4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, we celebrate the birth of director George Pan Cosmatos! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 George Pan Cosmatos Films
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985, dir by George Pan Cosmatos, DP: Jack Cardiff)
Cobra (1986, dir by George Pan Cosmatos, DP: Ric Waite)
Leviathan (1989, dir by George Pan Cosmatos, DP: Alex Thomson)
Tombstone (1993, dir by George Pan Cosmatos (and Kurt Russell), DP: William Fraker)
On this date, in 1941, future director George Pan Cosmatos was born in Italy. Cosmatos would go on to direct some of the most financially successfully (if critically lambasted) films of the 80s. He’s also credited as being the director on Tombstone, though it’s generally agreed that Cosmatos largely deferred to Kurt Russell on that film. (Cosmatos was a last minute replacement for the film’s original director.)
Other than Tombstone, Cosmatos is best-known for the films that he did with Sylvester Stallone. And today’s scene that I love comes from the 1986 film, Cobra. In this short but unforgettable scene, we get a chance to learn a little about the Cobra lifestyle. If you have any doubt that Cobra’s a badass, just wait until you see how eats a pizza. He handles his guns just as well as he handle a slice of Pepperoni and a pair of scissors. That Night Slasher better watch out!
In the days after World War I, a man (Paul Muni) stumbles out of an apartment building and then walks down to the local police station. He informs the officer on duty that he just shot a man. He refuses to explain why he shot the man and, when asked for his name, he identifies himself as James Dyke. The office notices a poster for “Dyke & Co.” on the wall and realizes that the man made up his name. The man is convicted and sentenced to be executed.
The years pass as the man waits for his execution date. He is a model prisoner, working hard in the garden and writing editorials for the newspapers in which he warns young readers about pursuing a life of crime. The money he makes, he puts into Liberty Bonds. He continues to refuse to tell anyone his first name.
In a small town, an old woman (Edith Yorke) sits in her rocking chair and has visions of all the men who went to war and never returned. When the woman sees a picture of James Dyke in a newspaper, she thinks that he looks like her son, Joe, who long ago went missing. The woman’s daughter, Mary (Marguerite Churhill), realizes that her mother is planning to make the trip to the prison to see him before he is executed. Mary decides to go herself. She tells her fiancé (John Mack Brown) that she could never get married if it turned out her brother was a murderer. Meanwhile, the old woman continues to have visions of soldiers marching to war.
At the prison, James Dyke tells Mary that he has no family and he has no past. But he did serve in World War I and during that time, he met her brother and he saw him die heroically in battle. Dyke tells her to write to the army for the details of her brother’s death but to be aware that they might not even know whether or not he actually served because the war was such a confusing time that “they don’t know what happened to half the men out there.” Dyke and Mary continue to talk as the hour of execution draws near….
An adaptation of a one-act play, The Valiant was released in 1929, at a time when America was still coming to terms with the horror of the Great War and Hollywood was still trying to adjust to the arrival of sound. Though many had assumed that sound films would just be a fad, it turned out that audiences really did like to hear the dialogue as opposed to just reading it. The Valiant is the type of melodrama that was popular during the silent era and the film does feature title cards that appear between scenes. “A city street — where laughter and tragedy rub elbows,” one card reads. Another one announces, “Civilization demands its toll.” At the same time, it is a sound picture. The first five minutes of the film are just the Man walking through the city and listening to the sound of cars honking and people talking. Like many of the early sounds films, it’s obvious that the majority of the cast was not quite sure how they should handle delivering their dialogue. Some people talk too loudly. Some talk too softly. Quite a few deliver their dialogue stiffly and without emotion. Others use way too much emotion.
