Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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John Wayne’s Unforgettable Pain: Despite Tragedies, Film Remains a Massive Failure Criticized by Both Contemporary and Modern Reviewers
Hollywood has given us many icons over the years, some considerably more likeable than others. John Wayne has always been one of the industry’s most controversial stars due to his incredibly racist and generally bigoted views. A leading man in many westerns, such as The Searchers and True Grit, Wayne came to represent all things…
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Stuntman’s Nightmare: The Chilling Tale of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara’s Frigid Mudslide in McLintock
Andrew V. McLaglan’s 1963 film “McLintock!” is a loose Western adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” (c. 1592), a problematic play to say the least. The story of Shakespeare’s play involves a willful and bitter young woman named Kate who refuses to settle down and get married. This upsets Kate’s younger sister…
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John Wayne’s Western Nightmare: Lost Souls and Vanished Bodies in a 19th-Century Tragedy
John Wayne filmed a classic Western with Maureen O’Hara in which cast members were killed and their bodies never recovered. Back in 1950, John Wayne starred in Rio Grande, the third of his Cavalry Trilogy (alongside Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) with director John Ford. Cast and crew struggled terribly with the…
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John Wayne’s Gentle Spirit Shines: The Surprising Harmony on the ‘Rio Lobo’ Set Despite Director’s Confrontation
John Wayne was incredibly kind to his Rio Lobo co-star, despite struggling with poor health on the set where director Howard Hawks punched leading lady Jennifer O’Neill. John Wayne had already remade 1959’s Rio Bravo, a film about a sheriff defending his office from outlaws, in 1966’s El Dorado. Yet Howard Hawks, who directed both…
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Iconic Filmmaker John Carpenter’s Passionate Ode to John Wayne: The Western Gem Remade Twice for Modern Audiences
There’s one John Wayne Western that director John Carpenter adores so much, he remade it twice himself. During a 2011 chat with Rotten Tomatoes, Carpenter namechecked several movies he called his “emotional favorites,” meaning they were the films he fell in love with as a child and inspired his love of movies. Among this list…
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Shocking Celebrity Feuds: The Hollywood Icons Who Can’t Stand Clint Eastwood’s Swagger!
Clint Eastwood is one of Hollywood’s most notorious figures – known for his dashing good looks, those wildly intense stares, and exuding a confidence that some people came to fear – so it’s no shocker that he has made some enemies along the way, too. “Right Turn, Clyde.” Now that that’s settled, let’s get down…
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Kevin Costner’s Western Mastery: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Iconic ‘Dances with Wolves.’
One of three Westerns to win an Academy Award for Best Picture (behind Cimarron and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven), Dances with Wolves is one of those movies that you just have to experience. Shot between South Dakota and Wyoming, Costner’s directorial debut branded him a Western icon. Not only that, but it’s often been credited with…
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Lawrence Kasdan’s ‘Wyatt Earp’: A Story that Transcends the Chaos of Kurt Russell’s ‘Tombstone’ to Craft a 3-Hour Epic.
In the early 1990s, Kevin Costner, who was busily branding himself as an all-American hybrid of Gary Cooper and James Stewart, hooked up with “Glory” screenwriter Kevin Jarre to make “Tombstone,” an epic film about the legendary, real-life lawman. This would’ve afforded the ambitious Costner a connection to another red-white-and-blue big-screen icon, Henry Fonda, who’d…
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Step Into the Untamed Frontier with Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’ – A Cinematic Odyssey Channeling the Intensity of ‘Dances with Wolves.
The actor/director previously told PEOPLE that Horizon is the “hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s exactly what I want to do” Kevin Costner is excited about his next Western project. The Oscar winner, 68, teased his upcoming multi-movie epic Horizon: An American Saga on Instagram Wednesday, saying he hasn’t “felt this way” since he…
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The Power of Andy Griffith: George Lindsey’s Startling Confession about the Show’s Maestro
If you were Andy Griffith, would you rather be loved or respected? Because the man in charge was more concerned with the latter. There’s only one name in the title of The Andy Griffith Show, and ol’ Ange took his role seriously. His was the face that kept everyone employed, and he didn’t intend to…
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