shermandemetrius's reviews

Skip the awful Bass Reeves Paramount series. Watch and get DVD of Bass Reeves Trailblazing Lawman instead. Unlike the Paramount series, The Wild West Chronicles respects Bass Reeves and is far more factual. For example, the Floyd Wilson who travels with Bass Reeves was a real young Irish man.

"Floyd Wilson was a posseman who worked with Deputy U. S. Marshal Bass Reeves in the late 1880s, primarily in the Chickasaw Nation. He was involved in several arrests alongside Reeves, including the capture of Jim Webb. Later in his career, Wilson was killed by outlaw Henry Starr "

Some films such as Sunset Boulevard relate the dangers of clinging to the past. In the Obsolete Man, however, it is extremely important that the past be clinged to very tightly. This is because the story takes place in a future fascist dictatorship where Hitler's rule is resurrected and the long dead past means freedom and valuing human beings.

Rod Sterling of course lived through the time when the government shown was not in The Twilight Zone but a reality. He did not want to ever see it again and wrote a tale that warns.

The radio show version is also very good as it doesn't stray from the story.

This is one western version of Dashell Hammett's Red Harvest--the other being Fist Full of Dollars. Only this film more closely resembles the bloody. Novel.

. There are some interesting differences written in that are not from Red Harvest, but they don't stray from what the story is all about. And like the nameless detective in Red Harvest said, once you start dishing out the harsh punishment you can't stop.

You'll find out what the town did to make the Drifter is so angry at them when you watch the movie. And I'm not going to quote Clint Eastwood's explanation on what's going on as it's a spoiler.

That's an old saying, I believe, and I always took it to be the point of this story. The episode is a good film noir gangster picture with shoes symbolic of a grand idea that men will always have--- an idea that could have just as easily been about the need to create transportation other than a horse and so on.

Richard Matheson writer of classic sci fi movies such as Last Man on Earth and The Shrinking Man and Twilight Zone episodes such as Nightmare at 20,000 feet adapted Ray Bradbury's classic and it shows. Many times when watching The Martain Chronicles we feel as if we are watching the best of the Twilight Zone episodes with the dialog resembling Rod Serling''s commenary. For these reasons, I can overlook any special effects comments and so on, enjoy the show and rate it highly.

Serling had the courage to feature Blacks as leads. Bolie Jackson is a fighter but not a less intetelligent sterotype. The performances are powerful. One must remberer this is the 1960's which its seregation and lynchings in the South. Where positive images of Blacks in entertainment was a rare big thing.

As for the story keep all the above in mind. Also keep in mind that the theme is the same as the movie Rocky where a boxing bum must overcome lack of confidence and self doubt to win. Rocky had Adrian rather than a boy to tell him he could win.

He roams the West meeting all types of people and geting into all types of danger. I watched a few episodes recently and they were well written and intelligent.

I've concluded that he can never find out who he is because he no longer exixts. He's in Hell.

The acting of Joe Montega and the crew of con men is absorbing and pulls you in. It's exciting fun to watch their sting like cons. Montega is the Vincent in Collateral and the book author is Max the cabbie who enters a strange suspenseful world. The movie has its flaws the worse being the out of place unreal ending. But watch it for the acting and unexpectted con twists.

Like the powerful classic Twelve Angry Men. In One Night in Miami a group of men are holed up in a place and struggle to come to a vital decision. Only the men in One Night in Miami are great and famous black men and the decisions they must come to involves not only their futures, but the future of African Americans in the Un-united States. Will they unite and pull it off or will human flaws destroy a great mission?

Leslie Odum Jr. Is exciting as Sam Cooke and the others give electric performances. The acting directing cinematography all Oscar worthy.

Long before Kevin Spacey played him, Clu Gallegar did. Only this time the meaning of the limp is explained and the story has a commentary on war, war heroes and greed. The best Wagon Train episode I can think of.

Every scene is powerful in the version of this sclassic. A mysterious inspector arrives and what happens next is a vistor more destructive than The Man Who Came to Dinner. The acting is of the very best quality and the story is a univeral one that never ages.

Rather than honoring black women like Hidden Figures this phony movie does the opposite. Octavia Spenser is a great actress and too good to be in this crap. The boxing scene is dumb and entire movie is inaccurate. For one thing, Miss Walker first learned hair care from her two brothers who owned a barber shop, and the movie ignores this and twists history. The actual history of the struggles of this tough, smart and flawed woman is a great story. It's too bad that Netflix dumbed down this story because it didn't believe .viewers were intelligent enough for straight realistic, well-acted drama.

One thing that makes this Clint Eastwood western stand out among his others is that it is based upon real people and a six man hanging actually occurred

Judge Parker "the Hanging Judge" hanged six men and it was a big event with people coming from all over, just like in the film.. "Five thousand or so reportedly on hand in Fort Smith plus a national media audience "

That Marshalls were often killed bringing in the criminals was a fact also.

The movie realistically points out that enforcing the law wasn't easy or nice and neat---but it had to be done.

Clint Eastwood plays a character almost wrongly hanged by a mob so he's not a big fan of of Judge Parker's type of executions.

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There are some good things about this episode and some disappointing things. The good things are that Johnny Cash acts well and is supported by the great Ida Lupino. Another great is John Dehner. The murder leaves a fairly good mystery of how Columbo will prove murder. One disappointing thing is the idea of Columbo who is Sherlock Holmes pitted against a country singer. A greater disappointment is that although Ida Lupino acts briefly in they did not use her brilliant directing ability as she has directed great Noir films. One of them is The Bigamist.

Having a shoestring budget, The Girl From Chicago could not afford the top black actors and experienced technicians. Nor could it afford the luxury of the directors yelling cut and reshooting scenes. But the film has heart and is entertaining. An important note is that the film must be seen for its historical value as it demonstrates an early black writer and director's struggle and determination to produce exciting black films. I love the positive images of blacks along with its villains. In Girl From Chicago, there are brave black heroes determined to bring the villains to justice. There are charming black women from small towns and gangster's girlfriends from the big city (One of the gangster's girlfriends is a frustrated masochist who can't get sexually aroused unless a man beats her.)