The only actor who seems to be fully confident in his ability to perform with sound is Paul Muni, making his screen debut in the lead role. Muni gives a strong and empathetic performance, one that makes even the most melodramatic of dialogue feel naturalistic. Muni shows an instinctive knowledge of how to deliver his lines with emotion without going over the top, which was a skill that many of the actors who tried to make the transition to sounds films never learned. Paul Muni was the first great actor of the sound era, as well as one of the first screen actors to use what would eventually become known as the Method. Among the actors who were directly inspired by Muni were John Garfield, Montgomery Clift, and Marlon Brando. Much of modern acting owes a huge debt to the work of Paul Muni.
Seen today, the contrast between Paul Muni’s performance and the film’s staginess can make The Valiant seem like a rather surreal film. While Muni captures the screen and confidently delivers his lines, everyone else seems hesitant and unsure of how to reply. The end result is that, to modern audiences, The Valiant can almost seem like a filmed dream. From the shot of Muni walking down the noisy city street to the sudden appearance of a swing band playing in the prison cafeteria, the film can seem almost Lynchian in its oddness.
The Valiant was a box office success and, according to the notes in the Academy archives, Paul Muni was among the actors considered for the second Best Actor Oscar. (That year, there were no official nominations and only the winners were announced.) The Oscar went to Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona but Muni would go on to have an amazing career.
Director Harmony Korine is 52 years old today. In honor of his birthday, today’s music video of the day is for a song and a music video that was inspired by Korine’s work as a filmmaker. So, watch this and then you can start having that dream again.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!
This week, we meet Johnny Ventura!
Episode 2.22 “Wedding Bell Blues”
(Dir by Jorge Montesi, originally aired on May 15th, 1989)
With Ryan and Jack out of town, it falls to Micki to retrieve a cursed pool cue stick. Helping her out, despite all of her attempts to convince him to get lost, is Johnny Ventura (Steve Monarque), a friend of Ryan’s who Ryan hired to help search for the cue stick. Even after Johnny finds out that the item has been cursed by Satan and Micki’s entire life currently revolves around supernatural violence, Johnny wants to not only help out but to also stick around, just because he likes Micki. Micki might want to tell him about all of her previous boyfriends who have all died as a result of getting involved in the search for cursed antiques.
I understand that Johnny is going to eventually replace Ryan on the show, starting with the third season. This episode isn’t particularly subtle about setting Johnny up as a Ryan substitute, though Johnny’s crush on Micki is a bit less cringey than Ryan’s. (Ryan is Micki’s cousin, which is something that the show often seems to overlook.) Johnny is established as being a cocky guy who is willing to break the rules. In other words, he’s just like every other guy who has ever been a lead character on a show like this. One of the stranger things about Johnny is that everyone keeps referring to him as being a “kid,” even though he looks like he’s older than just about everyone else on the show.
As for the cursed pool cue, it belongs to Jennifer (Elizabeth Maclellan), a waitress at a seedy bar. She wants to marry Danny (Louis Ferreira), a self-centered pool player who treats her terribly. Jennifer is convinced that Danny is just worried about winning the upcoming pool tournament so she impales people with the cursed pool cue. Each time Jennifer kills someone, the next game that Danny plays is his best ever. Jennifer is slightly sympathetic because she’s convinced that Danny will marry her right after he wins the tournament and she’s too insecure to see what a cad he is. (She’s also pregnant, though Danny doesn’t know it.) When Jennifer’s sister (played, in a very early role, by Lolita Davidovich) says that Danny is never going to marry her, Jennifer refuses to believe it. When Jennifer discovers that her sister is sleeping with Danny, Jennifer has found her next victim.
It’s really not that interesting of a curse but then again, this episode is more concerned with introducing the character of Johnny Ventura than with anything else. Unfortunately, at least in this episode, Johnny really isn’t that compelling of a character. This was a bit of a disappointing episode but who knows? Maybe Johnny Ventura will grow on me.
The 1992 Best Picture winner, Unforgiven, begins as a story of frontier justice.
