U.S. Naval Academy removed books about the Holocaust, antisemitism and Jewish Americans ahead of Hegseth visit

Arts & Culture, Books

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s DEI initiative results in the removal of Holocaust Remembrance articles. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By Andrew Lapin

April 7, 2025

(JTA) — At the same time as the U.S. Naval Academy removed a display honoring Jewish female graduates ahead of a visit from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, it also removed books about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
The books, which also covered the history of white supremacy in the United States, were among nearly 400 removed ahead of the visit last week.
The order to remove the books, most of which focused on topics like race, diversity and gender, appeared to come at the behest of Hegseth himself. The Pentagon chief, whose initiatives against diversity, equity and inclusion programming have already led to the removal of other Holocaust remembrance content from the Defense Department’s digital platforms, sent a memo to the Maryland school instructing it to comply with larger anti-”woke” purges at the department. The list of books was made public by the Navy on Friday.

Among the removed books with Jewish content were a history of hate in America written by a former director of Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council; an academic study of Holocaust memorials through a gender lens; two books about sexuality in Weimar-era Berlin; and a history of early Jewish American efforts to censor antisemitic media.
The author of the latter book, M. Alison Kibler, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “censoring a book about censorship would be laughable, except that banning a long list of books at the USNA is absolutely serious and alarming.
“It’s unclear to me why my book would be dangerous to the education of cadets — adults who are seeking a well-rounded education; and it’s unclear to me why my book is on the list but other books about race and immigration in the history of the United States are not,” Kibler, a professor at Franklin & Marshall College and author of “Censoring racial ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American struggles over race and representation, 1890-1930,” wrote in an email.
The removals were notable for occurring at the college level; according to free-speech literary advocacy group PEN America, it was the first notable instance of “college-level library banning.” In recent years, K-12 schools across the country have been the sites of high-profile debates over whether and when to ban books.
Many books studying racism and white supremacy, including neo-Nazis, were also pulled, along with books about Muslim and Palestinian Americans. The removal list also includes several renowned American books about race, including Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” and at least one student thesis by a recent Naval Academy graduate.
While the school said the photos of Jewish female graduates were restored after Hegseth left, the book removals appear to be permanent. A representative for the Naval Academy did not return a request for comment.
The list of removed books with Jewish themes includes:

“Memorializing the Holocaust: Gender, Genocide and Collective Memory,” by Janet Jacobs
“Legacy of Hate: A Short History of Ethnic, Religious, and Racial Prejudice in America,” by Philip Perlmutter, former director of Boston’s JCRC
“Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity,” by former U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum fellow Robert Beachy
“The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany” by Katie Sutton
“Hate on the net,” a study of online antisemitism and hateful ideologies by Antonio Roversi and Lawrence Smith
“Censoring racial ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American struggles over race and representation, 1890-1930,” by M. Alison Kibler
“Blood and Politics: The history of the white nationalist movement from the margins to the mainstream,” by Leonard Zeskind, a MacArthur Fellow and researcher of antisemitism
“Josiah Nott of Mobile,” a biography of an influential racist 19th-century physician who once wrote a pamphlet outlining “The physical history of the Jewish race,” by Reginald Horsman
“American Hate: Survivors Speak Out,” an account of minority group persecution under the first Trump administration, including Jewish stories, by Arjun Singh Sethi
Several other books about white supremacism in the U.S., including “American Swastika”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

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U.S. Naval Academy removed books about the Holocaust, antisemitism and Jewish Americans ahead of Hegseth visit

Arts & Culture, Books

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s DEI initiative results in the removal of Holocaust Remembrance articles. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By Andrew Lapin

April 7, 2025

(JTA) — At the same time as the U.S. Naval Academy removed a display honoring Jewish female graduates ahead of a visit from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, it also removed books about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
The books, which also covered the history of white supremacy in the United States, were among nearly 400 removed ahead of the visit last week.
The order to remove the books, most of which focused on topics like race, diversity and gender, appeared to come at the behest of Hegseth himself. The Pentagon chief, whose initiatives against diversity, equity and inclusion programming have already led to the removal of other Holocaust remembrance content from the Defense Department’s digital platforms, sent a memo to the Maryland school instructing it to comply with larger anti-”woke” purges at the department. The list of books was made public by the Navy on Friday.

Among the removed books with Jewish content were a history of hate in America written by a former director of Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council; an academic study of Holocaust memorials through a gender lens; two books about sexuality in Weimar-era Berlin; and a history of early Jewish American efforts to censor antisemitic media.
The author of the latter book, M. Alison Kibler, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “censoring a book about censorship would be laughable, except that banning a long list of books at the USNA is absolutely serious and alarming.
“It’s unclear to me why my book would be dangerous to the education of cadets — adults who are seeking a well-rounded education; and it’s unclear to me why my book is on the list but other books about race and immigration in the history of the United States are not,” Kibler, a professor at Franklin & Marshall College and author of “Censoring racial ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American struggles over race and representation, 1890-1930,” wrote in an email.
The removals were notable for occurring at the college level; according to free-speech literary advocacy group PEN America, it was the first notable instance of “college-level library banning.” In recent years, K-12 schools across the country have been the sites of high-profile debates over whether and when to ban books.
Many books studying racism and white supremacy, including neo-Nazis, were also pulled, along with books about Muslim and Palestinian Americans. The removal list also includes several renowned American books about race, including Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” and at least one student thesis by a recent Naval Academy graduate.
While the school said the photos of Jewish female graduates were restored after Hegseth left, the book removals appear to be permanent. A representative for the Naval Academy did not return a request for comment.
The list of removed books with Jewish themes includes:

