This essay reflects on the shared qualities of the late works of Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse. Both worked in the shomin-geki genre of middle-class life, depicting the often unhappy social conditions, notably among women, in post-war Japan. But while Ozu is tender and pitying, Naruse is agonized and outraged at injustice.

Bringing together the DVD reissue of Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven , Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah , and Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men , this essay argues that the three films are indictments of the violent history of American militarism.

ABSTRACT This review essay of a National Film Preservation Foundation archival DVD boxed set of fiction and non-fiction films from the Progressive era emphasizes the underlying optimism about the future that is discernible even in those films that treat harrowing subjects (such as social deprivation, violence, and industrial exploitation).