Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Action Speaks Louder Than Words: Anthony Mann Interview



Recently, while struck with the flu, I watched a bunch of Anthony Mann movies. I was revisiting films I was already familiar with and still really enjoying them, especially the westerns he made with James Stewart including Winchester '73 (the best of them) and The Naked Spur (my favorite). Came across this vintage British documentary about him, featuring a long-ish interview with Mann, above.

Watching a quadruple-feature of 50's westerns was odd and refreshing. It's interesting to note that all the celebrated Mann/Stewart films had mostly different teams making them, and were not all made at the same studio. They can be pretty different stylistically. And they're all really different from what I'm in the habit of watching these days, which is definitely not 50's westerns. I read somewhere that Kelly Reichardt's recent Night Moves was influenced by these films, it'll be interesting to see that one.