“Memorializing the Holocaust: Gender, Genocide and Collective Memory,” by Janet Jacobs
“Legacy of Hate: A Short History of Ethnic, Religious, and Racial Prejudice in America,” by Philip Perlmutter, former director of Boston’s JCRC
“Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity,” by former U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum fellow Robert Beachy
“The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany” by Katie Sutton
“Hate on the net,” a study of online antisemitism and hateful ideologies by Antonio Roversi and Lawrence Smith
“Censoring racial ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American struggles over race and representation, 1890-1930,” by M. Alison Kibler
“Blood and Politics: The history of the white nationalist movement from the margins to the mainstream,” by Leonard Zeskind, a MacArthur Fellow and researcher of antisemitism
“Josiah Nott of Mobile,” a biography of an influential racist 19th-century physician who once wrote a pamphlet outlining “The physical history of the Jewish race,” by Reginald Horsman
“American Hate: Survivors Speak Out,” an account of minority group persecution under the first Trump administration, including Jewish stories, by Arjun Singh Sethi
Several other books about white supremacism in the U.S., including “American Swastika”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Naval Academy Junks 381 ‘Woke’ Library Books

Arts & Culture, Books

Subscribe to future audio versions of AmRen articles here.On April 4, the US Naval Academy released a list of the 381 books it took out of circulation from its Nimitz Library, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a clampdown on DEI and gender nonsense.
I don’t like “book burning.” With only a few exceptions, books are as much symptom as cause. Did Robin DiAngelo’s awful White Fragility, which sold millions of copies and was a New York Times best seller for more than two years, change many minds? Or did it sell only because years of anti-white propaganda and George Floyd madness had prepared the ground?
In either case, I’m opposed to taking it out of libraries. Likewise, if the United States ever comes to its senses, I don’t want to take down the absurd Martin Luther King monument in DC or rename all the streets that now tell us where black people live. I want them left as reminders of how far self-hatred can go.
When the Naval Academy announced it was pruning the collection, the New York Times — probably tipped off by a leaker — warned that even benign titles could get the ax: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein on Race and Racism, and a biography of Jackie Robinson. Other publications parroted this, but when the Times reported on the final cut, it of course failed to mention that all three of those titles were spared.
The final list has a lot of anti-white rubbish and glorification of what we used to call sexual craziness, but there are some surprises. Here are the first dozen entries.
Click here for the full-size image.
Ibram Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist is number one, but the titles aren’t in any particular order. I had never heard of most of the 381 books, but was not surprised to see the standard anti-white canon: books by Tim Wise, Joe Feagin, Robin DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson, Noel Ignatiev, and Mari J. Matsuda. I’d never heard of America, Amerikkka or Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? or Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil, but I have probably heard every argument in them a hundred times.
There is no end to the ways people try to rub our noses in “racism,” but I wonder how many midshipmen ever checked out titles such as Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature; or Desiring Whiteness: A Lacanian Analysis of Race; or Haunted Bodies: Gender and Southern Texts.
There isn’t much racially oriented fiction on the list, but it includes The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. He is one of those subcontinentals who swan their way through elite Western institutions — in his case, Princeton, Harvard Law, McKinsey & Company — and hate us all the more for it. In this extermination-fantasy novel, white people start turning brown, and the happy ending is when the last white man makes that wonderful transition, and newly-brown people start having brown babies.
I don’t know much about gender/queer/trans literature but, again, who at the academy ever read The Modern Androgyne Imagination: A Failed Sublime or The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism? I don’t think many aspiring soldiers want to read Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul.
Some of the choices make no sense. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl is the infuriating story of David Reimer, whose penis was mutilated in a botched circumcision in 1967. An early “gender-fluid” proponent named John Money persuaded his parents to rear the boy as a girl, because sexual behavior is not inherent but taught. Neither dresses nor hormones could make Reimer feel female, and he killed himself at age 38. This is a recognition of the power of genes, and a poignant anti-gender/queer book.
I was surprised by some of the race books on the list. Intelligence, Race, and Genetics: Conversations with Arthur R. Jensen is an excellent book of discussions with the greatest race-realist scientist who ever lived. It’s the opposite of “woke.”
The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration is a book of long interviews with “white nationalists,” including Michael Levin, Samuel Francis, Wayne Lutton, David Duke, Don Black, and your servant. It is by no means a smear or a caricature, but a laudable attempt — by a black woman — to understand white racial consciousness.
I have never read The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition. It’s probably sensationalized, but it seems to be a serious study of the 1920 Klan revival — which really was far more widespread than most people realize.
Finally, this book got the chop: The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. It is often touted as proof that “diversity” is wonderful, but the author is promoting cognitive diversity or different mental approaches and backgrounds — not racial diversity — and warns that people must have basic commonalities in order to work well together.
So it’s a queer list, to be sure, and you might enjoy browsing it. The other service academies are reportedly going through their collections, too. I have not heard of any orders to acquire antidotes to DEI, CRT, and gender/queer stuff, so I suspect officers-in-training will not start finding my books in their libraries.

