Category: History

“Bad Faith” aka “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy” (2024) / Z-View

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Bad Faith aka Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy (2024)

Director: Stephen Ujlaki, Chris Jones

Written by: Alec Baer, Chris Jones, Stephen Ujlaki

Narrated by: Peter Coyote

Tagline: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy

The Plot…

Bad Faith explores the history of Christian Nationalism in the United States from it’s start as the Moral Majority to the current Make America Great Again movement.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

It’s interesting to see how the Religious Right movement has morphed and how the long game was played.  Abortion wasn’t initially THE issue used to galvanize the movement.  Years after Roe vs Wade it was seen to be advantageous to make THAT the number one issue.  It was also interesting to chart how more political the movement became, how and why they were able to attract millionaires / billionaires to the cause.

The long term game plan was to frame the politics as good vs evil.  They wanted to take control of 7 areas: Family, Religion, Entertainment, Media, Education, Business and Government.  Then they would weaken, tear down and destroy these institutions and then rebuild to fit their mindset.

Bad Faith aka Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy (2024) rates 5 of 5 stars.

“Tura!” (2024) starring Tura Santana / Z-View

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Tura! (2024)

Director: Cody Jarrett

Screenplay: Cody Jarrett

Stars: Tura Satana, John Waters, Margaret Cho, Dita Von Teese and Pamela Des Barres.

Tagline: How One Woman’s Quest for Revenge Changed Hollywood and the World Forever

The Plot…

Tura Satana, the actress best known for her role as Varla in the cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! had a life that is hard to believe.  Raped as a child, Tura learned the martial arts in order to get revenge on the men who abused her since justice was denied in the courts.  As an adult, Tura got revenge on each individual who had assaulted her.

But that would come later in life.

At fifteen, Tura ran away to California.  She lied about her age and began working as a burlesque dancer.  Soon Tura was making big money as a stripper.  This led to a friendship with Harold Lloyd (yes, THAT Harold Lloyd of silent movie fame).  Tura became a nude model for Lloyd (and others).

Then came her acting career with roles in Irma la Douce staring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine and Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed? starring Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery.  Television roles on Burke’s Law and The Man from UNCLE followed.  Then came Tura’s breakout role in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.  After that Tura appeared in just four more films and one television appearance before retiring from acting.

After the filming of The Doll Squad, Tura was shot by a former lover.  Her acting career was finished… for now.  Over the years Tura earned a living working in a hospital and later as a dispatcher.  When Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! gained new popularity as a cult hit, Tura Santana’s popularity also surged.  She began to occassionally act and make appearances at fan conventions.

Tura is her life story.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

It’s hard to believe Tura’s life story… even the parts that are easily proven.  So we’ll go with the famous saying, (and I’m parphrasing), “When the legend is better than the truth, go with the legend.”

Tura! (2024) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Eichmann” (2007) / Z-View

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Eichmann (2007)

Director: Robert Young

Screenplay: Snoo Wilson

Stars: Thomas Kretschmann, Troy Garity, Stephen Fry.

Tagline: Husband. Father. Soldier. Monster.

The Plot…

Fifteen years after the end of World War II, Adolf Eichmann was captured.  Although a high  official in the Nazi Party, an officer of the SS and one of the major organisers of Hitler’s Final Solution, Eichmann claimed to have no knowledge of the holocaust and was just as a small, insignificant bureaucrat—a “little cog in the machinery” who followed orders.

Captain Avner Less, an Israeli police officer, was assigned to interview Eichmann in an effort to get him to self-incriminate.  It will be a battle of wills to get justice served.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Prior to his capture Adolf Eichmann was the most wanted Nazi war criminal in the world. CIA documents released in 2006, showed that U.S. and West German intelligence knew that Eichmann was alive in Argentina, but fearing he might expose former comrades who had been useful to the CIA and the German government, did nothing.

Eichmann (2007) rates 3 of 5 stars.

