Shane Is Fight Club in Reverse

https://youtu.be/STC9hswM_kM?si=3SQQhSZOiwxa2jEI

One of the things that emerged in our discussion of Shane (1953) in episode 44 of the Family Pictures Podcast is just how explicitly the film is rooted in real labor history, specifically the Johnson County War of the late 19th century. Wealthy Wyoming cattle barons, threatened by homesteaders organizing collectively, hired guns from Texas to […]

https://bavatuesdays.com/shane-is-fight-club-in-reverse/

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Thresholds of Violence in The Searchers (1956)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKVu7q64BQU

After re-watching The Searchers (1956) for episode 43 of the Family Pictures Podcast, I was struck by the way director [[John Ford]] constantly uses thresholds or portals to visualize the moral structure of the film. It isn’t so much about the chase, the raids, or even the racism that drives the narrative—it’s this idea of space. Doorways, […]

https://bavatuesdays.com/thresholds-of-violence-in-the-searchers-1956/

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The Zenith of the Western, the Rise of Sci-Fi, and Perhaps a Return

I’m trying to catch up on some of my thoughts that I’ve been circling as a result of recent episodes of the Family Pictures Podcast, which continues to be an absolute blast. We’ve started to dig into Westerns with our “Frontier Families” series, and it’s amazing how fertile the thematic soil is out there 🙂 In fact, this post is evidence of just that. I’m moving past just getting […]

https://bavatuesdays.com/the-zenith-of-the-western-the-rise-of-sci-fi-and-perhaps-a-return/

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The New Land vs Empire Strikes Back

For this week’s Family Pictures Podcast, MBS and I discussed the 1972 masterpiece The New Land, a film adapted from a novel chronicling a Swedish family’s emigration to Minnesota in the 19th century. I had never heard of the film until Michael recommended it for our series on “Families on the Frontier,” and I have to say: it made a deep impression. I loved this movie for all kinds of reasons, […]

https://bavatuesdays.com/the-new-land-vs-empire-strikes-back/

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