Studio founder and director Elia Kazan.

"Extra" brings you AFI's 100 Best Movie Quotes of all time! From "The Wizard of Oz" to "Taxi Driver," see if your favorites made the list!

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie QuotesGone with the Wind (1939)

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." --Said by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler to Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.

The Godfather (1972)

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." --Marlon Brando as Don Corleone.

On the Waterfront (1954)

"You don't understand!

Could you imagine winning an Oscar at age 6?! These kid stars may have been too small to reach the podium, but all were recognized by the Academy. Check it out!

Academy-Award Stars under 18Keisha Castle-Hughes

Keisha Castle-Hughes was 13 when she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in "Whale Rider" (2003). She is the youngest actress to receive a best-actress nomination.

Abigail Breslin

Abigail Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006). She was only 10 at the time.

Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Atonement" (2008). She was 13.

Haley Joel Osment

Haley Joel Osment was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The Sixth Sense" (1999). He was 11.

Anna Paquin

Anna Paquin was only 11 when she won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the critically acclaimed movie, "The Piano" (1993).

Justin Henry

Justin Henry was...

"Extra" brings you AFI's 100 Best Movie Quotes of all time! From "The Wizard of Oz" to "Taxi Driver," see if your favorites made the list!

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie QuotesGone with the Wind (1939)

“Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.” —Said by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler to Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara.

The Godfather (1972)

“I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” —Marlon Brando as Don Corleone.

On the Waterfront (1954)

“You don’t understand!