Clint Eastwood says political correctness is not making his day. He's fed up with over-sensitized people who cry "racist!" at the drop of the hat. "I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a 'Sam the Jew' or 'Jose the Mexican' - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was just normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem. I don't want to be politically correct.We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything", says the screen legend. In his new film, Gran Torino, Eastwod takes a swipe at political correctness in scenes in which his character consistently trades humorous ethnic insults with his barber. For more click here

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The 81st annual Academy Awards is now history and Slumdog Millionaire was top dog in the winner's circle with 8 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle. Kate Winslet won Best Actress for The Reader. In the Best Actor category there was a clear upset with Sean Penn winning the prize for playing the gay rights activist in Milk, despite the smart money being on sentimental favorite Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. Best Supporting Actress was Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The late Heath Ledger was awarded Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight. In a moving and bittersweet moment, his family accepted on his behalf. Refreshingly, Kate Winslet, one of the most brilliant actresses working today, finally learned to deliver a concise and genuinely moving acceptance speech instead of the rambling nonsense she had mumbled through at previous awards shows. Similarly, Sean Penn was gracious and clearly surprised at his win. He praised America (perhaps just to deprive Fox News from having their talking points tomorrow morning) and confined his social activism to a statement that those who oppose equal rights for gays will someday realize they have shamed themselves and their families. 

I'll go against the annual trend of bashing the Oscars and say I thought this was a highly entertaining and briskly-paced show, devoid of long-winded speeches and that God-awful "spontaneous" patter between presenters that generally induces groans all over the world. The show still lacks a strong host, though Hugh Jackman was handsome, versatile and extremely talented in the dancing and singing numbers. What he doesn't possess is the razor-sharp wit exhibited by Steve Martin, who relegated himself to being one of the presenters. (His not-so-veiled smack at Scientology was hilarious, though he'll probably be trailed by men in black for the rest of his life.)  In the build-up to the show, much was made over the absence of star power. No Hanks, Ford, Eastwood or Nicholson on the podium. However, the producers did scrounge up some pretty impressive names. Among them: Robert DeNiro, Anthony Hopkins, Eva Marie Saint, Daniel Craig, Alan Arkin, Jack Black, Ben Stiller (whose comedic appearance promised more than it delivered) Ben Kingsley ...er, Sir Ben Kingsley (apparently even his children are required to refer to him as Sir Daddy), Michael Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Shirley MacLaine, and a genuine legend, gorgeous Sophia Loren, still looking like she walked out of time capsule. To the delight of older women everywhere, both Loren and Hawn proved that their bosoms are capable of defying Newton's Law of Gravity. A highlight of the show was the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award given to Jerry Lewis, who was very humbled (that's right, humbled!) by the honor. Lewis was presented with the award by Eddie Murphy, long regarded as one of the most unpleasant men in show business. Thus, by bringing out Murphy's softer side, maybe Lewis is not just a humanitarian, but a miracle worker.

There were some innovative changes this year. It was a great idea to have five previous winners in each acting category appear on stage to honor this year's nominees and to present the awards. I also liked the orchestra's consistent use of famous movie themes throughout the evening, and it was a nice touch to actually hear them play excerpts of this year's nominated scores. The blending of the three Oscar nominated songs into one production number worked far better than I had anticipated, as did a nice, classy production number in hat and tails that honored the great musicals. The well-directed and slickly-produced show had only one annoying segment: the generally moving memorial montage to artists who passed away in the last year. It was shown as Queen Latifah sang a lovely version of I'll Be Seeing You, but the director couldn't figure out where to zoom in and it turned out to be a botched hodgepodge of long shots of Latifah and postage stamp-sized images of the artists being nominated.(Maybe I missed it, but it didn't seem as though Heath Ledger was included in the tribute clips!)

