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Welcome to Our Generation USA!
Below, we cover the Most Popular Movies of the
1970s (1970-1979)
that were not a Prequel or Sequel as covered under the Separate Web Page
"Popular Movie Franchises"
Airport is a 1970 American drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin, directed and written by George Seaton, and based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel of the same name. It originated the 1970s disaster film genre. It is also the first in the Airport film series.
Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned nearly $100 million. The film is about an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicidal bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight. It takes place at fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago, Illinois. The film was a critical success and surpassed Spartacus as Universal Pictures' biggest moneymaker.
The movie won Helen Hayes an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly stowaway and was nominated for nine other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design for designer Edith Head.
With attention paid to the detail of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot concerns the response to a paralyzing snowstorm, environmental concerns over noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner. The film is characterized by personal stories intertwining while decisions are made minute-by-minute by the airport and airline staffs, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews, and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers.
Ernest Laszlo photographed it in 70 mm Todd-AO. It is the last film scored by Alfred Newman and the last film roles for Van Heflin and Jessie Royce Landis.
Plot:
Chicago is paralyzed by a snowstorm affecting Lincoln International Airport. A Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Boeing 707 flight crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway, becoming stuck in the snow and closing that runway.
Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his wife, Cindy. A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with a co-worker, TGA customer relations agent Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).
Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) is a TGA captain scheduled to be the checkride captain for the airline to evaluate Captain Anson Harris during its Flight 2 to Rome. TGA's flagship international service, named The Golden Argosy, is being operated with a Boeing 707.
Although Demerest is married to Bakersfeld's sister, Sarah, he is secretly having an affair with Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), chief stewardess on the flight, who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child. Bakersfeld borrows TWA mechanic Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) to assist with moving TGA's disabled plane blocking Runway 29. Mel and Tanya also deal with Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), an elderly lady from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway on various airlines.
Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys both a one-way TGA ticket aboard The Golden Argosy and a large life insurance policy with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up the plane.
He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic Ocean so that his wife, Inez, will collect the insurance money of $225,000. His erratic behavior at the airport, including using his last cash to buy the insurance policy and mistaking a U.S. Customs officer for an airline gate agent, attracts airport officials' attention.
Inez finds a Special Delivery envelope from a travel agency and, realizing D.O. might be doing something desperate, goes to the airport to try to dissuade him. She informs airport officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation is dire.
Ada manages to evade the TGA employee assigned the task of putting her on a flight back to Los Angeles, talks her way past the gate agent, boards Flight 2, and happens to sit next to D.O. When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of D.O.'s presence and possible intentions, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers.
Once Ada is discovered, her help is enlisted by the crew to get to D.O.'s briefcase, but the ploy fails when a would-be helpful male passenger unwittingly returns the case to D.O.
Demerest goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade D.O. not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy will be useless.
D.O. briefly considers giving Demerest the bomb, but just then another passenger exits the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft, and the same would-be helpful passenger yells out that D.O. has a bomb. D.O. runs into the lavatory, locks it, and sets off the device. D.O. dies instantly and is blown out of the aircraft through the hole in the fuselage caused by the explosion.
Gwen, just outside the door, is injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the airplane.
With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, they return to Lincoln for an emergency landing. Due to the bomb damage, Demerest demands the airport's longest runway—Runway 29, which is still closed due to the stuck airliner. Eventually Bakersfield orders the plane to be pushed off the runway by snowplows, despite the costly damage they would do to it.
Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on 707s, has been trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the 707's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet without damage, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled Golden Argosy to land.
In a brief epilogue, Ada is enjoying her reward of free first-class travel on TGA. But as she arrives at the gate, she laments that it was "much more fun the other way."
Click here for more about the 1970 Movie "Airport".
Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned nearly $100 million. The film is about an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicidal bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight. It takes place at fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago, Illinois. The film was a critical success and surpassed Spartacus as Universal Pictures' biggest moneymaker.
The movie won Helen Hayes an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly stowaway and was nominated for nine other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design for designer Edith Head.
With attention paid to the detail of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot concerns the response to a paralyzing snowstorm, environmental concerns over noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner. The film is characterized by personal stories intertwining while decisions are made minute-by-minute by the airport and airline staffs, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews, and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers.
Ernest Laszlo photographed it in 70 mm Todd-AO. It is the last film scored by Alfred Newman and the last film roles for Van Heflin and Jessie Royce Landis.
Plot:
Chicago is paralyzed by a snowstorm affecting Lincoln International Airport. A Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Boeing 707 flight crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway, becoming stuck in the snow and closing that runway.
Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his wife, Cindy. A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with a co-worker, TGA customer relations agent Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).
Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) is a TGA captain scheduled to be the checkride captain for the airline to evaluate Captain Anson Harris during its Flight 2 to Rome. TGA's flagship international service, named The Golden Argosy, is being operated with a Boeing 707.
Although Demerest is married to Bakersfeld's sister, Sarah, he is secretly having an affair with Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), chief stewardess on the flight, who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child. Bakersfeld borrows TWA mechanic Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) to assist with moving TGA's disabled plane blocking Runway 29. Mel and Tanya also deal with Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), an elderly lady from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway on various airlines.
Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys both a one-way TGA ticket aboard The Golden Argosy and a large life insurance policy with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up the plane.
He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic Ocean so that his wife, Inez, will collect the insurance money of $225,000. His erratic behavior at the airport, including using his last cash to buy the insurance policy and mistaking a U.S. Customs officer for an airline gate agent, attracts airport officials' attention.
Inez finds a Special Delivery envelope from a travel agency and, realizing D.O. might be doing something desperate, goes to the airport to try to dissuade him. She informs airport officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation is dire.
Ada manages to evade the TGA employee assigned the task of putting her on a flight back to Los Angeles, talks her way past the gate agent, boards Flight 2, and happens to sit next to D.O. When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of D.O.'s presence and possible intentions, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers.
Once Ada is discovered, her help is enlisted by the crew to get to D.O.'s briefcase, but the ploy fails when a would-be helpful male passenger unwittingly returns the case to D.O.
Demerest goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade D.O. not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy will be useless.
D.O. briefly considers giving Demerest the bomb, but just then another passenger exits the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft, and the same would-be helpful passenger yells out that D.O. has a bomb. D.O. runs into the lavatory, locks it, and sets off the device. D.O. dies instantly and is blown out of the aircraft through the hole in the fuselage caused by the explosion.
Gwen, just outside the door, is injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the airplane.
With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, they return to Lincoln for an emergency landing. Due to the bomb damage, Demerest demands the airport's longest runway—Runway 29, which is still closed due to the stuck airliner. Eventually Bakersfield orders the plane to be pushed off the runway by snowplows, despite the costly damage they would do to it.
Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on 707s, has been trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the 707's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet without damage, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled Golden Argosy to land.
In a brief epilogue, Ada is enjoying her reward of free first-class travel on TGA. But as she arrives at the gate, she laments that it was "much more fun the other way."
Click here for more about the 1970 Movie "Airport".
Blazing Saddles (1974)
YouTube Video of Classic Movie Moments from BLAZING SADDLES
Pictured: LEFT: Cleavon Little as “Sheriff Bart” and Mel Brooks as “Gov. William J. Le Petomane”; RIGHT: Mel Brooks as Indian Chief
YouTube Video of Classic Movie Moments from BLAZING SADDLES
Pictured: LEFT: Cleavon Little as “Sheriff Bart” and Mel Brooks as “Gov. William J. Le Petomane”; RIGHT: Mel Brooks as Indian Chief
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft.
The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
Brooks appears in two supporting roles, Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief; he also dubs lines for one of Lili von Shtupp's backing troupe.
The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself.
The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in an all-white town.
The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from the Count Basie Orchestra playing "April in Paris" in the Wild West, to Slim Pickens referring to the Wide World of Sports, to the German army of World War II.
Plot:
On the American frontier of 1874, a new railroad will soon be rerouted through Rock Ridge, in order to avoid running through quicksand. Realizing this will make Rock Ridge worth millions, the conniving attorney general Hedley Lamarr wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town, and sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to shoot the sheriff and trash the town.
The townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart, a black railroad worker, who was about to be executed for assaulting Taggart earlier. A black sheriff, he reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave the town at his mercy.
After an initial hostile reception (where Sheriff Bart has to take himself hostage to escape), he relies on his quick wits and the assistance of Jim, an alcoholic gunslinger known as the "Waco Kid", to overcome the townspeople's hostility. He subdues Mongo, an immensely strong, dim-witted, but philosophical henchman sent to kill him, then he beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtüpp at her own game, with Lili falling in love with him.
Upon Mongo's release, he vaguely informs Bart of Lamarr's connection to the railroad, so Bart and Jim visit the railroad work site and discover from Charlie, Bart's best friend, that the railway is planned to go through Rock Ridge. Just as Taggart and his men arrive to kill Bart, Jim outshoots the thugs, forcing Taggart to retreat to Lamarr.
Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazis, and Methodists.
Three miles east of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the black, Chinese, and Irish railroad workers, who have agreed to help in exchange for acceptance by the community, and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town, as a diversion; with no people in it, though, Bart realizes it will not fool the villains.
While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway", forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town populated with dummies, which are booby-trapped with dynamite bombs.
After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers storm the villains.
The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall, spilling onto a neighboring set, where director Buddy Bizarre is directing a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; then into the studio commissary for a food fight; and then out of the Warner Bros. film lot into the streets of Burbank. Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten, hails a taxi and orders the driver to "drive me off this picture".
He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he settles into his seat, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape, and then shoots him in the groin. Bart and Jim then go into Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on.
Riding out of town, he finds Jim, and invites him along to "nowhere special". They ride off into the sunset on horseback, but stop at a chauffeured stretch limousine and continue outward in the vehicle.
Click here for more about the Movie "Blazing Saddles".
The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
Brooks appears in two supporting roles, Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief; he also dubs lines for one of Lili von Shtupp's backing troupe.
The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself.
The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in an all-white town.
The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from the Count Basie Orchestra playing "April in Paris" in the Wild West, to Slim Pickens referring to the Wide World of Sports, to the German army of World War II.
Plot:
On the American frontier of 1874, a new railroad will soon be rerouted through Rock Ridge, in order to avoid running through quicksand. Realizing this will make Rock Ridge worth millions, the conniving attorney general Hedley Lamarr wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town, and sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to shoot the sheriff and trash the town.
The townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart, a black railroad worker, who was about to be executed for assaulting Taggart earlier. A black sheriff, he reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave the town at his mercy.
After an initial hostile reception (where Sheriff Bart has to take himself hostage to escape), he relies on his quick wits and the assistance of Jim, an alcoholic gunslinger known as the "Waco Kid", to overcome the townspeople's hostility. He subdues Mongo, an immensely strong, dim-witted, but philosophical henchman sent to kill him, then he beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtüpp at her own game, with Lili falling in love with him.
Upon Mongo's release, he vaguely informs Bart of Lamarr's connection to the railroad, so Bart and Jim visit the railroad work site and discover from Charlie, Bart's best friend, that the railway is planned to go through Rock Ridge. Just as Taggart and his men arrive to kill Bart, Jim outshoots the thugs, forcing Taggart to retreat to Lamarr.
Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazis, and Methodists.
Three miles east of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the black, Chinese, and Irish railroad workers, who have agreed to help in exchange for acceptance by the community, and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town, as a diversion; with no people in it, though, Bart realizes it will not fool the villains.
While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway", forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town populated with dummies, which are booby-trapped with dynamite bombs.
After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers storm the villains.
The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall, spilling onto a neighboring set, where director Buddy Bizarre is directing a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; then into the studio commissary for a food fight; and then out of the Warner Bros. film lot into the streets of Burbank. Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten, hails a taxi and orders the driver to "drive me off this picture".
He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he settles into his seat, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape, and then shoots him in the groin. Bart and Jim then go into Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on.
Riding out of town, he finds Jim, and invites him along to "nowhere special". They ride off into the sunset on horseback, but stop at a chauffeured stretch limousine and continue outward in the vehicle.
Click here for more about the Movie "Blazing Saddles".
Apocalypse Now (1979)
YouTube Video from Apocalypse Now
Pictured: LEFT: Dennis Hopper; RIGHT: Vietnam jungle burning from Napalm attack.
YouTube Video from Apocalypse Now
Pictured: LEFT: Dennis Hopper; RIGHT: Vietnam jungle burning from Napalm attack.
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic adventure war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Martin Sheen. The film follows the central character, Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen), on a secret mission to assassinate the renegade and presumed insane Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Brando).
The screenplay by John Milius and Coppola updates the setting of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness to that of the Vietnam War era. It also draws from Michael Herr's Dispatches, the film version of Conrad's Lord Jim, and Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972).
Apocalypse Now was released to wide acclaim. It was honored with the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. The film was also ranked No. 14 in the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound greatest films poll in 2012.
In 2000, Apocalypse Now was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for films deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
In 1969, during the Vietnam War, United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz has apparently gone insane; at an outpost in Cambodia, he commands Montagnard troops who see him as a demi-god. Colonel Lucas and General Corman, increasingly concerned with Kurtz's vigilante operations, assign MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard to "terminate" Kurtz with "extreme prejudice".
Willard, initially ambivalent, joins a United States Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief, with crewmen Lance, "Chef", and "Mr. Clean" to head upriver. They rendezvous with surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment commander, to discuss going up the Nùng.
Kilgore scoffs but befriends Lance after discovering he is a famous surfer and agrees to escort them through the Nùng's Viet Cong–held coastal mouth. The helicopter squadron raids at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the local cadres. Willard gathers his men to the PBR and journeys upriver.
Tension arises as Willard believes himself in command of the PBR while Chief prioritizes other objectives over Willard's. Slowly making their way upriver, Willard reveals his mission partially to the Chief to assuage his concerns about why his mission should proceed.
As night falls, the PBR reaches the American Do Lung Bridge outpost on the Nùng River. Willard and Lance enter seeking information for what is upriver. Unable to find the commander, Willard orders the Chief to continue as an unseen enemy launches an assault on the bridge.
The next day, Willard learns from dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Captain Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's and has since joined Kurtz.
As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of a camouflaged enemy, and Mr. Clean is killed. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives and attempts to kill Willard by impaling him.
Willard suffocates him and Lance buries Chief in the river. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, but despite Chef's anger towards the mission, he rejects Willard's offer for him to continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.
The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, and the surviving crew are met by an American freelance photojournalist, who manically praises Kurtz's genius. As they wander through, they come across a near-catatonic Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz's renegade army. Returning to the PBR, Willard later takes Lance with him, leaving Chef behind with orders to call in an airstrike on Kurtz's compound if they do not return. Kurtz later kills Chef.
In the camp, Willard is subdued, bound and brought before Kurtz in a darkened temple. Tortured and imprisoned for several days, Willard is released and allowed to freely roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human condition and civilization, while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. Kurtz discusses his family and asks that Willard tell his son about him after his death.
That night, as the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz's chamber as he is making a recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters "... The horror ... the horror ..." and dies.
All in the compound see Willard departing, carrying a collection of Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard then leads Lance to the boat and they sail away. Kurtz's final words echo eerily as everything fades to black.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks here for more about Apocalypse Now:
The screenplay by John Milius and Coppola updates the setting of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness to that of the Vietnam War era. It also draws from Michael Herr's Dispatches, the film version of Conrad's Lord Jim, and Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972).
Apocalypse Now was released to wide acclaim. It was honored with the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. The film was also ranked No. 14 in the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound greatest films poll in 2012.
In 2000, Apocalypse Now was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for films deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
In 1969, during the Vietnam War, United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz has apparently gone insane; at an outpost in Cambodia, he commands Montagnard troops who see him as a demi-god. Colonel Lucas and General Corman, increasingly concerned with Kurtz's vigilante operations, assign MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard to "terminate" Kurtz with "extreme prejudice".
Willard, initially ambivalent, joins a United States Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief, with crewmen Lance, "Chef", and "Mr. Clean" to head upriver. They rendezvous with surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment commander, to discuss going up the Nùng.
Kilgore scoffs but befriends Lance after discovering he is a famous surfer and agrees to escort them through the Nùng's Viet Cong–held coastal mouth. The helicopter squadron raids at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the local cadres. Willard gathers his men to the PBR and journeys upriver.
Tension arises as Willard believes himself in command of the PBR while Chief prioritizes other objectives over Willard's. Slowly making their way upriver, Willard reveals his mission partially to the Chief to assuage his concerns about why his mission should proceed.
As night falls, the PBR reaches the American Do Lung Bridge outpost on the Nùng River. Willard and Lance enter seeking information for what is upriver. Unable to find the commander, Willard orders the Chief to continue as an unseen enemy launches an assault on the bridge.
The next day, Willard learns from dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Captain Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's and has since joined Kurtz.
As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of a camouflaged enemy, and Mr. Clean is killed. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives and attempts to kill Willard by impaling him.
Willard suffocates him and Lance buries Chief in the river. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, but despite Chef's anger towards the mission, he rejects Willard's offer for him to continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.
The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, and the surviving crew are met by an American freelance photojournalist, who manically praises Kurtz's genius. As they wander through, they come across a near-catatonic Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz's renegade army. Returning to the PBR, Willard later takes Lance with him, leaving Chef behind with orders to call in an airstrike on Kurtz's compound if they do not return. Kurtz later kills Chef.
In the camp, Willard is subdued, bound and brought before Kurtz in a darkened temple. Tortured and imprisoned for several days, Willard is released and allowed to freely roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human condition and civilization, while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. Kurtz discusses his family and asks that Willard tell his son about him after his death.
That night, as the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz's chamber as he is making a recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters "... The horror ... the horror ..." and dies.
All in the compound see Willard departing, carrying a collection of Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard then leads Lance to the boat and they sail away. Kurtz's final words echo eerily as everything fades to black.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks here for more about Apocalypse Now:
- Cast
- Adaptation including Use of T. S. Eliot's poetry
- Production
- Other versions
- Reception
- Awards and honors
- Home video releases
- Documentaries
- See also:
- Apocalypse Now on IMDb
- Apocalypse Now at Rotten Tomatoes
- Apocalypse Now at Metacritic
- Apocalypse Now at AllMovie
- Apocalypse Now at Box Office Mojo
- The strained making of Apocalypse Now at www.independent.co.uk.
Fiddler on the Roof is a 1971 American musical comedy-drama film produced and directed by Norman Jewison. It is an adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name, with music composed by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and screenplay by Joseph Stein.
The film won three Academy Awards, including one for arranger-conductor John Williams. It was nominated for several more, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Chaim Topol as Tevye, and Best Supporting Actor for Leonard Frey, who played Mottel Kamzoil the Tailor (both had originally acted in the musical; Topol as Tevye in the London production and Frey in a minor part as Mendel, the rabbi's son).
The decision to cast Topol, instead of Zero Mostel, as Tevye was a somewhat controversial one, as the role had originated with Mostel and he had made it famous. Years later, Jewison explained that he felt Mostel's larger-than-life personality, while fine on stage, would cause film audiences to see him (i.e., Zero Mostel, the actor) rather than the character of Tevye.
The film centers on the Tevye family, a Jewish family living in the town of Anatevka, in the Russian Empire, in 1905. Anatevka is broken into two sections: a small Orthodox Jewish section and a larger Russian Orthodox Christian section. Tevye notes that, "We don't bother them, and so far, they don't bother us." Throughout the film, Tevye breaks the fourth wall by talking at times, directly to the audience or to the heavens (to God), for the audience's benefit. Much of the story is told in musical form.
Tevye is not wealthy, partly because he has a lot of children, despite working hard, like most Jews in Anatevka. He and his sharp-tongued wife, Golde, have five daughters and cannot afford to give them much in the way of dowries.
According to their tradition, they have to rely on the village matchmaker, Yente, to find them husbands. Life in the little town of Anatevka is very hard and Tevye speaks not only of the difficulties of being poor but also of the Jewish community's constant fear of harassment from their non-Jewish neighbors. In addition, Tevye has a lame horse that adds to the misery of being poor, and has to pull the wagon by himself.
Plot:
The film's plot largely follows that of the musical from which it is adapted.
Act 1In 1905, Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman living in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka, a typical shtetl in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia, compares the lives of the Jews of Anatevka to a fiddler on the roof (who appears throughout the film in this metaphorical role), using tradition to "scratch out a pleasant, simple tune" without breaking their necks.
In town, Tevye meets Perchik, a radical Marxist from Kiev, who admonishes them for talking but doing nothing about news of Jews being banished from their villages by the tsar. Tevye invites Perchik to stay with his family, offering him room and board in exchange for Perchik tutoring his daughters.
Tevye arranges for his oldest daughter, Tzeitel, to marry Lazar Wolf, an older, and widowed, wealthy butcher. Tzeitel is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Motel Kamzoil, and begs her father not to make her marry Lazar Wolf. Although he is initially angry, Tevye realizes that Tzeitel loves Motel and yields to his daughter's demands.
In order to convince his wife Golde that Tzeitel should not be married to Lazar Wolf, Tevye claims to have had a nightmare. He says that Golde's deceased grandmother told him Tzeitel is supposed to marry Motel, and that Lazar Wolf's late wife, Fruma-Sarah, threatened to kill Tzeitel if the two are married. Golde concludes that the dream was a message from their ancestors, and Tzeitel and Motel arrange to be married.
Meanwhile, Tevye's second daughter, Hodel, and Perchik begin to fall in love. They argue over the story of Leah and the place of old religious traditions in a changing world. The two dance together, which is considered forbidden by Orthodox Jewish tradition. Perchik tells Hodel that they just changed an old tradition.
At Tzeitel and Motel's wedding, an argument breaks out after Lazar Wolf presents the newlyweds with gifts. When Tevye tries to speak to Lazar about the Torah, Lazar refuses to listen, arguing that the wedding should have been his all along. Minutes later, another argument breaks out over whether a girl should be able to choose her own husband. Perchik addresses the crowd and says that, since they love each other, it should be left for the couple to decide. He creates further controversy by asking Hodel to dance with him.
The crowd gradually warms to the idea and Tevye and Golde, then Motel and Tzeitel, join in dancing. The wedding proceeds with great joy. Suddenly, the military presence in the town and the constable arrive and begin a pogrom, the "demonstration" which he had earlier warned Tevye was coming.
The constable stops the attack on the wedding celebration after Perchik is wounded in the scuffle with the tsar's men; however, he allows the men to continue destroying property in the village. Tevye and the immediate family stand still, until Tevye angrily orders them to clean up instead of standing around. Tevye silently asks why God allowed this to happen to them.
Intermission:
In its original theatrical release, the film was shown with an intermission and entr'acte music.
Act 2:
Months later, Perchik prepares to leave Anatevka for the revolution. He proposes to Hodel, and she accepts. When they tell Tevye, he is furious that they have decided to marry without his permission, but he again relents because they love each other. Tevye tells Golde his reasons for consenting to their daughter's marriage, which leads them to re-evaluate their own arranged marriage. Tevye and Golde ultimately realize that, despite having been paired by a matchmaker, they do love each other.
Weeks later, Perchik is arrested in Kiev and is exiled to Siberia. Hodel decides to join him there. She promises Tevye that she and Perchik will be married under a canopy. Meanwhile, Tzeitel and Motel become parents, and Motel finally buys the sewing machine for which he has long scrimped and saved.
Tevye's third daughter Chava falls in love with a Russian Orthodox Christian named Fyedka. Tevye tells Chava to be distant friends with Fyedka, because of the difference in their religions. When Chava eventually works up the courage to ask Tevye's permission to marry Fyedka, Tevye tells her that marrying outside the family's faith is against tradition. He forbids her from having any contact with Fyedka or from even mentioning his name. The next morning, Fyedka and Chava elope and are married in a Russian Orthodox church.
Golde learns of the marriage when she meets up with the priest. When a grief-stricken Golde tells Tevye about the marriage, he tells her that Chava is dead to the family and that they shall forget her altogether. Chava asks Tevye to accept her marriage. In a soliloquy, Tevye concludes that he cannot accept Chava marrying a non-Jew. He accuses her of abandoning the Jewish faith and disowns her.
One winter day, the Jews of Anatevka are notified that they have three days to leave the village or be forced out by the government. Tevye, his family and friends begin packing up to leave, heading for various parts of Europe, Palestine, and the United States.
Yente, the Matchmaker, plans to emigrate to Jerusalem, and says goodbye to Golde with an embrace before departing. Lazar Wolf plans to emigrate to Chicago, to live with his former brother in law, whom he detests, but "a relative is a relative". Lazar and Tevye share one last embrace before departing.
Tevye receives letters from Hodel mentioning that she is working hard while Perchik stays in the Siberian prison. It is hoped that when Perchik is released, they will join the others in the United States. Chava and her husband Fyedka come to Tevye's house and tell the family that they are leaving for Kraków in Russian Poland, being unable to stay in a place that would force innocent people out.
Tevye shows signs of forgiving Chava by murmuring under his breath "And God be with you," silently urging Tzeitel to repeat his words to Chava. Golde calls out to Chava and Fyedka, telling them where they will be living in New York with a relative.
The Constable silently watches as the mass evacuation of Anatevka takes place. The community forms their circle at a crossroad one last time before scattering in different directions. Tevye spots the fiddler and motions to him to come along, symbolizing that even though he must leave his town, his traditions will always be with him.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Fiddler on the Roof":
The film won three Academy Awards, including one for arranger-conductor John Williams. It was nominated for several more, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Chaim Topol as Tevye, and Best Supporting Actor for Leonard Frey, who played Mottel Kamzoil the Tailor (both had originally acted in the musical; Topol as Tevye in the London production and Frey in a minor part as Mendel, the rabbi's son).
The decision to cast Topol, instead of Zero Mostel, as Tevye was a somewhat controversial one, as the role had originated with Mostel and he had made it famous. Years later, Jewison explained that he felt Mostel's larger-than-life personality, while fine on stage, would cause film audiences to see him (i.e., Zero Mostel, the actor) rather than the character of Tevye.
