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Sopranos creator David Chase is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his iconic show’s premier and lamenting the death of television’s exquisite Golden Age. In an interview with the Sunday Times, the 78-year-old who changed television, but sadly not forever, said, “Yes, this is the 25th anniversary, so of course it’s a celebration. But perhaps we shouldn’t look at it like that. Maybe we should look at it like a funeral.”

VIDEOI remember air travel when I was a kid as an extremely pleasurable experience. On one air trip I travelled to the 1964 New York World's Fair where I was dazzled by images of a golden future. It got me to thinking that if air travel was already so fantastic then how incredible would it be in the future?

Born on the 16th 0f July in 1944, actress Barbara Stanwyck's had a wonderful way with words: "Actors only look at themselves." "Eyes are the greatest tool in film. Mr. Capra taught me that. Sure, it's nice to say very good dialogue, if you can get it. But great movie acting - watch the eyes!" "Egotism - usually just a case of mistaken nonentity." "[on the Golden Age of Hollywood] The amount of security that the star had - Crawford, Gable, Tracy, Taylor - was wonderful. Two or three pictures a year written for them by the top writers. It...

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In the following gallery, we present screen tests for roles that have become familiar and much loved, from a young Audrey Hepburn reading for the part of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday to a supremely confident Robert Downey Jr. demonstrating how he was born to play supremely confident billionaire-industrialist Tony Stark in the Iron Man films. We start with a lovely British actress who got a chance to prove she belonged to join an all-star cast of a movie destined to become a Hollywood classic.

<p>1. John Wayne on Clark Gable: “Gable’s an idiot. You know why he’s an actor? It’s the only thing he’s smart enough to do.”</p> <p>2. Tallulah Bankhead on Bette Davis: “Don’t think I don’t know who’s been spreading gossip about me. After all the nice things I’ve said about that hag. When I get hold of her, I’ll tear out every hair of her mustache!”</p>

When a military veteran gets to teach, both school and vet experience culture shock. “Federalism and civil society are dying in practice because they are dying in our social vision, unnoticed and unmourned,” Chris Bray writes in The American Conservative. “My long-simmering sense of this loss became clear as I recently did that most frightening of tasks: grading history exams.” “I was teaching a class on the Gilded Age, a course that traces the decline of what the historian Robert Wiebe described as a nation of ‘island communities.’” Students ignored the largely successful efforts of private voluntary associations to address...

You may say these are fundamental truths, but I believe that many would agree that they don't always play a role in filmmaking. Sometimes we see films that aren't any better than tabloids. I am sure you are well aware of this. I am, because this issue is often raised when I meet with non-profit organisations. They always talk about cultural primitivism and occasionally immoral models of behaviour. We shouldn't forget that the film industry is a high-tech industry that develops hand in hand with scientific progress and acquires new means of expression and, therefore, new powers over the minds...

The myth of a golden age of rational Islam plays a critical role in maintaining the somnolence of America's establishment in grasping the implacability of political jihad. Currently (see here, reviewed 9/2/10 at The National Review Online), the Mutazilites, typified by the Abbasid Muslim rulers al-Mamun (r. 813-833) and al-Mutasim (r. 833-842) are being lionized as avatars of the kind of "rationalist freethinking" which might have spared both Muslims and non-Muslims from the consequences of traditionalist Islamic irredentism. These views are a contemporary re-packaging of idealized portrayals initially put forth by Heinrich Steiner in 1865, and reiterated afterward by late...

One of the best films ever made is Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. The 1934 comedy features an heiress on the run from her father, and the reporter who joins forces with her. The two fall in love and, alone in hotel rooms, to guard against temptation, they hang a blanket between their beds. They call it “the walls of Jericho.” When the couple finally ties the knot, the “wall” comes tumbling down. In the 1930s, a plotline that precluded premarital sex was a wise idea. Movie-makers who flouted the Motion Picture Production...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 5, 2009 – Nearly 65 years ago, Robert Blatnik found himself fighting for his life on a beach in Normandy, France, on what he called a day of miracles for those who survived. Robert Blatnik, 89, is a World War II and Army veteran who participated in his sixth National Veterans Golden Age Games in Birmingham, Ala., in June 2009. He credits the games and the Department of Veterans Affairs for helping him deal with his combat experiences in North Africa and Europe. DoD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 4, 2009 – At first glance, Angelo Athas and Harry R. Johnson looked as though they’d known each other their entire lives. They looked more like teenagers than senior citizens, talking and laughing and joking as they waited for their turn at shuffleboard. Angleo Athas, right, an Army and World War II veteran from Texas, and Harry R. Johnson, a Navy and Korean War veteran from California, become quick friends as they wait for their turn at shuffleboard June 3, 2009, in Birmingham, Ala., at the 23rd Annual National Veterans Golden Age Games. DoD photo by...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 3, 2009 – Military veterans competing in the National Veterans Golden Age Games each year have their own reasons for participating. Some come out for the camaraderie, while others come to socialize and catch up with old friends. Jonah Hicks, a 64-year-old Marine Corps and Vietnam War veteran, speeds around the track June 2, 2009, in Birmingham, Ala., as part of the cycling event at the 23rd Annual National Veterans Golden Age Games. DoD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But others simply come to win. This...

In the past century, leisure travel has shifted from a luxury enjoyed by the wealthy to a necessity of the middle class. Today, travel is fast and cheap, accessible and affordable. But as airlines and hotels have started to cut back on the amenities they once provided, it's no wonder that today's travelers feel more like cargo than customers. It wasn't always that way. There was a time when travel was luxurious and fashionable, when high-quality dining was standard and when travelers dressed up for the occasion, whether boarding an ocean liner or taking off on a high-flying jet. Here's...

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish, Samantha Morton, Jordi Mollà.From a National Catholic Register review By Steven D. Greydanus A lurid sort of Christopher Hitchens vision of history pervades Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur’s sequel to his 1998 art-house hit Elizabeth. The earlier film, which made a star of Cate Blanchett as the eponymous Virgin Queen, celebrated the triumph of bright, happy Elizabethan Protestantism over the dark, unwholesome Catholic world of Bloody Mary. Even so, that film’s church-bashing was tame compared that of this sequel, in which...

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is warning of a sea change coming to the global economy. Greenspan says the glory days of low-cost imports from China are coming to an end, sending a wave of inflation to the U.S., reports Bloomberg. After a speech in London yesterday, Greenspan answered an audience member's question about whether China's rapid economic growth will translate into rising prices. Greenspan cited an index of import prices from China to the U.S. that revealed prices are already beginning to trend higher (see chart). The index "finally turned higher in the spring," said Greenspan. "It's saying...

Poets and philosophers, merchants and mathematicians, artisans and astronomers re-enacted the Golden Age of Islam at the Al-Arqam Islamic School in south Sacramento on Friday. The artistry, story-telling and role-playing was a creation of 233 students from kindergarten through ninth grade who brought to life the sights, tastes and smells of an Islamic empire that spanned three continents from the eighth to the 13th centuries. From incense to Turkish coffee, dates to oranges, minarets to miniature mosques and castles -- you could find it all at The Islamic Civilization Exhibit and Festival in the school's multipurpose room. Pageantry was accompanied...

On March 21st, Paramount will be releasing a 50th anniversary DVD set of Cecil B. DeMille's legendary classic, The Ten Commandments - and frankly, the timing couldn't be any better. Why, you may ask? How could a 50 year-old epic from Hollywood's Golden Age still be 'relevant' today? I'll answer that question below - but let's first take a look back at this glorious and important film. The Ten Commandments happens to be the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. When the film was released in 1956, theater tickets cost 50 cents - and the film still...