True Detective Doesn't Dissapoint

And... exhale. I feel like I just held my breath for the last two months watching a great premiere by auteur Nic Pizzolato. The eight episode first season of True Detective was nothing short of captivating, awe-inspiring, and at times terrifying.

Set in the bayous of Louisiana, it tells the tale of two detectives, played by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. There is a strange, ritualistic killing of a young girl that the two are called in to investigate, but this quickly becomes about far more than just a murder investigation.

Victory or Death: War Films Superlatives

As I've mentioned before, I consider myself a bit of a war film connoisseur. It was certainly a much bigger hobby of mine when I was younger, indulging in the "ye olde" cinematic adventures of John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and William Holden. Those tastes developed into a much more progressive list of modern films as I got older, but I'm proud not to have lost my appreciation for the older films.

I started thinking more on just how the older films compare to the modern ones. Call me old fashioned but I think they hold up just about every bit as well. They're good in different ways- the action is not quite the fast-paced inferno that you'd see in a Spielberg movie, but it's nothing to scoff at either. Ultimately, however, it's about the story. That's what makes a film great more than anything else.

That's an argument for another day, though.

I tend to digress, but what I'm really interested in is producing a list of superlatives for war movies. This is a carefully, moderately, deliberately, whimsically compiled analysis from my self-proclaimed living room expertise. Keep in mind, this is all from memory.