Before the war, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) was the Playboy of the Eastern World, a hard-drinking, womanizing wastrel. After the war, he was essentially a failure. But during the Holocaust a mysterious grace fell upon him and he bravely, cleverly schemed to save the Jews working in his factory from the Nazi death camps. From this true story Steven Spielberg created a film that is an austere act of historical witness, a powerful and suspenseful drama, a high moral act and, finally, a movie that escapes the bounds of conventional criticism.
John Wayne and John Ford made eight westerns together. This one, though it has cowboys and Indians, and Monument Valley vistas shot in gorgeous color, is at heart the grimmest film noir—the story of a man’s obsession for the ravages done to his niece (Natalie Wood) by a Comanche chief. Conflicting impulses of race, sex and violence smolder throughout the Frank Nugent script, and on Wayne’s implacable face, in an epic that spans five years of brutal winters and scalding summers. The Searchers rides toward vengeance, opens and closes doors that lead to the darkest possibilities, deals with spat-out hatreds and unspoken love. Jeffrey Hunter, noble and hunky, heads the fine supporting cast of this immensely influential film, whose distinguished spawn includes Once Upon a Time in the West and Star Wars.
Sue me, but I like Betty Draper/Francis as a character. The problem is that Mad Men doesn’t. Betty’s not the worst character on the show, but she’s probably the worst-served.