Aaron Aradillas and Matt Zoller Seitz have posted the fifth chapter in a six-part series called “Razzle Dazzle.” The focus is “a disreputable offshoot of the traditional hero: an eloquent, exuberant, often impolite figure who serves as a town crier or truth-teller figure (or seems to).” A very wise and well-cut piece, but who’s the female narrator?
I love the vaguely implied analogy between Lonesome Rhodes and Glenn Beck.
“Unlike the traditional hero, the maverick seems to take a more active role in shaping his image and connecting with the public,” the copy reads. “He’s an outsider who uses mass media to articulate the audience’s fears and yearnings, and whose charisma spurs them to action.”
What does Richard Donner‘s Maverick have to do with any of this? Nothing, but here’s the best review I ever heard of it: “A $75 million dollar Elvis Presley film.”