Naval Academy Junks 381 ‘Woke’ Library Books

Arts & Culture, Books

Subscribe to future audio versions of AmRen articles here.On April 4, the US Naval Academy released a list of the 381 books it took out of circulation from its Nimitz Library, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a clampdown on DEI and gender nonsense.
I don’t like “book burning.” With only a few exceptions, books are as much symptom as cause. Did Robin DiAngelo’s awful White Fragility, which sold millions of copies and was a New York Times best seller for more than two years, change many minds? Or did it sell only because years of anti-white propaganda and George Floyd madness had prepared the ground?
In either case, I’m opposed to taking it out of libraries. Likewise, if the United States ever comes to its senses, I don’t want to take down the absurd Martin Luther King monument in DC or rename all the streets that now tell us where black people live. I want them left as reminders of how far self-hatred can go.
When the Naval Academy announced it was pruning the collection, the New York Times — probably tipped off by a leaker — warned that even benign titles could get the ax: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein on Race and Racism, and a biography of Jackie Robinson. Other publications parroted this, but when the Times reported on the final cut, it of course failed to mention that all three of those titles were spared.
The final list has a lot of anti-white rubbish and glorification of what we used to call sexual craziness, but there are some surprises. Here are the first dozen entries.
Click here for the full-size image.
Ibram Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist is number one, but the titles aren’t in any particular order. I had never heard of most of the 381 books, but was not surprised to see the standard anti-white canon: books by Tim Wise, Joe Feagin, Robin DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson, Noel Ignatiev, and Mari J. Matsuda. I’d never heard of America, Amerikkka or Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? or Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil, but I have probably heard every argument in them a hundred times.
There is no end to the ways people try to rub our noses in “racism,” but I wonder how many midshipmen ever checked out titles such as Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature; or Desiring Whiteness: A Lacanian Analysis of Race; or Haunted Bodies: Gender and Southern Texts.
There isn’t much racially oriented fiction on the list, but it includes The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. He is one of those subcontinentals who swan their way through elite Western institutions — in his case, Princeton, Harvard Law, McKinsey & Company — and hate us all the more for it. In this extermination-fantasy novel, white people start turning brown, and the happy ending is when the last white man makes that wonderful transition, and newly-brown people start having brown babies.
I don’t know much about gender/queer/trans literature but, again, who at the academy ever read The Modern Androgyne Imagination: A Failed Sublime or The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism? I don’t think many aspiring soldiers want to read Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul.
Some of the choices make no sense. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl is the infuriating story of David Reimer, whose penis was mutilated in a botched circumcision in 1967. An early “gender-fluid” proponent named John Money persuaded his parents to rear the boy as a girl, because sexual behavior is not inherent but taught. Neither dresses nor hormones could make Reimer feel female, and he killed himself at age 38. This is a recognition of the power of genes, and a poignant anti-gender/queer book.
I was surprised by some of the race books on the list. Intelligence, Race, and Genetics: Conversations with Arthur R. Jensen is an excellent book of discussions with the greatest race-realist scientist who ever lived. It’s the opposite of “woke.”
The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration is a book of long interviews with “white nationalists,” including Michael Levin, Samuel Francis, Wayne Lutton, David Duke, Don Black, and your servant. It is by no means a smear or a caricature, but a laudable attempt — by a black woman — to understand white racial consciousness.
I have never read The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition. It’s probably sensationalized, but it seems to be a serious study of the 1920 Klan revival — which really was far more widespread than most people realize.
Finally, this book got the chop: The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. It is often touted as proof that “diversity” is wonderful, but the author is promoting cognitive diversity or different mental approaches and backgrounds — not racial diversity — and warns that people must have basic commonalities in order to work well together.
So it’s a queer list, to be sure, and you might enjoy browsing it. The other service academies are reportedly going through their collections, too. I have not heard of any orders to acquire antidotes to DEI, CRT, and gender/queer stuff, so I suspect officers-in-training will not start finding my books in their libraries.

All the best e-book deals to shop at Amazon, Kobo, and Bookshop.org

Arts & Culture, Books

E-BOOKS FOR $1.99: As of April 7, find e-books deals for as low as $1.99 across platforms. Find savings from Kindle Store, Kobo, and Bookshop.org.

Best e-book deals

While it’s an upfront investment, an e-reader can save bookworms a lot of money in the long run. Not only can you access all the library books you want on these devices, but e-books are a whole lot cheaper than physical copies. But like anything, e-books go on sale, and we’re here to track the deals.Whether you prefer to read with Kindle Store, Kobo, or Bookshop.org, there are deals to be had. This week, shop e-books for as low as $1.99. Here are all the best deals to shop now.Best e-book deal

Credit: Amazon

Why we like itKnife is Salman Rushdie harrowing account of the 2022 attack that nearly took his life. In his 2024 memoir he details the violent attack as well as his road to recovery and the wisdom he gained throughout. Named one of the best books of 2024, Knife by Salman Rushdie is now on sale for $2.99, down from $28 to save you $25.01 for 89% off. You can find it at Amazon but it’s also on sale at Bookshop.org and Kobo, too.

