Ben Johnson News

So, "Major Dundee": Flawed masterpiece or promising concept gone awry? I'm, unfortunately, going to have to lean more towards the latter on this one.

I watched The Last Picture Show again the other evening, for the first time since it was in the theaters in the early 1970s.

Wagon Master Directed by John Ford. "Hi, my name is Peter Bogdanovich and I had nothing to do with this movie, except that I love it." That's the first line from the commentary track, the only extra feature on this DVD but one that John Ford fans will regard as a treasure.

I have some confessions to make, not because any of you readers are particularly interested in my views; but rather because I think some of you are in the same boat: Have you stopped reading, listening, watching, and paying attention to most of what now passes for establishment public or popular culture? I am not particularly proud of this quietism ...

One of the more pleasant perks of this gig is occasionally encountering a film you've heard about for ages but never seen, and then discovering that it lives up to its rep.

We made it. My old high school pal Jim Donovits and I loaded the Explorer down last week and drove a thousand miles to Archer City, home to the All Booked Up bookstore, the brainchild of my favorite author, the great Larry McMurtry.

I think I saw Wagon Master in 1970 when Robert S. Birchard showed his print at UCLA.

John Ford's relatively unsung masterpiece, WAGON MASTER , was released on DVD last Tuesday, September 15th.

This week's picks include one of the best Westerns, a documentary on a blacklisted screenwriter and Hugh Jackman's reprisal of his role as Wolverine.

John Ford has said that Wagon Master is the favorite of all his films and one can see why -- pictorially the film is beautifully composed and shot with Ford's beloved Monument Valley as the overarching star of the film.

When the late, great Oscar-winning character actor Ben Johnson was doing a round of interviews for a film some years ago, I approached him, introduced myself and said I was from Salt Lake City.

Hello Mick: I read your review of "Public Enemies." In my opinion, no one can top Warren Oates as Dillinger in the 1973 film of the same name.