by Alvin G. Burstein This 2015 movie, like the novel by Thomas Hardy with the same name, is titled with a quotation from Thomas Graves’ Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray, Along the cool sequester’d way of life They kept the […]
by Alvin G. Burstein [Editor’s note: The following review contains direct quotes from movie dialogue that could be offensive to some readers.] All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina The movie Gone Girl is about an unhappy marriage, one that is unhappy in […]
by Dr. Alvin Burstein Interstellar is a corker of a film. The Director, Christopher Nolan, has assembled proven ingredients—a spunky young girl, Murph, an echo of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird; a wise mentor, Professor Brand, reminiscent of Star Wars’ Obi Wan; a laconic (space) cowboy, Cooper, like his namesake in High Noon; and […]
by: Alvin Burstein As the American general, Curtis LeMay, reminded us, “War is about killing people. When you have killed enough, the other side gives up.” In the context of war, killing is a virtue. Thus it is that wars produce, not just fatalities, but heroes. And from a psychological point of view, having heroes […]
by Alvin G. Burstein The jihadist massacre of Charlie Hebdo staff in response to their publication of a cartoon of Muhammad and the putative hacking by North Korea of Sony Pictures in response to a movie, The Interview, highlight searing questions about a complex of issues including ridicule, freedom of expression, hate speech, et al. […]
A review of Cyrano de Bergerac by Dr. Alvin Burstein The French poet, Edmond Rostand, published a play, Cyrano de Bergerac, in 1897. Rostand’s hero had a real life counterpart who railed against the church and state -a gallant soldier, a duelist, a poet and a political dissident. The protagonist in the play is a […]
by Dr. Alvin Burstein with J. Nelson It seems fair to say that Forest Gump has achieved the status of an American classic. Fans in an ABC poll voted the film the best of all Best Pictures over the last decades. The film manages to evoke laughter, heartache, and a sense of depth. This remarkable […]
by Dr. Alvin Burstein Aristotle taught that the power of epic tragedy lies in its ability to stir the audience to pity and fear—catharsis. The emotional impact of 12 Years a Slave earned it three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and British Film Academy kudos. Watching it I felt more than fear. I felt […]
The 1987 film, RoboCop, was a financial success, grossing over fifty million dollars in its domestic run. It was also well-regarded critically, being listed as one of the best one thousand movies ever made by the New York Times. It is not surprising, then to find the 2014 remake playing in current theatres. The original […]
by Dr. Alvin Burstein Oh, the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall, Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed … Gerard Manley Hopkins I learned the other day that in the British Film Institute’s poll of film critics, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane had been displaced as the best film of all time by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 Vertigo. Classic […]
by Dr. Alvin Burstein The approach of Christmas stirs up memories—and a wish. Some of the memories reflect my confusions about the holidays as a child. Both my parents were Russian immigrants. Mother was an observant Jew. Although my father had spiritual interests reflected in his Masonic studies, he did not follow Jewish religious practices. […]
by Dr. Alvin Burstein Suspicion is the 1941 Hitchcock RKO thriller that earned Joan Fontaine an Oscar, and cast her co-star, Cary Grant, in an uncharacteristically dark role. Hitchcock is known, of course, as a master of the suspense. In this film, the focus, as its title indicates, is on the psychological tension generated by […]