Very fun, sometimes funny, with a great song and plenty of American history references despite its The Odyssey story beats, and yet I feel like it doesn't have enough of that thematic meat of the best Coen movies.

Weird in a completely compelling and pleasing way, the cinematography, imagery, production design, sound design, and special effects are all provocatively top-notch and create a very disturbing, but perhaps accurate depiction of how some of us can feel when we consider how life and the world around us can affect our minds, emotions, and beliefs in disconcerting and unexpected ways.

A bit too stuffed for me. I would have appreciated a more economic story that could have been laser focused on the two big elements of the movie: the father/son relationship and the exploitation of a black man's talents and skills. The former, although strong, could have been stronger with some more development and expelling other parts like the Dakota subplot. The score was totally overbearing as well. As always, however, the exploration of relevant American racial themes and Lee's style of filmmaking are great.

Watched as part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films challenge!

Very funny. I feel like this one isn't seen/talked about as much as it should when it comes to great comedies.

A great story about some of the changes America faced after the Civil War as men must become more corporate-driven in their business and the railroad expands across the country. There are some epic sequences of the massive cattle drive, but of course the main draw is the personal drama between the two main characters portrayed compellingly by Wayne and Clift.

Watched as part of my Legends of American Film History Challenge!

Sometimes the strangeness of family and of experiences when we're young are lost on us until we grow older and look back at it all. These memories can be very profound, revealing or really just inexplicable as we mostly just existed through them with no perspective because we didn't have it yet. It's really astonishing to go on a personal journey with a filmmaker, especially from a different culture, as this film provides.

It is a strange ride to grow up as the people around you are at wildly different stages of maturity no matter how old they may be. Modernism, America, and a business like Hollywood perpetuates this for both great good and bad. The two leads were great and there were many very funny moments so overall a highly enjoyable cinematic experience.

Really a sympathetic portrait of what can lead people into crime, Cagney once again shows how compelling he is as an actor. I really liked that the main character's fall was just a financial petering out because of the economic crisis. This is a thoroughly entertaining movie throughout.

Watched as part of my Legends of American Film History Challenge!

I don't really know why this didn't really work with me. Maybe the line it straddles with juggling some abstraction, history, philosophy, technical explanations, and current events didn't really come together in a satisfying way to me.