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[This article was originally published in 2017. It has been updated in August 2024.]

70mm is back! Thanks to Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan, one of the oldest and grandest traditions in Hollywood is making a comeback after years of financial setbacks and near-extinction. As Nolan has said many times, shooting in 70mm proved an immersive and more textured experience than any other form of cinema.

Due to the costly nature of film and theaters’ lack of 70mm projectors, it’s been quite a challenge to get to a place where Tarantino and Nolan can make entire features using 65/70mm, but the preservation of film is turning in their favor.

Below, we’ve gathered 20 of the most essential 70mm film releases. From Stanley Kubrick to William Wyler and David Lean, it’s clear shooting in 70mm is mandatory for any epic filmmaker.

With additional editorial contributions from Zack Sharf.

“Oklahoma!” (1955)

Fred Zinnemann’s film adaptation of the 1943 stage musical was the...

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October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a slew of companies are painting their products pink and donating to organizations that fund research, offer post-operation support for those in treatment, promote awareness through screenings and more.

About one in eight American women will develop breast cancer, which is the second leading cause of death among women, according to the American Cancer Society. Many in Hollywood have also backed charitable initiatives or spoken out about the need for early detection, including breast cancer survivors Christina Applegate, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robin Roberts, Shannen Doherty, Olivia Newton-John and Wanda Sykes. (Angelina Jolie, who did not develop cancer, opted for a preventative double mastectomy and penned an op-ed for the New York Times about her experience.)

Beauty and fashion brands including David Yurman (which donated 500,000 through its second annual Award for Breast Cancer Research), Estée Lauder, Jimmy Choo...

This creepy-crawly epic enjoyed a strong reputation on my grade-school playground! Does George Pal’s man-versus-the-elements saga hold up 68 years later? The ‘exotic’ special effects get the point across but the real appeal is the suppressed lust between Charlton Heston and his mail order bride Eleanor Parker — all heavy breathing and stern reproaches. I’m surprised nobody has fully exploited the original short story, which back in the ’60s showed up in numerous best-of collections. “Marabunta” is not a new fragrance line from Arpege.

The Naked Jungle

All- Region Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint]

1954 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date December 29, 2021 / Available from [Imprint], Amazon.us /

Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad, John Dierkes, Abraham Sofaer, Douglas Fowley, Rodd Redwing.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Production Designer: Art Director: Hal Pereira, Franz Bachelin

Film Editor: Everett Douglas

Special Photographic Effects: John P. Fulton

Matte artist Jan Domela

Miniatures Ivyl Burks

Optical cinematography Paul K. Lerpae...

Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson can’t quite bring this all-star western fully to life, even with Robert Aldrich at the helm and a storyline that toys with (then) lurid, adult subject matter. Screen-written by Dalton Trumbo and filmed in Mexico, it perhaps packs too much edgy psychodrama into a simple cowboys & six-guns saga. Dorothy Malone and Carol Lynley give fine support and the locations are nice, as is Ernest Laszlo’s cinematography.

The Last Sunset

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 12, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotten, Carol Lynley, Neville Brand, Regis Toomey, Rad Fulton (James Westmoreland), Adam Williams, Jack Elam, John Shay, José Torvay.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Art Directors: Alexander Golitzen, Alfred Sweeney

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Ernest Gold

Written by Dalton Trumbo from the novel Sundown at Crazy Horse by Howard Rigsby

Produced by Eugene Frenke,...

Hollywood’s most macho liberals pack this action western with cheating, double crosses, rampant greed, uncouth heroes and decadent sneering villains… and that’s not counting the wall-to-wall revolutionary carnage. Toothy Burt Lancaster and philosophical Gary Cooper double-deal with cannon-fodder Juaristas and Cesar Romero’s decadent Frenchman, to steal a fortune in gold. Francois Truffaut called it ‘the first cynical western.’ Robert Aldrich’s direction emphasizes wince-inducing violence. The ‘dirty dozen’- like supporting freebooters include Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jack Elam and Archie Savage. This eye-opening blockbuster strongly influenced Sergio Leone’s Italo westerns made ten years later.

Vera Cruz

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:2.0 widescreen (Superscope) / 94 min. / Street Date October 12, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, Sarita Montiel, George Macready, Denise Darcel, Morris Ankrum, Charles Buchinsky (Bronson), Ernest Borgnine. Jack Elam, Henry Brandon, Archie Savage, Jack Lambert.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Production Designer: Alfred Ybarra...

In 2001 I wrote, ‘Someday I’ll get to see a good copy of Robert Aldrich’s great movie Apache.’ Kino’s excellent new Blu-ray of a recent MGM remaster brings back the color and the correct screen shape, and even cleans up some wicked frame damage that’s been there for sixty years. The athletic Burt Lancaster will make every man and boy feel like running across whatever landscape is available, leaping like a gymnast from rock to rock. Properly restored, the tale of the rebellious Massai plays better than a dozen politically revisionist westerns, even with Burt as a blue-eyed Apache. The movie solidified Lancaster’s producing career and Robert Aldrich earned his first box office hit.

Apache

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date December 1, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, Charles Bronson, John McIntire, John Dehner, Walter Sande, Paul Guilfoyle.

Cinematography:...

The love for Fritz Lang doesn’t quit! As Lang’s biographers point out, his American films consistently focus on moral and psychological questions in crime. Lang saw murder as more than a dramatic tool as he probed for weaknesses in the legal system. His final American pictures — two separate disc releases — make excellent use of good actors. Dana Andrews stars in both, backed by name stars set loose from the studio system.

While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Separate Blu-ray releases

Warner Archive Collection

B&W / 2:1 widescreen / Street Date March 13, 2018 / 21.99 each

Original Music: Herschel Burke Gilbert

Produced by Bert E. Friedlob

Directed by Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang’s final American films.

The amazingly creative Fritz Lang almost singlehandedly pioneered a number of key genres: the fantasy epic, the gangster film, the spy thriller, and the science fiction film — all before the start of the sound era.

Secure one major book with a serious subject, sign up a wagonload of stars (including a legend or two) and make sure every cookie-cutter character repeatedly explains themselves to the camera in close-up. That formula worked well for Stanley Kramer in 1965; his film hasn’t much of a reputation but the cast is gold. A bright new transfer makes the picture look very good.

Ship of Fools

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1965 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 149 min. / Street Date March 9, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, José Greco, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin, Heinz Rühmann, Lilia Skala, Barbara Luna, Alf Kjellin, Werner Klemperer,

Gila Golan, Kaaren Verne.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Film Editor: Robert C. Jones

Special visual effects: John Burke, Farciot Edouart, Albert Whitlock

Original Music: Ernest Gold

Written by Abby Mann from the novel by Katherine Anne Porter

Produced and directed by Stanley...

By John M. Whalen

In 1988 Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”, “The Poseidon Adventure”) got fed up with what he called “the eel pit of Hollywood,” and moved to Thailand to start a new life. According to the La Times, he’d grown tired of the power plays, the egos, the hypocrisy and the dictum that homage must be paid to the box office. He left and never came back.

Hollywood has always had its dark side-- just read “Hollywood Babylon.” Silliphant’s “eel pit” was never a more apt description than when, a few years later in 2015, the film industry was rocked by WikiLeaks release of some really nasty Sony emails that gave a glimpse into what powerful producers and studio execs really thought of some of their stars. Scott Rudin called Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat.” Clint Culpepper called Kevin Hart “a whore,...

All hail Bert I. Gordon, who singlehandedly carved out his own niche in ‘fifties monster folklore, and even won a battle or two against those sharpies at A.I.P.. His puppet people were originally just ‘Fantastic,’ but they had to be made into a menace with the “A” word usually reserved for icky poo Giant Leeches, Crab Monsters and 50-Foot Women.

Attack of the Puppet People

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / The Fantastic Puppet People, Six Inches Tall, I Was a Teenage Doll, War of the Puppet People / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 27.99

Starring: John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Susan Gordon, Michael Mark, Kack Kosslyn, Marlene Willis, Ken Miller, Laurie Mitchell, Scott Peters, June Jocelyn, Hank Patterson.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Special Effects: Bert I. Gordon, Flora M. Gordon

Original Music: Albert Glasser

Written by George Worthing Yates

Story, Produced & Directed by Bert I. Gordon

It’s easy...

What seemed too raw for 1955 still packs a punch, as Robert Aldrich takes a meat cleaver to the power politics of the old studio system. Monstrous studio head Rod Steiger has just the leverage he needs to blackmail frazzled star Jack Palance into signing the big contract. But will Hollywood corruption destroy them all?

The Big Knife

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date September 5, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen,

Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton, Nick Dennis.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Art Direction: William Glasgow

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Frank De Vol

Adapted by James Poe from the play by Clifford Odets

Produced and Directed by Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich’s 1940s film apprenticeship was largely spent as an assistant director for strong, creative filmmakers that wanted to do good personal work free of the constraints of the big studios.

This past weekend, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Greig Fraser for his contribution to Lion as last year’s greatest accomplishment in the field. Of course, his achievement was just a small sampling of the fantastic work from directors of photography, but it did give us a stronger hint at what may be the winner on Oscar night. Ahead of the ceremony, we have a new video compilation that honors all the past winners in the category at the Academy Awards

Created by Burger Fiction, it spans the stunning silent landmark Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans all the way up to the end of Emmanuel Lubezki‘s three-peat win for The Revenant. Aside from the advancements in color and aspect ration, it’s a thrill to see some of cinema’s most iconic shots side-by-side. However, the best way to experience the evolution of the craft is by...

Cast

Captain T. G. Culpeper Spencer Tracy J. Russell Finch Milton Berle Melville Crump Sid Caesar Benjy Benjamin Buddy Hackett Mrs. Marcus Ethel Merman Ding Bell Mickey Rooney Sylvester Marcus Dick Shawn Otto Meyer Phil Silvers J. Algernon Hawthorne Terry-Thomas Lennie Pike Jonathan Winters Monica Crump Edie Adams Emeline Finch Dorothy Provine Cabdriver Eddie “Rochester” Anderson Tyler Fitzgerald Jim Backus Man driving in the desert Jack Benny Union official Joe E. Brown Biplane pilot Ben Blue Police sergeant Alan Carney Detective Chick Chandler Mrs. Halliburton Barrie Chase Mayor Lloyd Corrigan Police chief William Demarest Sheriff of Crocket County Andy Devine Ginger Culpeper (voice) Selma Diamond Cabdriver Peter Falk Detective Normal Fell Colonel Wilberforce Paul Ford Deputy sheriff Stan Freberg Billie Sue Culpeper (voice) Louise Glenn Cabdriver Leo Gorcey Fire chief Sterling Holloway Mr. Dinckler Edward Everett Horton Irwin Marvin Kaplan Jimmy the Cook Buster Keaton Nervous motorist Don Knotts Airport...

Having finally found acclaim as a writer/director with critical successes like The Defiant Ones (1958) after a brief period serving as a producer for others at Columbia on films such as Death of a Salesman (1951), The Juggler (1953), and The Wild One (1953), Stanley Kramer took it upon himself to follow-up his politically controversial nuclear war drama On the Beach (1959) with yet another topically contentious production – Inherit The Wind. Based on the stage play of the same name written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, the film fictionalizes the famed 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial, in which a high school teacher named John Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in any state-funded school. Riding high on the creation/evolution controversy, as well as a genius ploy to exploit the witch hunt narrative to discuss the dangers of McCarthyism, which had previously seen Nedrick Young,...

D.O.A.

Written by Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene

Directed by Rudolph Maté

U.S.A., 1950

In a terrifically dramatic opening, D.O.A. begins with a series of smooth tracking from behind one man as he walks the corridors of police headquarters whilst the credits appear in the forefront. When the man’s face is revealed, the viewer learns that it is actor Edmond O’Brien, here playing one Frank Bigelow, modest accountant and public notary. Once seated with the police captain he reveals that he has been murdered! Is Frank Bigelow a ghost? No, but he is a dead man walking as the viewer quickly learns when the picture flashes back to the start of Bigelow’s tale when he chose to go on vacation in San Francisco alone, much to the initial consternation of his infatuated girlfriend Paula (Pamela Britton). It is at a bar one night in San Francisco that...

Oscar Sunday is three months from today, March 2, 2014 and this year, it’s anyone’s game. The Academy has a history of playing up all the glamour and suspense, and this year should be no different.

As of today, Gold Derby‘s Top 5 Best Picture predictions for the 86th Academy Awards are: 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, Saving Mr. Banks, Captain Phillips and American Hustle.

Hit Fix’s Top 5 are: Gravity, 12 Years A Slave, Saving Mr. Banks, Captain Phillips and Inside Llewyn Davis.

In what’s classic TV, take a look at the opening of the 43rd Academy Awards in 1971, featuring an introduction by Academy President Daniel Taradash.

The big A-listers of the day all appeared at the Oscars – Goldie Hawn, Jeanne Moreau, Melvyn Douglas, Ryan O’Neal, Leigh Taylor-Young, George Segal, Jennifer Jones, Lee Grant, Maximilian Schell, Ginger Rogers, Jack Nicholson, Ali McGraw, Robert Evans, Quincy Jones, Sally Kellerman, Jim Brown,...