“Death by Lightning” (2025) written by Mike Makowski, directed by Matt Ross, starring Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin / Z-View

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Death by Lightning (2025)

Created by: Mike Makowsky; based on DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC: A TALE OF MADNESS, MEDICINE AND THE MURDER OF A PRESIDENT by Candice Millard

Director:

  • Matt Ross (Eps. 1-4)

Teleplay:

  • Mike Makowsky (Eps. 1-4)

Stars: Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Bradley Whitford, Nick Offerman, Laura Marcus, David Nykl, Alfie Tempest, Paula Malcomson, Barry Shabaka Henley and Vondie Curtis-Hall.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Congressman James Garfield went to the 1880 Republican National Convention to give a nomination speech.  Garfield’s oratory was so powerful that through an unlikely series of events he became the party’s nominee.  Although an underdog, Garfield won the election and became the 20th President of the United States.

Charles Guiteau, an ex-con, chronic liar and thief has dreams of glory and fame.  Guiteau admires Garfield and feels their destiny’s are intwined.  But they are not.

So Guiteau decides to kill the man he admires.  Guiteau shoots Garfield in the back.  Garfield is bedridden and in pain for months.  Eighty days after being shot he dies.  James Garfield was President just 200 days.  But his Presidency had a positive impact to this day that few realize.

Charles Guiteau dreamed of fame.  He was executed for his crime and is largely forgotten except to historians.

This is their story.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Death by Lightning is an amazing, but true story.  Although a dramatization, it sticks very close to the actual events.  Kudos to Mike Makowsky, who wrote the teleplay for all four episodes, and to Candice Millard who wrote the book which inspired the project.

The cast is amazing.  Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Bradley Whitford and Nick Offerman give performances that deserve awards.  They are amazing.  It was also nice to see Barry Shabaka Henley and Vondie Curtis-Hall appear.

Death by Lightning gets my highest recommendation.

Death by Lightning (2025) rates 5 of 5 stars.

“Sean Combs: The Reckoning” (2025) / Z-View

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Sean Combs: The Reckoning (2025)

Executive Producer: Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson

Director: Alexandria Stapleton

Cast: Sean Combs, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Janice Combs, Mark Curry, Kirk Burrowes, Aubrey O’Day, Suge Knight, Andre Harrell, Kalenna Harper, Al B. Sure!, Kim Porter, Cassie Ventura and Snoop Dogg.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Sean Combs: The Reckoning uses archival footage/interviews from the early 1990s to present day to cover the rise of Sean Combs from a college student intern to hip hop mogul to industry powerhouse able to put his name on a variety of products and make them best-sellers to a convicted felon doing several years in prison.

The four part documentary, through the use of archival news reports, court verdicts and interviews with accusers and those who claim to witnessed the events, details Sean Combs’ proven and or/alleged…

  • longterm sexual and emotional abuse of women
  • sexual assault and drugging of women… including rape, videotaping sexual assaults and playing the tapes for friends
  • sexual assault and harrasment of men
  • drugging men and women in order to take advantage of them
  • using intimidation and threats to regularly take advantage of business partners, cheating them out of money due or simply not paying them.
  • questions about Combs’ involvement in the murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
  • infamous “freak off” parties where people were secretly videotaped having sex, coerced or drugged for sex
  • involvement as co-promoter of the 1991 “first annual Heavy D and Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity Basketball Game” where dozens of people were injured and nine people died when nearly 5,000 people pushed to get in a gym with a capacity of 2,730.  No criminal charges were filed, but Combs settled with families in civil court.
  • involvement in a 1999 shooting incident while dating Jennifer Lopez.  Combs was arrested on a weapons and bribery charge.  He was acquitted of all charges. Still there are those who say Combs should have been found guilty.
  • and more.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)… 

If only some of the allegations are true (and we know many are), Sean Combs is perfect example of how power can corrupt.

I am not a huge hip-hop fan, but I found the documentary compelling.

Sean Combs: The Reckoning (2025) rates 5 of 5 stars.

“Mob War: Philadelphia vs the Mafia” (2025) / Z-View

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Mob War: Philadelphia vs the Mafia (2025)

Director:  Raissa Botterman

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, became a war zone in the 1990s.  Two rival, mafia families fought for control.  John Stanfa and Joey Merlino were the crime bosses of each.  As the body count rose, the FBI and local cops fought to bring down the crime bosses and their gangs.

