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This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 5, episode 3, "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel," sees Lieutenant Boimler (Jack Quaid) assigned to a covert, potentially dangerous spy mission. He is to join Commander Ransom (Jerry O'Connell) and Lieutenant Commander Billups (Paul Scheer) on a mission to the Cosmic Duchess, an ultra-swanky, high-end resort-like cruise ship, floating gently through deep space. His assignment is to penetrate deep into the hotel to retrieve Admiral Milius (Toby Huss), a Starfleet officer who has gone Awol thanks to "a touch of vacation madness." The writers of "Lower Decks" missed an opportunity in not saying that he had been infected with Paradise Syndrome.

The Cosmic Duchess, however, is such a massive ship that it incorporates artificial recreations of every possible vacation-ready biome. There's a tropical beach biome, a skiing resort biome, and a water park biome.

Sydney Pollack was the Oscar winning filmmaker who could’ve branded himself as Hollywood’s favorite journeyman, crafting solid entertainments for over 40 years. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at all 20 of his films as a director, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1934, Pollack got his start as an actor, studying under legendary New York teacher Sanford Meisner. He cut his teeth is television, appearing in such shows as “The Twilight Zone,” “Playhouse 90” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” before transitioning into directing for the small screen. Even after making a name for himself behind the camera, he kept popping up onscreen, starring in “The Player” (1992), “Husbands and Wives” (1992), “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), “Changing Lanes” (2002), “Michael Clayton” (2007) and his own “Tootsie” (1982), to name but a few.

It was this experience as a performer that made him a favorite with actors, including Robert Redford, with whom he made seven films.

Chris Evans is known for his time as Steve Rogers / Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. During his tenure as the star-spangled hero, Evans got an opportunity to work with legendary actor Robert Redford, who had a supporting role in the second installment of the Captain America franchise.

Chris Evans in Captain America: Civil War

In an interview, Evans spoke about sharing the screen with Redford and also revealed his admiration for the veteran actor. Evans praised Redford for his attitude and work ethic on the sets of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Here is what Chris Evans said about getting to work with one of his idols and appearing alongside Robert Redford.

Chris Evans Talked Working With Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In 2013, actor Chris Evans was approaching the peak of his popularity as Captain America, after starring in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and The Avengers (2012). At the time,...

Dean Smith, who won a gold medal as a sprinter at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics before becoming a top-notch Hollywood stunt performer who worked on a dozen films starring John Wayne, has died. He was 91.

Smith died Saturday at his home in Breckenridge, Texas, after a battle with cancer, his friend Rob Word told The Hollywood Reporter.

Smith, who got into the business with help from James Garner, appeared in seven Paul Newman films, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974).

The tough Texan, who loved to say he could “ride, run and jump,” doubled for good friend Dale Robertson on the 1957-62 NBC series Tales of Wells Fargo, the 1964 film Blood on the Arrow and the 1966-68 ABC series Iron Horse.

He also did the dirty work for Ben Johnson...

Max’s first full month without ‘HBO’ in its rebranded title has a selection that kicks off summer 2023 in fine fashion. Three of the four iterations of “A Star Is Born,” including the most recent remake starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, are streaming on Max in June. The 1954 and 1976 films land June 1, while the 2018 version arrives June 8.

To prepare for Margot Robbie’s performance in “Barbie” come July, one could watch one of her more intense roles as Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya” (2017). For some lighter summer watches, viewers might consider “Dolphin Tale” (2010), “Grease” (1978), “Hairspray” (2007) or “Tooth Fairy” (2010).

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (2023) starring Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault lands at Max after its theatrical release in February this year. Another major theatrical release from 2022, “Avatar: The Way of Water” (2022), swims onto the streamer starting June 7.

As for TV series, “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson’s “The Idol,” starring Abel...

HBO Max is no more. In its place are…HBO and Max. Warner Bros. Discovery’s big change to its premier streaming service was simply to take the “HBO” off of the name “HBO Max,” leaving just “Max.” But in announcing its list of new releases for Max in June 2023, Warner is highlighting all of the HBO content anyway. So here is everything you can expect to find on Max (including every new HBO show) this month.

Even though June 2023 is the first full month of Max’s existence without the helpful “HBO” modifier in front of it, literally all of its major original offerings are thanks to the pay cable network. June 4 sees the premiere of The Idol, the controversial TV project starring The Weeknd and written by Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson. After that, season 3 of Danny McBride evangelical comedy The Righteous Gemstones premieres on June 18. That will be...

