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Michael W. Rickard II
Jun 17, 20193 min read
1989: The Year of the Blockbuster
Copyright 2019 by Michael W. Rickard II While there have been some great years for films, I still have trouble recalling a blockbuster...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Jan 2, 20197 min read
The Western Through a Red Lens: Historiography, Propaganda, and Umfunktionierung in Red Westerns and
Copyright 2019 by Michael W. Rickard II Editor's Note: In 2016 I wrote a paper for my undergraduate senior project on the Red Western, a...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Dec 30, 20185 min read
Review: "Back Issue" #109 and the 40th Anniversary of "Superman: The Movie."
Copyright 2018 by Michael W. Rickard II You’ll believe a mag can fly in BACK ISSUE #109 (84 FULL-COLOR pages, $8.95), as we celebrate the...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Dec 26, 20188 min read
The Western Through a Red Lens: Historiography, Propaganda, and Umfunktionierung in Red Westerns and
Copyright 2018 by Michael W. Rickard II Editor's Note: In 2016 I wrote a paper for my undergraduate senior project on the Red Western, a...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Dec 19, 20187 min read
The Western Through a Red Lens: Historiography, Propaganda, and Umfunktionierung in Red Westerns and
Copyright 2018 by Michael W. Rickard II Editor's Note: In 2016 I wrote a paper for my undergraduate senior project on the Red Western, a...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Dec 5, 20187 min read
The Western Through a Red Lens: Historiography, Propaganda, and Umfunktionierung in Red Westerns and
Copyright 2018 by Michael W. Rickard II Editor's Note: In 2016 I wrote a paper for my undergraduate senior project on the Red Western, a...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Nov 28, 20187 min read
The Western Through a Red Lens: Historiography, Propaganda, and Umfunktionierung in Red Westerns and
Copyright 2018 by Michael W. Rickard II Editor's Note: In 2016 I wrote a paper for my undergraduate senior project on the Red Western, a...
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Michael W. Rickard II
Oct 17, 20184 min read
Why Can't Anyone Make a Good Dracula Movie?
Editor's Note: Originally presented at my site Jack Lord's Hair, way back in 2015. After watching Taste the Blood of Dracula (a bizarre...
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Michael Rickard II
Mar 15, 20181 min read
Beware the Ides of March
Julius Caesar fell prey on this day, failing to acknowledge the warning, "Beware the Ides of March." In 1999, William Shatner performed...
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Michael Rickard II
Mar 7, 20186 min read
“Cry Profit and Slip Loose the Films of War”
The intensity of war has provided dramatic material dating back to antiquity with Homer’s epic poem, "The Illiad", and continuing today...
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Michael Rickard II
Feb 26, 20186 min read
"Cinema's Secrets to Suspense and Tantalizing Thrillers"
Filmgoers looking for a good scare need not go to a horror film as there are all sorts of scares to be found in the genre known as the...
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Michael Rickard II
Dec 29, 20174 min read
"Celebrating 40 Years of 'Star Wars.'"
What 9-year-old wouldn't go crazy over this film? I’ve discussed a lot of anniversaries over this blog’s history such as Dark Shadows,...
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by Michael Rickard II
Dec 27, 20174 min read
"'Rear Window': How to Turn a Short Story into a 112 Minute Film. Part Four of Four.&qu
Another important cinematic element is dramatic performances. Francois Truffaut observed about Hitchcock that "The neutrality you expect...
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by Michael Rickard II
Dec 13, 20177 min read
"'Rear Window': How to Turn a Short Story into a 112 Minute Film. Part Three of Four.&q
Here's a final paper I wrote in 2015 on Hitchcock's classic Rear Window. Another scene relies on visuals to explore "Murder's" themes of...
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by Michael Rickard II
Dec 6, 20178 min read
"'Rear Window': How to Turn a Short Story into a 112 Minute Film. Part Two of Four.&quo
Here's a final paper I wrote in 2015 on Hitchcock's classic Rear Window. For Alfred Hitchcock, a literary text was merely a starting...
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by Michael Rickard II
Dec 1, 20175 min read
"'Rear Window': How to Turn a Short Story into a 112 Minute Film. Part One of Four.&quo
Here's a final paper I wrote in 2015 on Hitchcock's classic Rear Window. Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is a masterfully worked cinematic...
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Michael Rickard II
Nov 20, 20172 min read
"The Challenges of Adapting a Novel into a Film: Robert Mulligan's 'To Kill a Mockingbi
Editor's Note: This is an essay I wrote two years ago about Robert Mulligan's wonderful adaptation of Harper Lee's classic To Kill a...
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Michael Rickard II
Nov 13, 20175 min read
"The Challenges of Adapting a Novel into a Film: Robert Mulligan's 'To Kill a Mockingbi
Editor's Note: Here's an essay I wrote two years ago on Robert Mulligan's adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Filmmakers...
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Michael Rickard II
Nov 6, 20176 min read
"'Rebecca': Hitchcock's First American Film, but Is It Really Hitchcock?"
Editor's Note: Here's a journal I wrote nearly three years ago about Alfred Hitchcock's film Rebecca. Like most articles here, this...
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Michael Rickard II
Sep 6, 20174 min read
"'To Live and Die in L.A.': Neo-Noir Was the Case. Part Four of Four."
William Friedkins's To Live and Die in L.A., a terrific thriller film, but does it qualify as film noir? Join me for part fourof this...
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