The film centers on the Tevye family, a Jewish family living in the town of Anatevka, in the Russian Empire, in 1905. Anatevka is broken into two sections: a small Orthodox Jewish section and a larger Russian Orthodox Christian section. Tevye notes that, "We don't bother them, and so far, they don't bother us." Throughout the film, Tevye breaks the fourth wall by talking at times, directly to the audience or to the heavens (to God), for the audience's benefit. Much of the story is told in musical form.
Tevye is not wealthy, partly because he has a lot of children, despite working hard, like most Jews in Anatevka. He and his sharp-tongued wife, Golde, have five daughters and cannot afford to give them much in the way of dowries.
According to their tradition, they have to rely on the village matchmaker, Yente, to find them husbands. Life in the little town of Anatevka is very hard and Tevye speaks not only of the difficulties of being poor but also of the Jewish community's constant fear of harassment from their non-Jewish neighbors. In addition, Tevye has a lame horse that adds to the misery of being poor, and has to pull the wagon by himself.
Plot:
The film's plot largely follows that of the musical from which it is adapted.
Act 1In 1905, Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman living in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka, a typical shtetl in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia, compares the lives of the Jews of Anatevka to a fiddler on the roof (who appears throughout the film in this metaphorical role), using tradition to "scratch out a pleasant, simple tune" without breaking their necks.
In town, Tevye meets Perchik, a radical Marxist from Kiev, who admonishes them for talking but doing nothing about news of Jews being banished from their villages by the tsar. Tevye invites Perchik to stay with his family, offering him room and board in exchange for Perchik tutoring his daughters.
Tevye arranges for his oldest daughter, Tzeitel, to marry Lazar Wolf, an older, and widowed, wealthy butcher. Tzeitel is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Motel Kamzoil, and begs her father not to make her marry Lazar Wolf. Although he is initially angry, Tevye realizes that Tzeitel loves Motel and yields to his daughter's demands.
In order to convince his wife Golde that Tzeitel should not be married to Lazar Wolf, Tevye claims to have had a nightmare. He says that Golde's deceased grandmother told him Tzeitel is supposed to marry Motel, and that Lazar Wolf's late wife, Fruma-Sarah, threatened to kill Tzeitel if the two are married. Golde concludes that the dream was a message from their ancestors, and Tzeitel and Motel arrange to be married.
Meanwhile, Tevye's second daughter, Hodel, and Perchik begin to fall in love. They argue over the story of Leah and the place of old religious traditions in a changing world. The two dance together, which is considered forbidden by Orthodox Jewish tradition. Perchik tells Hodel that they just changed an old tradition.
At Tzeitel and Motel's wedding, an argument breaks out after Lazar Wolf presents the newlyweds with gifts. When Tevye tries to speak to Lazar about the Torah, Lazar refuses to listen, arguing that the wedding should have been his all along. Minutes later, another argument breaks out over whether a girl should be able to choose her own husband. Perchik addresses the crowd and says that, since they love each other, it should be left for the couple to decide. He creates further controversy by asking Hodel to dance with him.
The crowd gradually warms to the idea and Tevye and Golde, then Motel and Tzeitel, join in dancing. The wedding proceeds with great joy. Suddenly, the military presence in the town and the constable arrive and begin a pogrom, the "demonstration" which he had earlier warned Tevye was coming.
The constable stops the attack on the wedding celebration after Perchik is wounded in the scuffle with the tsar's men; however, he allows the men to continue destroying property in the village. Tevye and the immediate family stand still, until Tevye angrily orders them to clean up instead of standing around. Tevye silently asks why God allowed this to happen to them.
Intermission:
In its original theatrical release, the film was shown with an intermission and entr'acte music.
Act 2:
Months later, Perchik prepares to leave Anatevka for the revolution. He proposes to Hodel, and she accepts. When they tell Tevye, he is furious that they have decided to marry without his permission, but he again relents because they love each other. Tevye tells Golde his reasons for consenting to their daughter's marriage, which leads them to re-evaluate their own arranged marriage. Tevye and Golde ultimately realize that, despite having been paired by a matchmaker, they do love each other.
Weeks later, Perchik is arrested in Kiev and is exiled to Siberia. Hodel decides to join him there. She promises Tevye that she and Perchik will be married under a canopy. Meanwhile, Tzeitel and Motel become parents, and Motel finally buys the sewing machine for which he has long scrimped and saved.
Tevye's third daughter Chava falls in love with a Russian Orthodox Christian named Fyedka. Tevye tells Chava to be distant friends with Fyedka, because of the difference in their religions. When Chava eventually works up the courage to ask Tevye's permission to marry Fyedka, Tevye tells her that marrying outside the family's faith is against tradition. He forbids her from having any contact with Fyedka or from even mentioning his name. The next morning, Fyedka and Chava elope and are married in a Russian Orthodox church.
Golde learns of the marriage when she meets up with the priest. When a grief-stricken Golde tells Tevye about the marriage, he tells her that Chava is dead to the family and that they shall forget her altogether. Chava asks Tevye to accept her marriage. In a soliloquy, Tevye concludes that he cannot accept Chava marrying a non-Jew. He accuses her of abandoning the Jewish faith and disowns her.
One winter day, the Jews of Anatevka are notified that they have three days to leave the village or be forced out by the government. Tevye, his family and friends begin packing up to leave, heading for various parts of Europe, Palestine, and the United States.
Yente, the Matchmaker, plans to emigrate to Jerusalem, and says goodbye to Golde with an embrace before departing. Lazar Wolf plans to emigrate to Chicago, to live with his former brother in law, whom he detests, but "a relative is a relative". Lazar and Tevye share one last embrace before departing.
Tevye receives letters from Hodel mentioning that she is working hard while Perchik stays in the Siberian prison. It is hoped that when Perchik is released, they will join the others in the United States. Chava and her husband Fyedka come to Tevye's house and tell the family that they are leaving for Kraków in Russian Poland, being unable to stay in a place that would force innocent people out.
Tevye shows signs of forgiving Chava by murmuring under his breath "And God be with you," silently urging Tzeitel to repeat his words to Chava. Golde calls out to Chava and Fyedka, telling them where they will be living in New York with a relative.
The Constable silently watches as the mass evacuation of Anatevka takes place. The community forms their circle at a crossroad one last time before scattering in different directions. Tevye spots the fiddler and motions to him to come along, symbolizing that even though he must leave his town, his traditions will always be with him.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Fiddler on the Roof":
Deliverance is a 1972 American drama thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and stars Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The film is based on the 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the film as the Sheriff.
The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman. It was a critical success, earning three Academy Award and five Golden Globe nominations.
Widely acclaimed as a landmark picture, the film is noted both for the music scene near the beginning, with one of the city men playing "Dueling Banjos" on guitar with a banjo-playing country boy, that sets the tone for what lies ahead—a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous wilderness—and for its visceral and notorious male rape scene.
In 2008, Deliverance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
Four Atlanta businessmen, Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds), Ed Gentry (Jon Voight), Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty) and Drew Ballinger (Ronny Cox), decide to canoe down a river in the remote northern Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the fictional Cahulawassee River valley is flooded by construction of a dam. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the leader. Ed is also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices.
On Friday afternoon, the foursome, traveling in two cars, arrive at a poor, Appalachian residential area near the river. It is apparent the people are poverty-stricken and likely inbred. Lewis tries to find someone who can drive their cars to a take out point at Aintry to be picked up on Sunday. Drew, who has a guitar, engages a local boy with an apparent mental disability with a banjo in a friendly "duel." When Drew tries to shake the boy's hand, he sharply turns his head away in a way indicating a developmental disability.
Travelling in pairs, the foursome's two canoes are briefly separated. The occupants of one canoe (Bobby and Ed), park their canoe along the river to take a rest. Ed notices two mountain men descending towards them from the woodland. A verbal confrontation ensues between Ed and Bobby and the two mountain men, one of whom wields a shotgun.
The mountain men are hostile, and unhappy with the men's presence along the river. When Ed and Bobby attempt to return to their canoe they are forced at gunpoint into the woodland. Ed is tied to a tree, and cut with his own knife, while Bobby is forced to strip naked.
One of the mountain men then attacks Bobby, and physically molests and humiliates him, forcing him to 'squeal like a pig.' The mountain man then violently rapes Bobby while Ed looks on. As the rapist and other mountain man turn their attention to Ed, Lewis shoots the rapist from behind with his recurve bow, Ed takes control of the shotgun in the commotion and the other mountain man escapes into the woods.
An intense debate then takes place between the four men as they try to decide what to do. Lewis is worried that he will be tried for murder in a hostile backwoods community after shooting the rapist from behind. Humiliated and angry, Bobby expresses his desire that no one should ever find out what happened to him, while Drew passionately argues that the right thing to do is to inform the authorities, and Ed is conflicted.
Eventually they take a vote and, against Drew's protests, the men side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the body and get back to their cars. The men bury the dead rapist in a shallow grave and then return to their canoes to get back to Aintry. As the men make their way down the river it becomes apparent that Drew is highly distressed. As Lewis shouts for the men to hurry up down to the canoe Drew suddenly falls into the river.
After Drew's fall, the survivors' canoes collide on the rocks, throwing Lewis, Bobby and Ed into the river. Lewis breaks his femur and the others are washed ashore alongside him.
Encouraged by the badly injured Lewis, who believes Drew was shot and that they are being stalked by the other mountain man, Ed climbs a nearby rock face in order to dispatch the other mountain man using his bow while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis.
Ed reaches the top and hides out until the next morning, when a mountain man appears on the top of the cliff with a rifle, looking down into the gorge where Lewis and Bobby are located. Ed clumsily shoots and manages to kill him, accidentally stabbing himself with one of his own spare arrows in the process.
Ed is shocked to find that the man has all his front teeth (unlike the man who escaped earlier in the film) but upon examination Ed discovers that the man is now wearing a partial denture and so is revealed to be the actual second attacker. Ed and Bobby weigh down the mountain man's body in the river to ensure it will never be found, and repeat the same with Drew's body which they encounter downriver.
Upon finally reaching the small town of Aintry, they get the injured Lewis to the hospital. The men carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard in order to escape a possible double murder charge. The sheriff advises them one of the locals is missing, having not returned from a hunting trip.
The sheriff clearly doesn't believe them, but has no evidence to arrest them and simply tells the men never to come back. They readily agree. The trio vow to keep their story of death and survival a secret for the rest of their lives. In the final scene, Ed awakens screaming from a nightmare in which a dead man's hand slowly rises from the lake.
Reception:
Deliverance was a box office success in the United States, becoming the fifth-highest grossing film of 1972 after grossing a domestic total of over $46 million. The film's financial success continued the following year, when it went on to earn $18 million in North American "distributor rentals" (receipts).
Critical reception: Deliverance was well received by critics and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1972. The film is in the top tier of films on the critical review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with a 93% "fresh" rating.
Not all reviews were positive. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said:
"Dickey, who wrote the original novel and the screenplay, lards this plot with a lot of significance -- universal, local, whatever happens to be on the market. He is clearly under the impression that he is telling us something about the nature of man, and particularly civilized man's ability to survive primitive challenges[…] But I don't think it works that way.[…] What the movie totally fails at, however, is its attempt to make some kind of significant statement about its action.[…] [W]hat James Dickey has given us here is a fantasy about violence, not a realistic consideration of it.[…] It's possible to consider civilized men in a confrontation with the wilderness without throwing in rapes, cowboy-and-Indian stunts and pure exploitative sensationalism."
The instrumental piece, "Dueling Banjos," won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The film was selected by The New York Times as one of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, while the viewers of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom voted it #45 in a list of The 100 Greatest Films.
Reynolds later called it "the best film I've ever been in."
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Deliverance".
The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman. It was a critical success, earning three Academy Award and five Golden Globe nominations.
Widely acclaimed as a landmark picture, the film is noted both for the music scene near the beginning, with one of the city men playing "Dueling Banjos" on guitar with a banjo-playing country boy, that sets the tone for what lies ahead—a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous wilderness—and for its visceral and notorious male rape scene.
In 2008, Deliverance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
Four Atlanta businessmen, Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds), Ed Gentry (Jon Voight), Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty) and Drew Ballinger (Ronny Cox), decide to canoe down a river in the remote northern Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the fictional Cahulawassee River valley is flooded by construction of a dam. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the leader. Ed is also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices.
On Friday afternoon, the foursome, traveling in two cars, arrive at a poor, Appalachian residential area near the river. It is apparent the people are poverty-stricken and likely inbred. Lewis tries to find someone who can drive their cars to a take out point at Aintry to be picked up on Sunday. Drew, who has a guitar, engages a local boy with an apparent mental disability with a banjo in a friendly "duel." When Drew tries to shake the boy's hand, he sharply turns his head away in a way indicating a developmental disability.
Travelling in pairs, the foursome's two canoes are briefly separated. The occupants of one canoe (Bobby and Ed), park their canoe along the river to take a rest. Ed notices two mountain men descending towards them from the woodland. A verbal confrontation ensues between Ed and Bobby and the two mountain men, one of whom wields a shotgun.
The mountain men are hostile, and unhappy with the men's presence along the river. When Ed and Bobby attempt to return to their canoe they are forced at gunpoint into the woodland. Ed is tied to a tree, and cut with his own knife, while Bobby is forced to strip naked.
One of the mountain men then attacks Bobby, and physically molests and humiliates him, forcing him to 'squeal like a pig.' The mountain man then violently rapes Bobby while Ed looks on. As the rapist and other mountain man turn their attention to Ed, Lewis shoots the rapist from behind with his recurve bow, Ed takes control of the shotgun in the commotion and the other mountain man escapes into the woods.
An intense debate then takes place between the four men as they try to decide what to do. Lewis is worried that he will be tried for murder in a hostile backwoods community after shooting the rapist from behind. Humiliated and angry, Bobby expresses his desire that no one should ever find out what happened to him, while Drew passionately argues that the right thing to do is to inform the authorities, and Ed is conflicted.
Eventually they take a vote and, against Drew's protests, the men side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the body and get back to their cars. The men bury the dead rapist in a shallow grave and then return to their canoes to get back to Aintry. As the men make their way down the river it becomes apparent that Drew is highly distressed. As Lewis shouts for the men to hurry up down to the canoe Drew suddenly falls into the river.
After Drew's fall, the survivors' canoes collide on the rocks, throwing Lewis, Bobby and Ed into the river. Lewis breaks his femur and the others are washed ashore alongside him.
Encouraged by the badly injured Lewis, who believes Drew was shot and that they are being stalked by the other mountain man, Ed climbs a nearby rock face in order to dispatch the other mountain man using his bow while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis.
Ed reaches the top and hides out until the next morning, when a mountain man appears on the top of the cliff with a rifle, looking down into the gorge where Lewis and Bobby are located. Ed clumsily shoots and manages to kill him, accidentally stabbing himself with one of his own spare arrows in the process.
Ed is shocked to find that the man has all his front teeth (unlike the man who escaped earlier in the film) but upon examination Ed discovers that the man is now wearing a partial denture and so is revealed to be the actual second attacker. Ed and Bobby weigh down the mountain man's body in the river to ensure it will never be found, and repeat the same with Drew's body which they encounter downriver.
Upon finally reaching the small town of Aintry, they get the injured Lewis to the hospital. The men carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard in order to escape a possible double murder charge. The sheriff advises them one of the locals is missing, having not returned from a hunting trip.
The sheriff clearly doesn't believe them, but has no evidence to arrest them and simply tells the men never to come back. They readily agree. The trio vow to keep their story of death and survival a secret for the rest of their lives. In the final scene, Ed awakens screaming from a nightmare in which a dead man's hand slowly rises from the lake.
Reception:
Deliverance was a box office success in the United States, becoming the fifth-highest grossing film of 1972 after grossing a domestic total of over $46 million. The film's financial success continued the following year, when it went on to earn $18 million in North American "distributor rentals" (receipts).
Critical reception: Deliverance was well received by critics and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1972. The film is in the top tier of films on the critical review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with a 93% "fresh" rating.
Not all reviews were positive. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said:
"Dickey, who wrote the original novel and the screenplay, lards this plot with a lot of significance -- universal, local, whatever happens to be on the market. He is clearly under the impression that he is telling us something about the nature of man, and particularly civilized man's ability to survive primitive challenges[…] But I don't think it works that way.[…] What the movie totally fails at, however, is its attempt to make some kind of significant statement about its action.[…] [W]hat James Dickey has given us here is a fantasy about violence, not a realistic consideration of it.[…] It's possible to consider civilized men in a confrontation with the wilderness without throwing in rapes, cowboy-and-Indian stunts and pure exploitative sensationalism."
The instrumental piece, "Dueling Banjos," won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The film was selected by The New York Times as one of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, while the viewers of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom voted it #45 in a list of The 100 Greatest Films.
Reynolds later called it "the best film I've ever been in."
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Deliverance".
- Cast
- Production
- Soundtrack and copyright dispute
- Reception
- Influence of the film
- See also:
- Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
- Deliverance on IMDb
- Deliverance at the TCM Movie Database
- Deliverance at Box Office Mojo
- Deliverance at Rotten Tomatoes
- Pictures of some deleted scenes
Grease (1978)
YouTube Video Grease- You're the one that I want [HQ+lyrics]
Pictured: Dancing: Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
YouTube Video Grease- You're the one that I want [HQ+lyrics]
Pictured: Dancing: Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
Grease is a 1978 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Randal Kleiser and produced by Paramount Pictures.
The film is an adaptation of Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs' 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing.
Released on June 16, 1978, the film was successful both critically and financially at the box office, becoming the highest grossing film of the year.
In the United States, the film still remains as the highest-grossing movie musical of all time. Its soundtrack album ended 1978 as the second-best selling album of the year in the U.S., behind the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever, another film starring Travolta.
The soundtrack is also the second best-selling album ever released and top-selling soundtrack in history. The film was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Original Song. A sequel, Grease 2, was released in 1982, featuring few cast members reprising their roles.
Plot:
In the summer of 1958, Sandy Olsson (Newton-John) meets local boy Danny Zuko (Travolta) at the beach while on vacation and they soon fall in love. As the summer comes to an end, Sandy worries about returning home to Australia and never seeing Danny again, but he assures her that it is only the beginning for them.
On the first day of their senior year at Rydell High, Danny, the leader of a greaser gang known as the T-Birds, meets with his fellow T-Birds, Kenickie (second-in-command and Danny's best friend) (Jeff Conaway), Sonny (Michael Tucci), Doody (Barry Pearl), and Putzie (Kelly Ward), and they all catch up on what they did over the summer.
Danny briefly mentions that he met a girl and they joke around with it. Sandy, meanwhile, enrolls at Rydell after an apparent change in her parents' plans but is unaware of Danny's presence, as is he of hers. Sandy has made friends with Frenchie (Didi Conn), a member of the Pink Ladies, an associated female equivalent of the T-Birds.
Frenchie introduces Sandy to fellow Pink Ladies Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing), the group's leader, Jan (Jamie Donnelly), and Marty Maraschino (Dinah Manoff). Rizzo notes she looks "too pure to be Pink".
At lunch, Sandy tells them about meeting an amazing boy over the summer and falling in love ("Summer Nights"). After Rizzo discovers she is speaking of Danny Zuko, her ex-boyfriend, she deviously arranges a surprise meeting at a pep rally.
Despite his excitement at seeing her, Danny acts indifferently in an effort to protect his cool reputation, causing Sandy to run off in disgust. Frenchie invites Sandy over to her house to join the rest of the girls for a slumber party that night to cheer her up.
At the party, Rizzo mocks Sandy ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee") and the other girls join in, until Sandy overhears and goes outside to be alone where she laments missing Danny ("Hopelessly Devoted to You").
The T-Birds crash the party and Rizzo ends up driving off alone with Kenickie. Later their makeout session is interrupted by Leo, the leader of the Scorpions (Dennis C. Stewart), a rival greaser gang from another high school. Leo rear-ends Kenickie's car, insults them, and drives away.
After the T-Birds help repair Kenickie's car ("Greased Lightnin'") in auto shop class, Danny asks Rydell's Coach Calhoun (Sid Caesar) to help him find a sport so he can impress Sandy, who has begun dating Tom, one of the school's football players (Lorenzo Lamas). After trying various sports, Danny eventually discovers an aptitude for track and rekindles his relationship with Sandy.
They attempt a date at the Frosty Palace, a local malt shop hangout, but their date is crashed by both the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds, who are gradually pairing off.
Kenickie and Rizzo have an argument and the two groups depart, leaving Frenchie alone to ponder the wisdom of dropping out of high school to attend beauty school after a mistake in hair dyeing class turned her hair bubblegum pink. She is then visited by her guardian angel (Frankie Avalon), who urges her to return to high school ("Beauty School Dropout").
A few weeks later, the school dance arrives. Rydell High had been picked for a live national TV broadcast on National Bandstand, hosted by DJ Vince Fontaine (a fictional version of Alan Freed) (Edd Byrnes), who flirts with Marty throughout the night. Rizzo and Kenickie attempt to score off each other by bringing Leo and his on-and-off girlfriend Cha Cha (Annette Charles), who was with Leo when he interrupted their makeout session, respectively as their dates, while Danny and Sandy go together.
During the final dance, Danny and Cha Cha (who were also once boyfriend and girlfriend) perform together and win the national dance-off ("Born to Hand Jive"), which hurts Sandy's feelings; she leaves alone.
Days later, Danny takes her to their local drive-in theater and gives Sandy his class ring to apologize, but then makes some quick passes that cause her to leave. Danny sings about his love for her ("Sandy"). At the snack bar, Rizzo tells Marty in confidence that she thinks she might be pregnant. This is overheard and quickly relayed to Kenickie, who is the potential father.
He attempts to make things right with Rizzo, telling her he does not run away from his mistakes. His phrasing offends her and she tells him it was someone else (probably out of bitterness, not truth). Rizzo laments being rumored to be promiscuous ("There Are Worse Things I Could Do"). Sandy finds her and offers her support, and the two finally become friends.
Kenickie has set up a race between himself and Leo at "Thunder Road", the local racing spot. They are racing "for pinks," the titles to the cars, and have agreed the winner gets the loser's car. Before the start, Putzie inadvertently knocks Kenickie out by opening the car door into his head. Realizing he cannot race while concussed, Kenickie asks Danny to take his place. Sandy watches the race from afar.
Danny wins the race, but he cannot celebrate completely without Sandy. Sandy realizes she loves Danny and decides to change herself in order to be with him ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)"), and asks Frenchie for help.
As the school year comes to a close, the students attend a graduation carnival held on school grounds. Rizzo and Kenickie reunite after she finds that she is not pregnant after all. He proposes and this time she accepts.
Danny appears in a letterman's sweater; he earned a varsity letter in track, having become a jock to impress Sandy. She turns up dressed in skintight black clothing, which stuns everyone.
Now with the bad girl image, she and Danny share a dance together while proclaiming their love for each other ("You're the One That I Want") until they come to the end of the carnival and climb into Greased Lightning, which takes flight while everyone is singing ("We Go Together"). Sandy and Danny turn back to wave at their friends as they soar away into the sky.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the 1978 Movie "Grease":
The film is an adaptation of Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs' 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing.
Released on June 16, 1978, the film was successful both critically and financially at the box office, becoming the highest grossing film of the year.
In the United States, the film still remains as the highest-grossing movie musical of all time. Its soundtrack album ended 1978 as the second-best selling album of the year in the U.S., behind the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever, another film starring Travolta.
The soundtrack is also the second best-selling album ever released and top-selling soundtrack in history. The film was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Original Song. A sequel, Grease 2, was released in 1982, featuring few cast members reprising their roles.
Plot:
In the summer of 1958, Sandy Olsson (Newton-John) meets local boy Danny Zuko (Travolta) at the beach while on vacation and they soon fall in love. As the summer comes to an end, Sandy worries about returning home to Australia and never seeing Danny again, but he assures her that it is only the beginning for them.
On the first day of their senior year at Rydell High, Danny, the leader of a greaser gang known as the T-Birds, meets with his fellow T-Birds, Kenickie (second-in-command and Danny's best friend) (Jeff Conaway), Sonny (Michael Tucci), Doody (Barry Pearl), and Putzie (Kelly Ward), and they all catch up on what they did over the summer.
Danny briefly mentions that he met a girl and they joke around with it. Sandy, meanwhile, enrolls at Rydell after an apparent change in her parents' plans but is unaware of Danny's presence, as is he of hers. Sandy has made friends with Frenchie (Didi Conn), a member of the Pink Ladies, an associated female equivalent of the T-Birds.
Frenchie introduces Sandy to fellow Pink Ladies Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing), the group's leader, Jan (Jamie Donnelly), and Marty Maraschino (Dinah Manoff). Rizzo notes she looks "too pure to be Pink".
At lunch, Sandy tells them about meeting an amazing boy over the summer and falling in love ("Summer Nights"). After Rizzo discovers she is speaking of Danny Zuko, her ex-boyfriend, she deviously arranges a surprise meeting at a pep rally.
Despite his excitement at seeing her, Danny acts indifferently in an effort to protect his cool reputation, causing Sandy to run off in disgust. Frenchie invites Sandy over to her house to join the rest of the girls for a slumber party that night to cheer her up.
At the party, Rizzo mocks Sandy ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee") and the other girls join in, until Sandy overhears and goes outside to be alone where she laments missing Danny ("Hopelessly Devoted to You").
The T-Birds crash the party and Rizzo ends up driving off alone with Kenickie. Later their makeout session is interrupted by Leo, the leader of the Scorpions (Dennis C. Stewart), a rival greaser gang from another high school. Leo rear-ends Kenickie's car, insults them, and drives away.
After the T-Birds help repair Kenickie's car ("Greased Lightnin'") in auto shop class, Danny asks Rydell's Coach Calhoun (Sid Caesar) to help him find a sport so he can impress Sandy, who has begun dating Tom, one of the school's football players (Lorenzo Lamas). After trying various sports, Danny eventually discovers an aptitude for track and rekindles his relationship with Sandy.
