History, Legacy & Showmanship
“VistaVision makes you feel like you’re actually on the beautiful Riviera!“
The Digital Bits is pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 60th anniversary of the release of To Catch a Thief, Alfred Hitchcock’s classic romantic thriller set on the French Riviera and starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
The Bits celebrates the occasion with this article that highlights the film’s VistaVision presentations and features an interview segment with a group of historians who discuss the attributes of the film and examine its place in the Hitchcock oeuvre. [Read on here…]
“Four Stars! One of the most endearing and accomplished of entertainments. The writing here is really the star. It would be a classic even in Hollywood’s golden era.” — Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune/At the Movies
The Digital Bits is pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 30th anniversary of the release of Back to the Future, Robert Zemeckis’s “comedy adventure science fiction time travel love story” starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. [Read on here…]
“Jaws was something of an accidental blockbuster. It should not be blamed for being a good movie.” — Joseph McBride
The Digital Bits is pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 40th anniversary of the release of Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s legendary tale of a Great White preying on a coastal New England resort community during the lucrative summer tourism season.
Based upon Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel and starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws shattered all existing box-office records, scared the wits out of beachgoers, and became every studio’s dream model of a summer blockbuster (and, in some circles, a whipping boy for popular, successful movies). [Read on here…]
“Unlike most of the Bond films, [A View to a Kill] lacks the sense of cleverness that is so instrumental to the success of 007. It is a film where everyone was working a bit too quickly, where the inherent tone of a Bond film was in short supply, the Bond film that feels the most like an expensive TV movie. It is the Bond film that should have gotten the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.” — John Cork
The Digital Bits is pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 30th anniversary of the release of A View to a Kill, the 14th (official) cinematic James Bond adventure and, most notably, the final to star Roger Moore as Agent 007. [Read on here...]
“The Empire Strikes Back joins The Godfather, Part II as one of the rarest of films—a sequel that lives up to and expands upon its original.” — Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
There is no question this year is a huge one for fans of Star Wars. While the whole galaxy awaits Episode VII: The Force Awakens, let us not forget this year also marks the 35th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, one of the most revered sequels of all time. The Digital Bits celebrates the occasion with this retrospective featuring a compilation of box-office data that places Empire’s performance in context, quotes from well-known movie critics, production and exhibition information, a list of the opening-week, limited-market theaters that were the first anywhere to play the movie, and an interview segment with a group of filmmakers and historians who discuss the attributes of the movie and examine why Empire is frequently labeled the fan favorite. [Read on here...]