The Movie Journal

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid I originally did not know what to think about 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . Considering people call this film one of the greatest Westerns of all time, I thought the film, although fine, was nothing special of consequence. The I kept thinking about it, kept thinking about it some more, and then truly took a long time to leave my thoughts. Only a very good movie has the ability to do that. After much debate, I still feel this film falls short of being the very best. That said, this is a fun movie that gives the audience some insight on two of America’s most famous outlaws plus it has some great character interactions and dynamite performances from Paul Newman and Robert Redford. This film was written by one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters-William Goldman. He recounted many times how hard it was to get this film rolling off the ground. He spent eight years researching these outlaws. Those who know basic American histo...

Easy Rider (1969) To many film pundits, 1969’s Easy Rider is a groundbreaking avant garde (or experimental in layman terms) film. In a way, I agree with them. Motorcycle films were seen as cheap ho-hum exploitation films that no one cares about, but this film changed the way films were made. This film made it clear that films that were known in Old Hollywood was to be no more. The road was paved for New Hollywood and it shows that independent film can be successfully given to mainstream audiences. After all, this film was the third-highest grossing film of 1969 ($41 million dollars to a budget of a very small $400,000). I also found the movie to be a boring and frankly quite overrated. This film definitely appealed to the teens and college kids of the 1960’s counterculture era, but we live in a different world today. This movie felt equivalent of taking a boatload of LSD’s, and the effect quickly wore off for me. There are moments of greatness, but the overall film doesn’t liv...

Where Eagles Dare (1969) Where Eagles Dare has been given the status of one of the best war movies ever produced. I think that statement is going a little too far, but I found the movie to be an effective war film and one of the better ones from an era in which seemingly hundreds of movies focused on World War II were released. Despite the acclaim it has received, it has received notice for historical inaccuracy. Personally I don’t mind because the value of a movie is entertainment, not truth. On top of that, this story which was written by Alistair Maclean as a pet project for Richard Burton so it’s a work of fiction, so history accuracy should not matter here. The movie is rather lengthy as it clocks in a tad over two-and-a-half hours, but I felt the time flew by quickly. There are plenty of action sequences and most of them are convincing and entertaining. Who wouldn’t want to see Allied personnel lay waste to a bunch of Nazi scum? Despite this being a piece of fiction, I wa...

Midnight Cowboy (1969) I love movies like 1969’s Midnight Cowboy. They are the kind of movies that are embedded in American culture. They tell a story about the reality of everyday people and the themes explored are ones that people can relate to. I love all different kind of stories, but I find these stories featuring real-life themes to be more meaningful. This is a classic example of an American film-a film with a gritty tone involving the everyday life of ordinary people. The Hollywood studio system began to change in the late 1960’s and instead of focusing on big-budget epics, they narrowed their focus down to American dramas similar in style to this film. The 1970’s is very popular regarding these kind of films, so stay tuned for future reviews to understand my point. The main theme of the movie is love. But it’s not just any kind of love. The movie has overtones of homosexuality, which caused lots of controversy when released. It was unheard of that a movie would featur...

The Wild Bunch (1969) Ladies and gentleman, the time has arrived for me to review a new kind of genre compared to all my reviewed films so far; the western genre. Western films were very popular in early American cinema because of actors like John Wayne. But as the decades came and passed, the popularity of the western began to decline. One of the last memorable westerns from the olden days was this film, 1969’s The Wild Bunch . It has received ecstatic reviews and it has been praised for its realism and its themes. The violence portrayed in the film was, and remains controversial. From this era, it’s my understanding this is one of the most violent films you’ll see. As for myself, I respect the film very much especially when it comes to the realism aspects and the gritty performances. I actually disliked the film on my first viewing, but my second viewing changed my mind rather drastically. Still far from a perfect film, but I understand why people called this film a classic a...