This is that story, told by the cops and gangsters that were there.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

If you like gangster movies/shows and true life crime you should enjoy Mob War: Philadelphia vs the Mafia.

The series is worth watching just to hear John Veasey.  Veasey may not be the brightest guy you’d ever meet, but he’s no doubt one of the toughest.  A thief, a tough guy and a killer.  Veasey was shot in the head, stabbed and still overpowered his attempted killer.  Then he got his revenge.

Mob War: Philadelphia vs the Mafia (2025) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Last Samurai Standing”: Season 1 (2025) starring Jun’ichi Okada and Hideaki Itô / Z-View

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Last Samurai Standing: Season 1 (2025)

Creative Director: Jun’ichi Okada

Directed by:

  • Michihito Fujii (eps. 1-2; 6)
  • Kento Yamaguchi (ep. 3; 5)
  • Toru Yamamoto (ep. 4)

Teleplay by:

  • (eps. 1-6) Kento Yamaguchi & Michihito Fujii; based on Last Samurai Standing by Shogo Imamura and drawn by  Katsumi Tatsuzawa

Stars: Jun’ichi Okada, Masahiro Higashide, Yûya Endô, Hideaki Itô, Gaku Hamada, Arata Iura and Nobi Nakanishi.

Tagline:  None.

The Plot…

The year is 1878.  A cholera epidemic rages through Japan.  Shujiro Saga’s baby daughter died from the disease.  Now Saga’s wife has fallen ill.  Saga is a former samurai. Samurai were outlawed ten years prior.  With epidemic raging, survival is hard.

Flyers begin showing up everywhere advertising a martial arts tournament in Kyoto that has a grand prize of ¥100,000.  Shujiro Saga sees this as an opportunity for his family and goes.

Martial artists from all over Japan have come to enter the tournament.  They are gathered in a fortress-like setting.  An official tells them that if they do not want to be in the tournament they are to leave now.  They will have 30 seconds to decide.  Once in the game, there is no quitting.  He begins counting down.

Some people yell out they want to know what the game will be.  The official continues to count.  Around the perimeter of the fortress armed guards stand ready to fire.  The official reaches zero.  Soldiers rush out and give each person a numbered tag.  They are now participants.

The official says that the tag must stay on their person.  If it is away from their body for more than 10 seconds they will be killed.  The goal is to pass seven checkpoints on the Tōkaidō Road from Kyoto to Tokyo.  They will have one month to arrive in Tokyo.  Points will be needed to pass each checkpoint.  They earn points by taking other participants tags.  They can do this by any means necessary.  Anything goes. The official concludes by saying, “The game begins at the end of this countdown… 10…”

When the game begins, it is mass chaos.  Nearly 300 martial artists go to war.  There are samurai, archers, brutes, knife fighters, and more. Across the way Shujiro Saga sees Futaba Katsuki, a young girl frozen with fear.  She will be easy pickins.  Saga rushes to her aide.

Kyojin Tsuge recognizes Saga as the former samurai known as The Manslayer.  Tsuge says that he has calculated that the points needed to finish in Tokyo allow for up to nine combatants to win.  Tsuge proposes that Saga, Futaba and he form an alliance.  Saga agrees and they head out.

The giant swordsman Bukotsu Kanjiya who loves to kill wants to end Saga The Manslayer‘s life.  Bukotsu has a bloodlust and murders any in his path.  Other teams have formed with each plotting to survive.

It will be a long road.  Not all will survive.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)… 

Last Samurai Standing is based on a 2022 historical fiction graphic novel written by Shogo Imamura and drawn by  Katsumi Tatsuzawa.  Although the characters and tournament are fiction, real-life historical figures and events add to the backstory.

Junichi Okada who served as producer and stars in the series is a charismatic lead.

Hideaki Itô is awesome and frightening as the giant swordsman.

Last Samurai Standing gets my highest recommendation.  Bring on Season 2.

Last Samurai Standing: Season 1 (2025) rates 5 of 5 stars.

“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” (2025) starring Charlie Hunnam and Laurie Metcalf / Z-View

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Monster: The Ed Gein Story (2025)

Created by: Ian Brennan

Directed by:

  • Max Winkler (eps. 1-3; 6-8)
  • Ian Brennan (eps. 4-5)

Teleplay by:

  • (eps. 1-8) Ian Brennan

Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Suzanna Son, Vicky Krieps, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Hollander.

Tagline:  None.

The Plot…

Ed Gein was a murderer and grave robber.  In 1957, when a sheriff’s deputy, following up on a missing person’s case went to Gein’s farm he discovered the missing woman’s decapitated body in a shed.  The partial corpse was hung upside down and mutilated.  In Gein’s house some of what authorities found included:

  • Whole human bones and fragments
  • A wastebasket made of human skin
  • Human skin covering several chairs
  • Human skulls mounted on bedposts
  • Bowls made from human skulls
  • A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to waist
  • Leggings made from human leg skin
  • Masks made from the skin of female heads
  • A victim’s face made into a mask in a paper bag
  • A victim’s entire head in a burlap sack
  • A victim’s heart in a plastic bag
  • A belt made from female human nipples
  • A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring
  • A lampshade made from the skin of a human face
  • more

Gein was determined to be mentally incompetent to stand trial.  He was sentenced to a State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he lived until his death in 1984.  Ed Gein’s murders and depravity inspired the novel (and later movie) Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)… 

Charlie Hunnam is almost unrecognizable as Ed Gein.  Kudos to him for taking on such a challenging role.  Laurie Metcalf is perfect as Gein’s mother.

I wish Monster: The Ed Gein Story stuck closer to actual events.  Liberties are taken that I feel weaken the story.  For example, Gein never had a love interest.  Gein never chased down and killed lost hunters with a chain saw.  Gein never had contact with Christine Jorgensen, an American actress famous for being known as the first transexual widely known in the United States.

Because of these fictional additions, it makes me question things when other real life personalitites, like Anthony Perkins and Alfred Hitchcock show up.  I realize Monster: The Ed Gein Story isn’t a documentary.  But it is supposed to be Gein’s story and that was creepy enough.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story (2025) rates 3 of 5 stars.

“Good Night and Good Luck” (2025) starring George Clooney / Z-View

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Good Night, and Good Luck (2025)

Director: Micah Bickham, David Cromer

Screenplay: George Clooney, Grant Heslov

Stars: George Clooney, Mac Brandt, Will Dagger, Christopher Denham, Glenn Fleshler, Joe Forbrich, Jennifer Morris, Michael Nathanson, Andrew Polk, Aaron Roman Weiner and Fran Kranz.

Tagline: We will not walk in fear, one of another

The Plot…

U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy leads investigations into individual citizens’ private lives in an effort to route out communists and get them blacklisted.  CBS journalist and broadcaster, Edward R. Murrow, arguably the most popular newsman of his time, takes a stand against McCarthy despite the problems and dangers it could cause him and others around him.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)… 

Good Night, and Good Luck first appeared as feature film directed by George Clooney.  In the film, Clooney played Fred Friendly.  David Strathairn took the role of Edward R. Murrow.  Clooney said the reason he didn’t take the lead in the movie was, “Murrow had a gravitas to him that at 42 years old I wasn’t able to pull off”.

Good Night, and Good Luck was the first ever live televised global broadcast of a Broadway play.

It’s ironic how events in the 1950s echo current events.

Good Night, and Good Luck (2025) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Public Enemies” (2009) directed by Michael Mann; starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard / Z-View

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Public Enemies (2009)

Director:  Michael Mann

Screenplay: Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman, Michael Mann; based on PUBLIC ENEMIES: AMERICA’S GREATEST CRIME WAVE AND THE BIRTH OF THE FBI, 1933–34 by Bryan Burrough

Stars: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Christian Stolte, Jason Clarke, Stephen Graham, David Wenham, John Judd, Stephen Dorff, James Russo, Giovanni Ribisi, Wesley Walker, Channing Tatum, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Crudup, Domenick Lombardozzi, Don Frye and Stephen Lang.

Tagline: America’s Most Wanted

The Plot…

1933.  The Great Depression is raging.  Gangsters such as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and others have been robbing banks with impunity.  Despite killing cops and the occassional bystander, these criminals are becoming folk heroes.  J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI has ordered Agent Melvin Purvis to put together a task force.  Purvis’ orders are to bring in these gangsters dead or alive.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Although Public Enemies isn’t a documentary, it is very close to the real life stories.

Michael Mann filmed John Dillinger’s famous escape from Crown Point Jail at the real jail.  Although it had been turned into a historical museum, it was redressed along with the store fronts on the square to how they would’ve appeared in 1933. Mann also filmed the Little Bohemia shoot-out at the real lodge and in the same room Dillinger stayed in.

During a getaway scene Johnny Depp drives a 1932 Studebaker that was actually used by Dillinger as a getaway car following a bank robbery in Greencastle, Indiana. The car was on loan from an auto museum.

Public Enemies (2009) rates 4 of 5 stars.

THE MAKING OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD by Jay Glennie is Coming!

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Quentin Tarantino fans are gonna love this.  THE MAKING OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD by Jay Glennie premieres soon.  Here’s the lowdown…

Legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino personally introduces the definitive and official examination of his entire oeuvre with the Quentin Tarantino Library written by Jay Glennie.

In the first book in the series, THE MAKING OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, writer Jay Glennie pulls back the curtain on the visionary writer/director/producer’s ninth film, with unprecedented access to the filmmaker, cast, and crew. This epic tome is a stunning and faithful deep dive into the mind of a masterful auteur and a must-have book for all film lovers and Quentin Tarantino fans.

For the first time ever Academy Award winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has granted respected journalist and author Jay Glennie unique access revealing the never-before-told behind-the-scenes making of one of the most iconic films of all time, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

Quentin Tarantino personally introduces the volume, as well as providing hundreds of behind-the-scenes photographs, along with production memos, concept art, and costume and production design sketches. There are also exclusive reproductions of letters, studio documents and film ephemera. The result is an account of the monumental effort undertaken to produce Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and is the official record of how it was achieved, from inception to the world premiere and on to ten Academy Award nominations, resulting in two Oscars.

The book includes new and exclusive interviews undertaken by Jay Glennie with key cast and crew members, including Oscar winning actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, Oscar nominee Margot Robbie, and the brilliant supporting cast including Oscar winner Mikey Madison, Margaret Qualley, Oscar nominee Austin Butler, Lena Dunham, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch, Damian Lewis, Maya Hawke, and Sydney Sweeney.

First book in the series!!

THE MAKING OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD  Hardcover

THE MAKING OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD  Kindle

“Nuremberg” – The Trailer is Here!

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Judgment is coming.
The official trailer #1 for NUREMBERG, only in theaters November 7.

The Allies, led by the unyielding chief prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), have the task of ensuring the Nazi regime answers for the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust while a US Army psychiatrist (Rami Malek) is locked in a dramatic psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (Russell Crowe).

Written & Directed by: James Vanderbilt
Based on the Book: THE NAZI AND THE PSYCHIATRIST By Jack El-Hai

Starring: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Leo Woodall, and Michael Shannon

“Tom Horn” (1980) starring Steve McQueen / Z-View

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Tom Horn (1980)

Director:  William Wiard

Screenplay:  Thomas McGuane, Bud Shrake; based on LIFE OF TOM HORN, GOVERNMENT SCOUT AND INTERPRETER by Tom Horn

Stars: Steve McQueen, Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, Slim Pickens, Peter Canon, Elisha Cook Jr., Roy Jenson, Harry Northup, Steve Oliver, Bill Thurman, Bert Williams, Bobby Bass, Mickey Jones and Geoffrey Lewis.

Tagline: Before they could settle the West, they had to hang the man who tamed it.

