Native Son (Blu-ray) by Jesse Skeen Richard Wright\'s "Native Son" was a book I read in high school English class, and has been made as a movie three times (once just three years ago, updated to modern times.) It deals largely with themes of race and class, although regardless of those it\'s hard to argue that the main character didn\'t just get himself into a really bad situation. This first film adaptation was released in 1951 and produced in Argentina as the story and author Wright (who was already blacklisted) just wouldn\'t be touched by any US studio then, although a stage version produced by Orson Welles had been reasonably successful. Wright himself plays the main character- a poor black man in Chicago named Bigger Thomas. The book gives no explanation for his name, and here it\'s remarked tha...Read the entire review »

Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen (2022), about the making of director Norman Jewison's classic adaptation of the smash Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971), is entertaining if a bit disjointed. It's as if editor-producer-director Daniel Raim envisioned a more narrowly-focused work but got sidetracked during filming and the result became a jumble of themes and anecdotes that, while enjoyable, aren't exactly cohesive. Raim, who studied under Fiddler production designer Robert F. Boyle and through him met Jewison, states in a statement included as an insert with the Blu-ray that he "wanted to make a documentary about the power of the creative process, exploring Jewison's artistry, compassion, and humanity as well as his spiritual and creative quest directing Fiddler on the Roof. The movie is certainly that part of the time, but it veers off into other areas ...Read the entire review »