When "Rocky" hit theaters in 1976, a good portion of the public was enthralled by the sport of boxing. Though some were repulsed by the violent spectacle of two human beings pounding the tar out of each other with eight-ounce gloves, heavyweight title fights drew huge television ratings worldwide, thanks in large part to the prominence of master self-promoter Muhammad Ali. His return to the sport, after being suspended for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War on religious grounds, resulted in a trilogy of unforgettable bouts with Joe Frazier and a rope-a-dope masterpiece against George Foreman. These fights were inspirational displays of intestinal fortitude fueled by searing emotional stakes. To lose the world heavyweight title on a global stage was to suffer a grievous blow to one's pride. Throwing in the towel was unthinkable. The only way Ali, Frazier or Foreman could allow themselves to lose was by knockout or decision.
- 3/3/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Jim Knipfel Sep 29, 2019
You can't escape the clown epidemic brought on by Stephen King's It, Joker, and other works of fiction.
Despite what the media has told us whenever the phenomenon has come up, creepy clowns have been lurking among us for a very long time.
In September 2014, the residents of Northampton, England began reporting a deeply disturbing stranger in their midst. The Northampton Clown, as he came to be known, was said to resemble Pennywise from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, complete with baggy one-piece suit, white face, big red nose, and wild flame red wig. He didn’t frolic or make balloon animals. He didn’t have a seltzer bottle or do pie gags. At the same time he did not hurt people, never spoke a word, and that may have been part of the problem. All he did during his sporadic and unexpected appearances was stand...
You can't escape the clown epidemic brought on by Stephen King's It, Joker, and other works of fiction.
Despite what the media has told us whenever the phenomenon has come up, creepy clowns have been lurking among us for a very long time.
In September 2014, the residents of Northampton, England began reporting a deeply disturbing stranger in their midst. The Northampton Clown, as he came to be known, was said to resemble Pennywise from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, complete with baggy one-piece suit, white face, big red nose, and wild flame red wig. He didn’t frolic or make balloon animals. He didn’t have a seltzer bottle or do pie gags. At the same time he did not hurt people, never spoke a word, and that may have been part of the problem. All he did during his sporadic and unexpected appearances was stand...
- 10/11/2016
- Den of Geek
Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull—oft-cited these days as the director’s magnum opus— first premiered in New York on November 14, 1980 to a volley of mixed reviews. At least, that’s what the Internet would have modern researchers believe. Now, 35 years later, digging up a negative review of this not-quite-a-sports-movie, not-quite-a-bio-pic seems limited to a shallow dig by Variety critic Joseph McBride, who wrote that Scorsese “excels at whipping up an emotional storm but seems unaware that there is any need for quieter, more introspective moments in drama.” Meanwhile, a glance at Rotten Tomatoes’ records show that 98 percent of contemporary critics have showered Raging Bull with praise, and even Roger Ebert, reviewing in 1980, rejects McBride’s view, awarding four stars to a film that does “a fearless job of showing us the precise feelings of their central character, the former boxing champion Jake Lamotta.”
Fearless though it was in the characterization of its violent antihero,...
Fearless though it was in the characterization of its violent antihero,...
- 11/14/2015
- by Christina Leo
- SoundOnSight
Rapsodia Satanica belongs foursquare to the "diva dolorosa" school of Italian silent cinema, movies of and for and about their vampish leading ladies, in which melodramatic narratives might at any moment be entirely subsumed in welters of veiled languishing. Even by these delirious standards, Nino Oxililia's penultimate feature (before his death in Wwi) is heady stuff.The femme fatale in this case is Lyda Borelli, one of the top stars of the era. When we meet her in the prologue: she's a hunched, huddled crone, wrapping her natural exuberance within layers of black, hobbling around her "Castle of Illusions" shooting longing looks at the young people in love.Then, Mephistopheles appears, emerging from a painting in a marvelous bit of trompe l'oeil. Since the movie is hand-tinted, this red devil's transition from two to three dimensions is all the more compelling: the shimmering panels of color both augment and erase...
- 7/9/2015
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.
In the opening credits of Raging Bull a classic is born. Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), beautifully filmed in the stark nakedness of Michael Chapman’s black and white cinematography, prowls around an empty boxing ring. Pietro Mascagni’s searing yet melancholy operatic score provides the only accompaniment to La Motta’s solitude. A shot so beautifully and carefully composed that it seems to play somewhere in the background...