They attempt a date at the Frosty Palace, a local malt shop hangout, but their date is crashed by both the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds, who are gradually pairing off.
Kenickie and Rizzo have an argument and the two groups depart, leaving Frenchie alone to ponder the wisdom of dropping out of high school to attend beauty school after a mistake in hair dyeing class turned her hair bubblegum pink. She is then visited by her guardian angel (Frankie Avalon), who urges her to return to high school ("Beauty School Dropout").
A few weeks later, the school dance arrives. Rydell High had been picked for a live national TV broadcast on National Bandstand, hosted by DJ Vince Fontaine (a fictional version of Alan Freed) (Edd Byrnes), who flirts with Marty throughout the night. Rizzo and Kenickie attempt to score off each other by bringing Leo and his on-and-off girlfriend Cha Cha (Annette Charles), who was with Leo when he interrupted their makeout session, respectively as their dates, while Danny and Sandy go together.
During the final dance, Danny and Cha Cha (who were also once boyfriend and girlfriend) perform together and win the national dance-off ("Born to Hand Jive"), which hurts Sandy's feelings; she leaves alone.
Days later, Danny takes her to their local drive-in theater and gives Sandy his class ring to apologize, but then makes some quick passes that cause her to leave. Danny sings about his love for her ("Sandy"). At the snack bar, Rizzo tells Marty in confidence that she thinks she might be pregnant. This is overheard and quickly relayed to Kenickie, who is the potential father.
He attempts to make things right with Rizzo, telling her he does not run away from his mistakes. His phrasing offends her and she tells him it was someone else (probably out of bitterness, not truth). Rizzo laments being rumored to be promiscuous ("There Are Worse Things I Could Do"). Sandy finds her and offers her support, and the two finally become friends.
Kenickie has set up a race between himself and Leo at "Thunder Road", the local racing spot. They are racing "for pinks," the titles to the cars, and have agreed the winner gets the loser's car. Before the start, Putzie inadvertently knocks Kenickie out by opening the car door into his head. Realizing he cannot race while concussed, Kenickie asks Danny to take his place. Sandy watches the race from afar.
Danny wins the race, but he cannot celebrate completely without Sandy. Sandy realizes she loves Danny and decides to change herself in order to be with him ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)"), and asks Frenchie for help.
As the school year comes to a close, the students attend a graduation carnival held on school grounds. Rizzo and Kenickie reunite after she finds that she is not pregnant after all. He proposes and this time she accepts.
Danny appears in a letterman's sweater; he earned a varsity letter in track, having become a jock to impress Sandy. She turns up dressed in skintight black clothing, which stuns everyone.
Now with the bad girl image, she and Danny share a dance together while proclaiming their love for each other ("You're the One That I Want") until they come to the end of the carnival and climb into Greased Lightning, which takes flight while everyone is singing ("We Go Together"). Sandy and Danny turn back to wave at their friends as they soar away into the sky.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the 1978 Movie "Grease":
The Last Picture Show (1971)
YouTube Video: The Last Picture Show - Trailer
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster
YouTube Video: The Last Picture Show - Trailer
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster
The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry.
Set in a small town in north Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is about the coming of age of Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and his friend Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges).
The cast includes:
For aesthetic reasons it was shot in black and white, which was unusual for the time. The film features many songs of Hank Williams and other recording artists played throughout.
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Ben Johnson and Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor and Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Best Supporting Actress, with Johnson and Leachman winning.
In 1998 the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
In 1951, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) are high-school seniors and friends in a small, declining north Texas town, Anarene.
Duane is dating Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), the prettiest (and wealthiest) girl in town. Sonny decides to break up with girlfriend Charlene Duggs (Sharon Ullrick).
At Christmastime, Sonny begins an affair with Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), the depressed, middle-aged wife of his high-school coach, Coach Popper (Bill Thurman). At the Christmas dance, Jacy is invited by Lester Marlow (Randy Quaid) to a naked indoor pool party, at the home of Bobby Sheen (Gary Brockette), a wealthy young man who seems a better prospect than Duane. Bobby tells Jacy he isn't interested in virgins and to come back after she's had sex.
The group of boys take their young intellectually disabled friend, Billy (Sam Bottoms), to a prostitute to lose his virginity but she hits Billy in the face when he ejaculates prematurely. When Duane and Sonny take Billy back home, Sam "the Lion" (Ben Johnson) tells them that since they cannot even take care of a friend, he is barring them from his pool hall, movie theater and cafe.
Sonny later sneaks into the cafe and accepts the offer of a free hamburger from the waitress, Genevieve (Eileen Brennan), when Sam walks in and discovers him. Once Sam sees Sonny's genuine affection for Billy he accepts his apology.
Duane and Sonny go on a weekend road trip to Mexico, an event that happens off-screen. Before they drive off, Sam comes to encourage them about their trip and gives them some extra money. In the next scene they return hungover and tired and eventually learn that during their absence Sam has died of a stroke. He left the town's movie theater to the woman who ran the concession stand, the café to Genevieve, $10,000 to Duane, and the pool hall to Sonny.
Jacy invites Duane to a motel for sex but he is unable to perform. She loses her virginity to him on their second attempt and then breaks up with him by phone. When Bobby marries another girl, Jacy is disappointed. Out of boredom, she has sex with Abilene (Clu Gulager), her mother's lover, though he is cold to her after their rendezvous.
Jacy then sets her sights on Sonny, who drops Ruth without announcement. Duane quarrels with Sonny over Jacy, "his" girl and hits him over the head with a bottle. Duane then decides to join the Army to fight in Korea.
Jacy suggests to Sonny that they elope. On their way to their honeymoon, they are stopped by an Oklahoma state trooper; Jacy left a note telling her parents all about their plan. The couple are brought back to Anarene. On the trip back, Jacy's mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn) admits to Sonny she was Sam the Lion's paramour and tells him he was much better off with Ruth Popper than with Jacy.
Duane returns to town for a visit, before shipping out for Korea. He and Sonny are among the meager group attending the final screening at the movie house, which is closing down. The next morning, after Sonny sees Duane off on the Trailways bus, Billy is run over and killed as he sweeps the street. An upset Sonny seeks comfort from Ruth. Her first reaction is to vent her hurt and anger but then she takes his outstretched hand.
Reception and legacy:
Box office: The film earned $13.1 million in North America.
Critical reception: The Last Picture Show received critical acclaim and maintains a 100% rating at review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 51 critics, with a rating average of 9.1/10. Its consensus states: 'Making excellent use of its period and setting, Peter Bogdanovich's small town coming of age story is a sad but moving classic filled with impressive performances.
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars in his original review and named it the best film of 1971. He later added it to his "Great Movies" list, writing that "the film is above all an evocation of mood. It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there. The only hope is in transgression."
Obscenity controversy: In 1973, largely because of the skinny-dipping party scene, the film was banned in Phoenix, Arizona, when the city attorney notified a drive-in theater manager that the film violated a state obscenity statute.
Eventually, a federal court decided that the film was not obscene. Ed Ware, the district attorney of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, managed to block the showing of the film but only temporarily because the theater filed suit successfully to overturn Ware's directive.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The Last Picture Show":
Set in a small town in north Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is about the coming of age of Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and his friend Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges).
The cast includes:
- Cybill Shepherd (in her film debut),
- Ben Johnson,
- Eileen Brennan,
- Ellen Burstyn,
- Cloris Leachman,
- Clu Gulager,
- Randy Quaid,
- and John Hillerman.
For aesthetic reasons it was shot in black and white, which was unusual for the time. The film features many songs of Hank Williams and other recording artists played throughout.
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Ben Johnson and Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor and Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Best Supporting Actress, with Johnson and Leachman winning.
In 1998 the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
In 1951, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) are high-school seniors and friends in a small, declining north Texas town, Anarene.
Duane is dating Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), the prettiest (and wealthiest) girl in town. Sonny decides to break up with girlfriend Charlene Duggs (Sharon Ullrick).
At Christmastime, Sonny begins an affair with Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), the depressed, middle-aged wife of his high-school coach, Coach Popper (Bill Thurman). At the Christmas dance, Jacy is invited by Lester Marlow (Randy Quaid) to a naked indoor pool party, at the home of Bobby Sheen (Gary Brockette), a wealthy young man who seems a better prospect than Duane. Bobby tells Jacy he isn't interested in virgins and to come back after she's had sex.
The group of boys take their young intellectually disabled friend, Billy (Sam Bottoms), to a prostitute to lose his virginity but she hits Billy in the face when he ejaculates prematurely. When Duane and Sonny take Billy back home, Sam "the Lion" (Ben Johnson) tells them that since they cannot even take care of a friend, he is barring them from his pool hall, movie theater and cafe.
Sonny later sneaks into the cafe and accepts the offer of a free hamburger from the waitress, Genevieve (Eileen Brennan), when Sam walks in and discovers him. Once Sam sees Sonny's genuine affection for Billy he accepts his apology.
Duane and Sonny go on a weekend road trip to Mexico, an event that happens off-screen. Before they drive off, Sam comes to encourage them about their trip and gives them some extra money. In the next scene they return hungover and tired and eventually learn that during their absence Sam has died of a stroke. He left the town's movie theater to the woman who ran the concession stand, the café to Genevieve, $10,000 to Duane, and the pool hall to Sonny.
Jacy invites Duane to a motel for sex but he is unable to perform. She loses her virginity to him on their second attempt and then breaks up with him by phone. When Bobby marries another girl, Jacy is disappointed. Out of boredom, she has sex with Abilene (Clu Gulager), her mother's lover, though he is cold to her after their rendezvous.
Jacy then sets her sights on Sonny, who drops Ruth without announcement. Duane quarrels with Sonny over Jacy, "his" girl and hits him over the head with a bottle. Duane then decides to join the Army to fight in Korea.
Jacy suggests to Sonny that they elope. On their way to their honeymoon, they are stopped by an Oklahoma state trooper; Jacy left a note telling her parents all about their plan. The couple are brought back to Anarene. On the trip back, Jacy's mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn) admits to Sonny she was Sam the Lion's paramour and tells him he was much better off with Ruth Popper than with Jacy.
Duane returns to town for a visit, before shipping out for Korea. He and Sonny are among the meager group attending the final screening at the movie house, which is closing down. The next morning, after Sonny sees Duane off on the Trailways bus, Billy is run over and killed as he sweeps the street. An upset Sonny seeks comfort from Ruth. Her first reaction is to vent her hurt and anger but then she takes his outstretched hand.
Reception and legacy:
Box office: The film earned $13.1 million in North America.
Critical reception: The Last Picture Show received critical acclaim and maintains a 100% rating at review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 51 critics, with a rating average of 9.1/10. Its consensus states: 'Making excellent use of its period and setting, Peter Bogdanovich's small town coming of age story is a sad but moving classic filled with impressive performances.
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars in his original review and named it the best film of 1971. He later added it to his "Great Movies" list, writing that "the film is above all an evocation of mood. It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there. The only hope is in transgression."
Obscenity controversy: In 1973, largely because of the skinny-dipping party scene, the film was banned in Phoenix, Arizona, when the city attorney notified a drive-in theater manager that the film violated a state obscenity statute.
Eventually, a federal court decided that the film was not obscene. Ed Ware, the district attorney of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, managed to block the showing of the film but only temporarily because the theater filed suit successfully to overturn Ware's directive.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The Last Picture Show":
- Awards and nominations
- Sequel
- In popular culture
- See also:
- List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator website
- The Last Picture Show on IMDb
- The Last Picture Show at the TCM Movie Database
- The Last Picture Show at AllMovie
- The Last Picture Show at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Last Picture Show at Box Office Mojo
- The Last Picture Show at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Last Picture Show: In With the Old an essay by Graham Fuller at the Criterion Collection
All the President's Men (1976)
YouTube Video All the President's Men (1/9) Movie CLIP - Watergate Burglary (1976) HD
Pictured: LEFT: Theatrical Movie Poster; RIGHT: Featured on the Cover of Time magazine
YouTube Video All the President's Men (1/9) Movie CLIP - Watergate Burglary (1976) HD
Pictured: LEFT: Theatrical Movie Poster; RIGHT: Featured on the Cover of Time magazine
All the President's Men is a 1976 American political thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula. The screenplay by William Goldman is based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. The film starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively; it was produced by Walter Coblenz for Redford's Wildwood Enterprises.
All the President's Men is the third installment of what informally came to be known as Pakula's "paranoia trilogy". The other two films in the trilogy are Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974).
In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
On June 17, 1972, a security guard (Frank Wills, playing himself) at the Watergate complex finds a door kept unlocked with tape. He calls the police, who find and arrest five burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters within the complex.
The next morning, The Washington Post assigns new reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) to the local courthouse to cover the story, which is thought to be of minor importance.
Woodward learns that the five men, four Cuban-Americans from Miami and James W. McCord, Jr., had bugging equipment and have their own "country club" attorney. At the arraignment, McCord identifies himself in court as having recently left the Central Intelligence Agency and the others also have CIA ties. Woodward connects the burglars to E. Howard Hunt, a former employee of the CIA, and President Richard Nixon's Special Counsel Charles Colson.
Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), another Post reporter, is assigned to cover the Watergate story with Woodward. The two are reluctant partners, but work well together. Executive editor Benjamin Bradlee (Jason Robards) believes their work is incomplete, however, and not worthy of the Post's front page. He encourages them to continue to gather information.
Woodward contacts "Deep Throat" (Hal Holbrook), a senior government official, an anonymous source he has used in the past. Communicating through copies of The New York Times and a balcony flowerpot, they meet in a parking garage in the middle of the night. Deep Throat speaks in riddles and metaphors about the Watergate break-in, but advises Woodward to "follow the money."
Over the next few weeks, Woodward and Bernstein connect the five burglars to thousands of dollars in diverted campaign contributions to Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or CREEP). Bradlee and others at the Post dislike the two young reporters' reliance on unnamed sources like Deep Throat, and wonder why the Nixon administration would break the law when the President is likely to defeat Democratic nominee George McGovern.
Through former CREEP treasurer Hugh W. Sloan, Jr. (Stephen Collins), Woodward and Bernstein connect a slush fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars to White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman —"the second most important man in this country"—and former Nixon Attorney General John N. Mitchell, now head of CREEP. They learn that CREEP used the fund to begin a "ratfucking" campaign to sabotage Democratic presidential candidates a year before the Watergate burglary, when Nixon was behind Edmund Muskie in the polls.
Bradlee's demand for thoroughness forces the reporters to obtain other sources to confirm the Haldeman connection. When the White House issues a non-denial denial of the Post's above-the-fold story, the editor thus continues to support them.
At the subtle climax, Woodward again meets secretly with Deep Throat, who finally reveals that the Watergate break-in and cover-up was indeed masterminded by Haldeman. Deep Throat also claims that the cover-up was not to hide the other burglaries or of their involvement with CREEP, but to hide the "covert operations" involving "the entire U.S. intelligence community", and warns that Woodward, Bernstein, and others' lives are in danger. When Woodward and Bernstein relay this to Bradlee, he urges the reporters to continue despite the risk and Nixon's re-election.
In the final scene, set on January 20, 1973, Bernstein and Woodward type out the full story, with the TV in their office showing Nixon taking the Oath of Office, for his second term as President of the United States, in the foreground. A montage of Watergate-related teletype headlines from the following years is shown, ending with Nixon's resignation and the inauguration of Vice President Gerald Ford on August 9, 1974.
Reception:
All the President's Men grossed $70.6 million at the box office.
The film received universal acclaim, currently holding a 92% "fresh" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews; the consensus reads: "A taut, solidly acted paean to the benefits of a free press and the dangers of unchecked power, made all the more effective by its origins in real-life events."
In 2007, it was added to the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list at No. 77. AFI also named it No. 34 on its America's Most Inspiring Movies list and No. 57 on the Top 100 Thrilling Movies.
The characters of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein shared the rank of No. 27 (Heroes) on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list. Entertainment Weekly ranked All the President's Men as one of its 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers"
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "All the President's Men:
All the President's Men is the third installment of what informally came to be known as Pakula's "paranoia trilogy". The other two films in the trilogy are Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974).
In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
On June 17, 1972, a security guard (Frank Wills, playing himself) at the Watergate complex finds a door kept unlocked with tape. He calls the police, who find and arrest five burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters within the complex.
The next morning, The Washington Post assigns new reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) to the local courthouse to cover the story, which is thought to be of minor importance.
Woodward learns that the five men, four Cuban-Americans from Miami and James W. McCord, Jr., had bugging equipment and have their own "country club" attorney. At the arraignment, McCord identifies himself in court as having recently left the Central Intelligence Agency and the others also have CIA ties. Woodward connects the burglars to E. Howard Hunt, a former employee of the CIA, and President Richard Nixon's Special Counsel Charles Colson.
Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), another Post reporter, is assigned to cover the Watergate story with Woodward. The two are reluctant partners, but work well together. Executive editor Benjamin Bradlee (Jason Robards) believes their work is incomplete, however, and not worthy of the Post's front page. He encourages them to continue to gather information.
Woodward contacts "Deep Throat" (Hal Holbrook), a senior government official, an anonymous source he has used in the past. Communicating through copies of The New York Times and a balcony flowerpot, they meet in a parking garage in the middle of the night. Deep Throat speaks in riddles and metaphors about the Watergate break-in, but advises Woodward to "follow the money."
Over the next few weeks, Woodward and Bernstein connect the five burglars to thousands of dollars in diverted campaign contributions to Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or CREEP). Bradlee and others at the Post dislike the two young reporters' reliance on unnamed sources like Deep Throat, and wonder why the Nixon administration would break the law when the President is likely to defeat Democratic nominee George McGovern.
Through former CREEP treasurer Hugh W. Sloan, Jr. (Stephen Collins), Woodward and Bernstein connect a slush fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars to White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman —"the second most important man in this country"—and former Nixon Attorney General John N. Mitchell, now head of CREEP. They learn that CREEP used the fund to begin a "ratfucking" campaign to sabotage Democratic presidential candidates a year before the Watergate burglary, when Nixon was behind Edmund Muskie in the polls.
Bradlee's demand for thoroughness forces the reporters to obtain other sources to confirm the Haldeman connection. When the White House issues a non-denial denial of the Post's above-the-fold story, the editor thus continues to support them.
At the subtle climax, Woodward again meets secretly with Deep Throat, who finally reveals that the Watergate break-in and cover-up was indeed masterminded by Haldeman. Deep Throat also claims that the cover-up was not to hide the other burglaries or of their involvement with CREEP, but to hide the "covert operations" involving "the entire U.S. intelligence community", and warns that Woodward, Bernstein, and others' lives are in danger. When Woodward and Bernstein relay this to Bradlee, he urges the reporters to continue despite the risk and Nixon's re-election.
In the final scene, set on January 20, 1973, Bernstein and Woodward type out the full story, with the TV in their office showing Nixon taking the Oath of Office, for his second term as President of the United States, in the foreground. A montage of Watergate-related teletype headlines from the following years is shown, ending with Nixon's resignation and the inauguration of Vice President Gerald Ford on August 9, 1974.
Reception:
All the President's Men grossed $70.6 million at the box office.
The film received universal acclaim, currently holding a 92% "fresh" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews; the consensus reads: "A taut, solidly acted paean to the benefits of a free press and the dangers of unchecked power, made all the more effective by its origins in real-life events."
In 2007, it was added to the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list at No. 77. AFI also named it No. 34 on its America's Most Inspiring Movies list and No. 57 on the Top 100 Thrilling Movies.
The characters of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein shared the rank of No. 27 (Heroes) on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list. Entertainment Weekly ranked All the President's Men as one of its 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers"
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "All the President's Men:
- Cast
- Differences from the book
- Production
- Reception
- See also:
- All the President's Men on IMDb
- All the President's Men at the TCM Movie Database
- All the President's Men at AllMovie
- All the President's Men at Box Office Mojo
- All the President's Men at Rotten Tomatoes
- Slovick, Matt (1996). "'All the President's Men'". The Washington Post.
- "Cinema: Watergate on Film". Time. March 29, 1976.
- Lyman, Rick (February 16, 2001). "WATCHING MOVIES WITH/Steven Soderbergh; Follow the Muse: Inspiration To Balance Lofty and Light". The New York Times.
- Savlov, Marc (April 15, 2011). "From the Watergate Break-in to a Broken News Media". The Austin Chronicle.
American Graffiti (1973)
YouTube Video: American Graffiti Official Trailer #1 - Richard Dreyfuss Movie (1973) HD
Pictured: Theatrical release poster by Mort Drucker
YouTube Video: American Graffiti Official Trailer #1 - Richard Dreyfuss Movie (1973) HD
Pictured: Theatrical release poster by Mort Drucker
American Graffiti is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed and co-written by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Wolfman Jack. Suzanne Somers has a cameo.
Set in Modesto, California in 1962, the film is a study of the cruising and rock and roll cultures popular among the post–World War II baby boom generation. The film is told in a series of vignettes, telling the story of a group of teenagers and their adventures over a single evening.
The genesis of American Graffiti was in Lucas' own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. He was unsuccessful in pitching the concept to financiers and distributors but found favor at Universal Pictures after United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures turned him down.
Filming was initially set to take place in San Rafael, California, but the production crew was denied permission to shoot beyond a second day.
American Graffiti premiered on August 2, 1973 at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and was released on August 11, 1973 in the United States.
The film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Produced on a $777,000 budget, it has become one of the most profitable films of all time. Since its initial release, American Graffiti has garnered an estimated return of well over $200 million in box office gross and home video sales, not including merchandising.
In 1995, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
A sequel, More American Graffiti, was released in 1979.
Plot:
In early September 1962 at the tail end of summer vacation, recent high school graduates and longtime friends, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, meet John Milner and Terry "The Toad" Fields at the local Mel's Drive-In parking lot.
Despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose lodge, Curt is undecided if he wants to leave the next morning with Steve to go to the northeastern United States to begin college. Steve lets Toad borrow his 1958 Chevrolet Impala for the evening and while he's away at college until Christmas.
Steve's girlfriend, Laurie, who also is Curt's sister, is unsure of Steve's leaving, to which he suggests—to Laurie's surprise—they see other people while he is away to "strengthen" their relationship. She is not happy with his proposal.
Curt, Steve, and Laurie go to the local back to school sock hop, while Toad and John begin cruising. En route to the dance, at a stoplight, Curt sees a beautiful blonde girl in a white 1956 Ford Thunderbird.
She says, "I love you" before disappearing around the corner. After leaving the hop, Curt is desperate to find the mysterious blonde, but is coerced by a group of greasers ("The Pharaohs") to participate in an initiation rite that involves hooking a chain to a police car and ripping out its back axle. Curt is told rumors that "The Blonde" is either a trophy wife or prostitute, which he refuses to believe.
Following a series of arguments, Steve and Laurie split, and John inadvertently picks up Carol, an annoying teenybopper who seems fond of him. Toad, who is normally socially inept with girls, successfully picks up a flirtatious, and somewhat rebellious, girl named Debbie.
Meanwhile, Curt learns that the DJ Wolfman Jack broadcasts from just outside Modesto. Inside the radio station, Curt encounters a bearded man he assumes to be the manager. Curt hands the man a message for "The Blonde" to call or meet him. As he walks away, Curt hears the voice of The Wolfman, and, having just seen The Wolfman broadcasting, he realizes he had been speaking with The Wolfman himself.
The other story lines intertwine until Toad and Steve end up on "Paradise Road" to watch John race his yellow deuce coupe against the handsome, but arrogant, Bob Falfa. Earlier, Bob had picked up Laurie, who is now sitting shotgun in his black '55 Chevy. Within seconds of the finish, Bob loses control of his car after blowing a front tire, plunges into a ditch and rolls his car.
Steve and John run to the wreck, and a dazed Bob and Laurie stagger out of the car before it explodes. Distraught, Laurie grips Steve tightly and tells him not to leave her. He assures her that he has decided not to leave Modesto after all.
The next morning Curt is awakened by the sound of a phone ringing in a telephone booth, which turns out to be "The Blonde". She tells him she might see him cruising tonight, but Curt replies that is not possible, because he will be leaving. At the airfield he says goodbye to his parents, his sister, and friends. As the plane takes off, Curt, gazing out of the window, sees the white Ford Thunderbird belonging to the mysterious blonde.
Prior to the end credits, an on-screen epilogue reveals that John was killed by a drunk driver in December 1964, Toad was reported missing in action near An Lộc in December 1965, Steve is an insurance agent in Modesto, California, and Curt is a writer living in Canada (implying that he may be there as a draft dodger).
Cast and their Characters:
Reception:
American Graffiti received widespread critical acclaim. Based on 43 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of the critics enjoyed the film with an average score of 8.4/10. The consensus reads: "One of the most influential of all teen films, American Graffiti is a funny, nostalgic, and bittersweet look at a group of recent high school grads' last days of innocence."
Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars and praised it for being "not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant".
Jay Cocks of Time magazine wrote that American Graffiti "reveals a new and welcome depth of feeling. Few films have shown quite so well the eagerness, the sadness, the ambitions and small defeats of a generation of young Americans."
A.D. Murphy from Variety felt American Graffiti was a vivid "recall of teenage attitudes and morals, told with outstanding empathy and compassion through an exceptionally talented cast of unknown actors". Dave Kehr, writing in the Chicago Reader, called the film a brilliant work of popular art that redefined nostalgia as a marketable commodity, while establishing a new narrative style.
See also:
Set in Modesto, California in 1962, the film is a study of the cruising and rock and roll cultures popular among the post–World War II baby boom generation. The film is told in a series of vignettes, telling the story of a group of teenagers and their adventures over a single evening.
The genesis of American Graffiti was in Lucas' own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. He was unsuccessful in pitching the concept to financiers and distributors but found favor at Universal Pictures after United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures turned him down.
Filming was initially set to take place in San Rafael, California, but the production crew was denied permission to shoot beyond a second day.
American Graffiti premiered on August 2, 1973 at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and was released on August 11, 1973 in the United States.