In Kansas, a young and cocky cowboy who calls himself the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) rides up to an isolated hog farm. He’s looking for Will Munny (Clint Eastwood), a notorious outlaw with a reputation for being a ruthless killer. Instead, he just finds a broken down, elderly widower who is trying to raise two young children and who can barely even manage to climb on a horse. Will Munny, the murderer, has become Will Munny the farmer. He gave up his former life when he got married.
The Schofield Kid claims to be an experienced gunfighter who has killed a countless number of men. He explains that a group of sex workers in Wyoming have put a $1,000 bounty on two men, Quick Mike (David Mucci) and his friend, Davey Bunting (Rob Campbell). Quick Mike cut up one of the women when she laughed at how unimpressively endowed he was. While Davey didn’t take part in the crime, he was present when it happened and he didn’t do anything to stop it. The local sheriff, a man named Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), had Davey give the woman’s employer several horses as compensation. The Kid wants Munny to help him collect the bounty.
At first, Munny refuses to help the Kid. But, when he realizes that he’s on the verge of losing his farm, Munny changes his mind. He and his former partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), join with the Kid and the three of them head to Wyoming. Along the way, they discover that the Kid is severely nearsighted and can hardly handle a pistol.
Meanwhile, in the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming, Little Bill ruthlessly enforces the peace. He’s a charismatic man who is building a house and bringing what many would consider to be civilization to the Old West. When we first meet Little Bill, he seems like a likable guy. The town trusts him. His deputies worship him. He has a quick smile but he’s willing to stand his ground. But it soon becomes apparent that, underneath that smile and friendly manner, Bill is a tyrant and a petty authoritarian who treats the town as his own personal kingdom. Little Bill has a strict rule. No one outside of law enforcement is allowed to carry a gun in his town. When another bounty hunter, English Bob (Richard Harris), comes to town to kill the two cowboys, Little Bill humiliates him and sends him on his way but not before recruiting Bob’s traveling companion, writer W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek), to write Bill’s life story. Bill’s not that much different from the outlaws that he claims to disdain. Like them, Bill understands that value of publicity.
Unforgiven starts as a traditional western but it soon becomes something else all together. As the Schofield Kid discovers, there’s a big difference between talking about killing a man and actually doing it. Piece-by-piece, Unforgiven deconstructs the legends of the old west. Gunfights are messy. Gunfighters are not noble. Davey Bunting is the only man in town to feel guilty about what happened but, because he’s included in the bounty, he still dies an agonizing death. Quick Mike is killed not in the town square during a duel but while sitting in an outhouse. Ned and Munny struggle with the prospect of going back to their old ways, with Munny having to return to drinking before he can once again become the fearsome killer that he was in the past. And Little Bill, the man who says that he’s all about taming the west and bringing civilization to a lawless land, turns out to be just as ruthless a killer as the rest. A lot of people are dead by the end of Unforgiven. Some of them were truly bad. Some of them were good. Most of them were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everyone’s got it coming, to paraphrase Will Munny.
With its violent storyline, deliberate pacing, and its shots of the desolate yet beautiful western landscape, Clint Eastwood’s film feels like a natural continuation of the Spaghetti westerns that he made with Sergio Leone. (Unforgiven is dedicated to both Leone and Don Seigel.) Unforgiven was the first of Eastwood’s directorial efforts to be nominated for Best Picture and also the first to win. It’s brutal meditation on violence and the truth behind the legends of the American frontier. Eastwood gives one of his best and ultimately most frightening performances as Will Munny. Gene Hackman won his second Oscar for playing Little Bill Daggett.
Unforgiven holds up well today. Hackman’s Little Bill Dagget feels like the 19th century version of many of today’s politicians and unelected bureaucrats, authoritarians who claims that their only concern is the greater good but whose main interest is really just increasing their own power. Unforgiven remains one Clint Eastwood’s best films and one of the best westerns ever made. Leone would have been proud.
Here’s our first AMV of the Day of 2025. I’m hoping we can devote a bit more time anime this year then we have in the past. Afterall, when this site started way back in 2009, anime was one of its main focuses.
