North and South 

In the 1840s, George Hazard (James Read) from Pennsylvania and Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) from South Carolina enroll at West Point and become friends for life… but the increasing tension…

Platoon: Taking the Pain

Photo: Orion After serving in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star as well as a Purple Heart, Oliver Stone came back to the United States in 1968. Disgusted with the way…

Shame 

What is it about director Steve McQueen and his desire for punishing Michael Fassbender's body and soul? In his first film, Hunger (2008), McQueen subjected the star to starvation and…

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…

Raging Bull: Fists of Fury

Robert De Niro. Photo: United Artists Martin Scorsese doesn't really care about sports movies. The idea of making a film about Jake LaMotta would probably never have hit him were…

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…