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- Blowback: late 1960s and 1970s pulp and popular fiction about the Vietnam War
- Book review: Thailand’s Movie Theatres – Relics, Ruins and the Romance of Escape
- Melbourne launch details for Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980
- Pulp Friday: Cruising
- “The Horror Never Leaves My Mind”: Ian Sharp’s ‘Who Dares Wins’
- The Evil Touch talk at the Australian National Film & Sound Archive
- “There is no phone ringing, dammit!” Projection Booth episode 422 : The Omega Man
- Early praise for Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and the Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980
- The weird and wonderful history of the Logie Awards
- A Time For Violence: Stories with an Edge
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Category Archives: James Caan
‘It was never meant to be a game’: my monograph on Norman Jewison’s Rollerball
I have been pre-occupied with my Phd and various other commitments, so I’ve been a little bit slow off the mark to publicise my latest book, a monograph on Norman Jewison’s 1975 dystopian science fiction classic, Rollerball, out now on various platforms in the US, UK and Australia, through Auteur Publishing.
The book originated out of my curiosity to see whether I had it in me to write 40k based on a single film. The film I chose, in consultation with the publisher, was Rollerball. Only you can be the judge as to how good a job I have done, but I’ll let you all in on the first rule of writing a film monograph, make sure you like the film because you not only have to watch it numerous times but immerse yourself in everything to do with it.
I have always like Rollerball, ever since first seeing it twenty years ago. But I didn’t realise until I got stuck into researching the film for this book, just what a good viewing experience it still is and what a chilling dystopian vision it remains.
Rollerball depicts a future dominated by anonymous corporations and their executive elite, in which all individual effort and aggressive emotions are subsumed into a horrifically violent global sport, remains critically overlooked.… Read more
The heist always goes wrong, part 1: ten of the best heist movies ever made
I love the genius and intricacy of their plots and the variations they come in, whether it be the all star team assembled for a job or the desperate ex-cons trying for one last score.
But most of all I love them because of the golden rule of all good heist films – for whatever reason, the heist always goes wrong.
What do you need for a good heist?
You need a plan for actual heist itself, the getaway, and moving, storing and fencing whatever it is you’ve stolen. The more complicated the plan, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.
You need a crew of people; one man or woman alone cannot do a heist. This introduces the human element and all the problems that come with it, the greed, suspicions, jealousies and uncertainties.
I’ve been thinking for a while now about what my top ten-heist films would be and the following list, in no particular order, is it.
The robbery itself is almost immaterial to how I rate a good heist film. What I like is the context and atmosphere in which the heist takes place and inevitable problems that arise after it’s been pulled off. And the darker and more broken things get, the better the film is in my book.… Read more
Posted in 60s American crime films, 70s American crime films, 80s American crime films, Angie Dickinson, Charles Durning, Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark, Ernest Borgnine, Film Noir, Gene Hackman, Heist films, James Caan, Jim Brown, Peter Boyle, Robert Mitchum, Stanley Baker, Sterling Hayden, Sydney Lumet, Yaphet Kotto
Tagged A Cop (1972), Across 110th Street (1972), Al Pacino, Alain Delon, Angie Dickinson, Anthony Quinn, Armoured Car Robbery (1950), Basil Dearden, Catherine Deneuve, Charles Durning, Crime Wave (1954), Criss Cross (1949), Diahann Carroll, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Don Siegel, Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Heat (1995), heist films, Jack Klugman, James Booth, James Caan, James Whitmore, Jim Brown, Joanna Pettel, John Cazale, Joseph Loosey, Money Movers (1979), Peter Boyle, Peter Yates, Richard Jordan, Richard Stark, Robbery (1967), Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, Robert Prosky, Ronald Reagan, Sexy Beast (2000), Stanley Baker, Sterling Hayden, Sydney Lumet, The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The Bank job (2008), The Criminal (1960), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Killers (1964), The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Red Circle (1970), Tuesday Weld, Warren Oates, Yaphet Kotto