Song: Down The Road by C2C
Anime: Cowboy Bebop
Creator:Wolfy Omegiggity (As always, if you enjoyed this video, we encourage you to subscribe to the creator’s channel and give them lots of likes and nice comments)
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Hulu!
This week, Peter White continues to disappoint everyone.
Episode 1.6 “Legionnaires: Part One”
(Dir by Thomas Carter, originally aired on December 7th, 1982)
Dr. Peter White (Terence Knox) is perhaps the most incompetent doctor at St. Eligius. Over the course of the first few episodes, we have watched as he’s taken advantage of his fellow residents, been rude to patients, misdiagnosed obvious medical conditions, and complained nonstop about how difficult his life is. Dr. White is struggling to balance the punishing schedule of being a resident with also being a husband and the father to a young girl and a newborn. He’s in over his head.
What’s interesting is that, despite all of his problems, he’s not a particularly sympathetic character and I don’t think he’s meant to be. He’s never going to be a good doctor and he doesn’t have the courage to admit it. Instead of finding a career for which he’s suited, he insists on being a doctor and risking the life of anyone unlucky enough to be his patient. What makes Dr. White an especially disturbing character is that there are probably a lot of doctors in the real world who are just like him. They’re overwhelmed and they make stupid mistakes. I get overwhelmed sometimes too, as does everyone. And, like everyone, I occasionally make mistakes. However, my mistakes usually amount to something like missing a cringey typo that causes me to feel embarrassment until I get a chance to fix it. A doctor’s mistake can lead to people dying.
This week, Dr. White attempts to give penicillin to a patient who is allergic. Fortunately, Dr. Westphall is able to stop White from putting his patient into a coma. Dr. White also manages to lose his hospital-issued pager and, when he’s told that it will cost him $300 to get a new one, he freaks out. A chance meeting with a lawyer in the hospital cafeteria leads White to offer to sell out the hospital by recommending the lawyer to anyone willing to sue because they ended up with a doctor like Peter White. White finally raises the money by donating his sperm. The nurse at the sperm bank says that it’s really generous for a doctor to donate. Not this doctor!
While Peter is screwing up his life, Dr. Westphall is dealing with what appears to be an outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease in one of the wards. Westphall wants to immediately shut down the ward. Dr. Auschlander and board member H.J. Cummings (Christopher Guest — yes, that Christopher Guest) disagree. However, after another young woman dies of what appears to be Legionnaire’s, Westphall orders the ward to be closed and the patients to be relocated.
Meanwhile, Kathy Martin broke up with Fiscus because she felt their fling was turning into a relationship and Dr. Cavanero dealt with a nurse who disliked her. Neither one of those subplots did much for me, though Kathy is emerging as one of my favorite characters on this show. Before breaking up with Fiscus, she goes to a funeral of a stranger just so he won’t be buried without someone there to mourn him. She wears white to the funeral. One doctor comments that she’s never seen Kathy wear white before. Kathy’s a great character and deserves better than just being Fiscus’s girlfriend.
This episode was an improvement over the last episode I watched. According to the title, it’s also only “Part One” so I imagine there will be some fallout over closing that ward next week. We’ll see what happens.
The Minnesota Film Critics Association has announced its nominees for the best of 2024. The winners will be announced on January 10th.
