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Film history is filled with notable directors who made a Western after establishing themselves in other genres. That list includes Robert Altman (“McCabe and Mrs. Miller”), Charlie Chaplin (“The Gold Rush”), Ethan and Joel Coen (“True Grit”), John Huston (“The Unforgiven” 1960), Louis Malle (“Viva Maria”), Alejandro G. Inarritu (“The Revenant”), Sydney Pollack (“Jeremiah Johnson”) and Sam Raimi (“The Quick and the Dead”).

Joining that lofty roster is Paul Greengrass, with Universal’s “News of the World,” starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. This horse opera, as Variety used to call the genre, follows Greengrass’ high-adrenaline movies such as “United 93,” “Captain Phillips,” three “Bourne” films and the riveting 2018 fact-based “22 July,” about a 2011 terrorist attack in Norway.

Greengrass tells Variety, ” ’22 July,’ which is on a dark subject — right-wing extremists — left me with a question as a parent: What is the road out of this bitter division that we’re in? I

Paul Greengrass’ western drama “New of the World” starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel is gaining traction during this pandemic awards season despite the fact that sagebrush sagas often get short shrift at the Oscars. Only three traditional Westerns — 1931’s “Cimarron,” 1990’s “Dances with Wolves” and 1992’s “Unforgiven” — and one contemporary Western (2007’s “No Country for Old Men”) have won the Best Picture Oscar.

Among the oaters to be nominated for the top prize at the Academy Awards: John Ford’s 1939 “Stagecoach,” William A. Wellman’s 1943 “The Ox-Bow Incident,” Fred Zinnemann’s 1952’s “High Noon” (Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor), George Stevens’ 1953 “Shane”; 1960’s “The Alamo;” 1962’s “How the West Was Won”; and George Roy Hill’s 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

But some of the most acclaimed, treasure and influential Westerns have been all but ignored. Here’s a look at some of the

Director Kazuo Ikehiro, now on his third and final Zatoichi film, and lead star Shintaro Katsu attempted something different with this, the fourteen entry in the Zatoichi series. They roped in superstar director/screenwriter Kaneto Shindo, who had by then already made the hit productions “The Naked Island” and “Onibaba” and would go on to make “Kuroneko” two years later, to write the script for Ichi’s new adventure, in an attempt to bring some freshness to the series.

The reluctance to kill that Zatoichi showed in the previous films, and particularly in “Zatoichi’s Vengeance”, the one that immediately preceded this, has turned into full-blown repentance as he decides to take a pilgrimage to the 88 Temples in Shokiku. Before he embarks on the pilgrimage, he asks but one thing of God: to not make him have to kill again, necessarily or unnecessarily. God, as it turns out,

“Anne With an E” (Netflix)

Final Episode Jan. 3 “Harvey Girls Forever!” (Netflix)

Final episode Jan. 10 “Limetown” (Facebook Watch)

Canceled Jan. 16 “Sorry for Your Loss” (Facebook Watch)

Canceled Jan. 16 “The Ranch” (Netflix)

Final episode Jan. 24 “Flirty Dancing” (Fox)

Final episode Jan. 25 “Star Wars Resistance” (Disney Channel)

Final episode Jan. 26 “Arrow” (The CW)

Final episode Jan. 28 “Homicide Hunter” (ID)

Final episode Jan. 29 “The Good Place” (NBC)

Final episode Jan. 30 “New Looney Tunes” (Boomerang)

Final episode Jan. 30 “Bojack Horseman” (Netflix)

Final episode Jan. 31 “Soundtrack” (Netflix)

Canceled Jan. 31 “Spinning Out” (Netflix)

Canceled Feb. 3 “Ray Donovan” (Showtime)

Canceled Feb. 4 “If Loving You Is Wrong” (OWN)

Canceled Feb. 5 “Power” (Starz)

Final episode Feb. 9 “Shimmer and Shine” (Nick Jr.)

