Giant 1956 - From rigid conservatism to mindless materialism

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IMDB Rating: 7,7

Director: George Stevens
Main Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor

"George Stevens' sprawling adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling novel successfully walks a fine line between potboiler and serious drama for its 210-minute running time, making it one of the few epics of its era that continues to hold up as engrossing entertainment across the decades. Even if it hadn't starred three of the most iconic screen figures of the 1950s, George Stevens's Giant would still be an emotionally powerful and visually striking film; adding Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean (in his final performance) to the mix was just the icing on the cake. Dean contributes the highest-caliber fireworks, though his Method style sometimes blends uncomfortably with the more traditional performances of the other actors, but Stevens also drew atypically strong performances from Taylor and Hudson, who delivers perhaps his best performance on screen next to Seconds (1966). The story is a glorified soap opera, but Stevens's epic production strengthens the narrative rather than drowning it, providing a visual metaphor for the intimidating vastness of the Texas landscape. The image of the vast Benedict mansion slowly appearing as a tiny dot on the horizon is only the most memorable of the film's many indelible images. Giant is as big and sprawling as Texas itself; it's the tininess of the larger-than-life characters in the oilfields of the Southwest that keeps them human, and makes them all the more fascinating.
The talented supporting cast includes Mercedes McCambridge as Bick’s frustrated sister, put out by the new woman of the house, and with Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper as the Benedict’s rebellious children.
Giant was nominated for 10 Academy Awards with director George Stevens winning his second Oscar for this ambitious, grandly realized epic of the changing socio-economic (and physical) landscape of modern Texas." - www.allmovie.com

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The searchers 1956 - Ford's masterpiece, Wayne's definitive role

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IMDB Rating: 8,0

Director: John Ford
Main Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, John Qualen

"If John Ford is the greatest Western director, The Searchers is arguably his greatest film, at once a grand outdoor spectacle like such Ford classics as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950) and a film about one man's troubling moral codes, a big-screen adventure of the 1950s that anticipated the complex themes and characters that would dominate the 1970s.
Described by the director as a 'psychological epic', The Searchers (1956) is John Ford's most revered Western, for its visual richness and profoundly ambiguous critique of the genre's (and America's) racism. Ford pushed John Wayne's archetypal Westerner into the realm of antiheroism, as Ethan's five-year quest to rescue his niece from Comanche chief Scar mutates into killing her when he discovers her living placidly as Scar's bride. While Ethan's lethal racism signals his insanity, Wayne's charismatic presence and Ethan's desire to salvage the family unit of 'civilized' settlers carries its own sheen of Western heroism. Still, the famous final image of Ethan's departure into the desert reveals that 'civilization' has no place for such an uncompromising figure.
Shot on location in Colorado and Monument Valley, Ford's vividly arid Technicolor vistas render Ethan a man of the magnificent and punishing landscape, unable to reconcile his inner savagery with domestic constraints. Greeted in America as just another quality Ford oater, the film was first reclaimed by French critics for the unresolved tensions and evocative style of Ford's narrative, elevating it to the status of cinematic art.
John Wayne gives perhaps his finest performance in a role that predated screen antiheroes of the 1970s; by the film's conclusion, his single-minded obsession seems less like heroism and more like madness. Wayne bravely refuses to soft-pedal Ethan's ugly side, and the result is a remarkable portrait of a man incapable of answering to anyone but himself, who ultimately has more in common with his despised Indians than with his more 'civilized' brethren. Natalie Wood is striking in her brief role as the 16-year-old Debbie, lost between two worlds, and Winton C. Hoch's Technicolor photography captures Monument Valley's savage beauty with subtle grace.
The Searchers paved the way for such revisionist Westerns as The Wild Bunch (1969) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and its influence on movies from Taxi Driver (1976) to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Star Wars (1977) testifies to its lasting importance." - www.allmovie.com

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Genroku chushingura (The 47 ronin) 1941 - An epic tale about the legendary Japanese vendetta

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IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Main Cast: Tokusaburo Arashi, Yoshizaburo Arashi, Daisuke Kato

"Director Mizoguchi abandoned his usual fascination with modern-day social problems in favor of epic patriotism that he shows here. Produced over a two-year period, the stylistic elements are all in place in The 47 ronin: elegant composition, minimal cutting, subtle but telling use of a tracking camera, and concern with psychology rather than action. This is not, in fact, an easily accessible film for Westerners, as it is concerned with ritual and customs that aren't always made explicit. It is a movie of long takes of formal conversation, as the ronin loyal to their late master wrestle with how they will respond to his humiliating death. Even if the reference points aren't always clear, the emotions expressed are universal, and it's fascinating to imagine Japanese theatrical audiences in the early days of World War II watching this tale of men of honor willing to give up everything, including their lives, to uphold their principles." - www.allmovie.com

