By John H. Foote 25. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990) By the late eighties Kevin Costner was a major movie star and reasonably well thought of as an actor. His performance in Silverado (1985) as the hotdogging gunslinger on the side of right was great fun and earned him attention from audiences, critics and directors. Delivering…
By John H. Foote 26. BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) Honest statement, I have not ever been a fan or watcher of hard-core pornography. The simple fact is I would rather be having sex than watching naked, writhing couples on a TV screen, and frankly just find most of porn insulting to women. What porn I have…
By John H. Foote 27. RIDE WITH THE DEVIL (1999) One aspect of the Toronto International Film Festival I have always loved (and there are so many) is discovering small films that might get a release later in the year, to little fanfare, despite solid, even rave reviews. Such was the case in 1999 with…
By Alan Hurst This year marks the 40th anniversary of Natalie Woods tragic death. She was one of the biggest female stars of the sixties and, before that, one of the better child/teen actors of the late forties and fifties. But she is now more famous for the circumstances surrounding her death by drowning in…
By John H. Foote 28. NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) The most controversial film of the decade was also among the most brilliant, a daring picture utilizing different stocks of film and video, animation, breaking all the rules and making them work. Oliver Stone’s film Natural Born Killers is among the darkest masterpieces of its time.…
By John H. Foote 29. BUGSY (1991) Watching Bugsy again the other night it was impossible not to feel a pang that Warren Beatty’s volcanic, freight train performance of the celebrated mobster Bugsy Seigel failed to win the gifted actor, director, writer an Academy Award for Best Actor. Though Beatty is an Academy Award winning…
By John H. Foote The nineties cinema, closely, for me resembled that of the seventies. Audacious, bold, inventive, with an array of established filmmakers doing the finest work of their careers and emerging artists challenging them for greatness. Long ignored for an Academy Award as Best Director, Steven Spielberg would win twice in the nineties,…
By Alan Hurst For about 10 years Marsha Mason had a pretty decent run in films. She was in some major box-office hits, she received positive reviews and Oscar nominations for her work in both comedy and drama, and she usually projected a likeable and relatable screen presence. But by the mid eighties she had…
By John H. Foote And finally, the greatest film of the nineties … 1. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Yes, I agonized over the choice for number one, and again the three listed as best of the decade could be interchangeable depending on the day and my mood. Why not Raging Bull (1980)? While I admire…
By John H. Foote 2. RAGING BULL (1980) As I stated in the previous piece, I agonized over my top three choices and the order I would place them in. It is generally regarded that Martin Scorsese’s exhaustive, fearsome masterpiece Raging Bull is the greatest film of the eighties, and while I might agree on…