Final episode Feb. 9 “Insatiable” (Netflix)

Canceled Feb. 14 “Mike Tyson Mysteries” (Adult Swim)

Final episode Feb. 16 “Criminal Minds” (CBS)

Final episode Feb. 19 “Fresh off the Boat” (ABC)

Final episode Feb. 21 “High Noon” (ESPN)

Canceled Feb. 25 “Hawaii Five-0” (CBS)

Canceled Feb.

The creation of the supporting Oscar categories in 1937 clarified the intention that the lead acting categories are meant to honor true star turns. While most Best Actor wins have aligned with that idea, there have been more than a few whose placement has been called into question due to low screen time. Here is a look at the 10 shortest winners in the category:

10. Gary Cooper (“High Noon”)

40 minutes, 57 seconds (48.35% of the film)

Five-time Best Actor Oscar nominee Cooper earned his second win in 1953 for playing morally conflicted Marshal Will Kane in “High Noon.” By appearing in less than half of the 85-minute film, Cooper made history by holding two screen time records at once. At the time, his one-hour, 30-minute, 55-second performance in 1941’s “Sergeant York” was the longest to have won in the Best Actor category. His second win broke a 21-year record for shortest, which was previously held

When Hollywood from time to time reinvented the western the results were sometimes sensationally good, as attested to by this superior neglected classic. We’d call it the first psychological western if the term weren’t so limiting. Gregory Peck once again proves how good he can be when well cast and he’s surrounded by fine characterizations, not typical oater walk-ons. The screenplay and direction are so pleasing that the downbeat finale isn’t a drawback — it doesn’t strain to enforce an irony, or to sell a deep-dish ‘author’s message.’ This one’s just a winner in all categories.

The Gunfighter

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1053

1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Skip Homeier, Anthony Ross, Verna Felton, Ellen Corby, Richard Jaeckel, Alan Hale Jr., Mae Marsh, James Millican, Kim Spalding.

Elegant movie star Grace Kelly was not just a stunning beauty but a gifted performer, so some might be surprised to learn that her film career lasted just five years. During those years, the regal blonde won an Oscar and worked with Alfred Hitchcock three times, in “Dial M for Murder,” “To Catch a Thief” and “Rear Window” — perhaps her signature role.

Hollywood’s big question when she married Prince Albert Rainier of Monaco in 1956 was whether she would continue to act. Fans and the media all wanted to know what would happen, but it seemed unlikely — after all, Rita Hayworth had found being a princess incompatible with being a movie star and her marriage to Prince Aly Khan lasted just a few years.

Americans are most familiar with the monarchs of Britain, thanks to generations of media coverage. But for several decades, Yankees faithfully followed another royal family, the Grimaldis of Monaco,

When did Hollywood’s deconstruction of the American Western myth officially break through? Depending on which aficionado you look to, the answer given may be Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969), or Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952), or another venerated film amid the 1950’s great run of what’s come to be recognized as the “psychological Western”. Lurking alone out on the untenable dusty plains, however, is what is quite likely the true candidate, Henry King’s The Gunfighter (1950, written by William Bowers and William Sellers from a story by Bowers and Andre de Toth). Gregory Peck (whose name is as big as the title on the Blu-ray’s cover- an unusual graphic decision for Criterion) plays Jimmy Ringo, the fastest and most feared gun in the West. But the macho pursuit of...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

In the course of his nearly 50-year career on the screen, the late Sean Connery portrayed many famous characters, both fictional and non-fictional. Among those were, of course, Ian Fleming’s suave spy James Bond in seven films; Daniel Druvot in 1975’s The Man Who Would Be King; King Arthur in 1995’s First Knight, Robin Hood in 1976’s Robin and Marian; Dr. Henry Jones Sr. in 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and many more.

One role Connery never got to play was Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes. But he did come close, playing a character who was based at least in part on Holmes, in the 1986 movie The Name of the Rose.

Based on the best-selling 1980 novel by Italian historian, philosopher and author Umberto Eco, the book and the film are set in 1327, as a Franciscan monk named William of Baskerville (Connery) and his young

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“A Good Starting Point—Part Two”

By Raymond Benson

With the publication of Jeremy Arnold’s new lavishly illustrated and intelligently written TCM (Turner Classic Movies) coffee-table paperback, The Essentials, Volume 2: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, I find myself going back to my review of the original Volume 1 of The Essentials and am tempted to repeat much of what was said there.