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(720p, 4 GB):

http://uploaded.net/file/brb43hdp/Japanese_The_47_Ronin_1941_720p_WEB_DL_H264_KG_4LMXEyS37TnYRT.part1.rar 
http://uploaded.net/file/jrlbouja/Japanese_The_47_Ronin_1941_720p_WEB_DL_H264_KG_4LMXEyS37TnYRT.part2.rar 
http://uploaded.net/file/znq9p1es/Japanese_The_47_Ronin_1941_720p_WEB_DL_H264_KG_4LMXEyS37TnYRT.part3.rar 
http://uploaded.net/file/9gesaxxx/Japanese_The_47_Ronin_1941_720p_WEB_DL_H264_KG_4LMXEyS37TnYRT.part4.rar

Madam Satan 1930 - Musical, comedy, disaster, romance, epic? Decide for yourself

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021106/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Main Cast: Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, Roland Young

"Cecil B. DeMille tried to cover a few too many bases in Madame Satan, with his reach definitely exceeding his (considerable) grasp - but that grasp was still strong enough to produce a film quite unlike any other. Chaotic and messy, this mélange of styles - a musical comedy disaster romance epic, if you will - never approaches coherence, but the second half of the film is fascinating. Of course, to get there one has to go through an awkward and often trying first half, during which song cues are not really set up and the dialogue scenes are played with little sense of style or humor. Once the film gets to the bizarre masquerade ball on the dirigible, however, things pick up; the latter half may not always convince as drama, but it's terrific entertainment. Visually, it's a sheer delight, with some truly incredible costumes and DeMille's practiced hand at crowd control very evident. Highlights include several unexpected and charmingly innapropriate musical numbers, including a bizarre 'Ballet Mechanique' featuring dancer Theodore Kosloff and Kay Johnson's 'Meet Madame' is also noteworthy. The destruction of the dirigible is very well done, with special effects that stand up reasonably well today, and which builds very successfully to a satisfying conclusion. In addition, the humor that is missing (or unintentional) in the first half finds flower in the second, with some wry asides from Roland Young scoring particularly well. Ridiculous and campy at times, Madame Satan is still a one-of-a-kind experience. Though DeMille carefully threw in every ingredient that he hoped would appeal to a mass audience, Madam Satan was one of his few box office flops." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/madame-satan-v30670/

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Hell's angels 1930 - The first great action epic of the talking era

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020960/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,9

Directors: Howard Hughes, Marshall Neilan, Luther Reed
Main Cast: Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow, John Darrow

"No one was surprised in 1929 that aviation mogul Howard R. Hughes would produce a paean to World War I flying aces like Hell's Angels. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken slightly aback that the finished film was as good as it was. The very American Ben Lyon and James Hall play (respectively) Monte and Roy Rutledge, a couple of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British Royal Flying Corps. Several early scenes establish Lyon and Hall's romantic rivalry over two-timing socialite Helen (Jean Harlow). While flying a dangerous bombing mission over Germany, the brothers are shot down. The commandant (Lucien Prival), who'd earlier been cuckolded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'll reveal the time of the next British attack; if they don't cooperate, they face unspeakable consequences. Roy, driven mad by his combat experiences, is about to tell all when he is shot and killed by Monte. The latter is himself condemned to a firing squad by the disgruntled commandant - who, it is implied, will soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers.
Nobody really cares about this hoary old plot, however; Hell's Angels culls most of its strength from its crackerjack aerial sequences. The highlight is a Zeppelin raid over London, one of the most hauntingly effective sequences ever put on film. From the first ghost-like appearance of the Zeppelin breaking through the clouds, to the self-sacrificing behavior of the German crew members as they jump to their deaths rather than provide 'excess weight', this is a scene that lingers in the memory far longer than all that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finale. Also worth noting is the star-making appearance of Jean Harlow. When Hell's Angels was begun as a silent film, Norwegian actress Greta Nissen played the female lead. During the switchover to sound, producer Hughes decided that her accent was at odds with her characterization, so he reshot her scenes with his latest discovery, Harlow. While she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no clumsiness whatsoever in her delivery of the classic line about slipping into 'something more comfortable'. Originally, Marshall Neilan was signed to direct the film, but became so rattled by Howard Hughes' interference that he handed the reins to Hughes himself, who was in turn given an uncredited assist by Luther Reed. Also ignored in the film's credits are the dialogue contributions by future Frankenstein director James Whale, who'd been hired as the film's English-dialect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generally surprised by Hell's Angels' high entertainment content: they are also startled by the pre-code frankness of the dialogue, with phrases like 'The hell with you' bandied about with reckless abandon. In recent years, archivists have restored the film's two-color Technicolor sequence, providing us with our only color glimpses of the radiant Jean Harlow." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/hells-angels-v22079

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