Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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A Western Like No Other: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Henry Fonda’s Epic Collaboration
What Is ‘How the West Was Won’ About? How the West Was Won is an American fictionalized historical account of the period between the great westward migration and the establishment of law and order in the Wild West. The film follows three generations of the Prescott family across decades, spanning significant American history events, like…
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John Wayne’s Legacy Reshaped: Carpenter’s Bold Reinventions in Two Distinct Genres
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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Cinematic Crescendo: Clint Eastwood’s Surprise Sonata in 1993’s ‘In the Line of Fire’—A Hidden Musical Gem
While his skills as an actor and director are quite familiar and widely celebrated, Clint Eastwood coolly flexes one of his lesser-known talents in the 1993 action thriller In the Line of Fire. In the movie, Eastwood plays former Social Security Agent Frank Horrigan, a man tormented by the guilt of failing to protect John…
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The Intriguing Link Between Spielberg’s Favorite War Film, Clint Eastwood, and Elizabeth Taylor’s Children
Clint Eastwood’s 1968 film, Where Eagles Dare, is certainly a classic project from old Hollywood. It was an extremely intriguing story that on paper, is about a team on a mission to rescue someone from Nazis, but turns into a story of betrayal and high stakes. Directed by Brian G. Hutton, the film received immense…
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Clint Eastwood’s Film Secrets: The Spooky Tale of the Creepy Doll Mocked as a Halloween Prop—Unraveling the Mystery
Director Clint Eastwood’s 2014 movie, American Sniper is often labeled as one of the most successful films in his filmography. The biographical war drama film was loosely based on the memoir American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. While…
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Decoding Clint Eastwood’s Mastery: Actor vs. Director—Which Role Truly Defines His Cinematic Brilliance?
Whether Clint Eastwood is a better actor or a director has become a frequent debate over his legendary career, since he is one of the many actors who have developed into a prolific director. His acting career goes way over six decades, as his first breakthrough was in 1959 when he starred in Rawhide, an…
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How ‘Stagecoach’ Catapulted John Wayne to Stardom, Riding and Fighting His Way to the Top
I watched an early John Wayne movie on the Grit Network recently and found it awful. I didn’t see the start of it so I don’t know the title, but it had been colorized with an unnatural look. I didn’t expect much of the dialogue, but Wayne’s singing was simply horrible. He was serenading his…
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John Wayne’s Arizona Affection: Unraveling the Bond That Made the Desert State His Beloved Home
Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect year for John Wayne’s death. He died on June 11, 1979. All right, pilgrim, Hollywood may have been where Western movie icon John Wayne made his fame and fortune, but he clearly also left a mark – and perhaps a piece of his…
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True Grit’s Resurgence: The Western Genre Rides Again, Crossing $100 Million, and Bob Mondello’s Ultimate Frontier Experience
With True Grit crossing the $100 million mark at the box office, the Western, often given up for dead, appears to be back. Black hats, white hats, guns, a frontier code of honor, big-sky country — all have been Hollywood staples since at least 1903, when The Great Train Robbery sent gunslingers galloping across the…
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Rethinking Icons: Politicians Spearhead Efforts to Rename John Wayne Airport Amidst Racial Critique
The Democratic Party of Orange County passed an emergency resolution this week calling on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to change the name of John Wayne Airport. Submitted by Ada Briceño, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, along with Chapman University professors Fred Smoller and Dr. Michael A. Moodian, the resolution “condemns…
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