“The Essentials” is a weekly Saturday night event on TCM in which a guest host introduces a picture he or she believes is an Essential, i.e., a title “film lovers need to know,” as film historian Ben Mankiewicz explains in the forward. The number 52 is used because there are 52 weeks in a year. Unlike in Volume One, the new book contains an Appendix listing all the Essentials that TCM has aired, indicating the ones chosen for both

Stars: Melora Walters, Zachary Knighton, Stan Shaw, Noah Segan, Bill Sage, Natasha Bassett, Pat Healy, Devin Druid, James Landry Hébert, Tina Parker, Alexandra Harris, Peggy Schott, Da Leigh, Jeremy King, Jennifer Rader | Written by Cameron Burns, Aaron B. Koontz, Keith Lansdale | Directed by Aaron B. Koontz

After gang leader Duncan reluctantly recruits his straight-arrow younger brother Jake to participate in their next great train robbery he’s seriously wounded when the heist goes sideways. Finding shelter in a seemingly uninhabited ghost town, Jake seeks help for their wounded leader and is surprised to stumble upon a welcoming brothel in the town’s square. But the beautiful women who greet them are actually a coven of witches with very sinister plans for the unsuspecting outlaws, especially the virgin among them.

If we’re honest, horror westerns are Very difficult to get right. On one side there’s dross like Umbrage and Gallowalkers,

War was raging in Europe in 1941. Though the U.S. hadn’t joined the fight against Hitler and the Nazis, there was a feeling that it would only be a matter of time before we would get involved in the conflict. In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had just won his third term as Commander and Chief and was situating the country as the “Arsenal of Democracy,” was urging the Congress to pass his Lend-Lease Act in order to supply our Allies with badly needed ammunitions and equipment.

And it was in this atmosphere that Warner Bros. released its patriotic “Sergeant York” that September. Directed by Howard Hawks — John Huston and Howard Koch were among the four screenwriters — the film chronicled the life of Alvin C. York, a pacificist Tennessee backwoodsman who became one of the most famous World War I heroes.

York only agreed to have Hollywood make his

Although its heyday ended a long time ago, the Western genre is responsible for some of cinema’s greatest works. Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the genre’s peak, deconstructing the Western while providing a perfect example of one.

Related: 15 Best Quotes From The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

While The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is arguably the finest Western out there, there are plenty of other strong candidates for its title. There are some really great Westerns, so here are a few honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut, but are masterpieces of the genre: High Noon, Stagecoach, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch, and The Magnificent Seven.

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: The Great Train RobberyThe western has been around since nearly the advent of cinema. Some of Thomas Edison’s earliest films incorporated standard conventions of the genre, established in preceding works of popular fiction, and other key tropes were solidified in Edwin S. Porter’s pioneering The Great Train Robbery (1903). Primarily originating on the East Coast, American motion picture production soon made its general migration west where the geographic consequences only amplified the form, enticing the likes of producers and directors including Thomas Ince and Cecil B. DeMille. The western swiftly flourished as an exuberant, manifold survey of idealized, often exaggerated themes concerning heroism, progress, and the myth of the American dream. The genre became a beloved compendium of cultural dichotomies, iconic symbols, locations, and character types, evincing countless variations alongside the tried and true.

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix debuted the official trailer for “Cursed” and ESPN announced that Pablo Torre will become the full-time host of the “ESPN Daily” podcast.

Dates

Comedy Central has announced that “Corporate” will premiere its third and final season on July 22 at 10:30 p.m. The six-episode season will follow Matt, Jake, Lance and other Hampton DeVille employees as they work through the everyday struggles of office life including workplace conflict, business trips and climbing the corporate ladder. “Corporate” stars Jake Weisman, Matt Ingebretson, Lance Reddick, Aparna Nancherla, Anne Dudek and Adam Lustick and was created by Weisman, Ingebretson and Pat Bishop.

