A classic early 1970s weepie, The Way We Were stars Barbra Streisand as a Communist activist in the late 30s and 40s and Robert Redford as the ambitious young writer who marries her, cheats on her and eventually leaves her in the early days of McCarthyism for the sake of his Hollywood screenwriting career. Arthur Laurent's intelligent screenplay, remarkable performances from the two stars and Marvin Hamlisch's Oscar-winning score and theme song combined to produce a film that even as hostile a critic as Pauline Kael had to admit worked. On the DVD: The DVD re-release includes the usual subtitling facilities, the theatre trailer and a documentary on the film's making, which includes one of the more political scenes deleted for commercial release; it is also possible to watch the film with a detailed commentary from Sydney Pollack about the problems of its making, problems which included writing new scenes so that Redford was not entirely upstaged by Streisand in the audience's sympathies. --Roz Kaveney
JAWS, the original, terrifying, summer blockbuster is digitally restored and back in cinemas for a limited time only from June 15
In his first major film role Dustin Hoffman plays an ultra-nave college graduate who's seduced by a middle-aged woman played by the scintillating Anne Bancroft and then falls in love with her daughter. With the sharpest of scripts and a perfect soundtrack by Simon & Garfunkel this film was deservedly nominated for 6 Oscars and won Nichols an Academy Award for Best Director.
Anatomy of a Murder, Otto Preminger's 1959 film of the novel by Robert Traver (a pen name for a Michigan Supreme Court Justice), was controversial in its day for making frank on-screen use of then-unheard words such as "panties", "rape" and "spermatogenesis"--and it remains a trenchant, bitter, tough, witty dissection of the American legal system. With its striking Saul Bass title design and jazzy Duke Ellington score, Anatomy of a Murder takes a sophisticated approach unusual for a Hollywood film of its vintage. Most radically, it refuses to show the murder or any of the private scenes recounted in court, leaving it up to us to decide along with the jury whether the grumpy and unconcerned Lieutenant Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara) was or was not subject to an "irresistible impulse" tantamount to insanity when he shot dead Barney Quill, the bear-like bar owner alleged to have raped Manion's teasing trailer-trash wife Laura (Lee Remick in unfeasibly tight trousers). James Stewart plays Paul "Polly" Biegler a former District Attorney keen to get back into court to clash with the political dullard who replaced him in office. Biegler is supported by the skills of his snide secretary (Eve Arden) and boozy-but-brilliant research partner (Arthur O'Connell). For the prosecution, the befuddled local DA hauls in Dancer (George C Scott), a prissy legal eagle from the local big city whose sharp-suited, sly elegance makes an interesting clash with Biegler's "aw-shucks" jimmy-stewartian conniving. This is simply the best trial movie ever made, with a real understanding of the way lawyers have to be not only great actors but stars, assuming personalities that exaggerate their inner selves and weighing every outburst and objection for the effect it has on the poor saps in the jury box. On the DVD: The print is letterboxed to 1.85:1, but it's a bit of a cheat since that seems to involve trimming the top and bottom of the image (losing the steps under and the clouds above the Columbia lady in the opening titles), though the film isn't seriously hurt by a tighter look at the action. Also included are: an Ellington-scored photo montage, soundtracks in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish with subtitles in ten languages, filmographies for director and principal cast, original advertising (highlighting Saul Bass' poster designs, a trailer and more trailers for more Columbia Jimmy Stewart or courtroom films. --Kim Newman
Few films have defined a generation as much as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chic has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley, Amazon.com
In the vastly overrated 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, author Peter Biskind puts the blame for Hollywood's blockbuster mentality at least partially on Steven Spielberg's box-office success with this adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestselling novel, Jaws. But you can't blame Spielberg for making a terrific movie, which Jaws definitely is. The story of a Long Island town whose summer tourist business is suddenly threatened by great-white-shark attacks on humans bypasses the potboiler trappings of Benchley's book and goes straight for the jugular with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing sequences of action and suspense supported by a trio of terrific performances by Roy Scheider (as the local sheriff), Richard Dreyfuss (as a shark specialist), and particularly Robert Shaw (as the old fisherman who offers to hunt the shark down). The sequences on Shaw's boat--as the three of them realize that in fact the shark is hunting them--are what entertaining moviemaking is all about. It's odd that the cornerstone of the new edition is a 10-year-old documentary. Shot for the laserdisc release (the unofficial 20th anniversary edition), the 2-hour "The Making of Jaws" is an excellent telling of how this film was made and became the top grossing film (and launched the career of extras filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau). An hour-long edited version appeared on the 25th anniversary DVD. Here's what else different from the 25th anniversary DVD: an interesting a 9-minute vintage featurette shot for British TV that has never been seen in the States; a few additions to the extensive "Jaws Archives" (production stills, storyboards and the like), and a few new fragments in the deleted scene roll. The image is the same excellent transfer as before but this time you can get the DTS and Dolby sound on the same disc plus a nice 60-page photo journal. A seaworthy set but hardly worth trading in your old DVD. --Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
Few films have defined a generation as much as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chic has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley, Amazon.com
50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION BRAND NEW RESTORATION A complete sensation on its original release in 1967, THE GRADUATE was a one-of-a-kind cinematic portrait of America which captured the mood of disaffected youth seething beneath the laid-back exterior of 1960s California. It earned Mike Nichols a Best Director Oscar, introduced the music of Simon & Garfunkel to a wider audience and featured one of the most famous seductions in movie history and a truly iconic final scene. THE GRADUATE also introduced the world to a young actor named Dustin Hoffman, perfectly cast as the jaw-droppingly naïve Benjamin. Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has just finished college and is already lost in a sea of confusion as he wonders what to do with his life. He returns to his parents' luxurious Beverly Hills home, where he idles away the summer floating in the pool and brooding in silence. He is rescued from the boredom when he is seduced into a clandestine affair with a middle-aged married friend of his parents, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft). That liaison is soon complicated by Benjamin's infatuation with her college-age daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). Visually imaginative and impeccably acted, with a witty, endlessly quotable script by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry (based on the novel by Charles Webb), with a supporting cast that includes William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Walter Brooke and Elizabeth Wilson, THE GRADUATE had the kind of cultural impact that comes along only once in a generation.