Mashable Deals

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Sign up for the Mashable Deals newsletter.

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Looking for more deals? Explore all the book deals available this week below.Kindle e-book dealsKobo e-book dealsBookshop.org e-book deals

All the best e-book deals to shop at Amazon, Kobo, and Bookshop.org

Arts & Culture, Books

E-BOOKS FOR $1.99: As of April 7, find e-books deals for as low as $1.99 across platforms. Find savings from Kindle Store, Kobo, and Bookshop.org.

Best e-book deals

While it’s an upfront investment, an e-reader can save bookworms a lot of money in the long run. Not only can you access all the library books you want on these devices, but e-books are a whole lot cheaper than physical copies. But like anything, e-books go on sale, and we’re here to track the deals.Whether you prefer to read with Kindle Store, Kobo, or Bookshop.org, there are deals to be had. This week, shop e-books for as low as $1.99. Here are all the best deals to shop now.Best e-book deal

Credit: Amazon

Why we like itKnife is Salman Rushdie harrowing account of the 2022 attack that nearly took his life. In his 2024 memoir he details the violent attack as well as his road to recovery and the wisdom he gained throughout. Named one of the best books of 2024, Knife by Salman Rushdie is now on sale for $2.99, down from $28 to save you $25.01 for 89% off. You can find it at Amazon but it’s also on sale at Bookshop.org and Kobo, too.

Mashable Deals

Want more hand-picked deals from our shopping experts?
Sign up for the Mashable Deals newsletter.

By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Thanks for signing up!

Looking for more deals? Explore all the book deals available this week below.Kindle e-book dealsKobo e-book dealsBookshop.org e-book deals

Normani’s Audition For ‘Freaky Tales’ Stunned The Film’s Directors: ‘The Camera Loves Her’

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Freaky Tales, which premiered back in 2024 at the Sundance Film Festival, is finally out now, and one thing people have been waiting for is Normani’s feature film debut with the project. She stars opposite Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Ben Mendelsohn, Dominique Thorne, the late Angus Cloud and more.

The singer wasn’t approached for the Lionsgate film but rather auditioned like countless others for the role, according to directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

[embedded content]

“She came in to audition like a lot of other people, and she just had this great presence,” Fleck said in a recent interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “The camera loves her and she’s a performer. So she had never acted before, but she was very comfortable performing, obviously. And so it was great to have her comfortable on stage with a microphone. She could handle all that with grace and presence. But beyond that, the acting stuff, just quiet moments where she’s looking at herself in a mirror or just feeling anxiety about her life and the things going on in her life. She doesn’t have to say a lot to express so much. And I think it’s a really beautiful quality she has.”

“She has such depth, and it really comes across,” Boden said. “And I hope that her fans see a new side of her. She shows in this movie that she can do so much more than be a musician and perform. I mean, she can really bring it in terms of acting. And I just want to say we have a dream cast for this and we feel so lucky.”

What is ‘Freaky Tales’ about?

The film, which has an anthology format, is set in 1987 Oakland where “a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters — an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector — [are] on a collision course in a fever dream of showdowns and battles.”

How did the directors approach making an indie film with big ambitions?

Boden explained, “We kept having to remind financiers when we were getting the money to make this [that], ‘We come from indie filmmaking. We know how to make a dollar go really far. Trust us. This is in our wheelhouse. We know what the expectations are for making an indie film. We know how to be scrappy. We know how to do things quickly.’ And this was certainly a very, very ambitious indie film, the most ambitious indie film that we’d ever done. But I think that some of the tools that we’d gained from Captain Marvel in terms of just having more experience with action, having more experience with visual effects, not just Captain Marvel, but also the [Apple TV+ series] Masters of the Air kind of prepared us to do this. And then our experience working with indie films like Half Nelson and Sugar kind of prepared us for the run-and-gun nature of it.”

Fleck explained how they resisted turning the film into episodic television, adding, “There were some people that read the script though and urged us to turn it into a television series [and said] it could potentially make more money. And we were very much like, ‘No, this is a movie. This is a movie, like Creepshow, like Pulp Fiction, like Mystery Train. This is going to be a movie.’ And we stuck to it.”

How do Pedro Pascal and Jay Ellis fit into the film’s story?

Aside from Normani, Boden and Fleck spoke about the other stars such as Pascal and Ellis, the former of whom had his role interconnected through the entire film. His character, Clint, is a fictional character and not a story rooted in real-life events like most of the film.

“Pedro’s character, as we were writing, he was a completely fictional character that was kind of based more off of our love of movies in the 1980-like archetypical, kind of B-movie characters from that time,” Boden said. “He was kind of created in order that he was a tie that was starting to tie those other chapters together. And honestly, as we were writing, we just loved that character so much that we started to grow him into his own chapter. That’s why he ties all the chapters together, is that that was almost his purpose. He just became such an interesting character in and of himself that we gave him his own little story and his own life and he became like our ’80s B-movie/VHS video store kind of subculture.”