The film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Produced on a $777,000 budget, it has become one of the most profitable films of all time. Since its initial release, American Graffiti has garnered an estimated return of well over $200 million in box office gross and home video sales, not including merchandising.
In 1995, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
A sequel, More American Graffiti, was released in 1979.
Plot:
In early September 1962 at the tail end of summer vacation, recent high school graduates and longtime friends, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, meet John Milner and Terry "The Toad" Fields at the local Mel's Drive-In parking lot.
Despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose lodge, Curt is undecided if he wants to leave the next morning with Steve to go to the northeastern United States to begin college. Steve lets Toad borrow his 1958 Chevrolet Impala for the evening and while he's away at college until Christmas.
Steve's girlfriend, Laurie, who also is Curt's sister, is unsure of Steve's leaving, to which he suggests—to Laurie's surprise—they see other people while he is away to "strengthen" their relationship. She is not happy with his proposal.
Curt, Steve, and Laurie go to the local back to school sock hop, while Toad and John begin cruising. En route to the dance, at a stoplight, Curt sees a beautiful blonde girl in a white 1956 Ford Thunderbird.
She says, "I love you" before disappearing around the corner. After leaving the hop, Curt is desperate to find the mysterious blonde, but is coerced by a group of greasers ("The Pharaohs") to participate in an initiation rite that involves hooking a chain to a police car and ripping out its back axle. Curt is told rumors that "The Blonde" is either a trophy wife or prostitute, which he refuses to believe.
Following a series of arguments, Steve and Laurie split, and John inadvertently picks up Carol, an annoying teenybopper who seems fond of him. Toad, who is normally socially inept with girls, successfully picks up a flirtatious, and somewhat rebellious, girl named Debbie.
Meanwhile, Curt learns that the DJ Wolfman Jack broadcasts from just outside Modesto. Inside the radio station, Curt encounters a bearded man he assumes to be the manager. Curt hands the man a message for "The Blonde" to call or meet him. As he walks away, Curt hears the voice of The Wolfman, and, having just seen The Wolfman broadcasting, he realizes he had been speaking with The Wolfman himself.
The other story lines intertwine until Toad and Steve end up on "Paradise Road" to watch John race his yellow deuce coupe against the handsome, but arrogant, Bob Falfa. Earlier, Bob had picked up Laurie, who is now sitting shotgun in his black '55 Chevy. Within seconds of the finish, Bob loses control of his car after blowing a front tire, plunges into a ditch and rolls his car.
Steve and John run to the wreck, and a dazed Bob and Laurie stagger out of the car before it explodes. Distraught, Laurie grips Steve tightly and tells him not to leave her. He assures her that he has decided not to leave Modesto after all.
The next morning Curt is awakened by the sound of a phone ringing in a telephone booth, which turns out to be "The Blonde". She tells him she might see him cruising tonight, but Curt replies that is not possible, because he will be leaving. At the airfield he says goodbye to his parents, his sister, and friends. As the plane takes off, Curt, gazing out of the window, sees the white Ford Thunderbird belonging to the mysterious blonde.
Prior to the end credits, an on-screen epilogue reveals that John was killed by a drunk driver in December 1964, Toad was reported missing in action near An Lộc in December 1965, Steve is an insurance agent in Modesto, California, and Curt is a writer living in Canada (implying that he may be there as a draft dodger).
Cast and their Characters:
- Richard Dreyfuss as Curt Henderson
- Ron Howard as Steve Bolander
- Paul Le Mat as John Milner
- Charles Martin Smith as Terry "The Toad" Fields
- Cindy Williams as Laurie Henderson
- Candy Clark as Debbie Dunham
- Mackenzie Phillips as Carol Morrison
- Wolfman Jack as himself, an XERB Disc Jockey
- Bo Hopkins as Joe Young
- Manuel Padilla, Jr. as Carlos
- Beau Gentry as Ants
- Harrison Ford as Bob Falfa
- Jim Bohan as Officer Holstein
- Jana Bellan as Budda
- Deby Celiz as Wendy
- Lynne Marie Stewart as Bobbie Tucker
- Terry McGovern as Mr. Wolfe
- Kathleen Quinlan as Peg
- Scott Beach as Mr. Gordon
- John Brent as Car Salesman
- Del Close as Man at Bar (Guy)
- Johnny Weissmuller, Jr. as Badass #1
- Susan Richardson as Judy
- Kay Lenz as Jane
- Joe Spano as Vic
- Debralee Scott as Falfa's Girl
- Suzanne Somers as "The Blonde" in T-Bird
- Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids as Herbie and the Heartbeats
Reception:
American Graffiti received widespread critical acclaim. Based on 43 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of the critics enjoyed the film with an average score of 8.4/10. The consensus reads: "One of the most influential of all teen films, American Graffiti is a funny, nostalgic, and bittersweet look at a group of recent high school grads' last days of innocence."
Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars and praised it for being "not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant".
Jay Cocks of Time magazine wrote that American Graffiti "reveals a new and welcome depth of feeling. Few films have shown quite so well the eagerness, the sadness, the ambitions and small defeats of a generation of young Americans."
A.D. Murphy from Variety felt American Graffiti was a vivid "recall of teenage attitudes and morals, told with outstanding empathy and compassion through an exceptionally talented cast of unknown actors". Dave Kehr, writing in the Chicago Reader, called the film a brilliant work of popular art that redefined nostalgia as a marketable commodity, while establishing a new narrative style.
See also:
- Official website
- American Graffiti on IMDb
- American Graffiti at the TCM Movie Database
- American Graffiti at AllMovie
- American Graffiti Filmsite.org
- The City of Petaluma's salute to American Graffiti
- American Graffiti at Rotten Tomatoes
- American Graffiti at Box Office Mojo
Annie Hall (1977)
YouTube Video: from Movie Trailer for Annie Hall
Pictured: Movie Theatrical Poster Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
YouTube Video: from Movie Trailer for Annie Hall
Pictured: Movie Theatrical Poster Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
Annie Hall is a 1977 American romantic comedy film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay he co-wrote with Marshall Brickman. Produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe, the film stars the director as Alvy "Max" Singer, who tries to figure out the reasons for the failure of his relationship with the film's eponymous female lead, played by Diane Keaton in a role written specifically for her.
Principal photography for the film began on May 19, 1976 on the South Fork of Long Island, and filming continued periodically for the next ten months.
Allen has described the result, which marked his first collaboration with cinematographer Gordon Willis, as "a major turning point", in that unlike the farces and comedies that were his work to that point, it introduced a new level of seriousness.
Academics have noted the contrast in the settings of New York City and Los Angeles, the stereotype of gender differences in sexuality, the presentation of Jewish identity, and the elements of psychoanalysis and modernism.
Annie Hall was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in March 1977, before its official release on April 20, 1977.
The film received widespread critical acclaim, and along with winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, it received Oscars in three other categories: two for Allen (Best Director and, with Brickman, Best Original Screenplay), and Keaton for Best Actress.
The film additionally won four BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe, the latter being awarded to Keaton. Its North American box office receipts of $38,251,425 are fourth-best in the director's oeuvre when not adjusted for inflation.
Often listed among the greatest film comedies, it ranks 31st on AFI's list of the top feature films in American cinema, fourth on their list of top comedy films and number 28 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."
Film critic Roger Ebert called it "just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie". The film has been named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the "101 Funniest Screenplays."
Plot:
The comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) ended a year ago. Growing up in New York, he vexed his mother with impossible questions about the emptiness of existence, but he was precocious about his innocent sexual curiosity.
Annie and Alvy, in a line for The Sorrow and the Pity, overhear another man deriding the work of Federico Fellini and Marshall McLuhan; McLuhan himself steps in at Alvy's invitation to criticize the man's comprehension. That night, Annie shows no interest in sex with Alvy. Instead, they discuss his first wife (Carol Kane), whose ardor gave him no pleasure. His second marriage was to a New York writer who didn't like sports and was unable to reach orgasm.
With Annie, it is different. The two of them have fun making a meal of boiled lobster together. He teases her about the unusual men in her past. He met her playing tennis doubles with friends.
Following the game, awkward small talk led her to offer him first a ride up town and then a glass of wine on her balcony. There, what seemed a mild exchange of trivial personal data is revealed in "mental subtitles" as an escalating flirtation. Their first date follows Annie's singing audition for a night club ("It Had to be You"). He suggests they kiss first, to get it out of the way. After their lovemaking that night, Alvy is "a wreck", while she relaxes with a joint.
Soon Annie admits she loves him, while he buys her books on death and says that his feelings for her are more than just love. When she moves in with him, things become very tense. Eventually, he finds her arm in arm with one of her college professors and the two begin to argue whether this is the "flexibility" they had discussed.
They eventually break up, and he searches for the truth of relationships, asking strangers on the street about the nature of love, questioning his formative years, until he casts himself in Snow White opposite Annie's Evil Queen.
Alvy returns to dating, but the effort is marred by neurosis, bad sex, and finally an interruption from Annie, who insists he come over immediately. It turns out she needs him to kill a spider. A reconciliation follows, coupled with a vow to stay together come what may.
However, their separate discussions with their therapists make it evident there is an unspoken divide. When Alvy accepts an offer to present an award on television, they fly out to Los Angeles, with Alvy's friend, Rob (Tony Roberts). However, on the return trip, they agree that their relationship is not working.
After losing her to her record producer, Tony Lacey (Paul Simon), he unsuccessfully tries rekindling the flame with a marriage proposal. Back in New York, he stages a play of their relationship but changes the ending: now she accepts.
The last meeting for them is a wistful coda on New York's Upper West Side, when they have both moved on to someone new. Alvy's voice returns with a summation: love is essential, especially if it is neurotic. Annie sings "Seems Like Old Times" and the credits roll.
Cast:
Truman Capote has a cameo as the Winner of the Truman Capote look-alike contest.
Several actors who went on to more fame had small parts in the movie:
Reception:
Box office:
Annie Hall was shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival in March 1977, before its official release on April 20, 1977.
The film ultimately earned $38,251,425 ($143,228,400 in 2013 dollars) in the United States against a $4-million budget, making it the 11th highest-grossing picture of 1977.
On raw figures, it currently ranks as Allen's fourth-highest-grossing film, after Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris; when adjusted for inflation, the gross figure makes it Allen's biggest box office hit. It was first released on Blu-ray on January 24, 2012 alongside Allen's 1979 film Manhattan. Both releases include the films' original theatrical trailers.
Critical Response:
Annie Hall was met with widespread critical acclaim upon its release. Tim Radford of The Guardian called the film "Allen's most closely focused and daring film to date".
The New York Times' Vincent Canby preferred Annie Hall to Allen's second directorial effort, Take the Money and Run, since the former is more "humane" while the latter is more a "cartoon".
Several critics have compared the film favorably to Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage (1973), including Joseph McBride in Variety, who found it Allen's "most three-dimensional film to date" with an ambition equal to Bergman's best even as the co-stars become the "contemporary equivalent of ... Tracy-Hepburn."
See also:
Principal photography for the film began on May 19, 1976 on the South Fork of Long Island, and filming continued periodically for the next ten months.
Allen has described the result, which marked his first collaboration with cinematographer Gordon Willis, as "a major turning point", in that unlike the farces and comedies that were his work to that point, it introduced a new level of seriousness.
Academics have noted the contrast in the settings of New York City and Los Angeles, the stereotype of gender differences in sexuality, the presentation of Jewish identity, and the elements of psychoanalysis and modernism.
Annie Hall was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in March 1977, before its official release on April 20, 1977.
The film received widespread critical acclaim, and along with winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, it received Oscars in three other categories: two for Allen (Best Director and, with Brickman, Best Original Screenplay), and Keaton for Best Actress.
The film additionally won four BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe, the latter being awarded to Keaton. Its North American box office receipts of $38,251,425 are fourth-best in the director's oeuvre when not adjusted for inflation.
Often listed among the greatest film comedies, it ranks 31st on AFI's list of the top feature films in American cinema, fourth on their list of top comedy films and number 28 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."
Film critic Roger Ebert called it "just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie". The film has been named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the "101 Funniest Screenplays."
Plot:
The comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) ended a year ago. Growing up in New York, he vexed his mother with impossible questions about the emptiness of existence, but he was precocious about his innocent sexual curiosity.
Annie and Alvy, in a line for The Sorrow and the Pity, overhear another man deriding the work of Federico Fellini and Marshall McLuhan; McLuhan himself steps in at Alvy's invitation to criticize the man's comprehension. That night, Annie shows no interest in sex with Alvy. Instead, they discuss his first wife (Carol Kane), whose ardor gave him no pleasure. His second marriage was to a New York writer who didn't like sports and was unable to reach orgasm.
With Annie, it is different. The two of them have fun making a meal of boiled lobster together. He teases her about the unusual men in her past. He met her playing tennis doubles with friends.
Following the game, awkward small talk led her to offer him first a ride up town and then a glass of wine on her balcony. There, what seemed a mild exchange of trivial personal data is revealed in "mental subtitles" as an escalating flirtation. Their first date follows Annie's singing audition for a night club ("It Had to be You"). He suggests they kiss first, to get it out of the way. After their lovemaking that night, Alvy is "a wreck", while she relaxes with a joint.
Soon Annie admits she loves him, while he buys her books on death and says that his feelings for her are more than just love. When she moves in with him, things become very tense. Eventually, he finds her arm in arm with one of her college professors and the two begin to argue whether this is the "flexibility" they had discussed.
They eventually break up, and he searches for the truth of relationships, asking strangers on the street about the nature of love, questioning his formative years, until he casts himself in Snow White opposite Annie's Evil Queen.
Alvy returns to dating, but the effort is marred by neurosis, bad sex, and finally an interruption from Annie, who insists he come over immediately. It turns out she needs him to kill a spider. A reconciliation follows, coupled with a vow to stay together come what may.
However, their separate discussions with their therapists make it evident there is an unspoken divide. When Alvy accepts an offer to present an award on television, they fly out to Los Angeles, with Alvy's friend, Rob (Tony Roberts). However, on the return trip, they agree that their relationship is not working.
After losing her to her record producer, Tony Lacey (Paul Simon), he unsuccessfully tries rekindling the flame with a marriage proposal. Back in New York, he stages a play of their relationship but changes the ending: now she accepts.
The last meeting for them is a wistful coda on New York's Upper West Side, when they have both moved on to someone new. Alvy's voice returns with a summation: love is essential, especially if it is neurotic. Annie sings "Seems Like Old Times" and the credits roll.
Cast:
- Woody Allen as Alvy "Max" Singer
- Diane Keaton as Annie Hall
- Tony Roberts as Rob
- Carol Kane as Allison Portchnik
- Paul Simon as Tony Lacey
- Janet Margolin as Robin
- Shelley Duvall as Pam
- Christopher Walken as Duane Hall
- Colleen Dewhurst as Mrs. Hall
- Donald Symington as Mr. Hall
- Joan Newman as Mrs. Singer
- Marshall McLuhan as Himself
- Mordecai Lawner as Alvy's father
Truman Capote has a cameo as the Winner of the Truman Capote look-alike contest.
Several actors who went on to more fame had small parts in the movie:
- John Glover as Annie's actor boyfriend, Jerry;
- Jeff Goldblum as a man who "forgot [his] mantra" at Tony Lacey's Christmas party;
- and Sigourney Weaver in the closing sequence as Alvy's date at the movie theater.
Reception:
Box office:
Annie Hall was shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival in March 1977, before its official release on April 20, 1977.
The film ultimately earned $38,251,425 ($143,228,400 in 2013 dollars) in the United States against a $4-million budget, making it the 11th highest-grossing picture of 1977.
On raw figures, it currently ranks as Allen's fourth-highest-grossing film, after Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris; when adjusted for inflation, the gross figure makes it Allen's biggest box office hit. It was first released on Blu-ray on January 24, 2012 alongside Allen's 1979 film Manhattan. Both releases include the films' original theatrical trailers.
Critical Response:
Annie Hall was met with widespread critical acclaim upon its release. Tim Radford of The Guardian called the film "Allen's most closely focused and daring film to date".
The New York Times' Vincent Canby preferred Annie Hall to Allen's second directorial effort, Take the Money and Run, since the former is more "humane" while the latter is more a "cartoon".
Several critics have compared the film favorably to Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage (1973), including Joseph McBride in Variety, who found it Allen's "most three-dimensional film to date" with an ambition equal to Bergman's best even as the co-stars become the "contemporary equivalent of ... Tracy-Hepburn."
See also:
- Annie Hall on IMDb
- Annie Hall at AllMovie
- Annie Hall at the TCM Movie Database
- Annie Hall at Box Office Mojo
- Annie Hall at Rotten Tomatoes
Jaws (1975 )
YouTube Video: "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" - Jaws (4/10) Movie CLIP (1975)
Pictured below: Theatrical Movie Poster
YouTube Video: "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" - Jaws (4/10) Movie CLIP (1975)
Pictured below: Theatrical Movie Poster
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name.
In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter.
The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.
Shot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances.
Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.
Now considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster, with its release regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time ($470.7 million) until the release of Star Wars (1977).
It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple "high-concept" premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising.
It was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley, and many imitative thrillers. The film ranks fifth on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
During a late-night beach party on Amity Island, a young woman goes swimming in the ocean. While treading water, she is violently pulled under. The next morning, her partial remains are found on shore. The medical examiner ruling the death a shark attack leads Police Chief Martin Brody to close the beaches. Mayor Larry Vaughn overrules him, fearing it will ruin the town's summer economy.
The coroner now concurs with the mayor's theory that the girl was killed in a boating accident. Brody reluctantly accepts their conclusion until another fatal shark attack occurs shortly after. Amid an amateur shark-hunting frenzy, local professional shark hunter Quint offers his services for $10,000. Meanwhile, consulting oceanographer Matt Hooper examines the first victim's remains and concludes the death was from a shark attack.
When local fishermen catch a large tiger shark, the mayor proclaims the beaches safe. Hooper disputes it being the same predator, confirming this after no human remains are found inside it. Hooper and Brody find a half-sunken boat while searching the night waters in Hooper's boat.
Hooper examines it underwater and retrieves a sizable great white shark's tooth embedded in the hull. He drops it after finding a partial corpse. Vaughn discounts Brody and Hooper's claims that a huge great white shark is responsible and refuses to close the beaches, allowing only added safety precautions.
On the Fourth of July weekend, tourists pack the beaches. Following a juvenile prank, the real shark enters a nearby estuary, killing a boater and causing Brody's oldest son Michael to go into temporary shock. Brody convinces Vaughn to hire Quint.
Quint, Brody and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, the Orca, to hunt the shark. While Brody lays down a chum line, Quint waits for an opportunity to hook the shark. Without warning, it appears behind the boat. Quint, estimating its length at 25 feet (7.6 m), harpoons it with a line attached to a flotation barrel, but the shark pulls the barrel underwater and disappears.
At nightfall, the three retire to the boat's cabin and swap stories. The great white returns unexpectedly, ramming the boat's hull and killing the power. The men work through the night repairing the engine. In the morning, Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, but Quint smashes the radio, enraging Brody.
After a long chase, Quint harpoons another barrel into the shark. The line is tied to the stern, but the shark drags the boat backwards, swamping the deck and flooding the engine compartment. Quint severs the line to prevent the transom from being pulled out. He heads toward shore to draw the shark into shallower waters, but the overtaxed engine quits, immobilizing the boat.
With the Orca slowly sinking, the trio attempt a riskier approach: Hooper dons scuba gear and enters the water in a shark-proof cage, intending to lethally inject the shark with strychnine using a hypodermic spear. The shark demolishes the cage before Hooper can inject it, and he escapes to the seabed. The shark attacks the boat directly, killing Quint.
Trapped on the sinking vessel, Brody stuffs a pressurized scuba tank into the shark's mouth, and, climbing the mast, shoots the tank with a rifle. The resulting explosion obliterates the shark. Hooper surfaces, and he and Brody paddle to Amity Island clinging to boat wreckage.
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In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter.
The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.
Shot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances.
Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.
Now considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster, with its release regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time ($470.7 million) until the release of Star Wars (1977).
It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple "high-concept" premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising.
It was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley, and many imitative thrillers. The film ranks fifth on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
During a late-night beach party on Amity Island, a young woman goes swimming in the ocean. While treading water, she is violently pulled under. The next morning, her partial remains are found on shore. The medical examiner ruling the death a shark attack leads Police Chief Martin Brody to close the beaches. Mayor Larry Vaughn overrules him, fearing it will ruin the town's summer economy.
The coroner now concurs with the mayor's theory that the girl was killed in a boating accident. Brody reluctantly accepts their conclusion until another fatal shark attack occurs shortly after. Amid an amateur shark-hunting frenzy, local professional shark hunter Quint offers his services for $10,000. Meanwhile, consulting oceanographer Matt Hooper examines the first victim's remains and concludes the death was from a shark attack.
When local fishermen catch a large tiger shark, the mayor proclaims the beaches safe. Hooper disputes it being the same predator, confirming this after no human remains are found inside it. Hooper and Brody find a half-sunken boat while searching the night waters in Hooper's boat.
Hooper examines it underwater and retrieves a sizable great white shark's tooth embedded in the hull. He drops it after finding a partial corpse. Vaughn discounts Brody and Hooper's claims that a huge great white shark is responsible and refuses to close the beaches, allowing only added safety precautions.
On the Fourth of July weekend, tourists pack the beaches. Following a juvenile prank, the real shark enters a nearby estuary, killing a boater and causing Brody's oldest son Michael to go into temporary shock. Brody convinces Vaughn to hire Quint.
Quint, Brody and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, the Orca, to hunt the shark. While Brody lays down a chum line, Quint waits for an opportunity to hook the shark. Without warning, it appears behind the boat. Quint, estimating its length at 25 feet (7.6 m), harpoons it with a line attached to a flotation barrel, but the shark pulls the barrel underwater and disappears.
At nightfall, the three retire to the boat's cabin and swap stories. The great white returns unexpectedly, ramming the boat's hull and killing the power. The men work through the night repairing the engine. In the morning, Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, but Quint smashes the radio, enraging Brody.
After a long chase, Quint harpoons another barrel into the shark. The line is tied to the stern, but the shark drags the boat backwards, swamping the deck and flooding the engine compartment. Quint severs the line to prevent the transom from being pulled out. He heads toward shore to draw the shark into shallower waters, but the overtaxed engine quits, immobilizing the boat.
With the Orca slowly sinking, the trio attempt a riskier approach: Hooper dons scuba gear and enters the water in a shark-proof cage, intending to lethally inject the shark with strychnine using a hypodermic spear. The shark demolishes the cage before Hooper can inject it, and he escapes to the seabed. The shark attacks the boat directly, killing Quint.
Trapped on the sinking vessel, Brody stuffs a pressurized scuba tank into the shark's mouth, and, climbing the mast, shoots the tank with a rifle. The resulting explosion obliterates the shark. Hooper surfaces, and he and Brody paddle to Amity Island clinging to boat wreckage.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Movie "Jaws":
- Production
- Themes
- Release
- Legacy
- See also:
- List of natural horror films
- Jaws at Curlie
- Jaws at Filmsite.org
- Jaws on IMDb
- Jaws at the TCM Movie Database
- Jaws at AllMovie
- Jaws at Box Office Mojo
- Jaws at Metacritic
- Jaws at Rotten Tomatoes
Every Which Way but Loose (1978)
YouTube Video: Every Which Way But Loose (1978) - Diner Scene
Pictured: Promotional movie poster by Bob Peak
YouTube Video: Every Which Way But Loose (1978) - Diner Scene
Pictured: Promotional movie poster by Bob Peak
Every Which Way but Loose is a 1978 American adventure comedy film, released by Warner Brothers, produced by Robert Daley and directed by James Fargo.
It stars Clint Eastwood in an uncharacteristic and offbeat comedy role, as Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler roaming the American West in search of a lost love while accompanied by his friend/manager, Orville, and his pet orangutan, Clyde.
In the process Philo manages to cross a motley assortment of characters, including a pair of police officers and an entire motorcycle gang (the "Black Widows"), who end up pursuing him for revenge.
Eastwood's appearance in the film, after his string of spaghetti western and Dirty Harry roles, somewhat startled the film industry and he was reportedly advised against making it.
Although it was panned by critics, the film went on to become an enormous success and became, along with its 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can, two of the highest grossing Eastwood films. When adjusted for inflation, it still ranks as one of the top 200 highest-grossing films of all time.
Plot:
Philo Beddoe is a truck driver living in the San Fernando Valley. He lives in a small house, with an orangutan named Clyde, behind that of his friend, Orville Boggs (Geoffrey Lewis), and his mother. Philo makes money on the side as a bare-knuckle fighter; he is often compared to a legendary fighter named Tank Murdock.
One night Philo becomes smitten with Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke), an aspiring country music singer he meets at the Palomino Club, a local honky-tonk. His relationship with her seems to be going well until one day she and her camper disappear from the trailer park. Believing that he is falling for her, Philo decides to set off for Lynn's home in Denver, Colorado.
Along the way, he has a run-in with a motorcycle gang called "The Black Widows", who incur Philo's wrath after two gang members insult him and Clyde at a traffic light. Philo chases them down and takes their bikes (which he repaints, repairs, and resells), and every attempt they make to get even results in disaster.
Philo also incurs the wrath of LAPD cop named Putnam (Gregory Walcott), with whom he gets into a fight at the Palomino. Both the officer and the Widows learn of Philo's trip to Colorado and head off to find him.
Orville and Clyde accompany Philo to Denver, and on the way, they meet a woman named Echo (Beverly D'Angelo) who becomes Orville's girlfriend.
They earn money along the way by booking fights for Philo. After a fight in a slaughterhouse, the man holding the money tries to stiff Philo. Echo fires two shots from a .38, and the man hands over the money.
