A Condensed History of the United States

Not strictly historically accurate, but fun, with good music, good acting, and plenty of humor. One of my very favorite musicals.

I'm a huge John Wayne fan, but I'm afraid this movie is kind of a clunker. It's waaaaay too long (nearly three and a half hours), with much of the movie focusing on things that have nothing to do with the Battle of the Alamo. The three-hour build-up to the actual battle is just too much, and when the battle finally arrives, there's no satisfaction in it, as you're forced to watch all the film's heroes (including the immortal John Wayne) get massacred by the Mexicans.

Yes, this film is just as monstrously racist and pro-KKK as you've always been told. I went in expecting that, however, and am not awarding the film such a low rating based upon that alone. The fact is, "The Birth of a Nation" is quite boring, and way too long and drawn out. The first ninety minutes or so is a dull, childish re-enactment of the Civil War, and following that is an uninteresting, uneventful love story. Throw all of that together with the insidious, naive bigotry of the whole project and I really don't see why critics persist in declaring it one of the greatest films of all time. Oh sure, I suppose it was groundbreaking and influential in its own time, but it's not exactly up to much today. It's too boring and bigoted to be entertaining, and too skewed in its vision to be enlightening.

Though the legend of the Old West is our great American mythology (virtually all great nations idealize and revere a certain chapter in their history), Clint Eastwood and company dare to give us a western completely stripped of all the romance and magnificence that typically defines the genre. In this film, there's no glory or triumph; no real heroes or villains. Just an assortment of flawed human beings doing often inexplicable things to each other.

This is a great movie, partly because it provides such an apt and wonderful performance for the great John Wayne to go out on. If he had to go out at all, it was most fitting that he go out with "The Shootist". From the opening montage of clips from previous Duke movies, to Duke's struggle to come to terms with and cope with the cancer that is killing him, to the glorious shoot-out in which we see him expire definitively on-screen, "The Shootist" is 50% fantasy, 50% John Wayne biography, and 100% quality, pathos, and emotion. Few stars are given the opportunity to take their final bow with such dignity, grace, and personal triumph. Bravo, Duke.

The movie is well-made, but it's very by-the-book and way too long. Not very interesting or exciting.

Well-made, but kind of dull.

It starts out sharp and interesting, but it goes on too long and gets boring.

This movie would have been more enjoyable for me if not for that revolting and unnecessary montage of vomiting.

The anti-war sentiment and social discontent pervading throughout the nation at the time inspired John Wayne to make this movie, which glorifies American involvement in Vietnam. Unfortunately, it is far from being included on his list of career triumphs. The pro-war rhetoric comes off as heavy-handed and cheesy, even to a Republican, patriot, and Duke fan like me. However, even to this day, "The Green Berets" remains virtually the sole Vietnam War movie that doesn't ask Americans to bow their heads in shame. While anti-American liberals like Jane Fonda and Walter Cronkite were busy sympathizing with the enemy and declaring the war "unwinnable", John Wayne - the perennial American hero - stood up for what was right and tried to rally his country and his people to a cause, which is more than can be said for any other celebrity of the time.

Cheesy, cliche, and insubstantial. Nothing but an excuse to throw together a lot of Beatles music videos.

When you put together a shortlist of actors to play Richard Nixon, you don't really think of Anthony Hopkins, but damned if he doesn't pull it off with flying colors. The man has mad, mad range as an actor.

I'm sorry, but this movie is BORING! And no, I'm not the kind of moviegoer who has to be watching explosions in order to be entertained. If you take a good look at my ratings and reviews, that should be apparent. This is just a boring, boring movie, and that's all I can say, really.

Yeah, we trained and armed the Afghans in order to help them kick the Soviets out of their country. And then what happens? Those same Afghans become Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and come after us. Thanks a lot, you ungrateful jerks.

If some kid barged into my restaurant with his radio blasting and didn't turn it off when I told him to, I would have smashed it to smithereens as well. I really don't see any fault in the restaurant owner's behavior throughout the film. So he doesn't want a picture of Malcolm X hung on his wall. That's his right. So he doesn't want his customers disturbed by loud, obnoxious music. What business owner can say differently? I really don't know what Spike "I hate white people" Lee is driving at here.

If "Pet Sematary" isn't the most disgusting movie I've ever seen, then "Kids" definitely is.

Good flick. I was kind of bothered, however, by the lack of sympathy and understanding Nicholson's character received from all the other characters. He has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and naturally this inhibits his ability to pursue a healthy, constructive social life. Yes, he could be a real prick at times, and no, his OCD should not be a catch-all excuse for inexcusable, offensive behavior, but nor can he be expected to function like a "normal" person. Healthy social interaction is extremely difficult for him, and that needs to be understood and accepted by anyone who would wish to be his friend.

Just a mass of left-wing white guilt disguised as a meditation on race relations.

Touching, warm-hearted, and relaxed. It doesn't try to provoke controversy or delve into politics. It's just a nice movie about a Marine escorting a fallen comrade home.