What genre twist does Jay Ellis’ segment bring?

As for Ellis, for his section of the movie, the film turns into a blaxploitation-esque, fun slasher.

“It was awesome,” said Fleck. “It was really fun to write, first of all. And Jay was so committed. He was the first person we went to and he was in from the beginning. And he was so committed to the training, to just making it look awesome. And we worked with a stunt coordinator, his name is Ron Yuan. And basically we had ideas and he would share ideas with us, and it was really collaborative and we just thought of fun ways that… fun gags that could go down in that sequence.”

Freaky Tales is in theaters now.

A24’s Death Stranding Movie Lands A Brilliant But Unlikely Director

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Kojima Productions

“Death Stranding” is one of the greatest games of the modern era, an undefinable masterpiece that bridges gaming and cinema in a way many other games claims they do but never actually achieve. It’s a visually exquisite, narratively riveting game that boasts a cast bigger than most blockbuster movies — not in A-list names, necessarily, but in movie fans’ beloved favorite directors, actors, and even Conan O’Brien.
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So when the news came out that “Death Stranding” was not just becoming a movie, but that it’d have A24 producing it, it was a rare case of Hollywood getting it 100% right. After all, creator Hideo Kojima is an avid cinephile, constantly sharing every single movie he sees on social media — and also doing some absolutely soul-crushingly scathing write-ups of the movies he didn’t like. Kojima is not the type of guy to be content with just having his masterpiece become a multi-million dollar blockbuster with flashy effects and a gimmicky cast. No, his ideal adaptation would basically be an A24 or Neon movie made by an A24 or Neon director.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what we’re getting. A24 and Kojima Productions announced that Michael Sarnoski will be directing the adaptation of “Death Stranding.” Sarnoski previously directed “A Quiet Place: Day One,” and also the Nicolas Cage movie “Pig.”
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Kojima is a cinephile, and this is an excellent choice

Kojima Productions

“Death Stranding” is set in a future where catastrophic events opened a doorway between the living and the dead, after grotesque creatures began crossing over and roaming the world. The game features stunning imagery that looks less like a traditional AAA blockbuster game and more like an indie movie, with a slow burn of a story told through meticulous pacing.
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In short, it’s a movie destined for the film festival crowd. Michael Sarnoski, a soulful filmmaker in the vein of Jeff Nichols (but without the Southern tinge), might not be the first name that comes to mind when thinking of the sci-fi elements of the “Death Stranding” story. Sarnoski’s “Pig” is a haunting drama that’s quiet and contemplative, letting the audience become intimately familiar with the main character, his world, and his pig, despite seeming like a standard revenge thriller on the surface. Even when Sarnoski tackled a blockbuster movie in “A Quiet Place: Day One,” it wasn’t the obnoxious franchise exploitation cash-in movie many expected it to be. Instead, it meticulously explored the world of the franchise and how regular people live in it, painting an image of a lived-in world and focusing on its characters instead of spectacle.
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“Death Stranding” is not the type of video game adaptation that will crack a billion dollars at the box office like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Instead, it was always destined to be a prestige movie that could give the right director the chance to play in a big sandbox while still retaining the production limitations that bring forth creativity of an indie film. If Hideo Kojima is interested in moving toward filmmaking, Michael Sarnoski is an unexpected but perfect choice for his first movie project.

12 Best Steve McQueen Movies, Ranked

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Static Media

When it comes to the biggest big screen stars of the 1960s and 1970s, even a short list would have to include Steve McQueen. He’s rarely mentioned in the same acting league as contemporaries like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but his early death in 1980 at just 50 years old is arguably the biggest reason for that. Still, even without later performances that would have surely continued to flex his acting muscles, his existing filmography shows an immense and interesting talent bristling with both energy and calm.
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It’s McQueen’s control between the relaxed and the electric, along with his genuine and visible appreciation for life, that led to the actor being dubbed “the King of Cool.” The persona served him well in roles that saw him playing underdogs and disrupters, men who refuse to abide by the established order and instead forge their own path, and it’s part of what makes him an indelible and unforgettable screen presence.
McQueen entered the public consciousness as the star of a popular television western called “Wanted Dead or Alive,” but it’s the big screen where he became a legend, and here, we’ve assembled a list of Steve McQueen’s 12 best movies.

12. The Hunter

Paramount Pictures

He’s been a bounty hunter for decades, but after catching thousands of criminals all over the United States, Ralph “Papa” Thorson is finally starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, he’s getting too old for this s***.
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Consensus wasn’t that high on “The Hunter” when it hit screens back in 1980, and the sentiment only worsened when Steve McQueen passed away just a few months later. The film may not be the ideal send-off, but as McQueen himself suggested, there’s a wonderful symmetry to kicking off a career as a TV bounty hunter and ending it as one on the big screen. This is still a fun, energetic movie that delivers a good time with a terrifically charismatic and personable lead performance.
Director Buzz Kulik gives the film an affable tone no matter the scene, and he finds a willing partner in McQueen, who moves with a casual coolness throughout. This isn’t the cool of “Bullitt,” though, as this is an old man who knows he’s out of time — in both senses of the phrase — but indifferent to those who’d judge him for it. Papa chases down bad guys with an irked resignation, with one epic pursuit unfolding in Chicago with McQueen riding atop a moving train. It’s lightweight, thrilling stuff, and it’s worth your time as McQueen says goodbye with a smile.
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11. Junior Bonner

