A documentary of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, Triumph of the Will is held up as one of the earliest and best examples of film propaganda, and it is a reputation it well deserves; it is also one of the best documentaries ever filmed.

Given total support by the Nazi party, director Leni Riefenstahl commanded a crew of 200 people, almost forty of them camera men during the four day event. Tracks were laid, trenches were dug, special…

Koyannisqatsi's great grandfather.

Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov and his brother took three years to shoot this often-dizzying portrait of "A day in the life of a city"... actually three cities, Moscow, Kiev and Odessa. Many experimental and avant-garde techniques are used; Vertov wished to break down the linearity of film viewing.

This movie is notable for those techniques, but also as a fascinating time capsule, a record of everyday life in that particular time in that particular place - as…

I was wondering how they'd finish up a movie about a serial killer who was never caught.

David Fincher does a spectacular job of re-creating California in the 60s-late 70s to tell the tale of the Zodiac killer, whose exact body count and identity is still a matter of conjecture, though the movie - and the book it is based on - do come up with a likely suspect. The murders themselves take up a very small amount of the…

This may be the perfect Western, bridging the years between Randolph Scott's starched West and the late twentieth century's Unforgiven; while still marveling at the magnificent scenery of Monument Valley, and still loving this era in American history, The Searchers comes from a much darker place than any previous Ford Western.

Wayne is Ethan Edwards, a man just returned to his brother's homestead after three years, just in time for the family to be slaughtered and the two young girls…