I know it's my own fault since I failed to post on Fantasia last week but I was a bit sad that we had a lower than usual turnout for Hud for this week's "Best Shot" selection (the last of our weekly viewing assignments until the series returns in July for the second half of Season 4). If only so we could all enthuse together about one of the all time great taglines...
the man with the barbed wire soul
...and how it's not false advertising.
I wish this fine western drama from Martin Ritt had a reputation as humongous as, oh, the one enjoyed by Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which I reference primarily because it's also a electric quartet-powered black and white masterpiece from the 1960s and just as worthy of obsessing over.
The following shots, chosen by our wee club this week [more...] only scratch the surface of all the amazing things that James Wong Howe is doing behind the camera. (If his name sounds familiar look him up -- so many beautiful movies under his belt from the silents through Fantasia and Picnic all the way through to Funny Lady in the 1970s. I mean no one chose the firefly sequence, or the cattle horror, or any of the nighttime driving scenes or even Paul Newman playing with a flower with the horniest smile you ever saw on a leading man.
Interestingly enough no one chose anything from the first half of the movie. The selections begin at the halfway mark with a Paul Newman closeup. THAT FACE. Click on the images to go to the accompanying article.
The Film Experience
We Recycle Movies
Antagony & Ecstasy
Film Actually
A Fistful of Film
The Film's The Thing
Entertainment Junkie
Hit Me With Your Best Shot will be back on July 3rd (film tba). What films should we watch for the final run of the season?