January Poll (Patreon)

Hi everybody, as climate change radicalizes our respective january's, from devastatingly cold to unnervingly warm, we are keeping the theme and cranking the heat with one of 3 very, very hot movies. Get lost in the desert and keep your head, in either: Beau Geste, Woman in the Dunes, or The Searchers!

Beau Geste
Just before World War I, three brothers join the French Foreign Legion, ending up at in a fort in the North African desert, which besieged from the outside by enemy forces, and from within by the sadistic Sergeant Markoff. Classic golden age of Hollywood entry, with Gary Cooper in the lead, and directed by the extraordinarily prolific William A. Wellman (Wings, Night Nurse, The Public Enemy, The Ox Bow Incident, and the 1937 A Star is Born). A big influence on Starship Troopers, specifically the segment taking place in the fort on Klandathu that gets overrun.  

Woman in the Dunes
A school teacher on vacation is trapped and kidnapped by local villagers, forced to work shoveling sand, living with a woman he does not know who lost her husband and son. Disturbing, heavy on symbolism, and concerned with the plight of living in an environmentally devastated and dying world. From Hiroshi Teshigahara, director of The Face of Another.  

The Searchers
Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) embarks on a years long journey to rescue his niece from Comanches after she is kidnapped and her family killed. Dated and problematic, but a great film, and an essential part of film history, influencing everything from Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars, to Taxi Driver and Breaking Bad.