Max, the new name of HBO Max as of May 23rd, will be adding a new food series with Zooey Deschanel, an animated series set in the world of Gremlins, and the rebirth of Clone High to its streaming lineup in June 2023. The Idol, starring The Weeknd and Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose, arrives on June 4th after dividing the crowd at Cannes, and the much-anticipated third season of Warrior kicks off on June 29th.

Max’s June lineup also includes new seasons of And Just Like That…, Painting with John, and The Righteous Gemstones. Theatrical releases making their way to the streaming service include Avatar: The Way of Water and Magic Mike’s Last Dance.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In June 2023:

June 1

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

A Star Is Born (1954)

A Star Is Born (1976)

Army of Darkness (1993)

Balls of Fury (2007)

Beautiful Creatures (2013)

Big Daddy (1999)

Breach (2007)

Bulworth (1998)

Class Act (1992)

Click...

The highly discussed music limited series “The Idol” is set to premiere on Max on June 4. Starring Lily-Rose Depp, pop singer The Weeknd, and Dan Levy, the show involves a rising pop star Jocelyn (played by Depp) who gets involved with Tedros (The Weeknd), a sleazy nightclub owner who may also be a cult leader. She wants a rock career, while he’s focused on exploiting everyone he meets.

Watch the trailer for “The Idol”:

Also coming to the streamer next month is the second season of “And Just Like That,” the “Sex and the City” sequel. In Season 2 — which arrives on June 22 — Charlotte’s daughter is ready to lose her virginity, Carrie explores life and love after Big, and Miranda intensifies her relationship with Che.

Check out the “And Just Like That” Season 2 trailer:

Arriving on Max on June 27 is a documentary looking at the award-winning performance art...

Mike Moder, the Emmy-nominated producer whose credits included Beverly Hills Cop and Crimson Tide, died August 15. He was 86.

The son of director Dick Moder, he was born on April 25, 1936, in North Hollywood. He attended Notre Dame High and graduated from Loyola University before starting his career in the film industry in 1960. Moder’s credits include working as a first Ad on Jeremiah Johnson, Little Big Man and Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, before he produced those big studio films among many other features and TV.

He shared an Emmy noms as a producer of the 1997 telepic Cinderella, starring Whitney Houston.

Hollywood & Media Deaths 2022: A Photo Gallery

He and his wife Patti married in 1958 and went on to raise Debbi, Jane, John, Jyl and Danny. Moder was the proud grandfather of nine, and had two great grandchildren.

After Patti passed away in 2001, he married Marisa Megurian in 2003. They were living in Nipomo,...

Lynn Stalmaster, who was the first casting director to receive an Academy Award, died today at home in Los Angeles. He was 93 and his death was confirmed by Laura Adler of the Casting Society of America.

Stalmaster had a legendary vision for casting. He is credited with moving Dustin Hoffman into The Graduate, Christopher Reeve as Superman, and tabbing the young John Travolta for TV comedy classic Welcome Back, Kotter, among many others.

The November 2016 Governors Awards saw Stalmaster become the first casting director to receive an Academy Award. The honorary Oscar recognized his long and meritorious career.

Stalmaster also had another notable achievement: on Norman Jewison’s 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair Stalmaster became the first casting director to receive a single-card credit in the titles.

Stalmaster has more than 400 casting credits among them such classics as Inherit the Wind (1960), The Great Escape (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), They Shoot Horses,...

You’ve asked questions. Prepare for the answers.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

The Beguiled (1971)

Tenet (2021? Maybe?)

Smokey Is The Bandit (1983)

Robin Hood (2010)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The Devils (1971)

Song of the South (1946)

Gremlins (1984)

Dillinger (1973)

Marcello I’m So Bored (1966)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Big Wednesday (1978)

Swamp Thing (1982)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Payback (1999)

Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

Blowup (1966)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Medium Cool (1969)

25th Hour (2002)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Palm Springs (2020)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Mandy (2018)

The Sadist (1963)

Spider Baby (1968)

Night Tide (1960)

Stark Fear

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

Ms. 45 (1981)

Léolo (1992)

The Howling (1981)

Showgirls (1995)

Green Book (2018)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Best Man (1964)

Advise and Consent (1962)

The Candidate (1972)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Seven Days In May (1964)

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

The Man (1972)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Four Lions (2010)

Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Nightmare In The Sun (1965)

The Wild Angels (1966)

The Omega Man (1971)

The Nanny (1965)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man...

Back in 1982, Quentin Tarantino, who was then 20-years-old, had yet to make a feature film. But he did manage to score an interview with the legendary John Milius, the writer-director with credits that include Apocalypse Now, Jeremiah Johnson, Red Dawn, Conan the Barbarian, and more. Over on the website for his theater The New Beverly, Tarantino has […]

The post Quentin Tarantino Shares an Interview He Conducted With Legendary Filmmaker John Milius Nearly 40 Years Ago appeared first on /Film.

