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Film · Biograph · 1912

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The Musketeers of Pig Alley

39Leave it.

A small alley crime, shot close, and nobody bothered to make it glamorous.

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

The review

Elmer Booth and Lillian Gish, a gang leader, a girl, a small crime. Griffith, Biograph, 1912. The snap of that alley face is what people remember. A reel, not a feature. A house can watch it. I came in expecting the close-up to sell a bigger crook than the street can hold. It doesn't. The crime is near and ordinary.

Not a glamour. I was grateful, because a short about a gang can still glitter and recruit. This one stays where you could pass it walking home. There is no empire to join. If it goes on, say that before anyone asks for a longer picture that shines the same alley. The memory is a face. The crime stays small. I left it there.

Journal

Keep The Musketeers of Pig Alley 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 Courage 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 Batman

50 instead of 39

The Batman is still a crime film, and it scores 50 instead of 39. What you gain is industry: Detective work: a cipher, a photograph, a file.

The eight

2
Industry
The work on screen is a small crime, not a job anyone keeps.
3
Household
A girl is in the alley with him, and she is not given a home.
2
Piety
Nothing shows a conscience stopping the small crime in the alley.
3
Courage
The alley is close, and no one is shown risking a life they'd miss.
6
Republic
The crime is a neighborhood fact, near and ordinary, not a legend.
6
Temperance
It is not a glamour, so the reel does not train you to want the gang.
6
Truth
The snap of the leader is the memory, and the crime stays small.
3
Stewardship
An alley and a small crime are what it leaves, and nothing is built.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · The Musketeers of Pig Alley · 39IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Warner Bros. · 1972

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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.