Best Picture
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
The Substance
Best Director
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Luca Guadagnino – Challengers
Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
Best Actor
Adrien Brody as László Tóth – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan – A Complete Unknown
Daniel Craig as William Lee – Queer
Colman Domingo as John “Divine G” Whitfield – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes as Thomas Cardinal Lawrence – Conclave
Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp – Wicked
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy – Hard Truths
Mikey Madison as Anora “Ani” Mikheeva – Anora
Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle – The Substance
Zendaya as Tashi Duncan – Challengers
Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov as Igor – Anora
Kieran Culkin as Benji Kaplan – A Real Pain
Clarence Maclin as Himself – Sing Sing
Edward Norton as Pete Seeger – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren – The Brutalist
Best Supporting Actress
Ariana Grande as Galinda Upland – Wicked
Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth – The Brutalist
Margaret Qualley as Sue – The Substance
Isabella Rossellini as Sister Agnes – Conclave
Zoe Saldaña as Rita Mora Castro – Emilia Pérez
Best Ensemble
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Saturday Night
Sing Sing
Best Adapted Screenplay
Conclave – Peter Straughan
Dune: Part Two – Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing – Clint Bently, Greg Kwedar
Wicked – Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox
Best Original Screenplay
Anora – Sean Baker
The Brutalist – Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
Challengers – Justin Kurtizkes
A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
The Substance – Coralie Fargeat
Best Film Editing
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Best Cinematography
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Best Music
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Wicked
Best Costume Design
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
Wicked
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
Best Production Design
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
Wicked
Best Sound
Challengers
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The Substance
Best Special Effects
Alien: Romulus
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
The Substance
Best Stunt Choreography
Deadpool & Wolverine
Dune: Part Two
The Fall Guy
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator II
Best International Feature
The Beast – France, Canada
Emilia Pérez – France
Evil Does Not Exist – Japan
Flow – Belgium, France, Latvia
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig – Iran, Germany, France
Best Animated Feature
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir Of A Snail
Transformers One
The Wild Robot
The Music City Film Critics Association (that’s Nashville) has announced its nominees for the best of of 2024! The winners will be announced on January 10th.
BEST PICTURE
Anora
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
Sing Sing
The Brutalist
The Substance
Wicked
THE JIM RIDLEY AWARD
Close Your Eyes
Eno
Hundreds of Beavers
The People’s Joker
The Substance
BEST DIRECTOR
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
Robert Eggers – Nosferatu
BEST ACTRESS
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Demi Moore – The Substance
Lily Rose-Depp – Nosferatu
Mikey Madison – Anora
Nicole Kidman – Babygirl
BEST ACTOR
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – A Different Man
Timothee Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Ariana Grande – Wicked
Katy O Brian – Love Lies Bleeding
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown
Zoe Saldana – Emilia Pérez
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
YOUNG ACTRESS
Alisha Weir – Abigail
Alyla Brown – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Ariel Donoghue – Trap
Beatrice Schneider – The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Maisy Stella – My Old Ass
YOUNG ACTOR
Elliott Heffernam – Blitz
Ethan Herisse – Nickel Boys
Griffin Kramer – The People’s Joker
Ian Foreman – I Saw the TV Glow
Izaac Wang – Didi
BEST ENSEMBLE
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Saturday Night
Sing Sing
Wicked
BEST MUSIC FILM
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Pérez
Kneecap
Piece by Piece
Wicked
ANIMATED FILM
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
DOCUMENTARY
Daughters
No Other Land
Sugarcane
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Will & Harper
INTERNATIONAL FILM
Emilia Pérez
Flow
I’m Still Here
Red Rooms
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
SCREENPLAY
A Real Pain
Anora
Challengers
The Brutalist
The Substance
ORIGINAL SONG
Claw Machine – I Saw the TV Glow
Compress/Repress – Challengers
El Mal – Emilia Pérez
Kiss the Sky – The Wild Robot
Like a Bird – Sing Sing
SCORE
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
The Brutalist
SOUND
Civil War
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
The Brutalist
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Hundreds of Beavers
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
The Brutalist
Wicked
EDITING
Anora
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
The Brutalist
STUNT WORK
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator II
Hundreds of Beavers
The Fall Guy
COMEDY
Deadpool & Wolverine
Hundreds of Beavers
My Old Ass
Saturday Night
Thelma
HORROR
Heretic
Late Night with the Devil
Nosferatu
Smile 2
The Substance
ACTION
Deadpool & Wolverine
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Kill
The Fall Guy
Through the Shattered Lens