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1964

12

“Are you sufficiently up on your Bible to know who Judas was?”

The President of the United States is regarded by his critics as soft on Russia. His policies have the nation deeply divided between those who him and those who don’t. America has turned against itself and a vast conspiracy to save democracy by upending its very foundation is methodically unfolding.

The year is 1964, just two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the…

1964

30

“It’s a hard day.”

One of the reasons Sidney Lumet is not placed on the same pedestal that some of his contemporaries are is that he knew how to stay out of his movies. Along with the likes of John Huston, John Frankenheimer and Sydney Pollack, Lumet’s signature can often be hard to find, made harder still by the extraordinary variety in some of his best work, including 12 Angry Men, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Serpico, Murder on the…

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1979

43

“I can’t lie to you about your chances… But you have my sympathies.”

While Steven Spielberg and George Lucas enjoy the lion’s share of the credit for changing the extent to which popular cinema could resonate with their respective blockbusters, Jaws and Star Wars, the films that made them household names are rooted in a decidedly established aesthetic. Ridley Scott, on the other hand (along with his brother Tony and directors like Alan Parker and Adrian Lyne) led the way in…

1971

19

“I go with my partner.”

Behind every great filmmaker are a great many capable people making countless contributions both great and small and often unsung. Every now and then, these ingredients come together in just such a way as to make something timeless. With that in mind, one may wonder why they don’t make movies like this anymore. More to the point, one should wonder why they never, ever made a movie quite like this again. And the answer comes…

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