John Wayne - An American Icon Collection (Seven Sinners/ The Shepherd of the Hills/ Pittsburgh/ The Conqueror/ Jet Pilot)

John Wayne - An American Icon Collection (Seven Sinners/ The Shepherd of the Hills/ Pittsburgh/ The Conqueror/ Jet Pilot) Review

John Wayne - An American Icon Collection (Seven Sinners/ The Shepherd of the Hills/ Pittsburgh/ The Conqueror/ Jet Pilot) Overview

John Wayne remains, without a doubt, a legend of the silver screen and one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile leading men of all time. See "The Duke," with his rugged good looks and undeniable charm, take command of the screen in the amazing collection of five unique films from his long and illustrious film career. This must-own set confirms John Wayne's status as a true American icon!

John Wayne - An American Icon Collection (Seven Sinners/ The Shepherd of the Hills/ Pittsburgh/ The Conqueror/ Jet Pilot) Specifications

He was no one's (including his own) idea of a great actor--one senses that the one Oscar he won, for True Grit in 1970, was as much for his longevity as his talent--but "icon" is an apt description for John "Duke" Wayne, who starred in scores of movies in a career that spanned 50 years. Five of them are collected on John Wayne - An American Icon Collection, a two-disc, no-frills (as in no bonus material) set offered at a very reasonable price. Ranging from 1940 to 1957, these items reveal that although he didn't have a lot of range ("I play John Wayne in pretty much every film I do," he once admitted), Wayne was at least willing to tackle other genres besides the Westerns with which he's so closely identified; here he portrays a coal miner, a moonshiner, and a legendary warrior, along with the more expected military roles. As for the quality of the films, let’s just say that "good" and "entertaining" don't always go on the same page, and the set at least has plenty of the latter. Seven Sinners ('40) is the best of the lot, with Marlene Dietrich sly and radiant as the delightfully named Bijou Blanche, a South Pacific cabaret singer who tantalizes naval officer Wayne. At the other end of the spectrum is The Conqueror ('55), generally regarded as Wayne's worst feature ever, but even it is a campy hoot. Sporting a Fu Manchu 'stache and many silly hats and delivering some preposterously stilted dialogue ("Hi, Mom" becomes "I greet you, my mother!"), Wayne plays Mongol warlord Temujin, soon to become Genghis Khan, who's obsessed with a beautiful princess (Susan Hayward as a Tartar? Mayonnaise is more like it) who just happens to be the daughter of the man responsible for the death of Temujin's father. Pittsburgh ('42), again pairing Wayne with the luminous Dietrich, is considerably better, charting the rise, fall, and redemption of miner-turned-captain-of-industry Charles "Pittsburgh" Markham in a story that's both humorous and dramatic before devolving into flag-waving World War II propaganda. Neither The Shepherd of the Hills ('41), sentimental hokum about a clan of drawling, superstitious Ozark hicks, nor Jet Pilot ('57), with a pre-Psycho Janet Leigh as a Russian spy (!), ranks as what you'd call a classic--indeed, there are no classics to be found anywhere here--but the Duke, always a man's man, probably wouldn't mind. "When people say a John Wayne picture got bad reviews," he said, "I always wonder if they know it's a redundant sentence, but hell, I don't care. People like my pictures and that's all that counts." --Sam Graham

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How to Make an American Quilt

How to Make an American Quilt Review

I half expected that How to Make an American Quilt would make me cry, but I never thought that I would start crying in the opening sequence, before anything even happened. They just showed some quilts with the patterns echoed in the rows of crops in the California farmland, and a flashback of Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder) as a young girl at her grandmother's quilting bee. Though How to Make an American Quilt made me cry, it was a good cry. The kind of cry that cleanses all the hairy and troubling emotions you've been burdened with. There was laughter as well. The kind that comes from seeing the all too human and recognizable quirks we all share. Closely observed by the writers, novelist Whitney Otto and screenwriter Jane Anderson, and well played by the excellent cast, especially the older women. Director Jocelyn Moorhouse could sew a quilt and call it How to Make an American Film. She takes the imagery and symbolism of the quilt and carries it through the film, and in a broader sense the intertwining lives of the women in the quilting bee also form a quilt or a tapestry. Well written, well directed, and well played.

Winona Ryder was in her element here. The only thing she stole, however, was my heart. It is almost her trademark to play characters who write, and this was no exception. She is a Berkeley student trying to write a thesis, and has attempted to write several, but always abandons them before the end. She is off chasing another topic, like her free spirited mom, who couldn't stay true to one guy. This time she is writing about tribal traditions of women, and tying it into her grandmother's quilting circle.