Knowing that Philo has come to look for her, Lynn helps the Black Widows lure him into a trap. Philo sees Lynn and attempts to talk to her, but finds himself surrounded by the Widows. He manages to fight most of them until Orville intervenes. Using a garbage truck with a dumpster hoist, he dumps all the motorcycles into the back of the truck. The Widows charge the garbage truck, but Orville gets away. Philo, Echo, and Orville then escape.
Philo finally finds Lynn and she reveals her true nature to him. Hurt by her callousness, Philo says that he is the only one dumb enough to want to take her further than her bed. Lynn erupts in a fit of rage, striking him repeatedly until she collapses in tears.
Orville learns that Tank Murdock (Walter Barnes), based in the area, is ready to retire after one more fight. Orville makes the arrangements, and Philo faces his elderly nemesis.
During the fight, the crowd, initially pro-Murdock, begins to insult him, with some murmurs that Philo is going to be the next Murdock. Philo lets his guard down, intentionally giving Murdock a clear shot, knocking Philo down for the count. Murdock, having regained the crowd's esteem, is allowed to retire undefeated. Clyde, Orville and Echo head home the next day.
Box Office:
Upon its release, the film was a surprising success and became Eastwood's most commercially successful film at the time. It ranks high among those of his career, and was the second-highest-grossing film of 1978.
The movie grossed $85 million in box office receipts.
See also:
It stars Clint Eastwood in an uncharacteristic and offbeat comedy role, as Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler roaming the American West in search of a lost love while accompanied by his friend/manager, Orville, and his pet orangutan, Clyde.
In the process Philo manages to cross a motley assortment of characters, including a pair of police officers and an entire motorcycle gang (the "Black Widows"), who end up pursuing him for revenge.
Eastwood's appearance in the film, after his string of spaghetti western and Dirty Harry roles, somewhat startled the film industry and he was reportedly advised against making it.
Although it was panned by critics, the film went on to become an enormous success and became, along with its 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can, two of the highest grossing Eastwood films. When adjusted for inflation, it still ranks as one of the top 200 highest-grossing films of all time.
Plot:
Philo Beddoe is a truck driver living in the San Fernando Valley. He lives in a small house, with an orangutan named Clyde, behind that of his friend, Orville Boggs (Geoffrey Lewis), and his mother. Philo makes money on the side as a bare-knuckle fighter; he is often compared to a legendary fighter named Tank Murdock.
One night Philo becomes smitten with Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke), an aspiring country music singer he meets at the Palomino Club, a local honky-tonk. His relationship with her seems to be going well until one day she and her camper disappear from the trailer park. Believing that he is falling for her, Philo decides to set off for Lynn's home in Denver, Colorado.
Along the way, he has a run-in with a motorcycle gang called "The Black Widows", who incur Philo's wrath after two gang members insult him and Clyde at a traffic light. Philo chases them down and takes their bikes (which he repaints, repairs, and resells), and every attempt they make to get even results in disaster.
Philo also incurs the wrath of LAPD cop named Putnam (Gregory Walcott), with whom he gets into a fight at the Palomino. Both the officer and the Widows learn of Philo's trip to Colorado and head off to find him.
Orville and Clyde accompany Philo to Denver, and on the way, they meet a woman named Echo (Beverly D'Angelo) who becomes Orville's girlfriend.
They earn money along the way by booking fights for Philo. After a fight in a slaughterhouse, the man holding the money tries to stiff Philo. Echo fires two shots from a .38, and the man hands over the money.
Knowing that Philo has come to look for her, Lynn helps the Black Widows lure him into a trap. Philo sees Lynn and attempts to talk to her, but finds himself surrounded by the Widows. He manages to fight most of them until Orville intervenes. Using a garbage truck with a dumpster hoist, he dumps all the motorcycles into the back of the truck. The Widows charge the garbage truck, but Orville gets away. Philo, Echo, and Orville then escape.
Philo finally finds Lynn and she reveals her true nature to him. Hurt by her callousness, Philo says that he is the only one dumb enough to want to take her further than her bed. Lynn erupts in a fit of rage, striking him repeatedly until she collapses in tears.
Orville learns that Tank Murdock (Walter Barnes), based in the area, is ready to retire after one more fight. Orville makes the arrangements, and Philo faces his elderly nemesis.
During the fight, the crowd, initially pro-Murdock, begins to insult him, with some murmurs that Philo is going to be the next Murdock. Philo lets his guard down, intentionally giving Murdock a clear shot, knocking Philo down for the count. Murdock, having regained the crowd's esteem, is allowed to retire undefeated. Clyde, Orville and Echo head home the next day.
Box Office:
Upon its release, the film was a surprising success and became Eastwood's most commercially successful film at the time. It ranks high among those of his career, and was the second-highest-grossing film of 1978.
The movie grossed $85 million in box office receipts.
See also:
- Every Which Way but Loose at Rotten Tomatoes
- Every Which Way but Loose at AllMovie
- Every Which Way but Loose at the TCM Movie Database
- Every Which Way but Loose at the American Film Institute Catalog
The French Connection (1971)
YouTube Video: The French Connection car chase
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster
YouTube Video: The French Connection car chase
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster
The French Connection is a 1971 American dramatic action thriller film directed by William Friedkin and produced by Philip D'Antoni. It stars Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, and Roy Scheider. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the 1969 non-fiction book by Robin Moore.
It tells the story of New York Police Department detectives, "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. Don Ellis scored the film.
It was the first R-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture since the introduction of the MPAA film rating system. It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Hackman), Best Director (Friedkin), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Tidyman).
It was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider), Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing. Tidyman also received a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Writers Guild of America Award and an Edgar Award for his screenplay.
A sequel, French Connection II, followed in 1975 with Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey reprising their roles.
The American Film Institute included the film in its list of the best American films in 1998 and again in 2007. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot:
In Marseille, an undercover detective is following Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a wealthy French criminal who runs the largest heroin-smuggling syndicate in the world. The policeman is assassinated by Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi). Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, French television personality Henri Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale).
In New York City, detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) are conducting an undercover stakeout in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
After seeing a drug transaction take place in a bar, Cloudy goes in to make an arrest, but the suspect makes a break for it, cutting Cloudy on the arm with a knife. After catching up with their suspect and severely beating him, the detectives interrogate the man, who reveals his drug connection.
Later, Popeye and Cloudy go out for drinks at the Copacabana, where Popeye notices Salvatore "Sal" Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his young wife Angie (Arlene Farber) entertaining mob members involved in narcotics.
They decide to tail the couple, and soon learn that the Bocas, who run a modest newsstand luncheonette, have criminal records: Sal for armed robbery and murder, and Angie for shoplifting. The detectives suspect that the Bocas, who frequent several nightclubs and drive expensive cars, are involved in some kind of criminal operation. They soon establish a link between the Bocas and lawyer Joel Weinstock (Harold Gary), who is part of the narcotics underworld.
Soon after, Popeye learns from an informant that a major shipment of heroin will arrive in the New York area. The detectives convince their supervisor, Walt Simonson (Eddie Egan), to wiretap the Bocas' phones, and they use several ruses to obtain additional information.
Popeye and Cloudy are joined in the investigation by a federal agent named Mulderig (Bill Hickman). Popeye and Mulderig dislike each other based on having worked together in the past, with Mulderig holding Popeye responsible for the death of a policeman.
After Devereaux's Lincoln Continental Mark III arrives in New York City, Weinstock's chemist (Pat McDermott) tests a sample of the heroin and declares it the purest he has ever seen, establishing that the shipment could make as much as $32 million on a half-million dollar investment.
Boca is impatient to make the purchase—reflecting Charnier's desire to return to France as soon as possible—while Weinstock, with more experience in smuggling, urges patience, knowing Boca's phone is tapped and that they are being investigated.
Charnier soon realizes he has been observed since his arrival in New York. He "makes" Popeye and escapes, waving tauntingly on the departing subway shuttle from Grand Central Terminal.
To avoid being tailed, he has Sal Boca instead meet him in Washington D.C., where Boca asks for a delay to avoid the police. Charnier, however, wants to conclude the deal quickly so he can return to France. On the flight back to New York, Nicoli offers to kill Popeye, but Charnier objects, knowing that Popeye would be replaced by another policeman. Nicoli insists, however, saying they will be back in France before a replacement is assigned.
Soon after, Nicoli attempts to shoot Popeye from the roof of Doyle's apartment complex but misses. Popeye chases after the fleeing sniper, who boards an elevated train at the Bay 50th Street Station in Bensonhurst. Doyle commandeers a car and gives chase along Stillwell Avenue.
Realizing he is pursued, Nicoli works his way forward through the carriages, kills a policeman who tries to intervene and then hijacks the motorman at gunpoint forcing him to drive straight through the next station, also killing the train conductor who gets too close.
The motorman passes out and they are just about to slam into another, stationary, train, when an emergency trackside brake engages violently hurling the assassin against a glass window.
Popeye arrives limping, having wrecked the commandeered car, and sees the killer descending from the platform. When he sees Doyle, he turns to run but is shot dead by Doyle with a single shot.
After a lengthy stakeout, Popeye impounds Devereaux's Lincoln. In a police garage, he and his team take it apart piece by piece, searching for the drugs, but seemingly come up empty-handed. Then Cloudy notes that the vehicle's shipping weight is 120 pounds over its listed manufacturer's weight; they realize the contraband must still be in the car. This time they remove the rocker panels and discover the obloid packages (some light blue and some light green) of heroin concealed therein.
The police then restore the car to its original condition and return it to Devereaux, who delivers the Lincoln to Charnier.
Charnier drives to an old factory on Wards Island to meet Weinstock, and about a dozen others, and deliver the drugs. After Charnier has the rocker panels removed, Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality.
Charnier removes the bags of drugs, and hides the money; concealing it beneath the rocker panels of another car that was purchased at an auction of junk cars, which he will then take back to France. With their transaction complete, Charnier and Sal drive off in the Lincoln, but almost immediately hit a roadblock with a large contingent of police led by Popeye Doyle, who playfully waves to Charnier. The police chase the Lincoln back to the factory, where Sal is killed with two shotgun blasts during a shootout with the police and most of the other criminals surrender.
Charnier, however, escapes into the old warehouse and Popeye follows after him, with Cloudy joining in the hunt. When Popeye sees a shadowy figure in the distance, he empties his revolver a split-second after shouting a warning. The man whom Popeye kills, however, is not Charnier but Mulderig. Undaunted, Popeye tells Cloudy that he will get Charnier. After reloading his gun, Popeye runs into another room, and a few seconds later, a single gunshot is heard.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The French Connection":
It tells the story of New York Police Department detectives, "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. Don Ellis scored the film.
It was the first R-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture since the introduction of the MPAA film rating system. It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Hackman), Best Director (Friedkin), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Tidyman).
It was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider), Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing. Tidyman also received a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Writers Guild of America Award and an Edgar Award for his screenplay.
A sequel, French Connection II, followed in 1975 with Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey reprising their roles.
The American Film Institute included the film in its list of the best American films in 1998 and again in 2007. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot:
In Marseille, an undercover detective is following Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a wealthy French criminal who runs the largest heroin-smuggling syndicate in the world. The policeman is assassinated by Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi). Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, French television personality Henri Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale).
In New York City, detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) are conducting an undercover stakeout in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
After seeing a drug transaction take place in a bar, Cloudy goes in to make an arrest, but the suspect makes a break for it, cutting Cloudy on the arm with a knife. After catching up with their suspect and severely beating him, the detectives interrogate the man, who reveals his drug connection.
Later, Popeye and Cloudy go out for drinks at the Copacabana, where Popeye notices Salvatore "Sal" Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his young wife Angie (Arlene Farber) entertaining mob members involved in narcotics.
They decide to tail the couple, and soon learn that the Bocas, who run a modest newsstand luncheonette, have criminal records: Sal for armed robbery and murder, and Angie for shoplifting. The detectives suspect that the Bocas, who frequent several nightclubs and drive expensive cars, are involved in some kind of criminal operation. They soon establish a link between the Bocas and lawyer Joel Weinstock (Harold Gary), who is part of the narcotics underworld.
Soon after, Popeye learns from an informant that a major shipment of heroin will arrive in the New York area. The detectives convince their supervisor, Walt Simonson (Eddie Egan), to wiretap the Bocas' phones, and they use several ruses to obtain additional information.
Popeye and Cloudy are joined in the investigation by a federal agent named Mulderig (Bill Hickman). Popeye and Mulderig dislike each other based on having worked together in the past, with Mulderig holding Popeye responsible for the death of a policeman.
After Devereaux's Lincoln Continental Mark III arrives in New York City, Weinstock's chemist (Pat McDermott) tests a sample of the heroin and declares it the purest he has ever seen, establishing that the shipment could make as much as $32 million on a half-million dollar investment.
Boca is impatient to make the purchase—reflecting Charnier's desire to return to France as soon as possible—while Weinstock, with more experience in smuggling, urges patience, knowing Boca's phone is tapped and that they are being investigated.
Charnier soon realizes he has been observed since his arrival in New York. He "makes" Popeye and escapes, waving tauntingly on the departing subway shuttle from Grand Central Terminal.
To avoid being tailed, he has Sal Boca instead meet him in Washington D.C., where Boca asks for a delay to avoid the police. Charnier, however, wants to conclude the deal quickly so he can return to France. On the flight back to New York, Nicoli offers to kill Popeye, but Charnier objects, knowing that Popeye would be replaced by another policeman. Nicoli insists, however, saying they will be back in France before a replacement is assigned.
Soon after, Nicoli attempts to shoot Popeye from the roof of Doyle's apartment complex but misses. Popeye chases after the fleeing sniper, who boards an elevated train at the Bay 50th Street Station in Bensonhurst. Doyle commandeers a car and gives chase along Stillwell Avenue.
Realizing he is pursued, Nicoli works his way forward through the carriages, kills a policeman who tries to intervene and then hijacks the motorman at gunpoint forcing him to drive straight through the next station, also killing the train conductor who gets too close.
The motorman passes out and they are just about to slam into another, stationary, train, when an emergency trackside brake engages violently hurling the assassin against a glass window.
Popeye arrives limping, having wrecked the commandeered car, and sees the killer descending from the platform. When he sees Doyle, he turns to run but is shot dead by Doyle with a single shot.
After a lengthy stakeout, Popeye impounds Devereaux's Lincoln. In a police garage, he and his team take it apart piece by piece, searching for the drugs, but seemingly come up empty-handed. Then Cloudy notes that the vehicle's shipping weight is 120 pounds over its listed manufacturer's weight; they realize the contraband must still be in the car. This time they remove the rocker panels and discover the obloid packages (some light blue and some light green) of heroin concealed therein.
The police then restore the car to its original condition and return it to Devereaux, who delivers the Lincoln to Charnier.
Charnier drives to an old factory on Wards Island to meet Weinstock, and about a dozen others, and deliver the drugs. After Charnier has the rocker panels removed, Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality.
Charnier removes the bags of drugs, and hides the money; concealing it beneath the rocker panels of another car that was purchased at an auction of junk cars, which he will then take back to France. With their transaction complete, Charnier and Sal drive off in the Lincoln, but almost immediately hit a roadblock with a large contingent of police led by Popeye Doyle, who playfully waves to Charnier. The police chase the Lincoln back to the factory, where Sal is killed with two shotgun blasts during a shootout with the police and most of the other criminals surrender.
Charnier, however, escapes into the old warehouse and Popeye follows after him, with Cloudy joining in the hunt. When Popeye sees a shadowy figure in the distance, he empties his revolver a split-second after shouting a warning. The man whom Popeye kills, however, is not Charnier but Mulderig. Undaunted, Popeye tells Cloudy that he will get Charnier. After reloading his gun, Popeye runs into another room, and a few seconds later, a single gunshot is heard.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The French Connection":
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
YouTube Video: "Night Fever dance" from Saturday Night Fever
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster
YouTube Video: "Night Fever dance" from Saturday Night Fever
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance film directed by John Badham and starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discotheque; Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano, his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Annette, Tony's former dance partner and would-be girlfriend.
While in the disco, Tony is the king. His care-free youth and weekend dancing help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his associations with a gang of macho friends.
A huge commercial success, the film significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on TV's Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.
The film showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies; haute couture styles of clothing; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; and graceful choreography.
The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night".
In the mid-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that he fabricated the article. A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about; instead, the character who became Tony Manero was based on a Mod acquaintance of Cohn's.
In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthecially significant" by the Library of Congress and therefore preserved for all time in their National Film Registry.
The sequel Staying Alive (1983) also starred John Travolta and was directed by Sylvester Stallone.
Plot:
Anthony "Tony" Manero (John Travolta) is a 19-year-old Italian American man from the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Tony lives with his parents (Val Bisoglio and Julie Bovasso), and works at a dead-end job in a small paint store. The stagnant monotony of his life is temporarily dispelled every Saturday night when Tony is "king of the dance floor" at 2001 Odyssey, a local disco club.
Tony has four close friends: Joey (Joseph Cali); Double J (Paul Pape); Gus (Bruce Ornstein); and the diminutive Bobby C. (Barry Miller). A fringe member of this group of friends is Annette (Donna Pescow), a neighborhood girl who longs for a more permanent physical relationship with Tony.
Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge to clown around. The bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life on the other side—in more suburban Staten Island.
Tony agrees to be Annette's partner in an upcoming dance contest at 2001 Odyssey, but her happiness is short-lived when Tony is mesmerized by another woman at the club, Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney), who executes intricate dance moves with exceptional grace and finesse.
Although Stephanie coldly rejects Tony's advances, she eventually agrees to be his partner in the dance competition, provided that their partnership will remain strictly professional.
Tony's older brother, Frank Jr. (Martin Shakar), who was the pride of the Manero family since he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, brings despair to their parents when he tells them that he has left the priesthood. Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr., but feels vindicated that he is no longer the black sheep of the family.
While on his way home from the grocery store, Gus is attacked by a Hispanic gang and is hospitalized. He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas. Meanwhile, Bobby C. has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devoutly Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child.
Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks former priest Frank Jr., if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion. When Frank tells him this would be highly unlikely, Bobby's feelings of despair intensify. Bobby lets Tony borrow his 1964 Chevrolet Impala to help move Stephanie from Bay Ridge to Manhattan, and futilely tries to extract a promise from Tony to call him later that night.
Eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas, and crash Bobby C's car into their hangout. Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, but Bobby C. takes off when a gang member tries to attack him in the car. When the guys visit Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have targeted the wrong gang.
Later, Tony and Stephanie dance at the competition and end up winning first prize. However, Tony believes that a Puerto Rican couple performed better, and that the judges' decision was racially rigged. He gives the Puerto Rican couple the first prize trophy, and leaves with Stephanie. Once outside in a car, she denigrates their relationship and he tries to rape her. She resists and runs from him.
Tony's friends come to the car along with a drunk and stoned Annette. Joey says she has agreed to have sex with everyone. Tony tries to lead her away, but is subdued by Double J and Joey, and sullenly leaves with the group in the car. Double J and Joey rape Annette.
Bobby C. pulls the car over on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge for their usual cable-climbing antics. Typically abstaining, Bobby gets out and performs more dangerous stunts than the rest. Realizing that he is acting recklessly, Tony tries to get him to come down.
Bobby's strong sense of alienation, his deadlocked situation with Pauline, and Tony's broken promise to call him earlier that day—all culminate in a suicidal tirade about Tony's lack of caring before Bobby slips and falls to his death in the water below them.
Disgusted and disillusioned by his friends, his family, and his life, Tony spends the rest of the night riding the subway into Manhattan. Morning has dawned by the time he appears at Stephanie's apartment. He apologizes for his bad behavior, telling her that he plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Manhattan to try and start a new life. Tony and Stephanie salvage their relationship and agree to be friends, sharing a tender moment.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Saturday Night Fever":
While in the disco, Tony is the king. His care-free youth and weekend dancing help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his associations with a gang of macho friends.
A huge commercial success, the film significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on TV's Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.
The film showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies; haute couture styles of clothing; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; and graceful choreography.
The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night".
In the mid-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that he fabricated the article. A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about; instead, the character who became Tony Manero was based on a Mod acquaintance of Cohn's.
In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthecially significant" by the Library of Congress and therefore preserved for all time in their National Film Registry.
The sequel Staying Alive (1983) also starred John Travolta and was directed by Sylvester Stallone.
Plot:
Anthony "Tony" Manero (John Travolta) is a 19-year-old Italian American man from the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Tony lives with his parents (Val Bisoglio and Julie Bovasso), and works at a dead-end job in a small paint store. The stagnant monotony of his life is temporarily dispelled every Saturday night when Tony is "king of the dance floor" at 2001 Odyssey, a local disco club.
Tony has four close friends: Joey (Joseph Cali); Double J (Paul Pape); Gus (Bruce Ornstein); and the diminutive Bobby C. (Barry Miller). A fringe member of this group of friends is Annette (Donna Pescow), a neighborhood girl who longs for a more permanent physical relationship with Tony.
Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge to clown around. The bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life on the other side—in more suburban Staten Island.
Tony agrees to be Annette's partner in an upcoming dance contest at 2001 Odyssey, but her happiness is short-lived when Tony is mesmerized by another woman at the club, Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney), who executes intricate dance moves with exceptional grace and finesse.
Although Stephanie coldly rejects Tony's advances, she eventually agrees to be his partner in the dance competition, provided that their partnership will remain strictly professional.
Tony's older brother, Frank Jr. (Martin Shakar), who was the pride of the Manero family since he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, brings despair to their parents when he tells them that he has left the priesthood. Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr., but feels vindicated that he is no longer the black sheep of the family.
While on his way home from the grocery store, Gus is attacked by a Hispanic gang and is hospitalized. He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas. Meanwhile, Bobby C. has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devoutly Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child.
Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks former priest Frank Jr., if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion. When Frank tells him this would be highly unlikely, Bobby's feelings of despair intensify. Bobby lets Tony borrow his 1964 Chevrolet Impala to help move Stephanie from Bay Ridge to Manhattan, and futilely tries to extract a promise from Tony to call him later that night.
Eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas, and crash Bobby C's car into their hangout. Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, but Bobby C. takes off when a gang member tries to attack him in the car. When the guys visit Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have targeted the wrong gang.
Later, Tony and Stephanie dance at the competition and end up winning first prize. However, Tony believes that a Puerto Rican couple performed better, and that the judges' decision was racially rigged. He gives the Puerto Rican couple the first prize trophy, and leaves with Stephanie. Once outside in a car, she denigrates their relationship and he tries to rape her. She resists and runs from him.
Tony's friends come to the car along with a drunk and stoned Annette. Joey says she has agreed to have sex with everyone. Tony tries to lead her away, but is subdued by Double J and Joey, and sullenly leaves with the group in the car. Double J and Joey rape Annette.
Bobby C. pulls the car over on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge for their usual cable-climbing antics. Typically abstaining, Bobby gets out and performs more dangerous stunts than the rest. Realizing that he is acting recklessly, Tony tries to get him to come down.
Bobby's strong sense of alienation, his deadlocked situation with Pauline, and Tony's broken promise to call him earlier that day—all culminate in a suicidal tirade about Tony's lack of caring before Bobby slips and falls to his death in the water below them.
Disgusted and disillusioned by his friends, his family, and his life, Tony spends the rest of the night riding the subway into Manhattan. Morning has dawned by the time he appears at Stephanie's apartment. He apologizes for his bad behavior, telling her that he plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Manhattan to try and start a new life. Tony and Stephanie salvage their relationship and agree to be friends, sharing a tender moment.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Saturday Night Fever":
The Deer Hunter (1978)
YouTube Video: Deer Hunter - Russian roulette scene
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
YouTube Video: Deer Hunter - Russian roulette scene
Pictured: Theatrical Movie Poster (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steelworkers whose lives are changed forever after they fight in the Vietnam War.
The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage, with John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza playing supporting roles.
The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania a small working class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, and in Vietnam.
The film was based in part on an unproduced screenplay called The Man Who Came to Play by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker, about Las Vegas and Russian roulette.
Producer Michael Deeley, who bought the script, hired writer/director Michael Cimino who, with Deric Washburn, rewrote the script, taking the Russian roulette element and placing it in the Vietnam War. The film went over-budget and over-schedule, and ended up costing $15 million. The scenes depicting Russian roulette were highly controversial after the film's release.
The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Michael Cimino, and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken, and was named by the American Film Institute as the 53rd greatest American film of all time in the 10th Anniversary Edition of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list.
In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
In Clairton, a small working class town in western Pennsylvania, in late 1967, Russian-American steel workers Michael "Mike" Vronsky (Robert De Niro), Steven Pushkov (John Savage), and Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich (Christopher Walken), with the support of their friends and co-workers Stan (John Cazale) and Peter "Axel" Axelrod (Chuck Aspegren) and local bar owner and friend John Welsh (George Dzundza), prepare for two rites of passage: marriage and military service.
The opening scenes set the traits of the three main characters. Mike is the no-nonsense, serious, but unassuming leader; Steven the loving, groom-to-be, pecked-at by his mother; and Nick the quiet, introspective man who loves deer hunting because, he likes "…the trees…the way the trees are". The recurring theme of hunting with "one shot", which is how Mike prefers to take down a deer, is introduced.
Before the trio ships out, Steven and his girlfriend Angela (Rutanya Alda), who is pregnant by another man, but loved by Steven nonetheless, marry in a Russian Orthodox wedding. In the meantime, Mike works to control his feelings for Nick's girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep).
At the wedding reception held at the local VFW hall, the guys drink, dance, sing, and enjoy the festivities, but then notice a soldier in a U.S. Army Special Forces uniform. Mike attempts to ask what Vietnam is like, but the soldier ignores him. After Mike explains that he, Steven, and Nick are going to Vietnam, the Green Beret raises his glass and says "fuck it".
After being restrained by the others from starting a fight, Mike goes back to the bar and, in a mocking jest to the soldier, raises his glass and toasts him with "fuck it". The soldier then glances over at Mike and grins.
Later, Steven and Angela drink from conjoined goblets, a traditional part of the Orthodox wedding ceremony. It is believed that if they drink without spilling any wine, they will have good luck for life. Two drops of blood-red wine unknowingly spill on her wedding gown.