From a fashion standpoint, there were few embarrassments or head-turners. The women looked rather blandly attired, but the men seem to (finally) be trending back toward the traditional black bow tie-with-tux look instead of that straight tie, which always makes the wearer appear under-dressed for such an occasion. There were a couple of major gaffes in fashion statements, however. Tilda Swinden, who has the complexion of Casper the Friendly Ghost, came on stage attired in what could only be charitably described as the slip cover of a living room couch. She probably paid a fortune for it, but the gown reminded me of that home-grown concoction that Carol Burnett's Scarlett O'Hara made up out of a pair of drapes (complete with curtain rod still in it) in her classic variety show sketch based on Gone With the Wind. The male fashion embarrassment of the evening came when the camera panned to nominee Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was attired in black with a doo-rag on his head. In his quest to look funky, he may have thought he was evoking memories of Isaac Hayes, but ended up looking like a  white drag version of Aunt Jemima.  

What the show still lacks is an opening. Jackman tried hard with a somewhat clever comedic ode to the nominated films, but it wore thin quickly. Similarly, his bizarre notion of going into the audience to greet certain stars reminded me of a struggling night club comedian. I half expected him to shout, "Anybody here from New Jersey?". Still, he was a good sport, looked dashing and kept the action flowing without hamming it up. In all, this may well prove to be the lowest rated Oscars of all due to the abundance of art house films, but the Academy has nothing to be ashamed of regarding the presentation. It was one of the best in quite some time, though don't expect many other critics to say as much. The Oscars are the low-hanging fruit in terms of writing up lively reviews - and the temptation to use those good one liners writers come up with in advance to criticize the ceremony is just too much for many to resist. Oh, and for those of you who were paying attention, I did pretty well in my predictions, having been accurate in fifteen categories and wrong in only five, the most notable being Sean Penn's win over Mickey Rourke.

Click here for a complete list of winners. Click here for red carpet fashion photos.

Spy movie enthusiast Jason Whiton has launched a major new web site dedicated to those great espionage movies and TV series of the 1960s. The site is pretty addictive, as the initial offerings include rare interview footage of Patrick McGoohan, reproductions of pages from Man From U.N.C.L.E. comic books, rare 45 rpm photo sleeves from the James Bond movies, a tribute to Michael Caine's Harry Palmer series and a contest in which you can win an entire collection of Get Smart videos. A very welcome addition to the cyber space universe. Click here to indulge. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Well, it's that time of year again when movie critics go out on a limb and demonstrate our ignorance of what will occur at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. My own track record is generally decidedly mixed, but not as bad as some pundits. Incidentally, to those who say that Cinema Retro often underrates new films due to our fixation on movies of the past, I'll state publicly that 2008 was the best year for motion pictures in recent memory. Virtually every film I bothered to see was terrific, which explains why some extraordinary movies that would ordinarily have dominated the nominees were under-represented or completely ignored. (i.e Changling,The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Revolutionary Road, Gran Torino) To recap, here is a summary of my views regarding the five Best Picture nominees, followed by my predictions of who will win in the major categories.

Best Picture Nominees:

• SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: Everything you've heard about this innovative and highly entertaining film is true. It's what movie-making should be all about: an original concept superbly executed by director Danny Boyle. The movie is brought to life by an extremely talented cast, none of whom was recognized by the Academy in this year that boasted an abundance of great performances. However, this doesn't diminish their extraordinary work.
• THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON: An ambitious and consistently interesting film that ultimately fails to connect with the audience on an emotional basis. The parallels to Forrest Gump have been well documented, but they do prove to diminish the movie's many qualities. In summary, an intriguing and well-executed story that falls short of its goals. It's been nominated for an astonishing 13 Oscars, but don't look for it to come home with any of the big prizes.
• FROST/NIXON: Ron Howard has somehow transformed what could have been a mundane subject matter (the complex negotiations by David Frost to land former President Richard M. Nixon for a series of revealing TV interviews) into a mesmerizing, humorous and highly suspenseful film. Frank Langella gives the performance of his career and manages to humanize Nixon in the process. Michael Sheen once again gives one of the most under-rated performances of the year. When will Oscar recognize this outstanding actor?
• MILK: You don't have to be gay to love Milk, but it probably helps in terms of having the historical  aspects of this story resonate to maximum effect. I confess that all I knew about the gay rights activist Milk were shadowy memories of his spectacular murder after achieving his long quest to win the election as San Francisco City Supervisor, thus becoming America's first openly homosexual public official. The film reveals there was far more to this man than most people had known and open minded people, both straight and gay, will be moved by the horrendous prejudices Milk help overcome. These include his landmark election issue battles against Anita Bryant, a former orange juice TV pitchwoman whose lunatic religious beliefs helped set back America's progress on civil rights. Sean Penn gives another brilliant performance and demonstrates why he just may be the best actor of his generation.
• THE READER- A compelling, intriguing and highly erotic film that will probably finally allow Kate Winslet to bring home the Oscar gold. Unfortunately, her equally superb performance in Revolutionary Road was released in the same year and Academy rules prohibit an artist from being nominated for two films in the same category.