Cinerama Releasing

Junior is a bronco-busting rodeo rider in the waning years of a career that’s left him little beyond sore muscles, and his final ride is quickly approaching.
Sam Peckinpah was a filmmaker known for films featuring anarchic violence, misanthropic characters, and women who “should have known better,” but his first collaboration with Steve McQueen delivers something far softer than anyone probably expected. “Junior Bonner” is a western of sorts, and like many in the post-modern era, it looks upon its cowboys as a dying breed. They faded away because the world no longer had room for them or need of them, and it’s those same themes at play here in the lives of rodeo riders. That story comes with a pervading sense of sadness, but neither the film nor the characters ever really give in to it.
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Like many of McQueen’s characters over the years, Junior is a man who refuses to live wholly within the system. Every metric suggests he should retire, but Junior’s holding on tight and hoping to do so for far longer than eight seconds. The truth stares characters and viewers in the face, but we cheer for him to succeed all the same. McQueen is the center of the film, but it’s well worth a watch for a supporting turn from the great Ida Lupino as his long-suffering mother.

10. The Towering Inferno

20th Century Fox

San Francisco is home to a spectacle of modern architecture, a glass high-rise meant to impress anyone who visits or even sees it from afar. Unfortunately for those partying inside, though, it’s also something of a safety hazard.
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The 1970s birthed something relatively new with the big screen disaster movie. The subgenre quickly wore out its welcome, but for a short while there, we got prestige productions pairing incredible casts and real production value with epic destruction and melodrama. 1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure” is arguably the best of the bunch, but John Guillermin’s “The Towering Inferno” burns its way to a close second. Big stunts, fiery set-pieces, and plenty of drama heat up the high-rise, and it’s all classed up by a cast of legends. 
Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn, and Robert Wagner all see their night ruined, and it’s Steve McQueen’s San Francisco fire chief who comes to their rescue. Panic and fear spread even faster than the flames, but McQueen’s patented cool infuses his character with calm and a grace under fire that serves the film well (though that didn’t stop a rivalry from sparking with Paul Newman). It’s the rare establishment authority figure role in McQueen’s filmography — even his cops and bounty hunters are rogue elements — and he gives it an informed authority telling civilians and viewers alike that it’s all going to be okay.
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9. Love with the Proper Stranger

Paramount Pictures

Their first date resulted in a pregnancy, and their second sees Angie and Rocky looking for an abortion doctor.
This is one of only two films in Steve McQueen’s filmography that feels wholly atypical for the man — the other being 1978’s “An Enemy of the People” which stars a bearded and bespectacled McQueen as a smalltown doctor trying to warn people about contaminated water. “Love with the Proper Stranger” stars McQueen as a jazz musician struggling to deal with the aftermath of a one-night stand with a young woman named Angie (Natalie Wood), and it’s a blend of progressive social commentary, romantic drama, and comedy. There are moments both sweet and silly, even as other scenes feel stark or scary including a brief visit to a back-alley abortionist.
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Family and social mores of the time are the pair’s most obvious obstacle, but their biggest is the air between them. They’re planning an abortion before they’ve even gotten to know each other, but they do just that in the process resulting in some humorous beats and affecting interactions. It all unfolds fairly naturally, and McQueen proves himself more than adept at playing a nice guy who wants to do the right thing, even before he truly knows what he wants.

8. The Sand Pebbles

20th Century Fox

It’s the 1920s, and the U.S.S. San Pablo is patrolling a river in a rumbling China. The gunboat’s engineer struggles to make sense of it all, even as the casual contradictions of war begin to overwhelm him.
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The biggest hurdle “The Sand Pebbles” faces when it comes to attracting and earning new fans is its three-hour running time. It’s a hefty investment, made even more tenuous thanks to a tone that feels uncommitted to the casual eye. Devote your time and attention to the film, though, and the ebb and flow of drama, action, commentary, and character all fall into a rhythm. The daily lives of American sailors and Chinese locals can breathe, and director Robert Wise is smart to keep viewers with them throughout instead of simply cutting out the calm, the erratic, and the ugly.
It’s what gives the engineer his arc as Jake moves from a single-minded, casually racist, and wholly indifferent man to someone whose eyes begin to open. The down time allows him time to see the locals as people — as individuals — and the result is a shift in his motivation and methodology. The choices he makes grow increasingly humane and empathetic, and while this isn’t some hugely dramatic swing, it’s a noticeable change in one person as they relate to the next. Sometimes that’s more than enough.
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7. The Cincinnati Kid

MGM

From small back rooms to lavish hotel suites, the only size that matters to a poker player is the size of the pot. Eric Stoner is card phenom on the rise in Cincinnati, and his ego won’t let him say no to a chance at beating a poker legend.
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There’s an unspoken rule that when discussing “The Cincinnati Kid” you have to also mention, as being superior, an earlier film about a young, game-playing hustler facing off against his elder. (Hint, it made our list of the best Paul Newman movies.) We won’t be doing that, though, as Norman Jewison’s poker drama stands on its own merit. Only the final hand is played for real suspense, but the poker scenes still enthrall thanks to a cast holding our attention rapt. Ann-Margret and Karl Malden are an unlikely couple caught up in a grift being orchestrated by a wonderfully malicious Rip Torn, and Edward G. Robinson brings a wise and knowing twinkle to the old pro threatened by a young gun with the juice.
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Steve McQueen plays that young gun, obviously, and he uses his effortlessly cool persona to channel something more akin to self-confidence and a focused sense of ego. He can’t lose because he’s just that damn good, and it’s almost as if he’s willing things to go his way. A series of obstacles and challenges get in the way of that certainty, though, as his attempts at sidelining love and friendship in the name of winning reach a point of impact.

