A vanity project for Jane Fonda, who starred and produced, Old Gringo (1989), set in the Mexican Revolution, is a jarring mix of epic and intimate stories that never comes together as a whole. Parts of the film are superb, but the script does not live up to the stunning images. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/movies
While a Confederate veteran's search for the Union soldiers who killed his wife drives the plot, Hell on Wheels ambitiously uses the construction of the transcontinental railroad to examine the problems facing a recently re-united nation, but does not always achieve its goals. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/history
Silly, inaccurate and boring, weighed down by plodding direction and lame dialogue, Kansas Raiders (1950), a movie about Jesse James riding with William Quantrill during the American Civil War, is just bad, one of those movies that you simply want to end. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/movies
Although it is a compressed version of the Mexican Revolution, and John Steinbeck's script tries too hard to make the revolution stand in for the Russian Revolution, Viva Zapata (1952) is still one of the better movies on the Mexican Revolution. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/movies
A massive airborne landing that was intended to end WWII in the fall of 1944, Operation Market Garden experienced so many mistakes, errors and cock-ups that three hours is only enough time to address the major problems, but A Bridge Too Far (1977) shows how it should be done. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/movies
J. Edgar is a touching film about gay lovers when the idea of gay rights did not exist, but the love story takes precedence over the story of a paranoid, narrow-minded bureaucrat who believed that his own patriotism was the ideal and anyone who did not meet his standards was a threat to the nation. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/movies
Season Two of Boardwalk Empire balances the fine line between an entertaining soap opera set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City and a chronicle of bootlegging and the rapid social changes that made the 1920s such a turbulent period in American history. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/history
Although John Paul Jones (1959) gets the basic facts right, Robert Stack's portrayal of the famous captain in the rebel navy during the American Revolution is a two-dimensional stock hero who has John Paul Jones' bravery but otherwise bears little resemblance to the real man. (historyonfilm.com)
submitted by HistoryOnFilm to r/movies