Robert Redford has announced his retirement from acting after nearly 60 years on screen. Here is a look at his top 20 feature films, according to IMDb user ratings. How many have you seen?

1. 'The Sting' (1973): 8.3

2. 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969): 8.1

3. 'All the President's Men' (1976): 8

4. 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (2014): 7.8

5. 'Jeremiah Johnson' (1972): 7.6

6. 'Three Days of the Condor' (1975): 7.5

7. 'The Natural' (1984): 7.5

8. 'A Bridge Too Far' (1977): 7.4

9. 'A River Runs Through It' (1992): 7.3

10. 'The Chase' (1966): 7.3

11. 'Out of Africa' (1985): 7.2

12. 'Sneakers' (1992): 7.1

13. 'Spy Game' (2001): 7.1

14. 'The Way We Were' (1973): 7.1

15. 'This Property Is Condemned' (1966): 7.1

16. 'Brubaker' (1980): 7.1

17. 'The Candidate' (1972): 7.1

18. 'An Unfinished Life' (2005): 7

19. 'Barefoot in the Park' (1967): 7

20. 'All Is Lost' (2013): 6.9

Ranking correct as of Aug. 7, 2018.

Film editor Thomas Stanford, who won an Academy Award for his work on West Side Story, died Saturday, his family reported. He was 93.

Stanford collaborated with director Sydney Pollack on three films — The Slender Thread (1965), Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and The Yakuza (1974) — and with helmer Mark Rydell on two: The Fox (1967) and The Reivers (1969).

Born in Germany and educated in Switzerland and England, Stanford received his first editor credit on Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

He later worked on movies including In the Cool of the Day (1963), Emil and...

Author: Competitions

To mark the release of Jeremiah Johnson on 12th June, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Soured by civilization, Jeremiah Johnson sets out in the mid 1800s to be a mountain man, seeking solitude in a wilderness whose purity he never questioned. His first Rocky Mountain winter almost kills him. Starving and nearly frozen, he finds refuge with a wily old trapper (Will Geer) whose survival teaching includes going eyeball to eyeball with a grizzly.

Robert Redford and two time Academy Award winner Sydney Pollack teamed for the second of their six films together on this box-office hit shot entirely in Utah. Jeremiah Johnson “gets back to Nature” in a way no film ever has before or since.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

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Open to UK residents only The competition will close 12th...

With the "Odd Couple" pairing of Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, director Ken Kwapis ("Big Miracle," "He's Just Not That Into You") has made an unmistakable buddy road picture in "A Walk in the Woods."  It's certainly laconic vs. loquacious on the Appalachian Trail: one part existential journey and another part environmental reverie, as told by sardonic travel writer Bill Bryson (Redford) in his memoir, adapted for the screen by Redford's producing partner, Bill Holderman. Of course, it's easy to see the attraction for both Redford and Nolte: "A Walk in the Woods" perfectly plays off their iconic personas. And for Redford it's even more personal, about aging and learning to co-exist with the environment (a marvelous bookend to "Jeremiah Johnson"). But for Kwapis, who's always had a facility for straddling comedy and drama, it was about finding the sweet spot where those two conflicting personalities could best...

Robert Mitchum ca. late 1940s. Robert Mitchum movies 'The Yakuza,' 'Ryan's Daughter' on TCM Today, Aug. 12, '15, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series is highlighting the career of Robert Mitchum. Two of the films being shown this evening are The Yakuza and Ryan's Daughter. The former is one of the disappointingly few TCM premieres this month. (See TCM's Robert Mitchum movie schedule further below.) Despite his film noir background, Robert Mitchum was a somewhat unusual choice to star in The Yakuza (1975), a crime thriller set in the Japanese underworld. Ryan's Daughter or no, Mitchum hadn't been a box office draw in quite some time; in the mid-'70s, one would have expected a Warner Bros. release directed by Sydney Pollack – who had recently handled the likes of Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, and Robert Redford – to star someone like Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman.

Harry Callahan’s next adventure originated with John Milius, Hollywood’s favorite gun fanatic, surfer and “Zen anarchist.” Milius wrote B Movies for American International Pictures before breaking through with two Westerns, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Jeremiah Johnson. His knack for macho action and pulpy, colorful dialogue fit Dirty Harry perfectly; Milius wrote his draft in 21 days, receiving a Purdey shotgun as payment.

