Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray Review – Nashville (1975)

Watch UK Trailer For Ain't Them Bodies Saints

David Lowery‘s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints festival award winning film we told you about during Cannes next month is to get to get UK cinema release  and thanks to The Works we now have the film's UK trailer.

Ain't The Bodies Saints Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) & Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara) a young impoverished couple  who find themselves involved in a shootout with the local police.When Ruth a police man is shot by Ruth the pair give up and  Bob taking the blame and is sent to jail. Sveral years later Bob escapes prison in search of Ruth whom he learns he has a daughter however  she has gotten closer to a  local man Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster), but as Bob the  unexpected reunion gets closer it looks like a reunion that will be doomed.

 Ain't Them Bodies Saints is been ear marked for director David Lowery  looks his break out film, scoring impressive reviews during the festival season (100% at Rotten Tomatoes) and this is probably why the film is getting released here in blighty. The trailer is a lot shorter from the trailer we showed you during Cannes but delivering a slow brooding character drama, fantastic cinematography and its great to see something with substance and quality.



Ain’t them Bodies Saints  also stars Keith Carradine, Rami Malek and Nate Parker, with the film arriving in UK&Ireland on 6th September (16th August USA)

source:The Peoples Movies

The Long Riders (1980) Blu Ray Review

The Long Riders is a film by Walter Hill, who is perhaps one of the more under appreciated directors of the “New Hollywood” generation. He started out writing screenplays for Sam Peckinpah (The Getaway) and John Huston (The Machintosh Man) and eventually starting directing films starting with Hard Times. His next film was The Driver (which shared many similarities with the modern classic Drive) and the bonafide classic The Warriors. He has also been involved with the Alien franchise from the beginning. He also wanted to make a western and finally got his chance with The Long Riders and since it’s release he has many some more and he was involved with the tv show Deadwood.

The Long Riders is in a long lineage of films about Jesse-Younger Gang. There have been many better films made about Jesse James such as The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford and I Shot Jesse James. Both of those films however deal more with the difficult relationship between Jesse and his assassinator Robert Ford and because of this it’s interesting to see a film about his and his gang’s exploits. The film features real life brothers as the 4 groups of brothers… The Keaches play the James, The Carradines play the Youngers, The Quaids play the Millers and lastly The Guests play The Ford (yes…. Christopher Guest of Spinal Tap fame). This gives the film a extra authenticity other films on the subject lack and all them give very fine performances with David Carradine and Stacy Keach being the standouts.

Walter Hill has said, “Every film I've done has been a Western" and there is certainly some truth in that and he has elaborated "The Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories.". It’s interesting to see him tackle a “real western” and his take is very much influenced to his mentor Sam Peckinpah despites his claims he wasn’t with this film. The slow motion scenes certainly recall Peckinpah’s masterpiece The Wild Bunch. It’s a very romanticized version of the west which Peckinpah dealt with often in his western but the difference is Peckinpah was much more cynical.

Overall it’s a very fine western by one of 70s/80s more underrated autuers with beautiful cinematography and very fine acting. Second Sight has released it blu-ray and marks their second release of a Walter Hill film, the first being the superior Southern Comfort. They are planning to release his later film Streets of Fire later in the year.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

Rating: 15
BD Release Date: 3rd June 2013 (UK)
Director: Walter Hill
Cast: David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Stacy Keach

Buy: The Long Riders On Blu-Ray