Tag Archives: Faye Dunaway

Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde

29 August 2013Podcast Reviews101 Films, Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde, Evans Evans, Faye Dunaway, Film Review, Films, Gangster movies, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, Movies, Podcast, Warren Beattyian80

If you were looking for a film that perfectly encapsulated the 1960s then you’d struggle to find a better one than Bonnie and Clyde. Often described as the start of ‘New Hollywood’, Bonnie and Clyde feels, even now, exciting and rule defying. Its stars are young and fresh faced (indeed, Warren Beatty looks almost impossibly young, although Gene Hackman just looks like Gene Hackman), and its anarchic sense of humour is combined with a healthy disrespect for authority. There’s a real sense that anything could happen, that the film was creating something very different to what had gone before.

The film also predicts the souring of the 60s. In 1967, the year the film was released, you could still believe that the world would be changed by cocksure youths who thumbed their collective noses at the man and lived the way THEY wanted to live. Then 1968 comes along and with it assassinations, an ever-worsening Vietnam War, the start of the modern ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and riots in Paris. The optimism came to a violent end, just like our title characters do in the film…

I’d never seen Bonnie and Clyde before and wasn’t really sure what to expect, but as you’ll hear on the podcast, we both enjoyed it immensely. I should warn you that the podcast was recorded in two halves: when we first started recording I wasn’t feeling too good, and we actually had to stop the recording. We then picked it up a week later. Can you spot the join?

Last but not least, our Secret Sponsor for this week is The Movie Waffler (@themoviewaffler). Check out the website at http://www.themoviewaffler.com/.

If our review has piqued your interest in the film, you can buy Bonnie and Clyde from Amazon on DVD or Blu-ray by clicking these links (and we get a little bit of cash if you do – thanks in advance),

Anyway, without further ado, let us present our feature presentation:

Click here to download and listen on your MP3 player of choice:

101 Films Podcast 063 – Bonnie and Clyde

Click below to subscribe on iTunes, join our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

We’d love to hear your own film recommendations – please get in touch at 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog. Feel free to say nice things about us on iTunes!

Director: Arthur Penn Year of release: 1967 Studio/Distributor: Warner Bros Country: USA

Podcast 063: Bonnie and Clyde

29 August 2013Podcast101 Films, Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde, Evans Evans, Faye Dunaway, Film Review, Films, Gangster movies, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, Movies, Podcast, Trivia Quiz, Warren BeattyLewis Packwood

Our first attempt to record a podcast on Bonnie and Clyde met with a slight hiccup. Well, slightly more than a hiccup… yes, poor old Ian was taken violently ill halfway through the initial recording, but we regrouped and went back to finish the podcast the following week. Because, goddammit, we’re professionals.

101 Films Podcast 063 – Bonnie and Clyde

I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!

4 April 2013Podcast Reviews101 Films, Faye Dunaway, Film Review, Films, Movies, Network, Peter Finch, Podcast, Robert Duvall, Sidney Lumet, William HoldenLewis Packwood

This week we’re plunged back into the seventies with Network, a satire on the ruthlessness of TV executives. Anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is unceremoniously ‘retired’ after the ratings on his news show dip, then threatens to kill himself live on air. After an unexpected rise in Howard’s ratings, the ruthless TV bosses decide to capitalise on his breakdown by giving him a new show…

I’d never even heard of Network before Ian suggested we do it for the podcast a few weeks back. In the way of these things though, as soon as I found out about it I started seeing references to it everywhere – it’s even referenced in the new Alan Partridge film. It was also a massive deal when it was released – Network was a huge hit in 1976 and won an unprecedented 3 out of the 4 Oscars for acting (and it was only pipped to the post for Best Picture by Rocky).

So why had I never heard of it until now? Well, for a start, it rarely gets shown on TV (unlike its rival Rocky), and in some ways it’s aged badly. The film couldn’t be more seventies if it tried – all wide lapels and even wider trousers, set against a background of current affairs stories such as the oil crisis and the Patty Hearst kidnapping. It dates the film a little, but it also gives you a great feel for the seventies as a period, highlighting the important stories of the time and the frazzled mood of the US nation. (We watched Kentucky Fried Movie the other day and that also provided a brilliant snapshot of life in the seventies, but in a much more boob-and-kung-fu-heavy kind of way).

Despite its seventiesness though, Network is remarkably current in terms of its themes, and prescient in terms of its depiction of manipulation by the mass media. As Ian points out in the podcast, the film’s only mistake is that it thinks TV audiences only want to watch ordinary people if they’re terrorists or oddjobs, when in fact reality TV has shown that people will happily watch pretty much anyone doing anything.

All in all Network is a pretty decent film that’s buoyed by stunning performances from its all-star cast of Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Robert Duvall, but it’s slightly let down by uneven tone and pacing, and a slightly garbled denouement.

Last but not least, our Secret Sponsor for this week is Get Reel (@GetReel) – check out their fantastic website over at http://www.get-reel.net.

If our review has piqued your interest in the film, you can buy the Network DVD from Amazon by clicking here (and we get a little bit of cash if you do – thanks in advance).

Anyway, without further ado, let us present our feature presentation:

Click here to download and listen on your MP3 player of choice:

101 Films Podcast 053 – Network

Click below to subscribe on iTunes, join our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

We’d love to hear your own film recommendations – please get in touch at 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog. Feel free to say nice things about us on iTunes!

Director: Sidney Lumet Year of release: 1976 Studio/Distributor: MGM/United Artists Country: USA

Podcast 053: Network

4 April 2013Podcast101 Films, Faye Dunaway, Film Review, Films, Movies, Network, Peter Finch, Podcast, Robert Duvall, Sidney Lumet, Trivia Quiz, William HoldenLewis Packwood

This week we dive back into the seventies with the multi-Oscar-winning Network, a disturbingly prescient satire of the ruthlessness of TV executives.

101 Films Podcast 053 – Network

Forget it, Jake

10 November 2011Podcast ReviewsChinatown, Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, Faye Dunaway, Films, Jack Nicholson, Los Angeles, Movie Reviews, Movies, Roman PolanskiLewis Packwood

The boys over at 101 Films have been given a tricky case to crack – how to discuss a film’s plot without ruining it for those who haven’t seen it. Lewis and Ian do their best as they talk about the stupendous Chinatown. Listen as they witter on about Big Trouble in Little China, Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, the amazing Jack Nicholson, the many Los Angeles Infrastructure films, Batman a few times (of course) and our Mum’s favourite films. Apologies in advance, we sort of lose focus towards the end of this one.