Though uncredited, Milius claims credit for Harry‘s dialogue, especially the “Do I feel lucky?” monologue. Others, including Richard Schickel, credit Harry Julian Fink with that speech. Clint Eastwood marginalizes Milius’s contributions to the film, admitting “we might have taken a few good items John had in there.” Milius resented this: “Look at the movie and you tell me who wrote that,” he challenged an interviewer.

Milius soon moved past any hurt feelings. After reading several articles on Brazil’s “death...

It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.

Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.

As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.

57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...

Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury and Audience Award winner "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is heading to theaters slightly earlier than expected.  Fox Searchlight originally announced "Earl" would open in limited release on July 1.  Now, the studio has reconsidered and the acclaimed dramedy will debut in limited release on June 12. The new date actually puts "Earl" on the same opening day as another Sundance hit, "Dope," although Open Road Films is making an eye-popping move by opening that film wide against expected blockbuster "Jurassic World." "Earl" will now avoid opening in the same frame as Woody Allen's "Irrational Man" and Judd Apatow's "Trainwrecked" which could siphon some of its audience in key metro markets.  One thing is for sure, with a June release date Searchlight is going to need to get a trailer out sooner rather than later.  That means a sneak peek for anyone who...

Robert Redford movies: TCM shows 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting' They don't make movie stars like they used to, back in the days of Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Harry Cohn. That's what nostalgists have been bitching about for the last four or five decades; never mind the fact that movie stars have remained as big as ever despite the demise of the old studio system and the spectacular rise of television more than sixty years ago. This month of January 2015, Turner Classic Movies will be honoring one such post-studio era superstar: Robert Redford. Beginning this Monday evening, January 6, TCM will be presenting 15 Robert Redford movies. Tonight's entries include Redford's two biggest blockbusters, both directed by George Roy Hill and co-starring Paul Newman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which turned Redford, already in his early 30s, into a major film star to rival Rudolph Valentino,...

Between 1970 and 1975—and the ages of 53 and 58—Robert Mitchum made six films. The beginning of the decade found him in Ireland taking on the role of schoolteacher Charles Shaughnessey in David Lean’s epic Ryan’s Daughter (1970) and five years later he was starring as Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell My Lovely (1975). In between, he made the father-son melodrama Going Home (1971), an eccentric western called The Wrath of God (1972) and two crime dramas made back-to-back in 1973 and 1974. While they have a couple of other elements in common besides Mitchum—actor Richard Jordan, composer Dave Grusin—The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) and The Yakuza (1974) are poles apart in terms of tone. Broadly speaking, the first is low-key, downbeat and domestic, the second is glossy and globetrottingly exotic.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is based on the debut novel by George V. Higgins, a lawyer and former Assistant Attorney General...

Stefan Gierasch, a character actor for nearly six decades who stood out opposite Robert Redford in Sydney Pollack's poetic 1972 Western Jeremiah Johnson, has died. He was 88. Gierasch died Sept. 6 at his home in Santa Monica of complications from a stroke, his wife, Hedy Sontag, told The Hollywood Reporter. Gierasch also played the mayor of Lago, who Clint Eastwood ousts in favor of a dwarf in High Plains Drifter (1973). As the dense Principal Morton, Gierasch fell victim to an electric shock at the high school prom in Brian De Palma's horror classic Carrie (1976). In Jeremiah Johnson,

read more...

We like to celebrate great actors at Super-8 Movie Madness at The Way Out Club. We’ve had past shows highlighting the careers of Charles Bronson, Boris Karloff, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Burt Reynolds. On Tuesday, June 3rd, we’re offering a double dose of Actor Madness with Super-8 Robert Redford/Paul Newman Movie Madness!

That’s right, these two Oscar-winners paired up famously in two films: Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and The Sting and we’ll be showing both of those. To highlight Mr. Redford’s solo career we’ll be showing Jeremiah Johnson and The Great Waldo Pepper. And Mr. Newman’s solo career will be represented with The Towering Inferno and Slap Shot.

Movies we’re showing that star neither Mr. Redford nor Mr. Newman are: Revenge Of The Creature, Disney’s Song Of The South, Creature With The Atom Brain,...

A couple of weeks ago, Quentin Tarantino said that he loved working on Django Unchained so much, he wanted his next film to be a western also. This news made my day because I would love to see a resurgence of the western genre. Westerns are not considered one of the top tier genres, but I think that they are one of the most complex and interesting. Conventional rules do not apply to westerns. The protagonist/antagonist line is slightly blurred. That is what makes them more real. Any one of us would like to think that we are good people, but put us in a circumstance where we or someone we love is threatened, and we will fight to the bitter end. That is what the western is all about, the darker, grittier side of humanity. That is what I love about these films.