6. Le Mans

National General Pictures

Michael Delaney is one of the top prospects at 24 Hours of Le Mans, despite being associated with a deadly crash from the year prior.
Automobile racing was a real-world passion of Steve McQueen’s, and he longed to make a film celebrating the sport. Perhaps fittingly for the film’s themes, bringing that vision to the screen saw McQueen burn through relationships with talents behind the camera including the film’s original director, John Sturges, who previously helmed two of the star’s biggest successes in “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Great Escape.” McQueen didn’t want a traditional Hollywood movie, and that desire ultimately contributed to him foregoing his salary in exchange for the film’s completion and integrity.
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The reception was tepid as critics and audiences wanted more plot and a “happy” ending, but time has been rightfully kind to “Le Mans” as viewers continue to come around to its thoughtful, intelligent approach to the sport and the mindset of its competitors. “When you’re racing, it’s life,” says Michael, “Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.” To that end, the film spends a lot of time free of dialogue — it’s more than 30 minutes before the first real dialogue is spoken — as we instead take in the sights and sounds of the race on our way to an ending that finds real integrity amid the gas-powered ambition.

5. The Getaway

National General Pictures

Carter McCoy is a career criminal behind bars, but when his wife helps secure an early release, he discovers that it comes with strings attached.
The second collaboration between director Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen is a film far more in line with the filmmaker’s rough and tumble reputation than their first, but the end result still shows the steadying hand of its star (and would go on to become an unlikely influence on George Miller’s “Mad Max”). McQueen stars opposite Ali McGraw as a husband and wife coerced into a robbery that immediately goes bad. Both the police and the crooks are on their trail, but their relationship remains their biggest challenge. Self-doubt and cold truths threaten their bond far more than any shotgun blasts can.
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That marital bliss past the brink of dysfunction is the core of “The Getaway,” its beating heart in more ways than one, but Peckinpah isn’t making a simple drama here. This is a bloody, violent love story about a relationship tested by carnage, infidelity with purpose, and forgiveness gifted over corpses of your enemies. Shootouts are messy, squib-filled affairs where flesh, wood, and glass are blasted all over, but it’s the pieces of their relationship that Carter and Carol (McGraw) are most interested in collecting and mending. It won’t be easy and the odds are against them, but Slim Pickens is better than no pickens at all. (Note: This joke only works if you’ve seen the movie.)

4. Papillon

Allied Artists

A burglar nicknamed Papillon is convicted of a violent crime he didn’t commit, but he proves an elusive prisoner to keep in custody.
It’s not difficult to see why two of Steve McQueen’s most popular films feature him as a man determined to be free, but where “The Great Escape” ends on something of a downer, “Papillon” goes black on its star floating towards freedom. It’s something of a necessary conclusion, I’d argue, as the preceding two hours plus offers a grueling litany of abuse, hopelessness, and the dampening of the human spirit. As bleak as things get, and they get pretty darn bleak, McQueen’s Papillon is a man unbent who refuses to give up or give in, and it results in a draining but inspiring watch.
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Papillon is the center of the film, but it’s made clear that he’s a man fueled and emotionally fed by those around him. Some people are helpful while others turn their backs on him, and he finds a partner at the center of it all in Dustin Hoffman’s Louis Dega — another example of Hoffman’s acting chops in a career filled with greatness. A shy man with resources and a need for protection, Dega is Papillon’s reminder that compassion and kindness continue to exist. He’s a reminder for viewers as well, just as Papillon encourages us to keep fighting no matter how long that journey takes.

3. The Magnificent Seven

United Artists

Residents of a tiny Mexican village grow weary of a group of bandits who frequently swing by only to steal their crops, so a plan to hire gunslingers is hatched.
Remaking Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” may have seemed a foolish endeavor to some, but not only was Kurosawa himself influenced by American westerns, but “The Magnificent Seven” is also a classic that stands on its own boot heels as one of the best westerns of all time. Key to its success is an ensemble of big screen stars on the rise, including Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, and of course, Steve McQueen. Each brings their own brand of charisma, and each stands out through some combination of bravado, appearance, and skillset. Add in Eli Wallach as the head Mexican bandit (I know, I know, but it was a different time!), and you have an epic collision of talent and testosterone.
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McQueen is third-billed and plays sidekick to Brynner’s lead, but even here his casual coolness oozes outward with his every scene. Some gunslingers crave financial reward, while others are more interested in chasing the action and while McQueen’s Vin is in the latter camp he’s an action junkie with a conscience. This was his first big screen western after becoming a TV star with “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and it’s what gave him enough of a bump to leave the small screen behind for good.

