John Frankenheimer Blogathon( Feb 19-March 1, 2015)

John Frankenheimer, remains one of those directors, who often remains an enigma. At one time, touted as the next Orson Welles, the later part of his career, stumbled from disaster to disaster, before he redeemed himself somewhat with the 90’s thriller Ronin.  Yet this man made some of the best ever Cold War thrillers,  The Manchurian Candidate, about an American citizen, brainwashed by Chinese to assasinate the President, and 7 Days in May, about an extreme right wing plot to overthrow the US President. In fact some of his best output came during the Cold War era, with a series of gritty, tightly scripted thrillers. He also proved he was equally adept at the War genre, with his WWII drama, the Train,  and the gritty crime drama, French Connection II. Beyond thrillers and crime,  he proved he was equally good at human drama, with his tale of redemption, Birdman of Alcatraz. Technically he was  a genius, check out the tracking shots and amazing camera work in the Train, or the breathless car chase scenes in Ronin.

In tribute to a director, who has really not got his due, will be hosting a blogathon from February 19- March 1. You could contribute with either reviews of his movies, or other aspects too like his collaboration with Burt Lancaster or any other aspects of his movies.  And yes please do promote with one of the promo pics below.

We have also hosted blogathons earlier on Mike Nichols, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Sydney Pollack, Howard Hawks, Roman Polanski and Steven Soderbergh, which you can check out.

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