Just a little disclaimer; I...

For the last few weeks audiences have been flocking to the multiplexes to watch Sandra Bullock alone and adrift in Gravity. This week’s new film is a lot closer to home, since it’s set on planet Earth instead of being set above planet Earth. But it’s just as solitary, since its protagonist is miles from another person (at least Sandy had the charming George Clooney as company for a very brief time) in the middle of the ocean. Oh so it’s a riff on The Old Man And The Sea, you’re thinking. Well sure, there are many elements mixed in with The Life Of Pi, Cast Away, and a smidgen of Jeremiah Johnson, the 1972 classic about a guy wanting to live by himself in the harsh wilderness. Yes, All Is Lost takes a bit of that film’s plot, but more importantly it shares the same leading man,...

"I'm sorry." Those are among the first and very few words uttered by legendary actor Robert Redford in "All is Lost," the second feature film written and directed by J.C. Chandor. What is he sorry for? We don't know. Redford's character doesn't even have a name; he's listed in the credits as "Our Man." But we spend the entire film with him, alone and nearly wordless, as he struggles to stay alive after a freak accident punches a hole in his boat, destroys his navigational gear, and leaves him at the mercy of a vast, storm-tossed, and empty Indian Ocean.

For Chandor, the difference between his two films is as extreme as it gets. 2011's "Margin Call" was filled with characters crowded into offices and talking incessantly at each other as the economy collapsed around them. "All Is Lost" features just one man against the awesome power of nature.

Redford...

Photo Credit: Daniel Daza/Roadside Attractions

Academy Award winner Robert Redford stars in the brand new trailer for the film All Is Lost, an open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) with a musical score by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), the film is a gripping, visceral and powerfully moving tribute to ingenuity and resilience.

In his review from May, Jeffrey Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere wrote,

“…J.C. Chandor‘s All Is Lost has completely blown everyone away at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a knockout –a riveting piece of pure dialogue-free cinema, a terrific survival-on-the-high-seas tale and major acting triumph for Robert Redford, who hasn’t been this good since…what, Brubaker? All The President’s Men? A long time. It’s one of the most powerful,...

You know that Robert Redford is a badass, right? I mean, this is the man who played The Sundance Kid, Jeremiah Johnson, Johnny Hooker, and Jay Gatsby before embarking on one hell of a directorial career. Plus, he invented the damn Sundance Film Festival! Most his age would be content to sit back and reflect on their careers, but not Redford. While still working both in front and behind the camera, Redford is already filming a role in next year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. How...

Content Film has snapped up international sales rights (excluding Spain) to a documentary about John Milius, the director of Conan the Barbarian and screenwriter behind Apocalypse Now.

Milius, which tells the life story of the Us film-maker and premiered at SXSW, has also been bought by StudioCanal for the UK.

Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa make their feature debut, having previously made behind the scenes documentaries for companies such as Miramax and Disney through their company Chop Shop Entertainment.

The film was produced by Matthew Perniciaro and Kevin Mann of Haven Entertainment, Scott Mosier of Ogb, Inc. and Kenneth Plume.

The deal was negotiated by Toby Melling of Content and Wme Global on behalf of the producers.

The documentary follows Milius’s childhood aspirations from joining the military to his formative years at the USC Film School, his scriptwriting on films such as Dirty Harry, Jeremiah Johnson and Apocalypse Now and his work as director on films...

Feature Aliya Whiteley 14 May 2013 - 05:59

A true Hollywood star, Robert Redford is at his best in smaller, more personal films. Aliya picks three great films about alienation...

Robert Redford was the number one box office star of the early 70s, appearing in huge hits such as The Sting, The Way We Were, and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. None of those three films show him at his best as an actor, or address the kind of issues he felt passionately about.

His easy camaraderie with Paul Newman and his status as a sex symbol belied the political angle that influenced his decisions in filmmaking and acting. Once he had amassed enough power in Hollywood to call the shots, the roles he took changed; for me, his most interesting performances began once he believed in the message of the film he was making.

He remains a serious and passionate actor,...

"Who are you? Who are you... really?"

For your Saturday night MovieMovie viewing pleasure, we bring you two acclaimed Westerns featuring two of the most celebrated and beloved actor-filmmakers in movie history: Jeremiah Johnson (1972) starring Robert Redford, and Pale Rider (1985) starring Clint Eastwood.

Redford stars as the title character in Jeremiah Johnson, his second of seven collaborations with Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack. After serving in the Mexican War (1846–48), Johnson chooses a life of solitude and heads out west to become a mountain man. He is tasked at every turn by the unforgiving land and its denizens, including bears and the Blackfoot warriros antagonistic toward settlers. Johnson scratches out a living and even manages to find love, but tragedy strikes when the U.S. Cavalry forces him to help them movie through native territory.

