Summer Classics

So yes, 2021 saw the critically-hailed but audience-shrugged-at release of a new film version of West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tony Kushner. And the new one is moving, surprising, a…

Director George Lucas (THX-1138, American Graffiti) is back at last with a sequel to 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith! Mark Hamill (the voice of the Joker from Batman: The Animated…

In the Heat of the Night, a police drama about poisonous racial tension set in Sparta, Mississippi, was mostly filmed in Sparta, Illinois. That’s largely because its star, the recently passed and eternally brilliant Sidney…

Bear with us for a few sentences. Like Zero Hour! and Airplane!, it’s impossible to talk about Fail Safe without discussing its prankish doppelgänger, Dr. Strangelove. The good news is we can make up that…

Shocked by the surprise news of the death of a dear friend, writer Gordie Lachance reminisces about a strange experience he and some friends had in the summer of 1959. After learning that a stranger…

Gather ‘round, younglings, and let Tampa Theatre tell you a story about when independent cinema was a coherent idea and this movie changed the world. Films have always been made outside the Hollywood studio system,…

The Wizard of Oz has permeated popular culture to such an extent that, even if they haven’t seen it themselves, most people know it almost by heart. It’s certainly true that they don’t make them…

Photog L. B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is stuck in his apartment while he heals from a broken leg, with the assistance of his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and nurse (Thelma Ritter as Stella). But an…

Writing about why you should see The Godfather feels like posting a blurb on the health and wellness advantages of breathing air: we can give you an answer, but we’re confused about how you’re even…

Roger Ebert told the story of getting onto an elevator with director Mel Brooks, just after the release of his film The Producers. “A woman got onto the elevator,” Ebert said, “recognized him and said,…

It would be wrong to call All That Jazz psychedelic, but it certainly would be accurate to call it trippy. Percussive editing and an aggressive use of bizarre camera technique (it’s considered one of the…

Casablanca lands so routinely in listings of the top two or three movies of all time, it’s become almost boring to call it great. It’s the definition of a Hollywood masterpiece. The scenes and the…

For this year’s Summer Classics silent presentation, Tampa Theatre offers a pair of classic Buster Keaton comedies with a score composed and performed live on our original 1926 Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Organ by Tampa Theatre’s…