film 
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SOURCE: Washington Post
6/9/2022
"All the President's Men": From Misguided Buddy Flick to Iconic Political Thriller
Hollywood's original plan for the film based on Woodward and Bernstein's book was light on substance and heavy on macho hijinks. How would Watergate be remembered if the script weren't changed?
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6/12/2022
Top-Gunning for Empire
by Scott Laderman
"Top Gun: Maverick" is ressurecting the theatergoing experience. Will it do the same for American enthusiasm for the imperial ambitions it represents?
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SOURCE: Vox
5/27/2022
"Top Gun: Maverick" Latest Chapter in Love Affair Between Hollywood and Pentagon
Despite its characterization as liberal and cosmopolitan, the film industry has eagerly embraced the military in the pursuit of box office.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
4/22/2022
The History Behind "The Northman"
by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele
The new epic has been billed as the most historically accurate Viking epic to play on screen, but it's accuracy comes from its effort to capture the subjective nature of Norse spirituality and supernatural belief and the narrative forms recognized by medieval audiences.
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4/17/2022
This Failed Blockbuster Killed Old Hollywood (and Maybe John Wayne, Too)
by Ryan Uytdewilligen
When John Wayne played Genghis Khan in a disastrous Howard Hughes production, it helped to kill RKO studios. Did it also expose the cast and crew to deadly nuclear fallout?
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4/10/2022
After 50 Years, "The Godfather" Still Has Fresh Lessons For Us
by Sam Ben-Meir
Francis Ford Coppola couldn't have anticipated the Trump presidency and its aftermath, but his 1972 masterpiece nevertheless helps uns to understand it.
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SOURCE: Boston Review
3/7/2022
West Side Story and the Tragedy of Progressive Hollywood
by Éric Morales-Franceschini
Critical debates about the "West Side Story" remake focus on representation, but ignore the politics of Puerto Rico.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
3/1/2022
Dana Stevens: How Buster Keaton Revolutionized the Film Industry
In her new book "Camera Man" Stevens shows how Keaton's career connected to the changes shaking up entertainment and society.
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
2/21/2022
Spielberg was the Director Lincoln Deserved
The director, with writer Tony Kushner and star Daniel Day-Lewis, nailed the idea of Lincoln as an imperfect leader nevertheless "fitted to the times we were born into," in a film that holds up after ten years.
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2/6/2022
Art's Historical License in Netflix's "The Edge of War"
by Yoav Tenembaum
The recent Netflix film's treatment of the Munich Accords reads backwards from the outcomes of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy to argue, wrongly, that the Prime Minister's intent was to buy time for the British to rearm.
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SOURCE: Texas Monthly
1/22/2022
New Documentary on 1996 De La Hoya vs. Chavez Fight Digs Into Complexity of Mexican Ethnicity Across the Border
Director Eva Longoria Bastón's documentary on the 1996 match between Mexican champion Julio César Chávez and LA-born Oscar De La Hoya examines how the fight revealed tensions between Mexican and Mexican-American communities expressed in citizenship, language and sports allegiance.
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SOURCE: Times of Israel
1/18/2021
Outcry over Sparse Representation of Jews in Movie History at New Academy Museum in Hollywood
The contributions of Jewish pioneers of film seem oddly invisible in the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures; some prominent donors hope this changes.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
1/13/2022
Sidney Poitier Set the Template for Barack Obama
by Aram Goudsouzian
Sidney Poitier's portrayals of characters whose self-contained charm, virtue and dignity obliterated previous racist stereotypes in film but also excluded the frustrations and anger of contemporary African Americans were a model for Barack Obama's campaign promise to heal America's racial wounds.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
1/9/2022
Sidney Poitier Gave More than He was Given
by Samantha N. Sheppard
Sidney Poitier's gift and burden as an actor was to constantly deliver more than his scripts contained, pushing the limits of Black representation in Hollywood films.
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/7/2022
Sidney Poitier, First Black Man to Win Best Actor Oscar, Dies at 94
The actor's performances reflected the social tensions at the rise of the Civil Rights movement, advancing beyond the caricatured and one-dimensional characters prior Black actors were given to play, and often embodying the tensions between moderate and militant factions of the Black freedom movement.
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SOURCE: NPR
1/4/2022
Is Now a Good Time to Mention that "Soylent Green" Was Set in 2022?
"The movie's dystopian future bears some distant similarities to reality, with climate change already exacerbating hunger and poverty and one giant corporation that could one day control pretty much everything."
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SOURCE: National Museum of American History
12/15/2021
History Film Forum: It's a Wonderful Life
The NMAH History Film Forum discusses the 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life" and the film's enduring and changing meaning.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
12/16/2021
Learning Lessons from "It's a Wonderful Life"
by Christopher Wilson
"With a panel of experts including the Smithsonian’s Lintelman, historian Jason Higgins, film critic Nell Minow, Leo Landis, curator of the State Historical Society of Iowa (the home state of actor Donna Reed who played Mary Bailey), and Reed’s daughter, Mary Owen, we explored American history as presented in a holiday favorite."
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SOURCE: The Guardian
12/9/2021
Burying Leni Riefenstahl: Nina Gladitz's Lifelong Crusade
In 1982, documentarian Nina Gladitz examined Reifenstahl's use of ethnic Roma concentration camp inmates as extras in a feature film, actions which demonstrated her knowledge of and complicity in atrocities. It cost her dearly, professionally and personally, over a decades-long pursuit of the truth.
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SOURCE: Forbes
12/3/2021
Seneca Falls, NY Celebrates 75 Years as the (Self-Proclaimed?) Inspiration for "It's a Wonderful Life"
"Since the 1990s, Seneca Falls has been the site of an “It’s A Wonderful Life Festival” held on the second week of December. It’s also the location of a permanent museum, which honors the film as well."
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