Pale Rider not only stars Eastwood, but he produced and directed this highest-grossing Western of the '80s.

"I, Hatchet Jack, being of sound mind and broke legs, do leaveth my rifle to the next thing who finds it..."

Tonight's MovieMovie is one of the great unsung Westerns of the '70s and the second of seven collaborations between actor Robert Redford and Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack.

Redford stars as the title character, a veteran of the Mexican War (1846–48) who moves out west to become a mountain man. Johnson's life is a difficult one, filled with harsh winters, hungry grizzly bears and ferocious Blackfoot warriors who don't appreciate white men encroaching on their territory, but he manages to find peace, harmony and love with the daughter (Delle Bolton) of a Flathead chief. Unfortunately, Johnson's piece is short-lived. When the U.S. Cavalry force him to help them move through native territory, everything and everyone in his life is put in jeopardy and the peaceful man he once...

Whatever you might think of his (very dodgy) politics, it's quite clearly the case that any documentary that features writer/director John Milius is immediately made exponentially more entertaining. He's an essential part of Hearts Of Darkness and Easy Riders Raging Bulls, and his making-of and commentary on his own Conan The Barbarian are things of insane majesty. So the news that Milius is now the subject of his own documentary profile is both happy and welcome, and here's a trailer to back up that assertion.Milius, a difficult kid who became both a voracious bookworm and an accomplished surfer, was refused entry to the Marine Corps because of his chronic asthma. So he wrote instead. One of the movie brat generation along with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola (all of whom show up in the film, along with Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many...

1.) Universal has picked up an untitled sci-fi project with The Adjustment Bureau helmer George Nolfi attached to direct, produce and co-write with The Last Stand writer Andrew Knauer. The Adjustment Bureau is one of my favorite movies of recent years so I've been anxiously waiting to see what Nolfi would do next and while I wish we had more information, the rest of the details are being kept under wraps. Nolfi and Knauer met while Nolfi was supervising the script for The Last Stand and was apparently so impressed with Knauer's script that he made a pitch to collaborate on this new untitled project. Before making his directorial debut with The Adjustment Bureau, Nolfi worked on the scripts for several movies including Ocean's Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum. THR 2.) James Franco has been incredibly busy of late and will try to stay that way as he looks to direct and star in Beautiful People.

The Mayans were right. They were just off by a couple of months! It’s Doomsday February 5th and Ground Zero is Way Out Club on when we present Super-8 End Of The World Movie Madness!

That’s right; we’ll be showing condensed (average length: 15 minutes) versions of several apocalyptic disasters on Super-8 sound film projected on a big screen. Here’s the judgment day lineup: War Of The Worlds (1953), When Worlds Collide, Crack In The World, Meteor, and Charlton Heston in Earthquake, and The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Other (non-doomsday) films screening on February 5th are: Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson, Tom and Jerry in Million Dollar Cat, Jane Fonda in Barbarella, Woody Allen in Take The Money And Run, The Wasp Woman, The Deadly Mantis, a James Dean Clip Reel, and The Warriors.

Cover charge is a mere $3.00 and the show begins at 8pm. We’ll...

Jeremiah Johnson

Directed by Sydney Pollack

Written by Edward Anhalt and John Milius

1972,

The Western, at its creative and commercial peak – the late 1960s-early 1970s – proved itself an astoundingly pliable genre. It could be molded to deal with topical subject matter like racism (Skin Game, 1971), feminism (The Ballad of Josie, 1967), the excesses of capitalism (Oklahoma Crude, 1973). It could be bent into religious allegories (High Plains Drifter, 1973), or an equally allegorical address of the country’s most controversial war (Ulzana’s Raid, 1972). Westerns could be used to deconstruct America’s most self-congratulatory myths (Doc, 1971), and address historical slights and omissions (Little Big Man, 1970). They could provide heady social commentary (Hombre, 1967), or simple adventure and excitement (The Professionals, 1966). They could be funny (The Hallelujah Trail, 1965), unremittingly grim (Hour of the Gun, 1967), surreal (Greaser’s Palace, 1972), even be stretched into the shape of rock musical (Zachariah, 1971) or monster movie (Valley of Gwangi, 1969).

But...

Curiously, with all the bold, ambitious, fresh talent storming into Hollywood in the 1960s/1970s – directors who’d cut their teeth in TV like Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer; imports like Roman Polanski and Peter Yates; the first wave of film school “film brats” like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese — one of the most popular genres during the period was one of Old Hollywood’s most traditional: the Western. But the Western often wrought at the hands of that new generation of moviemakers was rarely traditional.

