Grizzly Man - full movie

Directed by the acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man is a fascinating 2005 documentary about the adventures of the quirky American nature and animal lover Timothy Treadwell in the remote Katmai National Park and Preserve on the Alaska Peninsula. As the title Grizzly Man indicates, Timothy Treadwell had a very dangerous passion...

To watch the full documentary, click the link "Watch on Odnoklassniki" in the video screen below, then click the play button, and in the lower right corner on the settings button and on "Quality" to select 720p or 1080p for higher quality.

Genre: documentary / biopic / adventure / animals / nature

All aboard for an iconic western!

Stagecoach  by John Ford     ★★★★★

The iconic 1939 black and white western Stagecoach by the legendary American director John Ford is one of the most influential films of all time. Orson Welles -a legendary filmmaker in his own right- once stated that Stagecoach is a perfect blueprint for making a good movie and that watching it is like going to film school. Reportedly, Welles watched Stagecoach about 40 times in preparation for his own (even more influential) masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941): Welles' brilliant directorial film debut, released two years after Stagecoach.

Adventurous

The enduring legacy of Stagecoach, which is considered a timeless classic by movie lovers around the world, is largely due to the captivating screenplay (written by Dudley Nichols), combining adventure, comedy, drama and subtle romance. 

Based on the 1937 short story The Stage to Lordsburg by the prolific writer of western fiction Ernest Haycocox, the film is set in 1880 and follows a stagecoach from Tonto, Arizona to Lordsburg, New Mexico, through the territory of the rebellious Apache leader Geronimo and his indians, who are on the warpath...

The action-packed stagecoach chase,
with Yakima Canutt as stunt double for starring actor John Wayne. 

Misfits

The stagecoach is driven by Buck (played by Andy Devine) and carries eight, seemingly incompatible passengers:

- the young cowboy and fugitive Henry aka the Ringo Kid (played by John Wayne);

- the marshal Curly Wilcox (George Bancroft), who takes the Ringo Kid in custody;

- the pregnant young lady Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt);

- the gentleman gambler Hatfield (John Carradine);

- the prostitute Dallas (Claire Trevor);

- the flamboyant alcoholic Doc Josiah Boone (Thomas Mitchell);

- the timid whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock (Donald Meek);

- and the unreliable banker Henry Gatewood (Berton Churchill).

From left to right: Buck, Curly, Hatfield,
Peacock, Lucy, Dallas and the Ringo Kid.

Director John Ford doesn't hide his sympathy for the social misfits in his Stagecoach, preferring the authenticity of the brave Ringo Kid, the lonely prostitute Dallas, the well-mannered gambler Hatfield and the happy-go-lucky drunk Doc Boone to the hypocrisy of so called 'respectable citizens' like the banker, who turns out to be nothing more than a coward and a thief.

Dallas keeps her pride while she's being
chased out of town by the Law & Order Leage.

In one of the first sequences, Ford makes fun of the women of the Law & Order Leage in Tonto, who chase the prostitute Dallas and the drunk Doc Boone out of town. Ford exposes these women of the Law & Order Leage for what they really are: uptight and biased social justice warriors with misguided moral standards, who judge people, without really knowing them, by their appearance and reported reputation instead of by their true character. This nonconformist critique of bourgeois puritanism runs through the film as its underlying theme, which shouldn't surprise anyone, since Ford himself was an old-fashioned, cigar-smoking and whiskey-drinking man, who loathed political correctness.

Hilarious interaction between the alcoholic Doc Boone (left)
and the whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock.

Archetypes

In addition to the entertaining story and the crispy dialogues, Stagecoach also features beautiful cinematography (by Bert Glennon), including wide shots of the impressive landscapes (one of Ford's trademarks), a fitting, Oscar-winning musical score (based on old American folk songs) and fine acting, with a breakthrough performance by the young John Wayne as the Ringo Kid in Wayne's first starring role, delicate acting by Claire Trevor as the disillusioned prostitute Dallas, and funny performances by Donald Meek as the soft-spoken whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock and by Thomas Mitchell as the sympathetic drunk Doc Boone (which earned Mitchell an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor). 

The famous shot that introduced John Wayne's
breakthrough role of the Ringo Kid to the world.

A wide shot of Monument Valley in Utah.

Today, almost 80 years after Stagecoach established some of the most recognizable archetypes in the western genre -the hooker with the heart of gold, the dandyish gambler, the funny town drunk, the exciting stagecoach chase, the impressive vistas of Monument Valley in Utah, et cetera...- these archetypes have long since become clichés. Well, now you know where they came from before they were clichés, and why they became clichés: they were at the heart of John Ford's Stagecoach and they worked like a charm. 

Joeri Naanai

Stagecoach - USA - 1939.

Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, Donald Meek, Louise Platt, John Carradine, George Bancroft, Andy Devine and Berton Churchill.

Genre: western / adventure

The Middle Ages in Technicolor

The Adventures of Robin Hood     ★★★★

by Michael Curtiz & William Keighley 

England, 1191. On the way back from a crusade, the English King Richard I (aka Richard Lionheart) is taken hostage by the Duke of Austria. King Richard's unreliable brother Prince John (played by Claude Rains) takes advantage of the situation by usurping the English throne and commissioning Sir Guy of Guisborne (Basil Rathbone) to impose high taxes on the fearful people in England. The Saxon nobleman Sir Robin of Locksley (Hollywood star Errol Flynn), however, isn't afraid of Prince John. On the contrary: Sir Robin of Locksley becomes the mischivious rebel Robin Hood and gathers other freedom fighters in the forests of Sherwood, to start a guerrilla uprising against the tyrannical Prince John...

From left to right: 

Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, 

Claude Rains as Prince John, 

and Basil Rathbone as Sir Guy of Guisborne.

Old fashioned family entertainment

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a delightful 1938 adventure movie by the Hollywood directors Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. The film offers enough old fashioned entertainment to please young and old alike: sprightly swordplay, witty dialogue, excellent performances by most of the cast members, romance between Robin Hood and his love interest Lady Marian (played by Olivia de Havilland), and beautiful costumes and sets, all shot in radiant Technicolor. 

The film won three Acadamy Awards, for:

- Best Art Direction and Color, by Carl Jules Weyl;

- Best Editing, by Ralph Dawson;

- and Best Music, by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Olivia de Havilland as Lady Marian,
and Errol Flynn als Robin Hood.

The screenplay, which is based on old English folklore about a legendary Medieval heroic outlaw called Robyn Hode, has little to do with historical accuracy, but who cares! The Adventures of Robin Hood is the kind of exciting adventure movie that awakens the rebel kid in ourselves. Rewatching it recently, I felt once again what I felt when I saw the movie for the first time on tv in my childhood: the irresistible urge to go and hide somewhere in the forest with a couple of friends, build a treehouse together and use our secret hideout as a base camp from which we would fight the injustice in the world. My childhood buddies and I failed miserably, ofcourse, because the world is still full of injustice today. But at least we built a (small) treehouse.   

Joeri Naanai

The Adventures of Robin Hood - USA - 1938.

Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Alan Hale and Eugene Pallette.

Genre: adventure / historical drama / romance / action

The Revenant - trailer

Genre: western / adventure / historical survival drama

Spectre - trailer

Genre: action / adventure / thriller / crime