First Looks

Netflix released the trailer for “Cursed,” launching July 17. Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Tom Wheeler and Frank Miller, “Cursed” reimagines the legend of King Arthur through the eyes of Nimue, who accompanies him on his journey to

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSLuther Price's Sodom (1989)Experimental filmmaker Luther Price, best known for his reappropriation of found footage into vivid, often graphic and controversial painted images, has died. A number of available films, as well as a Q&a with Price, can be found here.Kirill Serebrennikov is set to direct a limited series based on the life of Andrei Tarkovsky. Due to the impact of the ongoing health crisis, the dates for next year's Oscars and BAFTA ceremonies have been pushed to April of 2021. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for House of Hummingbird, Kim Bora's portrait of youth in 1990's Korea. Read our interview with Kim here.For GQ, martial artist Scott Adkins thoroughly breaks down fight scenes from movies like Ip Man, The Bourne Supremacy, and Rush Hour.A new short by David Lynch, The Story of a Small Bug,

The great Saul Bass—to my mind the greatest graphic designer of the 20th century—was born 100 years ago today, on May 8, 1920. In over a decade of writing about movie posters I’ve only really written about Bass once—in an article about the evolution of designs for Vertigo—which is surprising because he was undoubtedly the first poster designer I ever knew the name of, and of the six movie posters hanging in my apartment two are by Bass: those for Seconds and The Man With the Golden Arm. Saul Bass is just too well known, and has been written about so widely, that I never felt I had much to add to the discussion. And when Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham’s extraordinary Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design was published in 2011 there seemed little more left to say.But I can’t let this centenary pass unremarked.

Gary Cooper would’ve celebrated his 119th birthday on May 7, 2020. The two-time Oscar winner starred in dozens of movies before his death in 1961, but how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1901, Cooper got his start in silent movies, most notably the aerial drama “Wings” (1927), which won the very first Academy Award as Best Picture. He would collect his own statuette as Best Actor for another WWI film: the biographical drama “Sergeant York” (1941). Directed by Howard Hawks, it helped create Cooper’s screen persona of an ordinary man capable of extraordinary courage in the face of adversity.

He won a second Best Actor trophy for playing a similar character in Fred Zinnemann‘s western “High Noon” (1952), which cast him as a retired marshal who must stand up to a

Here's a list of TV shows that aired (or are expected to air) during the 2019-20 season (roughly September 2019 through August 2020) but won't be back for the 2020-21 season. Not finding a show that you believe has been cancelled? Check the 2017-18 season list or the 2018-19 season list. You can also check our status pages.

Most recent additions: Party of Five (Freeform), God Friended Me (CBS), Medici (Netflix), Lights Out with David Spade (Comedy Central), V Wars (Netflix), October Faction (Netflix), Deputy (Fox), Messiah (Netflix), Vida (Starz), She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix), Impulse (YouTube), Aj and the Queen (Netflix), Flack (Pop),  Best Intentions (Pop), Florida Girls (Pop), The Magicians (Syfy), Almost Family (Fox), Hawaii Five-0 (CBS), High Noon (ESPN), Steven Universe (Cartoon Network), Insatiable (Netflix), If Loving You Is Wrong (Own), Ray Donovan (Showtime), Spinning Out (Netflix), Soundtrack (Netflix), The Mel Robbins Show (syndicated),

ESPN plans to explore a new business plan for The Undefeated, its site devoted to exploring sports, culture and race that will expand the outlet to other parts of the sports-media outlet’s parent company. Walt Disney.

The Undefeated, which was launched in 2016 under the auspices of John Skipper, previous president of ESPN, was envisioned as a digital hub for stories that examined some of the hottest topics in sports. The site was expected to combine long-form and short-form storytelling, original reporting and provocative commentary aimed at African-American consumers as well as sports fans seeking a deeper understanding of black athletes, culture and related issues.

Now the company intends to try to expand its coverage to fashion, music, arts and technology, said Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s president, in a memo to staffers Tuesday. Citing such efforts as a season long series in 2019 looking at African-American quarterbacks and a Caldecott Medal