Blockbusters and Birdwalks
At Blockbusters and Birdwalks, you’ll listen to reviews and conversations about all kinds of movies, from Academy Award winners to exploitation masterpieces with a mix of commercial hits and obscure favorites thrown in for good measure. The point is recognizing that movies present our culture with the building blocks of social memory, enabling each of us to enjoy ourselves because movies are fun.
Blockbusters and Birdwalks
GATEWAY CINEMA, a conversation – Episode 1: Introduction: “La Haine”
GATEWAY CINEMA is a multi-part series of conversations centered on key ideas in film studies. In these conversations, we interpret and celebrate a set of eclectic feature films from across generations and from around the world, including “La Haine”, “Drum”, “Alien 3 (Assembly Cut)”, “Come and See”, “Perfect Days”, “The Sweet Smell of Success”, “The Swimmer”, “Amadeus (Director’s Cut)”, “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia”, “Friday”, “Marie Antoinette”, “The Night of the Hunter”, “Crank” and “Crank 2: High Voltage”, “Portrait of a Lady Fire”, “The Fabulous Baron Munchausen”, “Joker: Folie a Deux”, “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, “Heathers”, and “The Death of Stalin”.
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Referenced media in GATEWAY CINEMA, Episode 1:
- “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” (George Lucas, 1977)
- “Mary Poppins” (Robert Stevenson, 1964)
- “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” (Irvin Kerschner, 1980)
- “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” (Sam Wrench, 2023)
- “Stray Dog” (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
- “Kids” (Larry Clark, 1995)
- “Ken Park” (Larry Clark and Edward Lachman, 2002)
- “Bless the Beasts and Children” (Stanley Kramer, 1971)
- “Vertigo” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
- “Jaws” (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
- “Munich” (Steven Spielberg, 2005)
- “Boogie Nights” (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
- “Casino” (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
- “Toy Story” (John Lasseter, 1995)
- “Heat” (Michael Mann, 1995)
- “Nixon” (Oliver Stone, 1995)
- “Four Rooms” (Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino, 1995)
- “12 Monkeys” (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
- “Dead Man Walking” (Tim Robbins, 1995)
- “From Dusk till Dawn” (Robert Rodriguez, 1996)
- “Beautiful Girls” (Ted Demme, 1996)
- “The Bird Cage” (Mike Nichols, 1996)
- “Fargo” (The Coen Brothers, 1996)
- “The Celluloid Closet” (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1996)
- “Girl 6” (Spike Lee, 1996)
Audio quotation in GATEWAY CINEMA, Episode 1:
- “Star Wars Main Theme” by John Williams for “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” (George Lucas, 1977)
- “Burnin’ and Lootin’” by Bob Marley for the album “Burnin’” by Bob Marley and the Wailers (1973), used in “La Haine” (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
- “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (George Roy Hill, 1969)
- “Eugene’s Lament” by Beastie Boys, Nishita, Bobo, and Eugene Gore for the album “Ill Communication” by Beastie Boys (1994), used in “La Haine” (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)