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www.flickfilosopher.com - : William Strauss and Neil Howe have written two incredible books about the cyclical nature of history, Generations and The Fourth Turning. (Bear with me -- this does have something to do with The Sting.) They posit four types of American generations and four historical ''turnings'' or eras occurring over the course of an American lifetime. The generational type they call Nomad has thrown off British rule, rebuilt the South during Reconstruction, and weathered the Depression and defeated Hitler during the Fourth Turnings, or Crises, that occurred during their midlife years. Before their triumphs -- in the Third Turnings, or Unravelings, of their young adulthood -- they were the no-nonsense grunts of the French and Indian, Civil, and Great Wars; they were furtrappers, frontiersmen, and rumrunners. more...
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www.boxoffice.com - : Three of the top talents that previously collaborated on the classic ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' (1969) are reunited to make the b.o. hum again. Stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill have given a new look to an old con game in an original screenplay by David S. Ward. Film cashes in on the nostalgia craze by being set in 1936. This isn't overdone, the costumes and backgrounds being authentic looking without resorting to drowning out the soundtrack with Thirties tunes. The old Universal trademark of the mid-30's, in b&w, provides a good mood-setting opening. The story is divided into six segments and concerns the two stars' efforts in swindling racketeer Robert Shaw out of a small fortune. Newman's role is actually secondary to that of Redford, who is constantly being beaten up, shot at and pursued. It's the kind of film an audience really responds to; the plot has two major twists, the climactic one being so neatly done that an invited preview crowd burst into spontaneous applause. Few movies today can boast of such ingredients. Tony Bill and Michael and Julia Phillips produced the Richard D. Zanuck/David Brown presentation in Technicolor. In all, it's one of the year's funniest. more...
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Critic Reviews