During the Old Hollywood era, Westerns typically had been B-caliber productions, most of them favoring gunfights and barroom brawls over dramatic substance, and nearly all adhering to Western tropes which ran back to the pre-cinema days of dime novelist Ned Buntline. With the 1960s, however, the genre began to change; or, more accurately, expand, twist, and even invert.

To be sure, there would...

The Western was a movie staple for decades. It seemed the genre that would never die, feeding the fantasies of one generation after another of young boys who galloped around their backyards, playgrounds, and brick streets on broomsticks, banging away with their Mattel cap pistols. Something about a man on a horse set against the boundless wastes of Monument Valley, the crackle of saddle leather, two men facing off in a dusty street under the noon sun connected with the free spirit in every kid.

The American movie – a celluloid telling that was more than a skit – was born in a Western: Edwin S. Porter’s 11- minute The Great Train Robbery (1903). Thereafter, Westerns grew longer, they grew more complex. The West – hostile, endless, civilization barely maintaining a toehold against the elements, hostile natives, and robber barons – proved an infinitely plastic setting. In a place with no law, and where...

Writer-director J.C. Chandor made a big impression last year with his feature debut, Margin Call, nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards at the start of the year.

Not resting on his laurels for a moment, he’s just finished up shooting his follow-up, All Is Lost, starring Robert Redford, which Chandor wrote specifically for the actor after meeting him at Sundance, the independent film festival Redford helped found over three decades ago.

Deadline have got our first look at Redford in the film, and it is incredibly impressive. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but we do know it’s,

“a man vs. nature drama, and it’s all Redford, all the time, as he goes Jeremiah Johnson after getting lost at sea and struggling against the elements to stay alive.”

No word yet on when we can expect it to hit the big screen, but with production recently wrapping,...

Here is a first look at Robert Redford battling the elements in All Is Lost, the film scripted and directed J.C. Chandor, who helmed the financial crisis thriller Margin Call.Chandor met Redford at the Sundance Film Festival, and was so taken by the indie film patriarch that he wrote a project specifically for him. And Redford, who can be elusive in committing, stepped up and put himself through quite an ordeal. Deadline was first to reveal this unusual project, which has just wrapped principal photography at Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico. It’s a man vs. nature drama, and it’s all Redford, all the time, as he goes Jeremiah Johnson after getting lost at sea and struggling against the elements to stay alive. From the look of the photo, they put that giant water tank at Baja Studios to good use. Before The Door Pictures’ Neal Dodson and...

All those who complain about the liberal domination of Hollywood have never come across John Milius. A film school pal of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Milius had tried to join the Marine Corp, but was turned away due to his asthma. Instead, he channeled his frustrations into both a life-long obsession with firearms (he was paid for "Jeremiah Johnson" in antique weaponry, and has served on the NRA Board of Directors) and making some of the most masculine, testosterone-filled movies of all time, both as an acclaimed writer and as a director. The basis for both Paul Le Mat's character in "American Graffiti" and Walter in "The Big Lebowski" -- the Coens are friends of Milius, and offered him the part of Jack Lipnick in "Barton Fink" -- he's one of film history's most singular, colorful characters.

He might not have had the overwhelming success of Lucas or Spielberg,...

Gregory La Cava and Irene Dunne

"An extraordinary movie is being screened at Anthology Film Archives [today] through Sunday," writes the New Yorker's Richard Brody: "Unfinished Business, a bitterly passionate romantic drama with a relentless comic tone, from 1941, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Montgomery and directed by Gregory La Cava. It's part of the ongoing series Stuck on the Second Tier: Underknown Auteurs, programmed by Miriam Bale, and you can't get it on home video." And it's "a minor masterwork of performance, direction, and screenwriting."

Unknown Auteurs is actually a set of series running at various locations in New York, with Anthology focusing on La Cava; the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of the Moving Image, for example, will have other editions soon, but for now, Michael Rawls has an overview of the La Cava selections in Cinespect and David Cairns wrote about Unfinished Business here in the Notebook yesterday.

Mexican star Joaquin Martinez has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 81.

The actor passed away at his home in Everdingen in the Netherlands on 3 January. Details of his death have only just emerged.

Martinez left Mexico for Los Angeles after making his breakthrough in the 1967 movie Pedro Paramo, and went on to work in film, TV and onstage for more than 30 years.

He starred in a number of Western TV shows, including Gunsmoke and Bonanza, and also appeared on Dynasty, L.A. Law and Ironside.

