Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Paramount · 1950

Pass it on

Sunset Boulevard

39Leave it.

He wanted a job, stayed kept, and the pool is where that ends.

Take controlThis scores 39. Sunset Boulevard cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

A screenwriter in trouble hides his car in the garage of a silent-film star who is planning a comeback that will not come. He stays as her kept man. The film begins with him already dead in the pool, telling it. Adult. Not a family evening. I don't care how many people can do the voice.

Hollywood eats the people who only wanted a job. The big house doesn't change the meal. Nothing in him stops the staying, and there is no marriage here that functions as a life. Watch it for the bill. Don't watch it to pick up a way of talking, and don't leave it on where a child can wander in.

Journal

Keep Sunset Boulevard in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 39. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

West Side Story

51 instead of 39

West Side Story is still a drama film, and it scores 51 instead of 39. What you gain is courage: They walk into the fight knowing what a rumble costs, and they walk in anyway.

The eight

7
Industry
He wanted a writing job and became a kept man instead.
2
Household
The house is a bargain with a dead man in the pool, not a marriage.
2
Piety
He knows the comeback is false and stays. Nothing stops him.
3
Courage
He hides the car and stays. That is need, not a risk he chose.
3
Republic
The town eats workers. Nobody in it owes the next writer a way out.
4
Temperance
Money and fame keep them there. The ruin is shown and still polished.
8
Truth
The comeback is a lie, he is dead from the start, and the bill is paid.
2
Stewardship
Left behind: a pool, a delusion, and a business that feeds on both.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Sunset Boulevard · 39IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Warner Bros. · 1972

Pass it on

Deliverance

39Leave it.

They wanted a wild weekend, and the film never gives that weekend back.

Take controlThis scores 39. Deliverance cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

Four suburban men wanted a last wild weekend on a river a dam is about to bury. They got a trip they were not built for. The river was the point, and then it was not. One of them is changed in a way the film does not heal. That refusal to tidy the ending is the honest part.

Adult. Do not describe the assault, and do not make a contest out of who can sit through it. The dam was already going to spend the river for people who do not live on it. One of them carries that change home. If someone in the room goes quiet, stay with that, not the canoe.

Journal

Keep Deliverance in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 39. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Household and Piety and Republic and Temperance and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

The Manchurian Candidate

46 instead of 39

The Manchurian Candidate is still a thriller film, and it scores 46 instead of 39. What you gain is industry: The army and the campaign are work, shown as institutions that can be used.