Just finished my second year at university so have finally squeezed more time into some films: here are I feel two of the highlights.
55 Days At Peking (1963) Dir. Nicholas Ray
I genuinely have a real soft spot for the grandiose historical epics of the 50's and 60's with this being one of the Samuel Bronston super-productions that I hadn't heard of until it's recent Blu release. It's an admittedly, very romanticised depiction of the latter half of the Boxer Rebellion in China but for me it's carried by much of the hallmarks which make these films immensely watchable. A dependable cast of classic big-screen stars wading through beautiful, gigantic sets with ravishing costumes aplenty and a good few wide scale action sequences.
The Dimitri Tiomkin musical score is a big cherry on top to boot. My kind of Sunday afternoon movie.
Sorcerer (1977) Dir. William Friedkin
Now hand on heart, I haven't seen the original 1953 film of
The Wages Of Fear which I know for most film aficionados is supposedly superior to this long forgotten American remake. Saying that, I have been waiting years to see this film for the first time in a watchable form and was very pleasantly surprised to see it finally given a Blu release. To keep it brief, this is exactly my kind of film all over. Amazing Tangerine Dream score, brilliant acting all around, an utterly tangible, intoxicating atmosphere and some of the absolute best thriller sequences I have genuinely ever seen on film. It's reputation as an overlooked gem of 70's cinema is thoroughly well-deserved and then some. A truly great thriller, the likes of which I feel we won't be seeing again.