AND THE WINNERS WILL BE....(But don't bet on it!)

• BEST PICTURE: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• BEST DIRECTOR: DANNY BOYLE, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• BEST ACTRESS: KATE WINSLET, THE READER
• BEST ACTOR: MICKEY ROURKE, THE WRESTLER
• SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PENELOPE CRUZ, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
• SUPPORTING ACTOR: HEATH LEDGER, THE DARK KNIGHT
• BEST ANIMATED FILM: WALL-E
• ART DIRECTION: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
• CINEMATOGRAPHY: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• COSTUME DESIGN: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
• FILM EDITING: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: WALTZ WITH BASHIR
• MAKEUP: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
• ORIGINAL SCORE: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• SONG: DOWN TO EARTH FROM WALL-E
• SOUND EDITING: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• SOUND MIXING: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• VISUAL EFFECTS: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
• ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: MILK

Cinema Retro reader Pete Emslie, who happens to be a top talent cartoonist, reminds us that today is Lee Marvin's birthday- and his provided this terrific depiction of Marvin in his Oscar-winning role in Cat Ballou. (Visit Pete's site at The Cartoon Cave for more great artwork.) Marvin, who would have been 85 today, died at age 63 in 1987. Cinema Retro will be presenting an exciting feature relating to Marvin in issue #15. Writer Steve Mori, who provided us with his "lost" Steve McQueen interview for issue #1, has just come through with a fascinating feature that is sure to thrill classic movie lovers. In 1974, Steve was a journalist on the set of The Klansman which paired Marvin and Richard Burton as well as Luciana Paluzzi, Cameron Mitchell and a promising newcomer named O.J. Simpson. While on the set, Steve witnessed the destruction of Burton's second marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, was coerced into interviewing shy and insecure Simpson (and lived to tell the tale!) and managed to get one of the most in-depth interviews with Lee Marvin ever conducted. Marvin was notoriously cranky with the press, but Steve managed to get on his good side and the result was a truly insightful interview in which Marvin discussed his memories of his most memorable films. The interview was never published, but will appear in Cinema Retro #15. Consider this just another shameless attempt to seduce you into subscribing. 

I no longer feel like a voice in the wilderness - another film critic has written about the parallels between Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino and John Wayne's final film The Shootist. The former is certainly inspired by the latter, though both are great movies in their own right. Robbins presents some film clips to illustrate his point, plus also provides a welcome glimpse of young Clint in the Universal monster movie Revenge of the Creature.- Lee Pfeiffer

Click here to watch. 

The teaser trailer has been released for Quentin Tarantino's WWII film Inglorious Basterds. It's hard to know what to expect from the finished film. The trailer shows star Brad Pitt addressing his misfit company of men in a strong southern accent and warning them that, for this mission behind enemy lines, each man is committed to bringing him 100 German scalps. (Tarantino obviously isn't counting on Germany as the target audience for the new film.) There are some rapidly-cut action sequences, some of which hint at the brutality the Americans show against German soldiers. The film was loosely inspired by a 1970s Italian war movie. Although the trailer plays the action straight, one has to assume there must be a strong satirical aspect to the film: we see glimpses of Adolf Hitler ranting and raving and the cast includes Mike Myers! One thing we love: the titles on the trailer, which are designed to emulate those of the Sergio Leone westerns. To view click here

Cinema Retro columnist Tom Lisanti advises us today is Carol Lynley's 67th birthday. So, happy birthday, Carol - the lady who sent hot pants sales soaring after The Poseidon Adventure. Tom put us on to this video celebration of Carol's films edited by Nelson Aspen. Click here to enjoy. 

