Becket: The Bishop Who Found God

Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. Photo: Paramount When I told a friend recently that I had just seen Becket and that Richard Burton plays the Archbishop of Canterbury, he quickly…

How Green Was My Valley: The One That Beat Kane

Roddy MacDowall and Walter Pidgeon. Photo: 20th Century Fox Hollywood sure appreciated taking lessons from John Ford in all matters social realistic. He received an Academy Award for portraying the…

The White Ribbon: Reap What You Sow

Photo: Wega Film I have a conflicted relationship with director Michael Haneke. The first film I saw was Funny Games (1997), which I found somewhat pointless. The second one was…

The Tudors

After writing two movies about Elizabeth I, Michael Hirst turned his attention to another Tudor, the Queen's father, the guy who was married six times and had two of his…

Close Encounters: E.T.’s First Visit

Photo: Columbia In 1964, the 16-year-old Steven Spielberg directed a science fiction film called Firelight. Clocking in at an impressive 135 minutes, the movie was made for $500 and premiered…

Hunger 

Director Steve McQueen's feature film debut is an unusually uncomfortable and tangible journey inside the Maze prison and the 1981 hunger strike that killed IRA activist Bobby Sands. There have…

Saving Private Ryan: Spielberg in Combat

Tom Sizemore and Tom Hanks. Photo: DreamWorks Steven Spielberg directed several masterpieces over the years, but this one might be the most controversial. The general sentiment expressed by snobs is…

The King’s Speech: Royal Pains

Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Photo: The Weinstein Company After watching this brilliant drama, I knew I had to consult YouTube for the speech King George VI made after Britain's…

Max Manus: Man of War 

Shortly after the German occupation of Norway in 1940, Max Manus (Aksel Hennie) and his friends join the organized resistance and become a thorn in the side of the Nazis.…

Marty: Breaking the Rut

Betsy Blair and Ernest Borgnine. Photo: MGM Paddy Chayefsky originally wrote this story as a teleplay, which was filmed in 1953 as part of The Goodyear Television Playhouse, an anthology…