Written by Michael Winner’s frequent scribe, Gerald Wilson’s minimalist western is a strange rumination on racism, with a posse comprised of a post-Civil War captain, assorted thugs, a butcher, gleeful hard-drinking adventurers, and the amoral Hooker brothers hunting half-Apache Chato for killing the local sheriff in an armpit town…
Soldier was reportedly advertised as a glaring anti-war statement / Vietnam War parable, and there are chunks of dialogue that slam the U.S. Government for being hypocritical in professing fairness, civility, and moderation while hate for another culture is swirling around like vicious dust devils. It’s also a film that’s known for a graphic finale that both earned it high box office revenues for executive produce / exploitationeer Joseph E. Levine and heavy criticism, making it a cult film whose core story became overshadowed by its mystique…
Between 1966-1972, the Grande Ballroom in Detroit was a major hub for local youths and young adults to check out a variety of bands, and the house’s only criteria for musicians was to play good music, and play it well – anything less would’ve pushed the audience to revolt (‘Come on, man, kick out the jam, man, KICK OUT THE JAM OR GET OFF THE STAGE!’) sending the disappointing musicians packing…
Amy Berg’s documentary feels like the long-delayed follow-up and clarification to Howard Aulk’s 1974 Janis, essentially a tribute film neatly edited from pre-existing interviews and live performances. Berg’s film has the benefit of hindsight – an aspect wholly absent in 1974, in spite of being released 4 years after Janis Joplin’s sudden death from a drug overdose at 27…
Cash-in films celebrating the life and work of a dead artist aren’t new – The James Dean Story (1957) is among the earliest tribute films that balanced archival material with new interviews, and fellow live-fast-and-die-young icon Marilyn Monroe was saluted in Marilyn (1963), augmented by footage from her last and unfinished film – but Janis appears to be a full compilation doc…
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