It's the most unlikely of catfights. Told that tween idol Hillary Duff will be recreating the role of gun moll Bonnie Parker in a new independent film, Faye Dunaway, who shot to to fame in the same role in the 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde, said she wished they had chosen a "real actress". On the surface, Dunaway's contention seems to be grounded in common sense: would you pay ten bucks to see Hillary Duff as Bonnie Parker? Cinema Retro columnist David Savage thinks the two ladies might be able to channel their feud into a positive experience by re-enacting a scene from one of Ms. Dunaway's more memorable films. Click here and try to image Hillary Duff in the role of the daughter. For more click here

Film critic John Farr looks at the career highlights of two legendary leading ladies and puts forward the case for each one being considered to be the greatest star. See what you think, based on the evidence presented.

Click here to read

Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart is known for speaking his mind. As a former studio head, he has worked with some of the legendary actors and directors and knows their strengths and weaknesses. In his latest column, he extols the virtues of Clint Eastwood's work ethic and contrasts his accomplishments to those of his contemporaries, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. According to Bart, Eastwood can conceive, plan, shoot and release a movie while the the latter two are still holding meetings about the concept. Beatty's indecisiveness is driven by his fear of failure. Better not to try than to fall short. He hasn't made a movie since 2001 and Bart says he's immobilized by his own intellect. Redford, too, has a film release schedule that seems to be on par with the appearance of Halley's Comet. On contrast, Eastwood forsakes caring about what the critics say and surges ahead in the belief that a concept has value. To read the column click here

Director Terry Gilliam has compared attempts to film Cervantes' 1605 novel Don Quixote to theatrical productions of MacBeth - i.e, they have been so plagued by disaster that actors performing in the latter still refuse to mention the title, opting to call it The Scottish Play. Gilliam first attempted to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 1990 with Johnny Depp cast as a modern executive who travels back in time and becomes Don Quixote's legendary sidekick Sancho Panza. It wasn't long before disasters - both natural and financial- struck the production. The film was never completed, though an acclaimed documentary Lost in La Mancha detailed Gilliam's heartbreaking realization that his dream project would not be fulfilled. Now, Gilliam is wading back into dangerous waters, more convinced than ever that he can bring the project to life. It will be with a new cast and a new, improved script that he says, with typical hyperbole, is the greatest ever written. Whether he can succeed this time or he's tilting at a few windmills of his own, remains to be seen.  

For the story click here

Click here to order Lost in La Mancha DVD from Amazon

Click here to order from Amazon UK

It's old news that Christian Bale went ballistic on the set of Terminator Salvation when the director of photography, Shane Hurlbut, accidentally walked into his line of vision and distracted him from completing the scene. It caused quite a stir in the industry when witnesses reported that this caused Bale to unleash on Hurlbut with a seemingly endless number of obscenities in front of the cast and crew. The latest news is that someone leaked an audio recording of the tirade to TMZ's web site - and it isn't pretty. Although the producer immediately went into damage control with the predictable story that it was "just a passing moment" and that Bale is always Mr. Nice Guy, this is the height of arrogant star power. Making matters worse is the fact that Bale isn't just abusing the guy who brings the coffee to the set, but the director of photography, who he threatens to do physical damage to if the producer doesn't fire him. As Hurlbut is still listed as the DP, he remained on the production - but you have to wonder just how badly any man needs a job to endure this type of humiliation. Like most bullies, it's doubtful Bale would have had this precise reaction if Hurlbut was a world champion prize fighter. To listen click here