After Linda catches the bride's bouquet, Nick asks her to marry him, and she agrees. Later that night, a drunken Mike runs through the town, stripping himself naked along the way. After Nick chases him down, he begs Mike not to leave him "over there" if anything happens in combat.
The next day, Mike, Nick, Stanley, John, and Axel go deer hunting one last time. Mike is exasperated by his friends, especially Stanley, who drinks and clowns, showing little respect for the ritual of hunting, which to Mike is a nearly sacred experience. Only Nick understands Mike's attitude, but he is more indulgent toward his friends. Mike goes hunting afterwards and kills a deer with one, clean shot.
Act one finishes with the friends arriving back at Welsh's bar, with Michael's deer strapped to the hood of the car. They enter rambunctiously, spraying beers over each other and singing loudly. Welsh then makes his way to a piano and begins playing methodically as the others sit quietly. They sit in silence, strewn all over the bar, as their friend plays Chopin's Nocturne No. 6 Op. 15-3, a peaceful, yet ominous melody.
The film then jumps abruptly to war-torn Vietnam, where U.S. helicopters attack a Communist-occupied village with napalm. A North Vietnamese soldier throws a stick grenade into a hiding place full of civilians. An unconscious Mike (now a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army Special Forces) wakes up to see the NVA soldier shoot a woman carrying a baby.
Mike kills him with a flame thrower. Meanwhile, a unit of UH-1 "Huey" helicopters drops off several U.S. infantrymen, Nick and Steven among them. Mike, Steven, and Nick unexpectedly find each other just before they are captured and held together in a riverside prisoner of war camp with other U.S. Army and ARVN prisoners.
For entertainment, the sadistic guards force their prisoners to play Russian roulette and gamble on the outcome. All three friends are forced to play. Steven plays against Mike, who offers moral support, but Steven breaks down and loses control of the gun, grazing himself with the bullet when it discharges. As punishment, the guards put him into an underwater cage full of rats and the bodies of others who earlier faced the same fate.
Mike and Nick end up playing against each other, and Mike convinces the guards to let them play roulette with three bullets in the gun. After a tense match, they kill their captors and escape.
Act II
Mike earlier argued with Nick about whether or not Steven could be saved, but after killing their captors, he rescues Steven. The three float downriver on a tree branch. An American helicopter finds them, but only Nick is able to climb aboard. The weakened Steven falls back into the water, and Mike plunges in the water to rescue him. Mike helps Steven to reach the river bank, but Steven's legs are broken, so Mike carries him through the jungle to friendly lines. Approaching a caravan of locals escaping the war zone, Mike stops a South Vietnamese military truck and places the wounded Steven on it, asking the soldiers to take care of him.
Nick, who is psychologically damaged, recuperates in a military hospital in Saigon with no knowledge on the status of his friends. After being released, he goes AWOL and aimlessly stumbles through the red-light district at night.
At one point, he encounters Julien Grinda, a champagne-drinking, friendly Frenchman, outside a gambling den where men play Russian roulette for money. Grinda entices the reluctant Nick to participate and leads him into the den. Mike is present in the den, watching the game, but the two friends do not notice each other at first. When Mike does see Nick, he is unable to get his attention.
When Nick is introduced into the game, he grabs the gun, fires it at the current contestant, and then again at his own temple, causing the audience to riot in protest. Grinda hustles Nick outside to his car to escape the angry mob. Mike cannot catch up with Nick and Grinda as they speed away.
Act III:
Back in the U.S., Mike arrives home but maintains a low profile. While en route home, he tells a cab driver to drive past the house where all his friends are assembled with a large banner outside, as he is embarrassed by the fuss Linda and the others have made. He visits Linda the following day and grows close to her, but only because of the friend they both think they have lost.
Mike eventually learns about Angela, whom he goes to visit at the home of Steven's mother. Angela is apathetic and barely responsive. When asked by Mike about Steven's whereabouts, she writes a phone number on a scrap of paper, which leads Mike to the local veterans' hospital where Steven has been for several months.
Mike goes hunting with Axel, John, and Stan one more time, and after tracking a deer across the woods, takes his one shot but pulls the rifle up and fires into the air. He then sits on a rock escarpment and yells out, "OK?", which echoes back at him from the opposing rock faces leading down to the river, signifying his fight with his mental demons over losing Steven and Nick.
He also berates Stan for carrying around a small revolver and waving it around, not realizing it is still loaded. Mike visits Steven, who has lost both of his legs and is partially paralyzed. Steven reveals that someone in Saigon has been mailing large amounts of money to him, and Mike is convinced that it is Nick. Mike brings a reluctant Steven home to Angela and then travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975.
He tracks down Grinda, who has made a lot of money from the Russian roulette-playing Nick. He finds Nick in a crowded gambling club, but Nick appears to have no recollection of his friends or his home in Pennsylvania. Mike enters himself in a game of Russian roulette against Nick, hoping to jog Nick's memory and persuade him to come home, but Nick's mind is gone. To keep him from taking another turn, Mike grabs Nick's arms, which are covered in scars (implied to be heroin tracks).
At the last moment, after Mike reminds Nick of their hunting trips together, he finally breaks through, and Nick recognizes Mike and smiles. Nick then tells Mike, "one shot", raises the gun to his temple, and pulls the trigger. The round is in the gun's top chamber, and Nick kills himself. Horrified, Mike tries reviving him, but to no avail.
Back home in 1975, the friends have gathered for Nick's funeral, whom Mike brought home, staying good to his promise. The film ends with everyone at John's bar, singing "God Bless America". Mike toasts in Nick's honor.
Cast:
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The Deer Hunter":
The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage, with John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza playing supporting roles.
The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania a small working class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, and in Vietnam.
The film was based in part on an unproduced screenplay called The Man Who Came to Play by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker, about Las Vegas and Russian roulette.
Producer Michael Deeley, who bought the script, hired writer/director Michael Cimino who, with Deric Washburn, rewrote the script, taking the Russian roulette element and placing it in the Vietnam War. The film went over-budget and over-schedule, and ended up costing $15 million. The scenes depicting Russian roulette were highly controversial after the film's release.
The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Michael Cimino, and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken, and was named by the American Film Institute as the 53rd greatest American film of all time in the 10th Anniversary Edition of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list.
In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
In Clairton, a small working class town in western Pennsylvania, in late 1967, Russian-American steel workers Michael "Mike" Vronsky (Robert De Niro), Steven Pushkov (John Savage), and Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich (Christopher Walken), with the support of their friends and co-workers Stan (John Cazale) and Peter "Axel" Axelrod (Chuck Aspegren) and local bar owner and friend John Welsh (George Dzundza), prepare for two rites of passage: marriage and military service.
The opening scenes set the traits of the three main characters. Mike is the no-nonsense, serious, but unassuming leader; Steven the loving, groom-to-be, pecked-at by his mother; and Nick the quiet, introspective man who loves deer hunting because, he likes "…the trees…the way the trees are". The recurring theme of hunting with "one shot", which is how Mike prefers to take down a deer, is introduced.
Before the trio ships out, Steven and his girlfriend Angela (Rutanya Alda), who is pregnant by another man, but loved by Steven nonetheless, marry in a Russian Orthodox wedding. In the meantime, Mike works to control his feelings for Nick's girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep).
At the wedding reception held at the local VFW hall, the guys drink, dance, sing, and enjoy the festivities, but then notice a soldier in a U.S. Army Special Forces uniform. Mike attempts to ask what Vietnam is like, but the soldier ignores him. After Mike explains that he, Steven, and Nick are going to Vietnam, the Green Beret raises his glass and says "fuck it".
After being restrained by the others from starting a fight, Mike goes back to the bar and, in a mocking jest to the soldier, raises his glass and toasts him with "fuck it". The soldier then glances over at Mike and grins.
Later, Steven and Angela drink from conjoined goblets, a traditional part of the Orthodox wedding ceremony. It is believed that if they drink without spilling any wine, they will have good luck for life. Two drops of blood-red wine unknowingly spill on her wedding gown.
After Linda catches the bride's bouquet, Nick asks her to marry him, and she agrees. Later that night, a drunken Mike runs through the town, stripping himself naked along the way. After Nick chases him down, he begs Mike not to leave him "over there" if anything happens in combat.
The next day, Mike, Nick, Stanley, John, and Axel go deer hunting one last time. Mike is exasperated by his friends, especially Stanley, who drinks and clowns, showing little respect for the ritual of hunting, which to Mike is a nearly sacred experience. Only Nick understands Mike's attitude, but he is more indulgent toward his friends. Mike goes hunting afterwards and kills a deer with one, clean shot.
Act one finishes with the friends arriving back at Welsh's bar, with Michael's deer strapped to the hood of the car. They enter rambunctiously, spraying beers over each other and singing loudly. Welsh then makes his way to a piano and begins playing methodically as the others sit quietly. They sit in silence, strewn all over the bar, as their friend plays Chopin's Nocturne No. 6 Op. 15-3, a peaceful, yet ominous melody.
The film then jumps abruptly to war-torn Vietnam, where U.S. helicopters attack a Communist-occupied village with napalm. A North Vietnamese soldier throws a stick grenade into a hiding place full of civilians. An unconscious Mike (now a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army Special Forces) wakes up to see the NVA soldier shoot a woman carrying a baby.
Mike kills him with a flame thrower. Meanwhile, a unit of UH-1 "Huey" helicopters drops off several U.S. infantrymen, Nick and Steven among them. Mike, Steven, and Nick unexpectedly find each other just before they are captured and held together in a riverside prisoner of war camp with other U.S. Army and ARVN prisoners.
For entertainment, the sadistic guards force their prisoners to play Russian roulette and gamble on the outcome. All three friends are forced to play. Steven plays against Mike, who offers moral support, but Steven breaks down and loses control of the gun, grazing himself with the bullet when it discharges. As punishment, the guards put him into an underwater cage full of rats and the bodies of others who earlier faced the same fate.
Mike and Nick end up playing against each other, and Mike convinces the guards to let them play roulette with three bullets in the gun. After a tense match, they kill their captors and escape.
Act II
Mike earlier argued with Nick about whether or not Steven could be saved, but after killing their captors, he rescues Steven. The three float downriver on a tree branch. An American helicopter finds them, but only Nick is able to climb aboard. The weakened Steven falls back into the water, and Mike plunges in the water to rescue him. Mike helps Steven to reach the river bank, but Steven's legs are broken, so Mike carries him through the jungle to friendly lines. Approaching a caravan of locals escaping the war zone, Mike stops a South Vietnamese military truck and places the wounded Steven on it, asking the soldiers to take care of him.
Nick, who is psychologically damaged, recuperates in a military hospital in Saigon with no knowledge on the status of his friends. After being released, he goes AWOL and aimlessly stumbles through the red-light district at night.
At one point, he encounters Julien Grinda, a champagne-drinking, friendly Frenchman, outside a gambling den where men play Russian roulette for money. Grinda entices the reluctant Nick to participate and leads him into the den. Mike is present in the den, watching the game, but the two friends do not notice each other at first. When Mike does see Nick, he is unable to get his attention.
When Nick is introduced into the game, he grabs the gun, fires it at the current contestant, and then again at his own temple, causing the audience to riot in protest. Grinda hustles Nick outside to his car to escape the angry mob. Mike cannot catch up with Nick and Grinda as they speed away.
Act III:
Back in the U.S., Mike arrives home but maintains a low profile. While en route home, he tells a cab driver to drive past the house where all his friends are assembled with a large banner outside, as he is embarrassed by the fuss Linda and the others have made. He visits Linda the following day and grows close to her, but only because of the friend they both think they have lost.
Mike eventually learns about Angela, whom he goes to visit at the home of Steven's mother. Angela is apathetic and barely responsive. When asked by Mike about Steven's whereabouts, she writes a phone number on a scrap of paper, which leads Mike to the local veterans' hospital where Steven has been for several months.
Mike goes hunting with Axel, John, and Stan one more time, and after tracking a deer across the woods, takes his one shot but pulls the rifle up and fires into the air. He then sits on a rock escarpment and yells out, "OK?", which echoes back at him from the opposing rock faces leading down to the river, signifying his fight with his mental demons over losing Steven and Nick.
He also berates Stan for carrying around a small revolver and waving it around, not realizing it is still loaded. Mike visits Steven, who has lost both of his legs and is partially paralyzed. Steven reveals that someone in Saigon has been mailing large amounts of money to him, and Mike is convinced that it is Nick. Mike brings a reluctant Steven home to Angela and then travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975.
He tracks down Grinda, who has made a lot of money from the Russian roulette-playing Nick. He finds Nick in a crowded gambling club, but Nick appears to have no recollection of his friends or his home in Pennsylvania. Mike enters himself in a game of Russian roulette against Nick, hoping to jog Nick's memory and persuade him to come home, but Nick's mind is gone. To keep him from taking another turn, Mike grabs Nick's arms, which are covered in scars (implied to be heroin tracks).
At the last moment, after Mike reminds Nick of their hunting trips together, he finally breaks through, and Nick recognizes Mike and smiles. Nick then tells Mike, "one shot", raises the gun to his temple, and pulls the trigger. The round is in the gun's top chamber, and Nick kills himself. Horrified, Mike tries reviving him, but to no avail.
Back home in 1975, the friends have gathered for Nick's funeral, whom Mike brought home, staying good to his promise. The film ends with everyone at John's bar, singing "God Bless America". Mike toasts in Nick's honor.
Cast:
- Robert De Niro as S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" Vronsky.
- Christopher Walken as Cpl. Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich. His performance garnered his first Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor.
- John Savage as Cpl. Steven Pushkov.
- John Cazale as Stan ("Stosh"). All scenes involving Cazale, who had terminal cancer, were filmed first. Because of his illness, the studio initially wanted to fire him, but Streep, with whom he was in a relationship, and Cimino threatened to walk away if they did. He was also uninsurable, and according to Streep, De Niro paid for his insurance because he wanted Cazale in the film. This was Cazale's last film, as he died shortly after filming wrapped. Cazale never saw the finished film.
- Meryl Streep as Linda. Prior to The Deer Hunter, Streep was seen briefly in Fred Zinnemann's Julia (1977) and the eight-hour miniseries Holocaust (1978). In the screenplay, Streep's role was negligible. Cimino explained the set-up to Streep and suggested that she write her own lines.
- George Dzundza as John Welsh
- Pierre Segui as Julien Grinda
- Shirley Stoler as Steven's mother
- Chuck Aspegren as Peter "Axel" Axelrod. Aspegren was not an actor; he was the foreman at an East Chicago steelworks visited early in pre-production by De Niro and Cimino. They were so impressed with him that they offered him the role. He was the second person to be cast in the film, after De Niro.
- Rutanya Alda as Angela Ludhjduravic-Pushkov
- Amy Wright as Bridesmaid
- Joe Grifasi as Bandleader
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The Deer Hunter":
- Pre-production
- Development
- Screenplay
- Cimino's claim
- Washburn's claim
- Deeley's reaction to the revised script
- Filming
- Post-production
- Soundtrack
- Release
- Analysis
- Reception
- Awards
- Legacy
- Home media
- See also:
- The Deer Hunter (novel) (1978)
- The Last Hunter (1980), an Italian film originally made as an unofficial sequel
- The Deer Hunter on IMDb
- The Deer Hunter at the TCM Movie Database
- The Deer Hunter at AllMovie
- The Deer Hunter at Box Office Mojo
- The Deer Hunter at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Deer Hunter at Metacritic
Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and produced by Paul Monash, with a screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen.
The film received two Academy Award nominations, one for Sissy Spacek in the title role and one for Piper Laurie as her abusive mother. The film featured numerous young actors – including Nancy Allen, William Katt, Amy Irving, and John Travolta – whose careers were launched, or escalated, by the film.
It also relaunched the screen and television career of Laurie, who had not been active in show business since 1961.
Carrie was the first of more than 100 film and television productions adapted from, or based on, the published works of Stephen King.
Plot:
Shy, bullied high school student Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) experiences her first period as she showers with other girls after gym class. Unaware of what is happening to her, she panics and pleads for help.
The other girls respond by pelting her with hygiene products, laughing and chanting "plug it up!" Gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) breaks up the commotion and attempts to console Carrie. A light bulb mysteriously breaks as Carrie reaches the height of her panic.
Later, the school principal seems uncomfortable as Miss Collins expresses bewilderment that Carrie is so uninformed. As he dismisses Carrie from school for the afternoon, she becomes frustrated at both cigarette smoke emanating from an ashtray, and the principal repeatedly referring to her by the name "Cassie", causing the ashtray to flip from his desk and shatter.
On her way home, a young boy teases Carrie, and she makes him fall off his bicycle with just a look. At home, Carrie is abused by her fanatically religious mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), who rants about menstruation being the result of sinful thoughts. Carrie is locked in a small closet and forced to pray for forgiveness. When she is finally allowed to return to her room, she gazes into her reflection, causing the mirror to shatter.
Carrie's classmate Sue (Amy Irving) feels guilty, so she arranges for her boyfriend, handsome and popular Tommy (William Katt), to ask Carrie to the upcoming prom. Reluctant at first, Carrie accepts after encouragement from Miss Collins.
Another classmate, Chris (Nancy Allen), throws a tantrum and skips her detention for bullying Carrie, so she is banned from the prom. Swearing vengeance, she recruits her delinquent boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) to play a prank on Carrie. They slaughter pigs from a nearby farm and place a bucket of their blood above the stage at the school’s gymnasium.
Margaret discovers Carrie's prom plans and attempts to abuse her again. Having researched her telekinesis, Carrie asserts her power and stands up to her mother. Margaret responds by accusing Carrie of being a satanic witch.
At the prom, Carrie finds acceptance among her peers and shares a kiss with Tommy. Chris' bubbly best friend Norma (P.J. Soles) rigs the election and Carrie is crowned Prom Queen.
Carrie’s joy is cut short when Chris pulls a rope to dump the pigs' blood on her. Chris and Billy escape through a back door, while the bucket falls on Tommy's head, knocking him unconscious.
The blood-soaked Carrie hallucinates that everyone in the gymnasium is laughing at her and soon unleashes telekinetic fury upon the crowd, guilty and innocent alike. The doors slam shut (crushing a pair of students), a high-pressure water hose assaults many people (including Norma, who is knocked unconscious), the principal is electrocuted, and Miss Collins is crushed to death.
As the gym catches fire, Carrie calmly walks out and locks the remaining students inside. Chris and Billy attempt to run over Carrie as she walks home, but Carrie causes their car to flip and explode.
At home, Carrie is comforted by her mother, who reveals her guilt about giving birth to Carrie, a product of marital rape. As they pray together, Margaret stabs her daughter in the back and pursues her through the house.
Defending herself, Carrie causes kitchen utensils to fly through the air and crucify Margaret. Distraught over her mother's death, Carrie loses control of her powers as the house crumbles and burns down around her.
Sometime after Carrie’s death, Sue, the sole survivor of the prom massacre, dreams of laying flowers on the charred remains of Carrie's home. As a bloody arm reaches from the rubble and grabs her, Sue wakes up screaming.
For more about the Movie "Carrie", click on any of the following blue hyperlinks:
The film received two Academy Award nominations, one for Sissy Spacek in the title role and one for Piper Laurie as her abusive mother. The film featured numerous young actors – including Nancy Allen, William Katt, Amy Irving, and John Travolta – whose careers were launched, or escalated, by the film.
It also relaunched the screen and television career of Laurie, who had not been active in show business since 1961.
Carrie was the first of more than 100 film and television productions adapted from, or based on, the published works of Stephen King.
Plot:
Shy, bullied high school student Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) experiences her first period as she showers with other girls after gym class. Unaware of what is happening to her, she panics and pleads for help.
The other girls respond by pelting her with hygiene products, laughing and chanting "plug it up!" Gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) breaks up the commotion and attempts to console Carrie. A light bulb mysteriously breaks as Carrie reaches the height of her panic.
Later, the school principal seems uncomfortable as Miss Collins expresses bewilderment that Carrie is so uninformed. As he dismisses Carrie from school for the afternoon, she becomes frustrated at both cigarette smoke emanating from an ashtray, and the principal repeatedly referring to her by the name "Cassie", causing the ashtray to flip from his desk and shatter.
On her way home, a young boy teases Carrie, and she makes him fall off his bicycle with just a look. At home, Carrie is abused by her fanatically religious mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), who rants about menstruation being the result of sinful thoughts. Carrie is locked in a small closet and forced to pray for forgiveness. When she is finally allowed to return to her room, she gazes into her reflection, causing the mirror to shatter.
Carrie's classmate Sue (Amy Irving) feels guilty, so she arranges for her boyfriend, handsome and popular Tommy (William Katt), to ask Carrie to the upcoming prom. Reluctant at first, Carrie accepts after encouragement from Miss Collins.
Another classmate, Chris (Nancy Allen), throws a tantrum and skips her detention for bullying Carrie, so she is banned from the prom. Swearing vengeance, she recruits her delinquent boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) to play a prank on Carrie. They slaughter pigs from a nearby farm and place a bucket of their blood above the stage at the school’s gymnasium.
Margaret discovers Carrie's prom plans and attempts to abuse her again. Having researched her telekinesis, Carrie asserts her power and stands up to her mother. Margaret responds by accusing Carrie of being a satanic witch.
At the prom, Carrie finds acceptance among her peers and shares a kiss with Tommy. Chris' bubbly best friend Norma (P.J. Soles) rigs the election and Carrie is crowned Prom Queen.
Carrie’s joy is cut short when Chris pulls a rope to dump the pigs' blood on her. Chris and Billy escape through a back door, while the bucket falls on Tommy's head, knocking him unconscious.
The blood-soaked Carrie hallucinates that everyone in the gymnasium is laughing at her and soon unleashes telekinetic fury upon the crowd, guilty and innocent alike. The doors slam shut (crushing a pair of students), a high-pressure water hose assaults many people (including Norma, who is knocked unconscious), the principal is electrocuted, and Miss Collins is crushed to death.
As the gym catches fire, Carrie calmly walks out and locks the remaining students inside. Chris and Billy attempt to run over Carrie as she walks home, but Carrie causes their car to flip and explode.
At home, Carrie is comforted by her mother, who reveals her guilt about giving birth to Carrie, a product of marital rape. As they pray together, Margaret stabs her daughter in the back and pursues her through the house.
Defending herself, Carrie causes kitchen utensils to fly through the air and crucify Margaret. Distraught over her mother's death, Carrie loses control of her powers as the house crumbles and burns down around her.
Sometime after Carrie’s death, Sue, the sole survivor of the prom massacre, dreams of laying flowers on the charred remains of Carrie's home. As a bloody arm reaches from the rubble and grabs her, Sue wakes up screaming.
For more about the Movie "Carrie", click on any of the following blue hyperlinks:
- Cast
- Production
- Release and reception including its Legacy
- Related productions
- See also:
- Carrie on IMDb
- Carrie at Box Office Mojo
- Carrie at Rotten Tomatoes
Chinatown (1974)
YouTube Video of Movie Trailer for Chinatown
Pictured below: Faye Dunaway (as Evelyn Cross Mulwray) and Jack Nicholson (as J.J. "Jake" Gittes)
YouTube Video of Movie Trailer for Chinatown
Pictured below: Faye Dunaway (as Evelyn Cross Mulwray) and Jack Nicholson (as J.J. "Jake" Gittes)
Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.
The film was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley.
The Robert Evans production, a Paramount Pictures release, was the director's last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
In 1991, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and it is frequently listed as one of the greatest films of all-time.
At the 47th Academy Awards, it was nominated for eleven Oscars, with Towne winning Best Original Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards honored it for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute placed it second among mystery films in 2008.
Box Office Receipts = $29.2 Million
A sequel, The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, again starring Nicholson, who also directed, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. The film failed to generate the acclaim of its predecessor.
Plot:
A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator J. J. "Jake" Gittes to surveil her husband, Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Gittes tails him, hears him publicly oppose the creation of a new reservoir, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman, which are published on the front page of the following day's paper. Back at his office, Gittes is confronted by a woman who informs him she is the real Evelyn Mulwray, and that he can expect a lawsuit.
Realizing he was set up, Gittes assumes that Mulwray's husband is the real target. Before he can question him, Lieutenant Lou Escobar fishes Mulwray, drowned, from a freshwater reservoir. Under retainer to Mrs. Mulwray, Gittes investigates his suspicions of murder and notices that, although huge quantities of water are released from the reservoir every night, the land is almost dry.
Gittes is warned off by Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill and a henchman, who slashes Gittes's nose. Back at his office, Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, who identifies herself as the imposter Mrs. Mulwray. She is afraid to identify her employer, but tells Gittes to check the day's obituaries.
Gittes learns that Mulwray was once the business partner of his wife's wealthy father, Noah Cross. Over lunch at his personal club, Cross warns Gittes that he does not understand the forces at work, and offers to double Gittes's fee to search for Mulwray's missing mistress. At the hall of records, Gittes discovers that much of the Northwest Valley has recently changed ownership.
Investigating the valley, he is attacked by angry landowners, who believe he is an agent of the water department attempting to force them out by sabotaging their water supply.
Gittes deduces that the water department is drying up the land so it can be bought at a reduced price, and that Mulwray was murdered when he discovered the plan. He discovers that a former retirement home resident is one of the valley's new landowners, and seemingly purchased the property a week after his death. Gittes and Evelyn bluff their way into the home and confirm that the real estate deals were surreptitiously completed in the names of several of the home's residents. Their visit is interrupted by the suspicious retirement home director, who has called Mulvihill.
After fleeing Mulvihill and his thugs, Gittes and Evelyn hide at Evelyn's house and sleep together. Early in the morning, Evelyn gets a phone call and has to leave suddenly; she warns Gittes that her father is dangerous. Gittes follows her car to a house, where he spies her through the windows comforting Mulwray's mistress. He accuses Evelyn of holding the woman against her will, but she confesses that the woman is her sister.
