I didn\'t find out until today, but director John Frankenheimer died on Saturday at the age of 72. The man was an awesome storyteller with an excellent sense of visual composition. He directed some of my favorite films over his long career, including "The Manchurian Candidate", "Seven Days in May", "Grand Prix", "The Iceman cometh", "The French Connection II", "Black Sunday", "52 Pickup", and "Ronin." I particularly liked "The French connection II," which I think may be better than William Friedkin\'s original. Well, I like them both.
Frankenheimer also directed many television movies, including several recently for HBO. The recently released HBO movie on Lyndon Johnson\'s presidency, "The Path to War" was really outstanding, and I\'d recommend it to everyone.