Martinez also appeared onstage with Christopher Reeve in Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke in 1988, as well as in the James Bond thriller Die Another Day in 2002.

The star is best remembered for his part in Sydney Pollack's Jeremiah Johnson and for playing the title role in Ulzana's Raid.

Joaquin Martinez, a veteran actor best known for his performance as the Indian character Paints His Shirt Red in Sydney Pollack’s 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, died Jan. 3 after a brief struggle with pancreatic cancer at his home in Everdingen, the Netherlands. He was 81. A native of Cozumel, Mexico, Martinez also played the Apache leader in Ulzana’s Raid (1972), which also starred Burt Lancaster. In its portrayal of the violent reaction by Apaches in the face of the destruction of their culture by European expansion of the North American West, Robert Aldrich’s film was seen as a revisionist tale

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Interviews with The Grey team. Oil rig roughnecks battle for their lives when their plane goes down in the frozen tundra of the Alaskan wilderness. But after scores die, the remaining survivors face another deadly foe, a pack of rogue wolves stalking their pray in The Grey. Liam Neeson plays Ottway, an oil rig worker struggling with a recent loss. “It read like an 19th century epic poem, something like the Ancient Mariner,” said Neeson, about the script. “It was a beautiful piece of writing. Also, every film I’ve seen recently, there’s always someone at a computer or on an iPhone. This movie doesn’t have a car, yes it has an airplane. It’s man versus man versus nature. I thought it was a throwback to Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford.” Many of the workers have checkered pasts, including Diaz, played by Frank Grillo (Warrior). With these tough men,...

Interviews with The Grey team. Oil rig roughnecks battle for their lives when their plane goes down in the frozen tundra of the Alaskan wilderness. But after scores die, the remaining survivors face another deadly foe, a pack of rogue wolves stalking their pray in The Grey. Liam Neeson plays Ottway, an oil rig worker struggling with a recent loss. “It read like an 19th century epic poem, something like the Ancient Mariner,” said Neeson, about the script. “It was a beautiful piece of writing. Also, every film I’ve seen recently, there’s always someone at a computer or on an iPhone. This movie doesn’t have a car, yes it has an airplane. It’s man versus man versus nature. I thought it was a throwback to Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford.” Many of the workers have checkered pasts, including Diaz, played by Frank Grillo (Warrior). With these tough men,...

Interviews with The Grey team. Oil rig roughnecks battle for their lives when their plane goes down in the frozen tundra of the Alaskan wilderness. But after scores die, the remaining survivors face another deadly foe, a pack of rogue wolves stalking their pray in The Grey. Liam Neeson plays Ottway, an oil rig worker struggling with a recent loss. “It read like an 19th century epic poem, something like the Ancient Mariner,” said Neeson, about the script. “It was a beautiful piece of writing. Also, every film I’ve seen recently, there’s always someone at a computer or on an iPhone. This movie doesn’t have a car, yes it has an airplane. It’s man versus man versus nature. I thought it was a throwback to Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford.” Many of the workers have checkered pasts, including Diaz, played by Frank Grillo (Warrior). With these tough men,...

In 1972's classic adventure saga "Jeremiah Johnson," Robert Redford played the tough-as-nails title war vet who decides to take up life in the Rocky Mountains. He becomes a great hunter and has brushes with both grizzly bears and the local Indian tribes to become the ultimate survivor.

Now Redford is taking this theme of survival to the next level in a new flick ominously titled "All Is Lost." According to Deadline, the Sundance Kid will tackle the elements in a new environment: the ocean. So far the only specific details are that it will be "a man vs. nature drama that takes place on the water."

The "Horse Whisperer" star was hand-picked for this solo adventure by young director J.C. Chandor, who met Redford this year at the Sundance Film Festival where his financial crisis movie "Margin Call" left an impression. Like that film, "All Is Lost" will be produced by Mr Spock himself,...

This year J.C. Chandor debuted a little film called Margin Call at the Sundance Film Festivial. Actually the film was anything but little, because its large ensemble cast. Now Chandor is setting himself up for a new movie titled All is Lost, and he already has Robert Redford in talks to star.

The report from Deadline, who says that the comparisons the script is drawing is to the 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, which starred Robert Redford as a guy trying to live a lone frontier life. Which could be the possible reason why Chandor wants Redford to headline this movie. Right now there are no real plot details for All is Lost, but given the comparisons it will be a survivalist film. Among the areas that Chandor scouted for were Baja Film Studios in Mexico, the place with the giant water tank where James Cameron shot Titanic and where Michael Bay shot much of Pearl Harbor.