In the opening credits of Raging Bull a classic is born. Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), beautifully filmed in the stark nakedness of Michael Chapman’s black and white cinematography, prowls around an empty boxing ring. Pietro Mascagni’s searing yet melancholy operatic score provides the only accompaniment to La Motta’s solitude. A shot so beautifully and carefully composed that it seems to play somewhere in the background...
- 9/23/2011
- by Robert Munro
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In this week's Music in the Movies, we pick out ten of cinema's finest non-score soundtracks...
Having focused mainly on scores in this column, I thought I’d turn my attention to soundtracks that consist mainly of sourced material. I've chose some of my favourites, and also asked some Den of Geek 's writers to suggest a few choices of their own. And just to make the list a little more balanced, I've made sure to only choose one film per director...
A Life Less Ordinary
Nominated by N P Horton
I originally intended to include Trainspotting in this article, but I decided to ask my followers on Twitter (comprising largely of DoG writers) to nominate their favourite scores, and this was Mr Horton’s. So given that I wanted to include only one film per filmmaker, out went Trainspotting, and in came A Life Less Ordinary.
Ash’s titular...
Having focused mainly on scores in this column, I thought I’d turn my attention to soundtracks that consist mainly of sourced material. I've chose some of my favourites, and also asked some Den of Geek 's writers to suggest a few choices of their own. And just to make the list a little more balanced, I've made sure to only choose one film per director...
A Life Less Ordinary
Nominated by N P Horton
I originally intended to include Trainspotting in this article, but I decided to ask my followers on Twitter (comprising largely of DoG writers) to nominate their favourite scores, and this was Mr Horton’s. So given that I wanted to include only one film per filmmaker, out went Trainspotting, and in came A Life Less Ordinary.
Ash’s titular...
- 8/26/2011
- Den of Geek
A trip to the cinema to see Buried leaves James in a bewildered, philosophical mood, and left contemplating the meaning of life, death, and Raging Bull…
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This week's column contains a major spoiler for the film Buried if you haven't seen it yet.
In slow motion black-and-white, I see a lone man in a leopard skin robe dancing around a boxing ring clouded by smoke. The stirring strings of the intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana sweep over the scene and the opening titles appear on the right of the screen. That's a majestic way to open a motion picture.
Yes, let's collectively cast our minds back to Raging Bull. In fact, let's grab the Raging Bull by the horns, because that's what the clichéd metaphor demands.
Ignoring the fact that I've these small hands (what Jake Lamotta would call "little girl hands...
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
This week's column contains a major spoiler for the film Buried if you haven't seen it yet.
In slow motion black-and-white, I see a lone man in a leopard skin robe dancing around a boxing ring clouded by smoke. The stirring strings of the intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana sweep over the scene and the opening titles appear on the right of the screen. That's a majestic way to open a motion picture.
Yes, let's collectively cast our minds back to Raging Bull. In fact, let's grab the Raging Bull by the horns, because that's what the clichéd metaphor demands.
Ignoring the fact that I've these small hands (what Jake Lamotta would call "little girl hands...
- 10/14/2010
- Den of Geek
In case you missed its combination debut-closing weekend (or don't live in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, or Dallas), here's a clip from Watchmen: The Director's Cut to enjoy before it hits DVD on July 21.
The clip shows the death scene of Hollis Mason (Stephen McHattie), the original Nite Owl, a seminal moment for fans of the comic book, who often questioned the scene's exclusion from the theatrical cut. The melancholy scene starts with a phone call between Mason and Silk Spectre I (Carla Gugino), until Mason is interrupted by some Knot Tops gang members in a lovely choreographed fight set to "Cavalleria Rusticana : Intermezzo" from Italian composer Pietro Mascagni.
Next Showing:
Link | Posted 7/14/2009 by Ryan
Carla Gugino | Stephen McHattie | Watchmen...
The clip shows the death scene of Hollis Mason (Stephen McHattie), the original Nite Owl, a seminal moment for fans of the comic book, who often questioned the scene's exclusion from the theatrical cut. The melancholy scene starts with a phone call between Mason and Silk Spectre I (Carla Gugino), until Mason is interrupted by some Knot Tops gang members in a lovely choreographed fight set to "Cavalleria Rusticana : Intermezzo" from Italian composer Pietro Mascagni.
Next Showing:
Link | Posted 7/14/2009 by Ryan
Carla Gugino | Stephen McHattie | Watchmen...
- 7/14/2009
- by Ryan Gowland
- Reelzchannel.com
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