Film

Influential samurai

HOW KUROSAWA’S YOJIMBO BECAME A BLUEPRINT FOR MODERN HOLLYWOOD

You know the story: A nameless, mysterious stranger shows up in a desolate town. Two corrupt factions are fighting each other for control without any law to restrain them. The stranger hires himself out to one side, kills members of one family, becomes disgusted with his employers, then makes a deal with the other faction and switches sides.

Literature

The Bob Dylan in all of us

A REVIEW OF SEAN WILENTZ’ BOB DYLAN IN AMERICA

By Allen Barra

Given the seriousness and pretension with which so many rock critics write about their favorite artists, you might expect an academician to bury Dylan beneath mounds of stentorian prose. But Wilentz is no ordinary academic. For one thing, along with Griel Marcus, he edited The Rose and The Briar: Death, Love, and Liberty in the American Ballad.

Living History

Rickwood Field celebrates its 100th birthday

By Allen Barra

If it’s true that baseball is, or was, America’s pastime, then it seems safe to say that Rickwood Field’s historical and cultural significance will only grow with each passing year, especially now that the old ball park is celebrating its centennial, to be marked by a ceremony this coming Wednesday, August 18.

Literature

Getting Caponed

LATEST BIOGRAPHY OF AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS GANGSTER FALLS FLAT

By Allen Barra

Wilfrid Sheed once quipped that there were so many books about the Mob that “We now know everything about it except whether or not it exists.” We know for sure that Al Capone, America’s most famous and cinematic gangster, did exist, but a new biography, Get Capone–The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster.

Film

A Myth Never Was But Always Is

By Allen Barra

“A myth,” wrote everyone’s favorite sixth-century scholar, Stephanus of Byzantium, “is something that never was but always is.” He might have been looking ahead to the Robin Hood franchise. From the 12th century, when the early Robin Hood ballads and folk plays started to gain popularity, to Ridley Scott’s new epic film Robin Hood,.

Literature

Batter up at the bookshop

New reads for spring about America’s pastime

By Allen Barra

Barra, a regular Birmingham Weekly contributor and avid baseball fan, provides the following reviews of some of the baseball-related titles that are hitting the bookstores just as major leaguers retur

Film

A man should know his limitations

Is Clint Eastwood really a great director?

By Allen Barra

Twenty-some years ago, while working for the Village Voice and waiting outside the office of the arts editor, I was astonished to overhear a conference call that included the editor, the Voice’s lead

Sports & Leisure

Letter to an unknown Auburn fan

Debunking a bunk debunking

By Allen Barra

The piece that follows has been circulating around the internet for some time. As it supposedly debunks Alabama’s claim to 12 national championships. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume it was w

Literature

Seven great books on the World Series

I always watch the World Series with the sound off and with something to read.

By Allen Barra

I’m not compelled to read books on football during Super Bowl week, nor on basketball during March Madness or the NBA finals. But the World Series always make me feel as if I’m connecting with 100 yea

Sports & Leisure

Commemorating The Catch

Artist Thom Ross has recreated the most famous Willie Mays play — perhaps the most famous catch in baseball history.

By Allen Barra

It has been said that baseball is the only thread that ties America together over three centuries. If so, as artist Thom Ross has discovered, it is a slender and fragile thread. Ross, who lives in