Jaws revolutionised Hollywood, single-handedly invented the summer blockbuster, spawned three increasingly poor sequels, and became the first film to gross more than 100 million dollars. Unlike many recent blockbusters, however, in Jaws the audience really cares about the fate of the men engaged in their duel with the monster. Granted the shark looks fake, but we willingly suspend our disbelief as storytelling and character development count for far more than mere special effects, adding enormously to the movie's suspense, excitement and sheer terror. The cast and screenplay are exemplary, but it was Steven Spielberg who emerged as the film's true star, while John Williams' unforgettable Oscar-winning score made him almost as much of as household name as the young director.On the DVD: For a Steven Spielberg movie and an all-time classic, this 25th Anniversary Edition release is impressive, but not all it could be. The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 ratio picture is superb, as is the re-mixed Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (the film was originally released in mono). It is a joy to see the film's picture and sound quality rescued from years of television and VHS screenings, offering a reminder of what all the fuss was about in the first place. The deleted scenes are quite interesting, offering more background on Brody, Hooper and Quint, including the latter's bizarre vocal duel with a boy playing the recorder! The four photo galleries are good, but some captions would have helped enormously. Disappointingly, there's no director's commentary, the best extra being a 50-minute documentary, "The Making of Jaws". This is excellent, and quite different from the BBC television production, "In the Teeth of Jaws". Even if you've seen that, there's much more to learn here. --Gary S. Dalkin
Judged entirely on its own merits, Jaws 2 isn't a bad film. It even has some passably scary moments (Brody discovering a charred body in the waves; the swimming boy racing the shark back to his dinghy). But it's absolutely impossible to judge this movie on its own merits. Despite being given a great big Panavision camera to play with director Jeannot Szwarc can't hide his TV-movie origins, nor can the script, both of which spend far too long landlocked with the bickering inhabitants of Amity Island. Where the original film boldly set out to sea with Robert Shaw's Ahab-like Quint, in a misplaced desire to attract a teenage audience this movie dwells at interminable length on the courting rituals of the local youth; where Spielberg's original is a masterpiece of pacing and carefully timed tension-building, Jaws 2 sags terribly whenever the plastic shark swims out of sight. Roy Scheider comes off best, reprising his role as Chief Brody, while Lorraine Gary's role as his wife is expanded (she must be a glutton for punishment: she also starred in Jaws 4: The Revenge). Taken as a sequel Jaws 2 is inferior in every way; taken as an unassuming TV movie it's a respectable, workmanlike effort; but looking forward at what was to follow, it begins to look like a minor masterpiece. --Mark Walker
The most wanted man in Wakefield prison is the warden! Posing as a new prisoner Brubaker (Redford) discovers vast corruption in a state penitentiary before revealing himself to be theinew warden. His personal crusade to bring reform puts him in grave danger especially when he insists on exposing a series of secret murders that took place years earlier. Powerful and disturbing 'Brubaker' won acclaim for its gritty realism and Oscar-nominated screenplay based on the real life stor
Jaws 2 (Dir. Jeannot Szwarc 1978): Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is walking his beach beat a few years on from the horrible shark attacks on Amity Island. A missing diver's camera shows what looks like a shark fin but Amity''s cowardly Mayor (Murray Hamilton) plays down the incident. Brody raises a panicky false alarm from his observation tower and is fired for it. Suddenly the new killer shark attacks a group of small boats manned by teenagers which include his own sons... Jaws 3 (Dir. Joe Alves 1982): A deadly new attraction. The brand new ''Sea World'' complex in Florida offers visitors the chance to view the undersea kingdom from the safety of glass tunnels on the sea-bed. All seems well until a thirty-five foot Great White shark appears on the scene..... Jaws 4 - The Revenge (Dir. Joseph Sargent 1987): This time... It's personal. Lorraine Gary repeats her role of Ellen Brody widow of Chief Martin Brody in this suspenseful sequel starring Oscar-winner Michael Caine. After Deputy Sean Brody is killed by a shark off Amity Island she joins her other son Michael a marine biologist his wife Carla and their daughter Thea in the Bahamas. There she falls for Hoagie a carefree pilot and starts putting her life back together - until a Great White threatens Thea and Ellen knows she has no choice but to face her fear in a final fatal showdown...