The Plot…

Tom Horn was famous in his own time.  But his time has passed.  Known for his skills as a frontiersman, a U.S. Army scout, a tracker, and a crack shot… Horn is now a drifter.  The Indian Wars are over.  A man with Tom Horn’s skills aren’t in demand.  So Horn just drifted from place to place scrapping by.

Horn is in a small town, when he meets cattle rancher John Coble.  Coble is impressed with Horn’s legend and surprised to find him without work and struggling.  He offers Horn a job.  Coble is a member of a Cattle Rancher Association that has been plagued by rustlers.  The Association agrees to hire Horn to rid the territory of cattle thieves… by whatever means needed.  Horn is assured by the group as well as the US Marshall that once he gives the rustlers fair warning, he is legally allowed to do whatever it takes to get rid of them.  Horn takes the job.

Horn does what he was hired to do.  He rids the area of rustlers.  His methods are violent but effective.  Many men are killed.  The rustling stops.  The Cattle Association  no longer needs Horn.  Especially since they’ve been getting bad press.  When a young boy is found murdered by a rifle shot of the same caliber that Tom Horn uses,  some Association members see a way out.

Horn is set up to take the fall for the murder.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Tom Horn was a troubled production.  Steve McQueen wasn’t happy with the script and ordered multiple rewrites.  The original director, Don Siegel decided to move on.  Siegel was replaced by replaced by Elliot Silverstein.  Silverstein was replaced by James William Guercio.  McQueen fired Guercio after just three days.  McQueen wanted to direct, but since filming had started, union rules prevented an actor to replace a director.  So William Wiard, a television director was brought in to finish filming.  Tom Horn is the only feature film on Wiard’s resume.  Many believe that McQueen directed much of the movie himself.

In addition to the troubles listed above, Steve McQueen’s health was suffering.  He was often short of breath and towards the end of filming even began coughing up blood.  McQueen would learn that he had advanced cancer.  Just a couple of weeks before Tom Horn premiered, The National Enquirer broke the story that Steve McQueen had terminal cancer.  When asked at the premiere, McQueen denied reports of his cancer.

Tom Horn was a real-life legend.  The movie is based on his autobiography that he wrote while in jail awaiting trial.

Tom Horn (1980) rates 3 of 5 stars.

THE FRIENDS OF PANCHO VILLA by James Carlos Blake / Z-View

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THE FRIENDS OF PANCHO VILLA by James Carlos Blake

First sentence…

In 1910, I killed a policeman and went to prison for two years.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Rodolfo Fierro was a killer, an ex-con, a thief, a train-robber, a ladies man, a drinker, a soldier and ultimately Pancho Villa’s closest friend.  Fierro was by Villa’s side throughout the Mexican Revolution.  Many considered Villa a hero.  At one point he was nearly recognized as Mexico’s new President.  Others labeled him a villain of the worst kind.

In THE FRIENDS OF PANCHO VILLA, Fierro takes us through Villa’s rise and fall.  He pulls no punches (about Villa or himself).  The narrative is compelling.  We are there for the battles, the celebrations, the treachery, the losses and more.  We will Villa’s (and Fierro’s) savagery and compassion.  Readers will feel they are there… and be glad they’re not.

+++

James Carlos Blake’s THE FRIENDS OF PANCHO VILLA is based on research and fact.  Rodolfo Fierro was a real person and James Carlos Blake makes him come alive.  JCB has another winner.

Rating:

“NUREMBERG” starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Leo Woodall & Michael Shannon – The 2nd Teaser is Here!

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Deal me in.

The world will take a stand.

The official teaser #2 for NUREMBERG, only in theaters November 7.

The Allies, led by the unyielding chief prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), have the task of ensuring the Nazi regime answers for the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust while a US Army psychiatrist (Rami Malek) is locked in a dramatic psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (Russell Crowe).

Written & Directed by: James Vanderbilt
Based on the Book: THE NAZI AND THE PSYCHIATRIST By Jack El-Hai

Starring: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Leo Woodall, and Michael Shannon