The next day, an anonymous call draws Gittes to Ida Sessions's apartment; he finds her murdered and Escobar waiting for his arrival. Escobar tells him the coroner's report found salt water in Mulwray's lungs, indicating that he did not drown in the freshwater reservoir where his body was found. Escobar suspects Evelyn of the murder and tells Gittes to produce her quickly.
At Evelyn's mansion, Gittes finds her servants packing her things. He realizes her garden pond is salt water and discovers a pair of bifocals in it. He confronts Evelyn about her "sister", whom Evelyn now claims is her daughter. After Gittes slaps her, she admits that the woman, Katherine, is her sister and her daughter: her father raped her when she was fifteen. She says that the eyeglasses are not Mulwray's, as he did not wear bifocals.
Gittes arranges for the women to flee to Mexico and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's home in Chinatown. He summons Cross to the Mulwray home to settle their deal. Cross admits his intention to annex the Northwest Valley into the City of Los Angeles, then irrigate and develop it.
Gittes accuses Cross of murdering Mulwray. Cross takes the bifocals at gunpoint, and he and his men force Gittes to drive them to the women. When they reach the Chinatown address, the police are already there and detain Gittes. When Cross approaches Katherine, Evelyn shoots him in the arm and drives away with Katherine. The police open fire, killing Evelyn.
Cross clutches Katherine and leads her away, while Escobar orders Gittes released. Lawrence Walsh, one of Gittes's associates, tells him: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Chinatown":
The film was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley.
The Robert Evans production, a Paramount Pictures release, was the director's last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
In 1991, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and it is frequently listed as one of the greatest films of all-time.
At the 47th Academy Awards, it was nominated for eleven Oscars, with Towne winning Best Original Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards honored it for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute placed it second among mystery films in 2008.
Box Office Receipts = $29.2 Million
A sequel, The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, again starring Nicholson, who also directed, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. The film failed to generate the acclaim of its predecessor.
Plot:
A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator J. J. "Jake" Gittes to surveil her husband, Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Gittes tails him, hears him publicly oppose the creation of a new reservoir, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman, which are published on the front page of the following day's paper. Back at his office, Gittes is confronted by a woman who informs him she is the real Evelyn Mulwray, and that he can expect a lawsuit.
Realizing he was set up, Gittes assumes that Mulwray's husband is the real target. Before he can question him, Lieutenant Lou Escobar fishes Mulwray, drowned, from a freshwater reservoir. Under retainer to Mrs. Mulwray, Gittes investigates his suspicions of murder and notices that, although huge quantities of water are released from the reservoir every night, the land is almost dry.
Gittes is warned off by Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill and a henchman, who slashes Gittes's nose. Back at his office, Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, who identifies herself as the imposter Mrs. Mulwray. She is afraid to identify her employer, but tells Gittes to check the day's obituaries.
Gittes learns that Mulwray was once the business partner of his wife's wealthy father, Noah Cross. Over lunch at his personal club, Cross warns Gittes that he does not understand the forces at work, and offers to double Gittes's fee to search for Mulwray's missing mistress. At the hall of records, Gittes discovers that much of the Northwest Valley has recently changed ownership.
Investigating the valley, he is attacked by angry landowners, who believe he is an agent of the water department attempting to force them out by sabotaging their water supply.
Gittes deduces that the water department is drying up the land so it can be bought at a reduced price, and that Mulwray was murdered when he discovered the plan. He discovers that a former retirement home resident is one of the valley's new landowners, and seemingly purchased the property a week after his death. Gittes and Evelyn bluff their way into the home and confirm that the real estate deals were surreptitiously completed in the names of several of the home's residents. Their visit is interrupted by the suspicious retirement home director, who has called Mulvihill.
After fleeing Mulvihill and his thugs, Gittes and Evelyn hide at Evelyn's house and sleep together. Early in the morning, Evelyn gets a phone call and has to leave suddenly; she warns Gittes that her father is dangerous. Gittes follows her car to a house, where he spies her through the windows comforting Mulwray's mistress. He accuses Evelyn of holding the woman against her will, but she confesses that the woman is her sister.
The next day, an anonymous call draws Gittes to Ida Sessions's apartment; he finds her murdered and Escobar waiting for his arrival. Escobar tells him the coroner's report found salt water in Mulwray's lungs, indicating that he did not drown in the freshwater reservoir where his body was found. Escobar suspects Evelyn of the murder and tells Gittes to produce her quickly.
At Evelyn's mansion, Gittes finds her servants packing her things. He realizes her garden pond is salt water and discovers a pair of bifocals in it. He confronts Evelyn about her "sister", whom Evelyn now claims is her daughter. After Gittes slaps her, she admits that the woman, Katherine, is her sister and her daughter: her father raped her when she was fifteen. She says that the eyeglasses are not Mulwray's, as he did not wear bifocals.
Gittes arranges for the women to flee to Mexico and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's home in Chinatown. He summons Cross to the Mulwray home to settle their deal. Cross admits his intention to annex the Northwest Valley into the City of Los Angeles, then irrigate and develop it.
Gittes accuses Cross of murdering Mulwray. Cross takes the bifocals at gunpoint, and he and his men force Gittes to drive them to the women. When they reach the Chinatown address, the police are already there and detain Gittes. When Cross approaches Katherine, Evelyn shoots him in the arm and drives away with Katherine. The police open fire, killing Evelyn.
Cross clutches Katherine and leads her away, while Escobar orders Gittes released. Lawrence Walsh, one of Gittes's associates, tells him: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Chinatown":
- Cast
- Production
- Historical background
- Reception
- Legacy
- Awards and honors
- See also:
- Chinatown on IMDb
- Chinatown at the TCM Movie Database
- Chinatown at AllMovie
- Chinatown at Metacritic
- Chinatown at Rotten Tomatoes
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his film Lenny while simultaneously staging the 1975 Broadway musical Chicago.
It borrows its title from the Kander and Ebb tune "All That Jazz" in that production. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2001, All That Jazz was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is a theater director and choreographer trying to balance work on his latest Broadway musical with editing a Hollywood film he has directed. He is a workaholic who chain-smokes cigarettes, and without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine, and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest "show" of all — his life.
His girlfriend Katie Jagger (Ann Reinking) , his ex-wife Audrey Paris ), and daughter Michelle (Erzsébet Földi) try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart. In his imagination, he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique (Jessica Lange).
Gideon's condition gets progressively worse. He is rushed to a hospital after experiencing chest pains during a particularly stressful table read (with the penny-pinching backers in attendance) and admitted with severe attacks of angina. Joe brushes off his symptoms, and attempts to leave to go back to rehearsal, but he collapses in the doctor's office and is ordered to stay in the hospital for three to four weeks to rest his heart and recover from his exhaustion.
The show is postponed, but Gideon continues his antics from the hospital bed, in brazen denial of his mortality. Champagne flows, endless strings of women frolic around his hospital room and the cigarettes are always lit. Cardiogram readings don't show any improvement as Gideon dances with death. As the negative reviews for his feature film (which has been released without him) come in, Gideon has a massive coronary and is taken straight to coronary artery bypass surgery.
The backers for the show must then decide whether it's time to pack up or replace Gideon as the director. Their matter-of-fact money-oriented negotiations with the insurers are juxtaposed with graphic scenes of (presumably Joe's) open heart surgery. The producers realize that the best way to recoup their money and make a profit is to bet on Gideon dying — the insurance proceeds would result in a profit of over $500,000.
Meanwhile, elements from Gideon's past life are staged in dazzling dream sequences of musical numbers he directs from his hospital bed while on life support. Realizing his death is imminent, his mortality unconquerable, Gideon has another heart attack. In the glittery finale, he goes through the five stages of grief — anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance - featured in the stand-up routine he has been editing. As death closes in on Gideon, the fantasy episodes become more hallucinatory and extravagant, and in a final epilogue that is set up as a truly monumental live variety show featuring everyone from his past, Gideon himself takes center stage.
The final shot shows Joe Gideon's body being zipped up in a body bag.
Cast and Characters:
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "All That Jazz":
It borrows its title from the Kander and Ebb tune "All That Jazz" in that production. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2001, All That Jazz was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is a theater director and choreographer trying to balance work on his latest Broadway musical with editing a Hollywood film he has directed. He is a workaholic who chain-smokes cigarettes, and without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine, and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest "show" of all — his life.
His girlfriend Katie Jagger (Ann Reinking) , his ex-wife Audrey Paris ), and daughter Michelle (Erzsébet Földi) try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart. In his imagination, he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique (Jessica Lange).
Gideon's condition gets progressively worse. He is rushed to a hospital after experiencing chest pains during a particularly stressful table read (with the penny-pinching backers in attendance) and admitted with severe attacks of angina. Joe brushes off his symptoms, and attempts to leave to go back to rehearsal, but he collapses in the doctor's office and is ordered to stay in the hospital for three to four weeks to rest his heart and recover from his exhaustion.
The show is postponed, but Gideon continues his antics from the hospital bed, in brazen denial of his mortality. Champagne flows, endless strings of women frolic around his hospital room and the cigarettes are always lit. Cardiogram readings don't show any improvement as Gideon dances with death. As the negative reviews for his feature film (which has been released without him) come in, Gideon has a massive coronary and is taken straight to coronary artery bypass surgery.
The backers for the show must then decide whether it's time to pack up or replace Gideon as the director. Their matter-of-fact money-oriented negotiations with the insurers are juxtaposed with graphic scenes of (presumably Joe's) open heart surgery. The producers realize that the best way to recoup their money and make a profit is to bet on Gideon dying — the insurance proceeds would result in a profit of over $500,000.
Meanwhile, elements from Gideon's past life are staged in dazzling dream sequences of musical numbers he directs from his hospital bed while on life support. Realizing his death is imminent, his mortality unconquerable, Gideon has another heart attack. In the glittery finale, he goes through the five stages of grief — anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance - featured in the stand-up routine he has been editing. As death closes in on Gideon, the fantasy episodes become more hallucinatory and extravagant, and in a final epilogue that is set up as a truly monumental live variety show featuring everyone from his past, Gideon himself takes center stage.
The final shot shows Joe Gideon's body being zipped up in a body bag.
Cast and Characters:
- Roy Scheider as Joseph "Joe" Gideon
- Keith Gordon as young Joe
- Jessica Lange as "Angelique", the angel of death
- Leland Palmer as Audrey Paris, Gideon's ex-wife
- Ann Reinking as Katie Jagger, Gideon's current girlfriend.
- Cliff Gorman as Davis Newman, the "Stand-Up"
- Ben Vereen as O'Connor Flood
- Erzsébet Földi as Michelle Gideon, Joe's daughter
- Michael Tolan as Dr. Ballinger
- Max Wright as Joshua Penn
- William LeMassena as Jonesy Hecht
- Deborah Geffner as Victoria Porter
- John Lithgow as Lucas Sergeant
- Jules Fisher as Jules
- Chris Chase as Leslie Perry, film critic
- Anthony Holland as Paul
- The principal dancers include:
- Sandahl Bergman,
- Eileen Casey,
- Bruce Anthony Davis,
- Gary Flannery,
- Jennifer Nairn-Smith,
- Danny Ruvolo,
- Leland Schwantes,
- John Sowinski,
- Candace Tovar,
- and Rima Vetter.
- Ben Masters as Dr. Garry
- Robert Levine as Dr. Hyman
- C. C. H. Pounder as Nurse Blake
- Wallace Shawn as Assistant insurance man
- Tito Goya as hospital assistant
- Michael Hinton (uncredited) as band drummer
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "All That Jazz":
- Music
- Production
- Critical reception
- Awards and honors
- Home media
- See also:
- All That Jazz on IMDb
- All That Jazz at the TCM Movie Database
- All That Jazz at AllMovie
- All That Jazz at Box Office Mojo
- All That Jazz at Rotten Tomatoes
- All That Jazz: Stardust an essay by Hilton Als at the Criterion Collection
Lenny (1974) Pictured below: “Lenny” (L) as portrayed by Dustin Hoffman; (R) the real Lenny Bruce.
The Movie Lenny is a 1974 American biographical film about the comedian Lenny Bruce (see next topic about Lenny Bruce below), starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Julian Barry is based on his play of the same name.
The film jumps between various sections of Bruce's life, including scenes of when he was in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations.
We watch as up-and-coming Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey. With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe" act, but he cannot do it.
Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at Establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in 1966.
Cast:
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Lenny":
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and screenwriter.
Bruce was renowned for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity.
His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York state, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003. He paved the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity is seen as a landmark for freedom of speech in the United States.
In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third (behind disciples Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Lenny Bruce:
The film jumps between various sections of Bruce's life, including scenes of when he was in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations.
We watch as up-and-coming Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey. With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe" act, but he cannot do it.
Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at Establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in 1966.
Cast:
- Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce
- Valerie Perrine as Honey Bruce
- Jan Miner as Sally Marr
- Stanley Beck as Artie Silver
- Rashel Novikoff as Aunt Mema
- Gary Morton as Sherman Hart
- Guy Rennie as Jack Goldman
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Lenny":
- Reception
- Awards and honors
- Casting
- DVD
- See also:
- Lenny on IMDb
- Lenny at Rotten Tomatoes
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and screenwriter.
Bruce was renowned for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity.
His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York state, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003. He paved the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity is seen as a landmark for freedom of speech in the United States.
In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third (behind disciples Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Lenny Bruce:
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- Legal troubles
- Later years
- Death and posthumous pardon
- Legacy
- In popular culture
- Books by and/or about Bruce
- Filmography
- Partial discography
Little Big Man is a 1970 American western comedy-drama film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the novel Little Big Man by Thomas Berger. It is about a white male child raised by the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers and Native Americans throughout the progression of the boy's life.
The movie stars:
It is considered a Western, with Native Americans receiving a more sympathetic treatment and the United States Cavalry depicted as villains. Despite its satirical approach, the film has tragic elements and a clear social conscience about prejudice and injustice. Little Big Man is considered an example of anti-establishment films of the period, protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the U.S. military negatively.
In 2014, Little Big Man was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
In the present day (1970), 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Hoffman), the oldest living man in the world and residing in a hospice, recounts his plentiful life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to have had been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Jack begins his story in a flashback to 1859 when he was 10 years old where he and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) survive the massacre of their parents by the Pawnee, and are discovered by a Cheyenne brave who takes the pair to his village. Caroline escapes, but Jack is reared by the goodhearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins.
As Jack gets older, he unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear; however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack since he saved his life from a Pawnee brave. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is short but very brave. In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Cheyenne upbringing in order to save himself.
He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake household, and religion.
The following year, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather (Balsam). The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Merriweather's products are fraudulent.
One of the angry customers is Jack's now-grown sister, Caroline, with whom he reunites. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger named the Soda Pop Kid. Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.
Another year or so later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a Swedish woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel.
The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer suggests the couple restart their lives further west and assures them they have nothing to fear of Indians. They set out, but their stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search for her. He is reunited with Old Lodge Skins. Younger Bear has become a Contrary, a warrior who does everything in reverse. Jack makes friends with the hwame Little Horse, but continues on his search for Olga.
Jack eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, only because Custer incorrectly determines that was Jack's past job. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the troopers begin killing women and children, Jack turns on them. On the outskirts of the massacre, Jack is attacked by Shadow, the Cheyenne brave who saved him as a child but now does not recognize him.
Shadow is killed by a cavalryman, and Jack discovers his daughter, Sunshine (Aimée Eccles), giving birth while hiding from the onslaught. He returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, not a Contrary anymore, who is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to make her remember him. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees.
In November 1868, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp at the Washita River. A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but Sunshine, their child, and her sisters are killed. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge, but loses his nerve to kill Custer.
Disheartened, Jack withdraws from life and becomes the town drunk living in Deadwood, South Dakota for the next several years. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to get cleaned up. Hickok is shot and killed while playing cards and, with his last breath, asks Jack to bring some money to a widow he was having an affair with. Jack visits the widow, now a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life, but again rebuffs her sexual advances. This scene provides an homage to Hoffman's role in the movie The Graduate and his seduction by Mrs. Robinson.
Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. He prepares to commit suicide, but sees Custer and his troops marching nearby, and decides to return to his quest for revenge.
Custer hires him as a scout, reasoning that anything Jack says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack tricks Custer into leading his troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn by truthfully telling Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley. As Custer's troops are slaughtered by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne group, he begins to rave insanely.
The mad Custer attempts to shoot Jack who is wounded, but is killed by Younger Bear, who then carries Jack away from the battlefield. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.
Back at the Indian camp, Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the Indian burial ground, where the old man, dressed in full chief's regalia, has declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.
Back in the present, Jack's narrative ends and he dismisses the historian. The final shot shows the elderly Jack thinking with sadness about the memories of a world which is no more.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Little Big Man":
The movie stars:
It is considered a Western, with Native Americans receiving a more sympathetic treatment and the United States Cavalry depicted as villains. Despite its satirical approach, the film has tragic elements and a clear social conscience about prejudice and injustice. Little Big Man is considered an example of anti-establishment films of the period, protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the U.S. military negatively.
In 2014, Little Big Man was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
In the present day (1970), 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Hoffman), the oldest living man in the world and residing in a hospice, recounts his plentiful life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to have had been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Jack begins his story in a flashback to 1859 when he was 10 years old where he and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) survive the massacre of their parents by the Pawnee, and are discovered by a Cheyenne brave who takes the pair to his village. Caroline escapes, but Jack is reared by the goodhearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins.
As Jack gets older, he unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear; however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack since he saved his life from a Pawnee brave. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is short but very brave. In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Cheyenne upbringing in order to save himself.
He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake household, and religion.
The following year, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather (Balsam). The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Merriweather's products are fraudulent.
One of the angry customers is Jack's now-grown sister, Caroline, with whom he reunites. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger named the Soda Pop Kid. Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.
Another year or so later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a Swedish woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel.
The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer suggests the couple restart their lives further west and assures them they have nothing to fear of Indians. They set out, but their stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search for her. He is reunited with Old Lodge Skins. Younger Bear has become a Contrary, a warrior who does everything in reverse. Jack makes friends with the hwame Little Horse, but continues on his search for Olga.
Jack eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, only because Custer incorrectly determines that was Jack's past job. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the troopers begin killing women and children, Jack turns on them. On the outskirts of the massacre, Jack is attacked by Shadow, the Cheyenne brave who saved him as a child but now does not recognize him.
Shadow is killed by a cavalryman, and Jack discovers his daughter, Sunshine (Aimée Eccles), giving birth while hiding from the onslaught. He returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, not a Contrary anymore, who is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to make her remember him. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees.
In November 1868, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp at the Washita River. A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but Sunshine, their child, and her sisters are killed. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge, but loses his nerve to kill Custer.
Disheartened, Jack withdraws from life and becomes the town drunk living in Deadwood, South Dakota for the next several years. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to get cleaned up. Hickok is shot and killed while playing cards and, with his last breath, asks Jack to bring some money to a widow he was having an affair with. Jack visits the widow, now a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life, but again rebuffs her sexual advances. This scene provides an homage to Hoffman's role in the movie The Graduate and his seduction by Mrs. Robinson.
Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. He prepares to commit suicide, but sees Custer and his troops marching nearby, and decides to return to his quest for revenge.
Custer hires him as a scout, reasoning that anything Jack says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack tricks Custer into leading his troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn by truthfully telling Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley. As Custer's troops are slaughtered by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne group, he begins to rave insanely.
The mad Custer attempts to shoot Jack who is wounded, but is killed by Younger Bear, who then carries Jack away from the battlefield. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.
Back at the Indian camp, Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the Indian burial ground, where the old man, dressed in full chief's regalia, has declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.
Back in the present, Jack's narrative ends and he dismisses the historian. The final shot shows the elderly Jack thinking with sadness about the memories of a world which is no more.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Little Big Man":
- Cast
- Historical basis
- Production
- Reception
- Home media
- See also:
- The Scarlet West (1925)
- General Custer at the Little Big Horn (1926)
- They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
- Dances with Wolves (1990)
- Soldier Blue (1970)
- Little Big Man on Internet Movie Database
- Little Big Man at the TCM Movie Database
Marathon Man is a 1976 American suspense-thriller film directed by John Schlesinger. It was adapted by William Goldman from his 1974 novel of the same name and stars Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane and Marthe Keller. The music score was composed by Michael Small.
The film was a critical and box office success, with Olivier earning a Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his role as the film's antagonist.
Plot:
Thomas "Babe" Levy (Hoffman) is a history Ph.D. candidate and avid runner researching the same field as his father, who committed suicide after being investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. Babe's brother, Henry (Scheider), known as "Doc", poses as an oil company executive but is actually a government agent working for a secret agency headed by Peter Janeway (Devane).
When the brother of a Nazi war criminal is killed in a traffic accident, Doc suspects that the criminal, Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier), will come to New York to retrieve a valuable diamond collection. Doc comes to New York under the guise of a visit to Babe. Meanwhile, Babe and his new girlfriend, Elsa Opel (Keller), who claims to be from Switzerland, are mugged by two men dressed in suits.
When Doc takes Babe and Elsa to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying to Babe about her background. Though Doc suspects she may be connected to Szell, he tells Babe that she is seeking an American husband so that she can become a U.S. citizen. After Szell arrives in America, Doc confronts him stating he is not welcome in the country. Szell accepts the pronouncement, but then stabs Doc with a blade concealed in his sleeve. Doc makes it back to Babe's apartment and dies.
The police interrogate Babe until government agents led by Janeway arrive. Janeway asks Babe what Doc told him before he died, and tells Babe that his brother was a U.S. government agent. Babe insists that his brother did not tell him anything, but Janeway is convinced Doc would not have struggled all the way to Babe's apartment without giving him vital information.
Babe is later abducted from his apartment by the two men who mugged him in the park, and he is tortured by Szell. During his torture, Babe is repeatedly asked "Is it safe?" but continues to deny any knowledge. Babe is then rescued by Janeway, who explains that Szell is in America to sell off a large cache of diamonds which he had taken from Jews killed at Auschwitz.
Janeway presses Babe about Doc's dying words, but Babe still insists he knows nothing. Frustrated, Janeway reveals himself as a double agent and returns Babe to Szell. Still unable to extract anything from Babe, Szell drills into one of his healthy teeth. Babe eventually escapes, aided by his skills as a marathon runner.
Babe phones Elsa, who agrees to meet him with a car. Arriving at a country home, Babe guesses that Elsa has set him up, forcing her to confess that the home was owned by Szell's deceased brother. Janeway and Szell's men arrive, but Babe takes Elsa hostage. Janeway kills Szell's men and offers to let Babe kill Szell in revenge for Doc's death if Janeway can have the diamonds. Babe agrees, but as he leaves, Janeway tries to shoot Babe, but kills Elsa instead. Babe then shoots Janeway.
Attempting to determine the value of his diamonds, Szell visits an appraiser in the Diamond District in midtown Manhattan. A shop assistant who is a Holocaust survivor believes he recognizes Szell as a war criminal. After Szell hurriedly leaves the shop, an elderly Jewish woman also recognizes him. Trying to cross the street to get closer to Szell, the woman is hit by a taxi, causing a crowd to assemble to aid her. Amidst the confusion, the shop assistant appears again, directly confronting Szell, who slits the man's throat.
Szell retrieves his diamonds but, as he attempts to leave, Babe forces him at gunpoint into Central Park. Babe tells Szell he can keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. Szell initially refuses, and Babe begins throwing the diamonds into the water. Szell relents and swallows one diamond, but then refuses to cooperate further. Babe throws the rest of the diamonds down the steps towards the water; Szell dives for them, but stumbles, and falls on his own knife blade. Babe heads out into Central Park, stopping to throw his gun into the reservoir.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Marathon Man":
The film was a critical and box office success, with Olivier earning a Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his role as the film's antagonist.
Plot:
Thomas "Babe" Levy (Hoffman) is a history Ph.D. candidate and avid runner researching the same field as his father, who committed suicide after being investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. Babe's brother, Henry (Scheider), known as "Doc", poses as an oil company executive but is actually a government agent working for a secret agency headed by Peter Janeway (Devane).
When the brother of a Nazi war criminal is killed in a traffic accident, Doc suspects that the criminal, Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier), will come to New York to retrieve a valuable diamond collection. Doc comes to New York under the guise of a visit to Babe. Meanwhile, Babe and his new girlfriend, Elsa Opel (Keller), who claims to be from Switzerland, are mugged by two men dressed in suits.
When Doc takes Babe and Elsa to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying to Babe about her background. Though Doc suspects she may be connected to Szell, he tells Babe that she is seeking an American husband so that she can become a U.S. citizen. After Szell arrives in America, Doc confronts him stating he is not welcome in the country. Szell accepts the pronouncement, but then stabs Doc with a blade concealed in his sleeve. Doc makes it back to Babe's apartment and dies.
The police interrogate Babe until government agents led by Janeway arrive. Janeway asks Babe what Doc told him before he died, and tells Babe that his brother was a U.S. government agent. Babe insists that his brother did not tell him anything, but Janeway is convinced Doc would not have struggled all the way to Babe's apartment without giving him vital information.
Babe is later abducted from his apartment by the two men who mugged him in the park, and he is tortured by Szell. During his torture, Babe is repeatedly asked "Is it safe?" but continues to deny any knowledge. Babe is then rescued by Janeway, who explains that Szell is in America to sell off a large cache of diamonds which he had taken from Jews killed at Auschwitz.
Janeway presses Babe about Doc's dying words, but Babe still insists he knows nothing. Frustrated, Janeway reveals himself as a double agent and returns Babe to Szell. Still unable to extract anything from Babe, Szell drills into one of his healthy teeth. Babe eventually escapes, aided by his skills as a marathon runner.
Babe phones Elsa, who agrees to meet him with a car. Arriving at a country home, Babe guesses that Elsa has set him up, forcing her to confess that the home was owned by Szell's deceased brother. Janeway and Szell's men arrive, but Babe takes Elsa hostage. Janeway kills Szell's men and offers to let Babe kill Szell in revenge for Doc's death if Janeway can have the diamonds. Babe agrees, but as he leaves, Janeway tries to shoot Babe, but kills Elsa instead. Babe then shoots Janeway.
