Author: admin

This is a seminal movie in the history of film, and for good reason: the cast, storytelling, and cinematography are spectacular and ground-breaking for the time. John Wayne is sensational in his breakthrough role as is Thomas Mitchell (Scarlett O’Hara’s dad and George Bailey’s Uncle Billy) as a drunken doctor at the end of his rope. There’s a shot in here of an Indian shooting and re-loading his gun on a running horse that my dad excitedly pointed out to me the first time I watched it. Thanks, Daddy, for introducing me to this, and so many other classics.

Man, I wanted to like this. On the plus side, the animation is jaw-dropping, really stunning. On the negative side, is pretty much everything else. The plot is made up of a lot of ideas, most of them stale, but that doesn’t stop the fairly badly conceived characters from talking and talking and talking and talking about them as if they are profound. Hey everyone, did you hear that governments can be corrupt and that war is bad? Who knew?