After a decade of low-budget cheesy special effects science fiction films, the early 1960s was particularly quiet, ceding to television series such as Star Trek and The Time Tunnel. But, also released in 1966 was an eye-opening spectacular that had a plausible premise, strong cast, and the next generation in film special effects. Fantastic Voyage may be remembered today for Raquel Welch in a tight outfit, it is also a step forward in cinematic Sf. Thankfully, it preceded 2001: A Space Odyssey by two years.

At a time when miniaturization was making home technology smaller and more sophisticated, the idea of inserting a tiny sub full of humans into the body of an ill scientist seemed the next logical step. The body in question was the victim of an assassination attempt and his knowledge and life had to be saved so a daring experiment was to be undertaken. Forget that the...

On these warm summer days, what better way to escape the heat than with a visit to a movie theater. Sure, you can catch one of the many new films, but instead why not revisit or introduce yourself to a classic. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is running a 70mm series of films beginning Monday in Beverly Hills. It kicks off the inaugural event with the uproarious It’S A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I agree, it’s usually one that we all watch during the holidays but if you’re fortunate enough to see it on the big screen then you need to make a trip to The Academy.

This week I had the chance to speak with the wife of the film’s late director Stanley Kramer over the phone where she nostalgically talked about one of the funniest comedies in film history. Mrs.

For moviegoers growing up in the last 20-30 years, big is the new normal. I’m talking about those big-budget, over-produced, effects/action-packed extravaganzas that are as expected and routine an arrival as a commuter bus, and never more so than during the summer months. Come a rise in temperatures, there’s an almost ceaseless parade of these megabuck behemoths through multiplexes starting in May and continuing until the kids go back to school, one rolling out almost every week.

Consider these May-August releases and their eye-popping price tags:

5/4: Marvel’s The Avengers — $220 million

5/11: Dark Shadows — $150 million

5/18: Battleship — $209 million

5/25: Men in Black 3 — $250 million

6/8: Prometheus — $120-130 million

7/3: The Amazing Spider-Man — $220 million

7/20: The Dark Knight Rises — $250 million

7/31: Total Recall — $200 million

8/5: The Expendables 2 — $100 million

For those of you who haven’t been keeping count, that’s a little over $1.7 billion in productions...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the 1963 ensemble comedy “It.s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World“ as the inaugural film in its series “The Last 70mm Film Festival” on Monday, July 9, at 7 p.m. at the Academy.s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Directed by nine-time Oscar® nominee Stanley Kramer, “It.s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” earned six Academy Award® nominations, including Cinematography (Ernest Laszlo), Film Editing (Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones, Gene Fowler, Jr.), Music . Music Score, substantially original (Ernest Gold), Music . Song (Gold, Mack David), Sound (Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director), and took home the Oscar for Sound Effects (Walter G. Elliott).

Prior to the screening, there will be a panel discussion with actors Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Stan Freberg and Barrie Chase, as well as script supervisor Marshall Schlom, casting director Lynn Stalmaster,...

Director: Robert Aldrich Writer: A. I. Bezzerides Cinematographer: Ernest Laszlo Stars: Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper, Cloris Leachman, Gaby Rodgers Studio/Running Time: Criterion, 104 min. Completely at random, Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) nearly runs over a girl wearing nothing but a trenchcoat. While she’s soon caught by the police, Hammer’s intrigued by her tale and begins investigating her past. The very act of pursuing this sets a whole gang of mobsters, FBI agents and seemingly everyone else in the world against Hammer, all the while the girl’s identity and what secrets she was hiding become if anything less clear. That’s...

Funny movies make us laugh, that’s a no-brainer. But, what happens when you get a movie with Lots of funny people in it? Chances are, if it’s done well, you get an exponentially funnier movie. It’s like asking someone if they’d like a scoop of ice cream, or if they’d like three scoops of ice cream with hot fudge, caramel, whipped topping, nuts, sprinkles (gotta have sprinkles) and a cherry on top… it’s an easy decision. That’s sort of like asking someone if they want to see Mike Judge’s new comedy Extract, which opens nationwide in theaters this Friday. This should be an easy decision as well. So, we Movie Geeks decided to reflect on these movies and “extract” a list of our Top Ten Best Ensemble Comedies.

10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

One of the most quotable, most intelligently ridiculous films of all time,...