Attempting to determine the value of his diamonds, Szell visits an appraiser in the Diamond District in midtown Manhattan. A shop assistant who is a Holocaust survivor believes he recognizes Szell as a war criminal. After Szell hurriedly leaves the shop, an elderly Jewish woman also recognizes him. Trying to cross the street to get closer to Szell, the woman is hit by a taxi, causing a crowd to assemble to aid her. Amidst the confusion, the shop assistant appears again, directly confronting Szell, who slits the man's throat.
Szell retrieves his diamonds but, as he attempts to leave, Babe forces him at gunpoint into Central Park. Babe tells Szell he can keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. Szell initially refuses, and Babe begins throwing the diamonds into the water. Szell relents and swallows one diamond, but then refuses to cooperate further. Babe throws the rest of the diamonds down the steps towards the water; Szell dives for them, but stumbles, and falls on his own knife blade. Babe heads out into Central Park, stopping to throw his gun into the reservoir.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Marathon Man":
- Cast
- Production
- Themes
- Music
- Reception and cultural impact
- Deleted graphic scenes
- Differences between the novel and film
- See Also:
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw). The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.
The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money. If a con is successful, the mark does not realize he has been "taken" (cheated), at least not until the con men are long gone. The film is played out in distinct sections with old-fashioned title cards, the lettering and illustrations rendered in a style reminiscent of the Saturday Evening Post.
The film is noted for its anachronistic use of ragtime, particularly the melody "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, which was adapted (along with others by Joplin) for the movie by Marvin Hamlisch (and a top-ten chart single for Hamlisch when released as a single from the film's soundtrack). The film's success created a resurgence of interest in Joplin's work.
The Sting was hugely successful at the 46th Academy Awards, being nominated for 10 Oscars and winning seven, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
The Plot:
The film takes place in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression. Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford), a grifter in Joliet, Illinois, cons $11,000 in cash ($189,800 today) in a pigeon drop from an unsuspecting victim with the aid of his partners Luther Coleman (Rober Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe).
Buoyed by the windfall, Luther announces his retirement and advises Hooker to seek out an old friend, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), in Chicago to teach him "the big con". Unfortunately, their victim was a numbers racket courier for vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw).
Corrupt Joliet police Lieutenant William Snyder (Charles Durning) confronts Hooker, revealing Lonnegan's involvement and demanding part of Hooker’s cut. Having already spent his share, Hooker pays Snyder in counterfeit bills. Lonnegan's men murder both the courier and Luther, and Hooker flees for his life to Chicago.
Hooker finds Henry Gondorff, a once-great con-man now hiding from the FBI, and asks for his help in taking on the dangerous Lonnegan. Gondorff is initially reluctant, but he relents and recruits a core team of experienced con men to con Lonnegan.
They decide to resurrect an elaborate obsolete scam known as "the wire", using a larger crew of con artists to create a phony off-track betting parlor. Aboard the opulent 20th Century Limited, Gondorff, posing as boorish Chicago bookie Shaw, buys into Lonnegan's private, high-stakes poker game.
Shaw infuriates Lonnegan with his obnoxious behavior, then outcheats him to win $15,000. Hooker, posing as Shaw's disgruntled employee, Kelly, is sent to collect the winnings and instead convinces Lonnegan that he wants to take over Shaw's operation. Kelly reveals that he has a partner named Les Harmon (actually con man Kid Twist (Harold Gould)) in the Chicago Western Union office, who will allow them to win bets on horse races by past-posting.
Meanwhile, Snyder has tracked Hooker to Chicago, but his pursuit is thwarted when he is summoned by undercover FBI agents led by Agent Polk (Dana Elcar), who orders him to assist in their plan to arrest Gondorff using Hooker. At the same time, Lonnegan has grown frustrated with the inability of his men to find and kill Hooker. Unaware that Kelly is Hooker, he demands that Salino (Dimitra Arliss), his best assassin, be given the job. A mysterious figure with black leather gloves is then seen following and observing Hooker.
Kelly's connection appears effective, as Harmon provides Lonnegan with the winner of one horse race and the trifecta of another race. Lonnegan agrees to finance a $500,000 ($8,629,000 today) bet at Shaw's parlor to break Shaw and gain revenge. Shortly thereafter, Snyder captures Hooker and brings him before FBI Agent Polk. Polk forces Hooker to betray Gondorff by threatening to incarcerate Luther Coleman's widow.
The night before the sting, Hooker sleeps with Loretta, a waitress from a local restaurant. As Hooker leaves the building the next morning, he sees Loretta walking toward him. The black-gloved man appears behind Hooker and shoots her dead – she was Lonnegan's hired killer, Loretta Salino, and the gunman was hired by Gondorff to protect Hooker.
Armed with Harmon’s tip to "place it on Lucky Dan", Lonnegan makes the $500,000 bet at Shaw’s parlor on Lucky Dan to win. As the race begins, Harmon arrives and expresses shock at Lonnegan's bet, explaining that when he said "place it" he meant, literally, that Lucky Dan would "place" (i.e., finish second).
In a panic, Lonnegan rushes the teller window and demands his money back. A moment later, Agent Polk, Lt. Snyder, and a half dozen FBI officers storm the parlor. Polk confronts Gondorff, then tells Hooker he is free to go. Gondorff, reacting to the betrayal, shoots Hooker in the back.
Polk then shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get the ostensibly-respectable Lonnegan away from the crime scene. With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and Gondorff rise amid cheers and laughter. Agent Polk is actually Hickey, a con man, running a con atop Gondorff's con to divert Snyder and provide a solid "blow off". As the con men strip the room of its contents, Hooker refuses his share of the money, saying "I'd only blow it", and walks away with Gondorff.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "The Sting":
Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.
The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money. If a con is successful, the mark does not realize he has been "taken" (cheated), at least not until the con men are long gone. The film is played out in distinct sections with old-fashioned title cards, the lettering and illustrations rendered in a style reminiscent of the Saturday Evening Post.
The film is noted for its anachronistic use of ragtime, particularly the melody "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, which was adapted (along with others by Joplin) for the movie by Marvin Hamlisch (and a top-ten chart single for Hamlisch when released as a single from the film's soundtrack). The film's success created a resurgence of interest in Joplin's work.
The Sting was hugely successful at the 46th Academy Awards, being nominated for 10 Oscars and winning seven, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
The Plot:
The film takes place in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression. Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford), a grifter in Joliet, Illinois, cons $11,000 in cash ($189,800 today) in a pigeon drop from an unsuspecting victim with the aid of his partners Luther Coleman (Rober Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe).
Buoyed by the windfall, Luther announces his retirement and advises Hooker to seek out an old friend, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), in Chicago to teach him "the big con". Unfortunately, their victim was a numbers racket courier for vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw).
Corrupt Joliet police Lieutenant William Snyder (Charles Durning) confronts Hooker, revealing Lonnegan's involvement and demanding part of Hooker’s cut. Having already spent his share, Hooker pays Snyder in counterfeit bills. Lonnegan's men murder both the courier and Luther, and Hooker flees for his life to Chicago.
Hooker finds Henry Gondorff, a once-great con-man now hiding from the FBI, and asks for his help in taking on the dangerous Lonnegan. Gondorff is initially reluctant, but he relents and recruits a core team of experienced con men to con Lonnegan.
They decide to resurrect an elaborate obsolete scam known as "the wire", using a larger crew of con artists to create a phony off-track betting parlor. Aboard the opulent 20th Century Limited, Gondorff, posing as boorish Chicago bookie Shaw, buys into Lonnegan's private, high-stakes poker game.
Shaw infuriates Lonnegan with his obnoxious behavior, then outcheats him to win $15,000. Hooker, posing as Shaw's disgruntled employee, Kelly, is sent to collect the winnings and instead convinces Lonnegan that he wants to take over Shaw's operation. Kelly reveals that he has a partner named Les Harmon (actually con man Kid Twist (Harold Gould)) in the Chicago Western Union office, who will allow them to win bets on horse races by past-posting.
Meanwhile, Snyder has tracked Hooker to Chicago, but his pursuit is thwarted when he is summoned by undercover FBI agents led by Agent Polk (Dana Elcar), who orders him to assist in their plan to arrest Gondorff using Hooker. At the same time, Lonnegan has grown frustrated with the inability of his men to find and kill Hooker. Unaware that Kelly is Hooker, he demands that Salino (Dimitra Arliss), his best assassin, be given the job. A mysterious figure with black leather gloves is then seen following and observing Hooker.
Kelly's connection appears effective, as Harmon provides Lonnegan with the winner of one horse race and the trifecta of another race. Lonnegan agrees to finance a $500,000 ($8,629,000 today) bet at Shaw's parlor to break Shaw and gain revenge. Shortly thereafter, Snyder captures Hooker and brings him before FBI Agent Polk. Polk forces Hooker to betray Gondorff by threatening to incarcerate Luther Coleman's widow.
The night before the sting, Hooker sleeps with Loretta, a waitress from a local restaurant. As Hooker leaves the building the next morning, he sees Loretta walking toward him. The black-gloved man appears behind Hooker and shoots her dead – she was Lonnegan's hired killer, Loretta Salino, and the gunman was hired by Gondorff to protect Hooker.
Armed with Harmon’s tip to "place it on Lucky Dan", Lonnegan makes the $500,000 bet at Shaw’s parlor on Lucky Dan to win. As the race begins, Harmon arrives and expresses shock at Lonnegan's bet, explaining that when he said "place it" he meant, literally, that Lucky Dan would "place" (i.e., finish second).
In a panic, Lonnegan rushes the teller window and demands his money back. A moment later, Agent Polk, Lt. Snyder, and a half dozen FBI officers storm the parlor. Polk confronts Gondorff, then tells Hooker he is free to go. Gondorff, reacting to the betrayal, shoots Hooker in the back.
Polk then shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get the ostensibly-respectable Lonnegan away from the crime scene. With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and Gondorff rise amid cheers and laughter. Agent Polk is actually Hickey, a con man, running a con atop Gondorff's con to divert Snyder and provide a solid "blow off". As the con men strip the room of its contents, Hooker refuses his share of the money, saying "I'd only blow it", and walks away with Gondorff.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "The Sting":
Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 American drama film written by Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce) and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson.
The film stars Jack Nicholson, with Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Ralph Waite, and Sally Struthers in supporting roles.
The film tells the story of surly oil-rig worker Bobby Dupea, whose seemingly rootless blue-collar existence belies his privileged youth as a piano prodigy. When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he goes home to see him, taking his waitress girlfriend Rayette (Black).
Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances.
The film was selected to be preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry in 2000.
Plot:
Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) works in a California oil field (shot in and around the city of Taft in the San Joaquin Valley) with his friend Elton (Billy "Green" Bush), who has a wife and a baby son. Bobby spends most of his time with his waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black), who has dreams of singing country music; or in the company of Elton, with whom he bowls, gets drunk, and has sex with other women. Bobby has evidently not told Elton that he is a former classical pianist who comes from an upper-class family of musicians.
Rayette gets pregnant and Elton is arrested for having robbed a gas station a year earlier. Bobby quits his job and leaves for Los Angeles where his sister Partita (Lois Smith), also a pianist, is making a recording. Partita informs him that their father, from whom Bobby is estranged, has suffered two strokes. She urges Bobby to return to the family home in Washington state to visit him.
Rayette threatens to kill herself if Bobby leaves her, so he reluctantly asks her along. Driving north, they pick up two women headed for Alaska, one of whom is obsessed with "filth". The four of them are thrown out of a restaurant when Bobby gets into an argument with a waitress who refuses to accommodate his special order.
Embarrassed by Rayette's lack of polish, Bobby registers her in a motel before proceeding to the family home on an island in Puget Sound. He finds Partita giving their father a haircut, but the old man seems completely oblivious to him. At dinner Bobby meets Catherine Van Oost (Susan Anspach), a young pianist engaged to his brother Carl (Ralph Waite), a violinist. Despite personality differences, Catherine and Bobby are immediately attracted to each other and have sex in her room.
Rayette runs out of money at the motel and comes to the Dupea estate unannounced. Her presence creates an awkward situation, but when pompous family friend Samia ridicules her, Bobby comes to her defense. Storming from the room in search of Catherine, he discovers his father's male nurse giving Partita a massage. Now more agitated, he picks a senseless fight with the nurse, who knocks him to the floor.
Bobby tries to persuade Catherine to go away with him, but she declines, believing he does not love himself, or anything at all. After trying to talk to his unresponsive father, Bobby leaves with Rayette, who makes a playful sexual advance that he angrily rejects. When Rayette goes in for some coffee at a gas station, he gives her his wallet and abandons her, hitching a ride on a truck headed north.
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The film stars Jack Nicholson, with Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Ralph Waite, and Sally Struthers in supporting roles.
The film tells the story of surly oil-rig worker Bobby Dupea, whose seemingly rootless blue-collar existence belies his privileged youth as a piano prodigy. When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he goes home to see him, taking his waitress girlfriend Rayette (Black).
Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances.
The film was selected to be preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry in 2000.
Plot:
Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) works in a California oil field (shot in and around the city of Taft in the San Joaquin Valley) with his friend Elton (Billy "Green" Bush), who has a wife and a baby son. Bobby spends most of his time with his waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black), who has dreams of singing country music; or in the company of Elton, with whom he bowls, gets drunk, and has sex with other women. Bobby has evidently not told Elton that he is a former classical pianist who comes from an upper-class family of musicians.
Rayette gets pregnant and Elton is arrested for having robbed a gas station a year earlier. Bobby quits his job and leaves for Los Angeles where his sister Partita (Lois Smith), also a pianist, is making a recording. Partita informs him that their father, from whom Bobby is estranged, has suffered two strokes. She urges Bobby to return to the family home in Washington state to visit him.
Rayette threatens to kill herself if Bobby leaves her, so he reluctantly asks her along. Driving north, they pick up two women headed for Alaska, one of whom is obsessed with "filth". The four of them are thrown out of a restaurant when Bobby gets into an argument with a waitress who refuses to accommodate his special order.
Embarrassed by Rayette's lack of polish, Bobby registers her in a motel before proceeding to the family home on an island in Puget Sound. He finds Partita giving their father a haircut, but the old man seems completely oblivious to him. At dinner Bobby meets Catherine Van Oost (Susan Anspach), a young pianist engaged to his brother Carl (Ralph Waite), a violinist. Despite personality differences, Catherine and Bobby are immediately attracted to each other and have sex in her room.
Rayette runs out of money at the motel and comes to the Dupea estate unannounced. Her presence creates an awkward situation, but when pompous family friend Samia ridicules her, Bobby comes to her defense. Storming from the room in search of Catherine, he discovers his father's male nurse giving Partita a massage. Now more agitated, he picks a senseless fight with the nurse, who knocks him to the floor.
Bobby tries to persuade Catherine to go away with him, but she declines, believing he does not love himself, or anything at all. After trying to talk to his unresponsive father, Bobby leaves with Rayette, who makes a playful sexual advance that he angrily rejects. When Rayette goes in for some coffee at a gas station, he gives her his wallet and abandons her, hitching a ride on a truck headed north.
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson, and features a supporting cast of Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Will Sampson and Brad Dourif.
Considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is No. 33 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs. It also won numerous Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards.
In 1993, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
In 1963 Oregon, recidivist criminal Randle McMurphy is moved to a mental institution after serving a short sentence on a prison farm for statutory rape of a 15-year-old. Though not actually mentally ill, McMurphy hopes to avoid hard labor and serve the rest of his sentence in a relaxed environment. Upon arriving at the hospital, he finds the ward run by the steely, strict Nurse Ratched, who subtly suppresses the actions of her patients through a passive-aggressive routine, intimidating the patients.
The other patients include:
Ratched soon sees McMurphy’s lively, rebellious presence to be a threat to her authority, confiscating the patients’ cigarettes and rationing them. During his time in the ward, McMurphy gets into a battle of wits with Ratched. He steals a hospital bus, escaping with several patients to go on a fishing trip, encouraging his friends to become more self-confident.
McMurphy learns his sentence may become indefinite, and he makes plans to escape, exhorting Chief to throw a hydrotherapy cart through a window. He, Chief, and Cheswick get into a fight with the orderlies after the latter becomes agitated over his stolen cigarettes.
Ratched sends them to the “shock shop,” and McMurphy discovers Chief can actually speak, feigning illness to avoid engaging with anyone. After being subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, McMurphy returns to the ward pretending to have brain damage, but reveals the treatment has charged him up even more. McMurphy and Chief make plans to escape, but decide to throw a secret Christmas party for their friends after Ratched leaves for the night.
McMurphy sneaks two women, Candy and Rose, into the ward and bribes the night guard. After a night of partying, McMurphy and Chief prepare to escape, inviting Billy to come with them. He refuses, not ready to leave the hospital.
McMurphy instead convinces him to have sex with Candy. Ratched arrives in the morning to find the ward in disarray and most of the patients unconscious. She discovers Billy and Candy together, the former now free of his stutter, until Ratched threatens to inform his mother about his escapade. Billy is overwhelmed with fear and locks himself in the doctor’s office and commits suicide. The enraged McMurphy chokes Ratched, before being knocked out by an orderly.
Ratched comes back with a neck brace and a scratchy voice. Rumors spread that McMurphy escaped rather than be taken “upstairs.” Later that night, Chief sees McMurphy being returned to his bed. He discovers McMurphy has lobotomy scars on his forehead, and smothers his friend with a pillow. Chief finally throws the hydrotherapy cart through the window and escapes into the night, cheered on by Taber.
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Considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is No. 33 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs. It also won numerous Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards.
In 1993, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
In 1963 Oregon, recidivist criminal Randle McMurphy is moved to a mental institution after serving a short sentence on a prison farm for statutory rape of a 15-year-old. Though not actually mentally ill, McMurphy hopes to avoid hard labor and serve the rest of his sentence in a relaxed environment. Upon arriving at the hospital, he finds the ward run by the steely, strict Nurse Ratched, who subtly suppresses the actions of her patients through a passive-aggressive routine, intimidating the patients.
The other patients include:
- anxious, stuttering Billy Bibbit;
- Charlie Cheswick, who is prone to childish tantrums;
- delusional Martini;
- the well-educated, paranoid Dale Harding;
- belligerent Max Taber;
- epileptic Jim Sefelt;
- and “Chief” Bromden, a tall Native American believed to be deaf and mute.
Ratched soon sees McMurphy’s lively, rebellious presence to be a threat to her authority, confiscating the patients’ cigarettes and rationing them. During his time in the ward, McMurphy gets into a battle of wits with Ratched. He steals a hospital bus, escaping with several patients to go on a fishing trip, encouraging his friends to become more self-confident.
McMurphy learns his sentence may become indefinite, and he makes plans to escape, exhorting Chief to throw a hydrotherapy cart through a window. He, Chief, and Cheswick get into a fight with the orderlies after the latter becomes agitated over his stolen cigarettes.
Ratched sends them to the “shock shop,” and McMurphy discovers Chief can actually speak, feigning illness to avoid engaging with anyone. After being subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, McMurphy returns to the ward pretending to have brain damage, but reveals the treatment has charged him up even more. McMurphy and Chief make plans to escape, but decide to throw a secret Christmas party for their friends after Ratched leaves for the night.
McMurphy sneaks two women, Candy and Rose, into the ward and bribes the night guard. After a night of partying, McMurphy and Chief prepare to escape, inviting Billy to come with them. He refuses, not ready to leave the hospital.
McMurphy instead convinces him to have sex with Candy. Ratched arrives in the morning to find the ward in disarray and most of the patients unconscious. She discovers Billy and Candy together, the former now free of his stutter, until Ratched threatens to inform his mother about his escapade. Billy is overwhelmed with fear and locks himself in the doctor’s office and commits suicide. The enraged McMurphy chokes Ratched, before being knocked out by an orderly.
Ratched comes back with a neck brace and a scratchy voice. Rumors spread that McMurphy escaped rather than be taken “upstairs.” Later that night, Chief sees McMurphy being returned to his bed. He discovers McMurphy has lobotomy scars on his forehead, and smothers his friend with a pillow. Chief finally throws the hydrotherapy cart through the window and escapes into the night, cheered on by Taber.
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Klute is a 1971 American neo-noir crime-thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, written by Andy and Dave Lewis, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. It tells the story of a high-priced prostitute who assists a detective in solving a missing person case.
Klute is the first installment of what informally came to be known as Pakula's "paranoia trilogy". The other two films in the trilogy are The Parallax View (1974) and All the President's Men (1976).
The film includes a cameo appearance by Warhol superstars actress Candy Darling, and another by All in the Family costar Jean Stapleton. The music was composed by Michael Small.
Jane Fonda won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film
Plot:
A Pennsylvania executive, Tom Gruneman (played by Robert Milli), has disappeared. The police reveal that an obscene letter was found in Gruneman's office, addressed to a prostitute in New York City named Bree Daniels (Fonda), who had received several similar letters from him. After six months of fruitless police work, Peter Cable (Cioffi), an executive at Gruneman's company, hires family friend and detective John Klute (Sutherland) to investigate Gruneman's disappearance.
Klute rents an apartment in the basement of Daniels' building, taps her phone, and follows her as she turns tricks. Daniels appears to be liberated by the freedom of freelancing as a call girl, but in a series of visits to her psychiatrist (Vivian Nathan), she reveals the emptiness of her life and that she wants to quit.
Daniels refuses to answer Klute's questions at first. After learning that he has been watching her, Daniels says she does not recall Gruneman. She acknowledges being beaten by one of her johns two years earlier, but cannot identify Gruneman from a photo.
Daniels takes Klute to meet her former pimp, Frank Ligourin (Scheider), whose prostitute Jane McKenna passed the abusive client on to Bree and to another prostitute, Arlyn Page (Dorothy Tristan). McKenna committed suicide and Page became a drug addict and disappeared.
Klute and Daniels develop a romance, though she tells her psychiatrist that she wishes she could go back to "just feeling numb." She admits to Klute a deep paranoia that she is being watched. They find Page, who tells them the customer was not Gruneman but an older man.
Page's body then turns up in the Kill Van Kull. Klute connects the "suicides" of the prostitutes, surmising that the client probably also killed Gruneman and might kill Daniels next. He revisits Gruneman's contacts. By typographic comparison, the supposed obscene letters of Gruneman are traced to Cable, to whom Klute has been reporting on his investigation.
Klute asks Cable for an additional $500 to buy the "black book" of the first prostitute, telling Cable he is certain it will reveal the identity of the abusive client. Cable corners Bree and reveals that he sent her the letters, explaining that Gruneman had interrupted him when he was attacking a prostitute.
Certain that Gruneman would use the incident as leverage against him within the company, Cable attempted to frame Gruneman by planting the letter in his office. Cable confesses to the killings. After playing an audiotape he made as he murdered Page, he attacks Daniels. Klute rushes in, and Cable jumps or is thrown out a window to his death (the conclusion is ambiguous).
Daniels moves out of her apartment with Klute's help, though her voiceover with her psychiatrist reveals her fear of domestic life and a likelihood that the doctor will "see me next week."
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Klute is the first installment of what informally came to be known as Pakula's "paranoia trilogy". The other two films in the trilogy are The Parallax View (1974) and All the President's Men (1976).
The film includes a cameo appearance by Warhol superstars actress Candy Darling, and another by All in the Family costar Jean Stapleton. The music was composed by Michael Small.
Jane Fonda won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film
Plot:
A Pennsylvania executive, Tom Gruneman (played by Robert Milli), has disappeared. The police reveal that an obscene letter was found in Gruneman's office, addressed to a prostitute in New York City named Bree Daniels (Fonda), who had received several similar letters from him. After six months of fruitless police work, Peter Cable (Cioffi), an executive at Gruneman's company, hires family friend and detective John Klute (Sutherland) to investigate Gruneman's disappearance.
Klute rents an apartment in the basement of Daniels' building, taps her phone, and follows her as she turns tricks. Daniels appears to be liberated by the freedom of freelancing as a call girl, but in a series of visits to her psychiatrist (Vivian Nathan), she reveals the emptiness of her life and that she wants to quit.
Daniels refuses to answer Klute's questions at first. After learning that he has been watching her, Daniels says she does not recall Gruneman. She acknowledges being beaten by one of her johns two years earlier, but cannot identify Gruneman from a photo.
Daniels takes Klute to meet her former pimp, Frank Ligourin (Scheider), whose prostitute Jane McKenna passed the abusive client on to Bree and to another prostitute, Arlyn Page (Dorothy Tristan). McKenna committed suicide and Page became a drug addict and disappeared.
Klute and Daniels develop a romance, though she tells her psychiatrist that she wishes she could go back to "just feeling numb." She admits to Klute a deep paranoia that she is being watched. They find Page, who tells them the customer was not Gruneman but an older man.
Page's body then turns up in the Kill Van Kull. Klute connects the "suicides" of the prostitutes, surmising that the client probably also killed Gruneman and might kill Daniels next. He revisits Gruneman's contacts. By typographic comparison, the supposed obscene letters of Gruneman are traced to Cable, to whom Klute has been reporting on his investigation.
Klute asks Cable for an additional $500 to buy the "black book" of the first prostitute, telling Cable he is certain it will reveal the identity of the abusive client. Cable corners Bree and reveals that he sent her the letters, explaining that Gruneman had interrupted him when he was attacking a prostitute.
Certain that Gruneman would use the incident as leverage against him within the company, Cable attempted to frame Gruneman by planting the letter in his office. Cable confesses to the killings. After playing an audiotape he made as he murdered Page, he attacks Daniels. Klute rushes in, and Cable jumps or is thrown out a window to his death (the conclusion is ambiguous).
Daniels moves out of her apartment with Klute's help, though her voiceover with her psychiatrist reveals her fear of domestic life and a likelihood that the doctor will "see me next week."
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- Klute on IMDb
- Klute at the TCM Movie Database
- Klute at AllMovie
- Klute at Rotten Tomatoes