While her live-in boyfriend Sam (Dermot Mulroney) is finishing work on the fixer-upper they share in the city, she will spend the summer on her grandmother's farm, finishing her thesis. Though Sam seems to be solid husband material with plans to settle down with Finn and have kids, Finn balks. Like her mother, she has commitment issues. Spending the summer apart is like sending a kleptomaniac to Saks. What were they thinking? Though she should have been put on probation Winona is especially adorable as she is semi-reluctantly involved in a flirtation with a local named Leon (Johnathon Schaech) she meets at the community pool. Those beguiling doe's eyes--not even the arresting officers could resist their charm. Leon's family grows strawberries, and later he will tempt her with freshly picked strawberries, still warm from the sun, all the more enticing for being forbidden fruit.

It is at the pool where Finn starts to learn more about her grandmother's and great aunts' past lives. Constance (Kate Nelligan), who now scares small children, was once a diver. She had a striking figure that drove the men wild. Constance may be bitter, but she was once so sweet, and her various regrets give her every reason. How to Make an American Quilt jumps back and forth in flashbacks and current time. All of the women have interesting stories, and as American Quilt unfolds, we learn their secrets. Great Aunt Glady Joe Cleary (Anne Bancroft) is Mrs. Robinson! Well, I mean, she played Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, and we have actors of that caliber; in American Quilt they are even more experienced and have honed their talent to an even sharper point. Ellen Burstyn plays Finn's Grandmother Hy Dodd, and the two sisters share a secret about Glady Joe's husband Arthur, played by Rip Torn, real name Elmore Rual Torn. Rip Torn really lived up to his name when he was found sprawled on the floor of the Litchfield Bancorp building in his hometown of Salisbury late at night, clutching a loaded revolver while reportedly drunk. He told cops he thought the building was his home. Luckily, the actor's troubles didn't prevent him from turning in a stunning performance in American Quilt.

The poet Maya Angelou plays Anna, who is the leader of the quilting circle, and her daughter Marianna is played by Alfre Woodard. Marianna has lived in Paris where she received marriage proposals in at least five different languages, but she never wanted to be tied down to one man. She met one poet who she thought was her soul mate, but he was already married, and all he left her was a poem on a scrap of paper: "Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together and of seeing beauty in a multiplicity of patches." Anna and Marianna add a lot of color sense, not only to the quilt, but to the stories of the women who sew the quilt. There is such a thing as a story quilt, and Anna has one that tells of how her mother followed a crow that led her to her true love. The crow was the one key symbol that was woven into the fabric of How to Make an American Quilt that made it whole. Who wants to bet that Finn will eventually follow a crow of her own, wrapped in a quilt, and that will wrap up How to Make an American Quilt?

Requiem for a Dream (Director's Cut) (2000) Ellen Burstyn was Sara Goldfarb
The Cider House Rules (1999) Kate Nelligan was Olive Worthington
That Thing You Do! (1996) Johnathon Schaech was Jimmy Mattingly
Reality Bites (1994) Winona Ryder was Lelaina Pierce
Crooklyn (1994) Alfre Woodard was Carolyn Carmichael
The Thing Called Love (Director's Cut) (1993) Dermot Mulroney was Kyle Davidson
Where the Day Takes You (1992) Dermot Mulroney was King; Adam Baldwin was Officer Black
Heathers (THX Version) (1989) Winona Ryder was Veronica
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) Rip Torn was Nathan Bryce
The Graduate (1967) Anne Bancroft was Mrs. Robinson

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Finn [reading Marianna's soul mate's poem]: Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together and of seeing beauty in a multiplicity of patches.
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How to Make an American Quilt Overview

The art of quiltmaking becomes a metaphor for being a woman in America, as the stories of members of a quilting group are interwoven with traditional

How to Make an American Quilt Specifications

Based on the bestseller by Whitney Otto, this film seemed to miss all the poetry and the ephemeral charms of the wispy novel by trying to make a concrete movie out of it. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who made a similar hash out of A Thousand Acres), the film centers on Winona Ryder, who is debating her impending marriage and decides to make up her mind while spending the summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). This leads to a variety of encounters with Grandma and her sewing circle (which includes Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, and Maya Angelou, among others), who reminisce about men, love, and marriage. It's put together piecemeal, like a quilt, but the parts add up to a fragmented, unsatisfying whole, despite some solid acting. --Marshall Fine

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 13, 2010 04:09:04