I watched the new Criterion edition of this favorite of mine. Certainly I must have seen this in the theater on its release, and several times at home since. I like it for its purity of purpose. It’s entertaining to watch despite its grim trajectory, mostly because of all the actors... not just the leads, but virtually every small and supporting part. Actually, its “grim trajectory” is topped by its actual very grim and uncompromising conclusion, by which I have…

A long-standing personal favorite that I think deserves more respect than it gets. One has to suspend some disbelief, but the plot’s unfolding, however implausible, is a worthy vehicle for the ideas it explores — particularly how “honor” is depicted and utilized at personal, institutional and generational levels, both as a moral compass and a motivational (and manipulative) device. The drama is never handled as anything but dead-serious, and the actors (young and old) give it all the credibility and…

I’ve seen criticism that this movie is a “Hollywoodized” Mad Max, and it’s hard to disagree. In the first half of the ’80s there was a rush to center films around children and innocent, child-like characters (e.g. E.T., Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Return of the Jedi, the Goonies, etc.), and this falls under the same spell. A great franchise previously known for its bleak, gritty, unflinching (and entertaining!) depiction of humans at their basest, turns here to…