2. Bullitt

Warner Bros.

A state’s witness is gunned down while in police custody, and the higher-ups are upset over how it makes them look. For a cop named Bullitt, though, the anger he feels is far more personal.
Look at any list of the best car chases in cinema, and the one featured in “Bullitt” is guaranteed to be revving its engines near the top. It’s an impressive feat, especially for a film that’s over half a century old. The secret sauce here is a combination of factors including San Francisco’s beauty and breadth as a physical, tangible backdrop for the action. Director Peter Yates also lets the chase breathe, free of dialogue and score for the most part, as we move from busy city streets to scenic, desolate stretches.
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That chase is all too many viewers remember, and that’s both understandable and unfortun,ate as the film itself is a classic for more than just the car action. It’s a dense procedural that sees Bullitt and his team doing the grunt work to solve their case and catch the bad guys, and Steve McQueen is at his steely-eyed, cool as hell best. The supporting players include the welcome likes of Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Norman Fell, and Robert Duvall, and it all culminates in a thrillingly tense airport set piece — again, mostly free of dialogue and score — that feels like an obvious inspiration for the ending of Michael Mann’s “Heat.”

1. The Great Escape

United Artists

World War II rages, and the Nazis are collecting Allied POWs like trading cards. One prisoner of war camp is deemed escape-proof by German command, but nobody thought to tell the prisoners.
Steve McQueen had a television series and co-starred in “The Magnificent Seven,” but it’s “The Great Escape” that truly launched him into super stardom. It’s a showy role that McQueen fills with guts and charisma, and the character’s journey from self-interest to self-sacrifice remains as powerful today as it was 60 years ago. The dangerous motorcycle chase and fence jump thrill so successfully that it’s easy to forget, each and every time you watch, that it still ends in his recapture. What viewers don’t forget, though, is the character’s resilience in the face of oppression — something that sadly feels timely even today.
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McQueen is just part of the film’s overall appeal and brilliance. Director John Sturges, who previously corralled McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn with “The Magnificent Seven,” once again shows a masterful control over an ensemble heavy with personalities. James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, and more help bring the rousing story to life resulting in a thrilling tale and one of the great prison escape films. Knowing it’s loosely based on real events adds additional weight to its themes of courage, honor, and integrity, and it makes the film all the more relevant in today’s climate.

Who Plays Alex In A Minecraft Movie?

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Warner Bros.

This post contains major spoilers for “A Minecraft Movie.”
It looks like Warner Bros. has birthed a brand new movie franchise thanks to “A Minecraft Movie.” The studio brought the beloved game to life on the big screen, with Jared Hess in the director’s chair. Even though Hess wasn’t the original choice to direct the movie, he appeared to be the right choice in light of its blockbuster debut. That almost certainly means WB is going to get cracking on a sequel ASAP. Thanks to the post-credits scene, we have some idea of what the sequel is going to involve. Alex has entered the game.
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“A Minecraft Movie” is absolutely loaded with Easter eggs, but they saved the biggest one for last. Those who stuck around during the credits witnessed Jack Black’s Steven speaking with a mysterious red-headed stranger. At the end of the scene, we learn that person’s name and yes, it’s Alex. This sets the character up to appear in the presumed “Minecraft Movie” sequel, which hasn’t been announced yet but almost certainly will be soon. So, who plays Alex? That’s a surprisingly complicated question, for the time being.
As it stands, Alice May Connolly (“Sweet Tooth”) is credited on IMDB as an “Alex Double.” She’s probably not going to play the character come time for the sequel, especially since the character’s face was deliberately hidden in the credits scene. When asked directly by IGN who Alex’s voice actor is, Hess didn’t help out much, saying, “It’s a mystery.” The director added:
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“[We’re] full of mysteries, but definitely excited. That character, that’s a whole other fun chapter we’d be excited about.”

Who is playing Alex in A Minecraft Movie? There’s one big theory

Mojang

So back to the question of who is going to play Alex in the “Minecraft” movie universe moving forward. Though it has yet to be confirmed by the studio, multiple reports have suggested that the character is voiced by none other than “Barbie” star Kate McKinnon, who is also known very well for her days on “Saturday Night Live.” McKinnon would seem like a great fit alongside Black, with the two presumably leading the next installment as co-leads.
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Alex is a very important character in “Minecraft” lore. She was the second character skin added to “Minecraft,” and is very often associated with Steve. Given the game’s long, storied history, it’s not hard to see why fans would be particularly excited at the prospect of seeing Alex brought to life.
Getting a big comedic star like McKinnon would make a lot of sense. The critical response to “A Minecraft Movie” was a little mixed, but it’s been a resounding success with fans and at the box office thus far. A sequel is sure to happen and, at that point, Warner Bros. will probably need to settle on a deal with the actor in question. Maybe they didn’t show the actor’s face for a reason. Maybe they want to keep their options open. For now, we can only wonder if that voice truly does belong to McKinnon until Warner Bros., Hess, or even the actor in question confirms it.
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“A Minecraft Movie” is in theaters now.