Summary: Set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution, along the Mexican-Texan border, The Wild Bunch tells the story of an aging gang of outlaws led by Pike, and chased by bounty hunters led by a former gang member, Deke Thornton. They rob a bank, which turns out to be a set-up by the railroad company…
Tag: American Movies
West Side Story (1961): Summary & Analysis
Summary: On New York’s West Side, two gangs, the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks, fight over turf. At a dance, the tensions are palpable, but Tony, a former Jet, and Maria, the little sister of Bernardo, the Sharks’ leader, fall in love at first sight. While they meet secretly, the Jets and the…
Thelma and Louise – Summary – Analysis
Summary: Thelma is a neglected housewife who ditches her bullying husband to spend a weekend fishing with her friend Louise, a hash-house waitress who drives an impeccably maintained 1966 Thunderbird convertible. A quick stop at a bar leads to trouble when Thelma is accosted by a local man. Louise shoots the guy. The two women…
Taxi Driver (1976 Movie): Summary & Analysis
Summary: Travis Bickle, seemingly a Vietnam War veteran, gets a job working as a taxi driver in New York City. As he drives around the city he increasingly feels himself to be surrounded by the worst of humanity but manages to find some sort of hope in Betsy, a worker for presidential hopeful, Senator Palatine….
Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song: Summary & Analysis
Summary: Following an unfortunate run-in with the LAPD, resulting in the injury of two police officers, our eponymous hero (Van Peebles), a sexworker-turned-revolutionary, flees Los Angeles and makes his way to Mexico. Along Sweetback’s journey, we encounter a cross section of the city’s citizens, from storefront preachers to prostitutes and hippies. Lauded as the inspiration…
Sunrise (1927 Movie): Summary & Analysis
Summary: A nameless woman of the city vacations in the countryside, seducing a man, a simple farmer with a wife and a child. She convinces him to drown his wife, but at the last moment, he cannot bring himself to do it. After the wife escapes to the city and the man follows her, they…
Star Wars (Episode 4, 1977) – Summary – Analysis
Summary: Princess Leia Organa, a member of the Rebel Alliance, steals the plans for the Death Star, an Imperial space station. She is captured by Darth Vader, the Galactic Empire’s deadliest enforcer, but not before programming the plans into the ’droid R2-D2. R2 and C3PO escape to the planet Tatooine to deliver Leia’s plans to…
Singin’ in the Rain: Summary & Analysis
Summary: Singin’ in the Rain opens at the 1927 premiere of The Royal Rascal, a costume drama starring above-the-credit silent film stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont. On the red carpet, Don tells the adoring crowds about his training in the arts of high culture, framed by the motto, ‘Always dignity’. A montage shows us…
The Searchers: Summary, Analysis
Summary: Ethan Edwards’s brother, his sister-inlaw and their young son, are killed in a Comanche attack on their homestead. Two of his nieces are carried off by the Indians. One is quickly killed, but Ethan and Martin Pawley, who as an orphan was adopted by Ethan’s brother, continue to search for the other girl, Debbie….
She’s Gotta Have It (Movie): Summary & Analysis
Summary: Nola Darling is a young black woman living in Brooklyn. She is sexually involved with three men: the caring but overly protective Jamie, the affluent but arrogant Greer, and the fun but immature Mars. Each man wants to date her exclusively, but Nola resists deciding on a single partner, wanting to maintain her independence….