Judged entirely on its own merits, Jaws 2 isn't a bad film. It even has some passably scary moments (Brody discovering a charred body in the waves; the swimming boy racing the shark back to his dinghy). But it's absolutely impossible to judge this movie on its own merits. Despite being given a great big Panavision camera to play with director Jeannot Szwarc can't hide his TV-movie origins, nor can the script, both of which spend far too long landlocked with the bickering inhabitants of Amity Island. Where the original film boldly set out to sea with Robert Shaw's Ahab-like Quint, in a misplaced desire to attract a teenage audience this movie dwells at interminable length on the courting rituals of the local youth; where Spielberg's original is a masterpiece of pacing and carefully timed tension-building, Jaws 2 sags terribly whenever the plastic shark swims out of sight. Roy Scheider comes off best, reprising his role as Chief Brody, while Lorraine Gary's role as his wife is expanded (she must be a glutton for punishment: she also starred in Jaws 4: The Revenge). Taken as a sequel Jaws 2 is inferior in every way; taken as an unassuming TV movie it's a respectable, workmanlike effort; but looking forward at what was to follow, it begins to look like a minor masterpiece. --Mark Walker
The Long Island colonial house on the rivers edge seemed perfect. Quaint spacious and affordable it was just what George and Kathy Lutz had been looking for. But looks can be deceiving...and their new dream home soon becomes a hellish nightmare as the walls begin to drip blood and satanic forces haunt them with sheer unbridled evil. Now with their lives - and their souls - in danger the Lutz's must run as fast as they can from the home they once lived...or fall prey to its terri
""Newman is outstanding."" -Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide Paul Newman is electrifying as Fast Eddie Felson an arrogant amoral hustler who haunts backstreet pool rooms fleecing anyone who'll pick up a cue. Determined to be acclaimed as the best Eddie seeks out the legendary Minnesota Fats who's backed by Bert Gordon a predatory gambler. Eddie can beat the champ but virtually defeats himself with his low self-image. The love of a lonely woman could turn Eddie's life around
Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of American culture, which he sees as overrun with cruelty, stupidity and intolerance. Divorced, recently fired, and possibly terminally ill, Frank truly has nothing left to live for. But instead of taking his own life, he buys a gun and decides to take out his frustration on the cruellest, stupidest, most intolerant people he can imagine-starting with some particularly odious reality television stars. Frank finds an unusual accomplice in a high-school student named Roxy, who shares his sense of rage and together they embark on a nation-wide assault on America's dumbest, most irritating celebrities.
The unexpected casting of Tony Curtis as the presumed Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, is only the first of the attractions of this hard-nosed suspense picture. Although the style of The Boston Strangler looks dated today, with its split-screen experiments and post-Bonnie and Clyde permissiveness, the film still has the clean, strong lines of a methodical policier. For the first hour, we don't focus on the Strangler, instead following the Beantown cops (led by Henry Fonda) as they track down leads; the best sequence is the near-accidental connection made between burglary suspect DeSalvo and the killings. Director Richard Fleischer had a forceful hand with true-crime material (Compulsion, 10 Rillington Place) and he takes an unblinking look into the then-taboo subject of sexual pathology. Curtis's physical transformation into a dumpy, dull-eyed brute is the best aspect of his performance; it's a role he lobbied hard for, but it did not lead to more challenging work. --Robert Horton
JAWS, the original, terrifying, summer blockbuster is digitally restored and back in cinemas for a limited time only from June 15
Jaws 2 (Dir. Jeannot Szwarc 1978): Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is walking his beach beat a few years on from the horrible shark attacks on Amity Island. A missing diver's camera shows what looks like a shark fin but Amity''s cowardly Mayor (Murray Hamilton) plays down the incident. Brody raises a panicky false alarm from his observation tower and is fired for it. Suddenly the new killer shark attacks a group of small boats manned by teenagers which include his own sons... Jaws 3 (Dir. Joe Alves 1982): A deadly new attraction. The brand new ''Sea World'' complex in Florida offers visitors the chance to view the undersea kingdom from the safety of glass tunnels on the sea-bed. All seems well until a thirty-five foot Great White shark appears on the scene..... Jaws 4 - The Revenge (Dir. Joseph Sargent 1987): This time... It's personal. Lorraine Gary repeats her role of Ellen Brody widow of Chief Martin Brody in this suspenseful sequel starring Oscar-winner Michael Caine. After Deputy Sean Brody is killed by a shark off Amity Island she joins her other son Michael a marine biologist his wife Carla and their daughter Thea in the Bahamas. There she falls for Hoagie a carefree pilot and starts putting her life back together - until a Great White threatens Thea and Ellen knows she has no choice but to face her fear in a final fatal showdown...
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy