"Actor: Richard Manuel"

• American Graffiti | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £10.77   |  Saving you £5.22 (48.47%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Here's how American critic Roger Ebert described the unique and lasting value of George Lucas' 1973 box-office hit, American Graffiti: "[It's] 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." The time to which Ebert and the film refers is the summer of 1962, and American Graffiti captures the look, feel, and sound of that era by chronicling one memorable night in the lives of several young Californians on the cusp of adulthood. (In essence, Lucas was making a semi-autobiographical tribute to his own days as a hot-rod cruiser, and the film's phenomenal success paved the way for Star Wars.) The action is propelled by the music of DJ Wolfman Jack's rock & roll radio show--a soundtrack of pop hits that would become as popular as the film itself. As Lucas develops several character subplots, American Graffiti becomes a flawless time capsule of meticulously re-created memory, as authentic as a documentary and vividly realised through innovative use of cinematography and sound. The once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast members inhabit their roles so fully that they don't seem like actors at all, comprising a who's who of performers--some of whom went on to stellar careers--including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, and Paul Le Mat. A true American classic. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• A Man Called Horse | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.95%)   |  RRP £15.99

  American Indians were "cool" in 1970, the year A Man Called Horse made its vigorous, feverishly real, and occasionally shocking debut alongside Little Big Man and Soldier Blue. Unlike the latter two films, however, Horse is less an allegory for Vietnam-era America and more of a vision quest for historical identity. In one of his defining roles, Richard Harris plays an English aristocrat captured by Dakota Sioux in 1825. Over time, he adopts their way of life and eventually becomes tribal leader--but not before undergoing savage initiation rituals, the most famous of which involves being suspended by blades inserted beneath Harris's pectoral muscles. Horse looks clunky, quaint, and inadvertently demeaning in some respects today, but the film's Native-American milieu is at least defined on its own terms, making no concessions to familiar Western conventions. The real draw is Harris, whose performance has a soulful integrity. --Tom Keogh

• The Last Waltz (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (13/06/2023) from £45.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Sand Pebbles | Blu Ray | (03/06/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Nominated for eight 1966 Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Steve McQueen and Best Picture, The Sand Pebbles blends explosive action with stirring drama as it tells the tale of war-torn China in 1926 and an American sailor (McQueen) caught in the middle, who has given up trying to make peace with anything - including himself.

• Mothman Prophecies | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £5.49   |  Saving you £8.50 (154.83%)   |  RRP £13.99

  This true life tale tells of a reporter drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.

• Mission: Impossible - Special Collector's Edition / Mission: Impossible 2 | DVD | (01/05/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (130.13%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Mission: Impossible:Tom Cruise ignites the screen in this runaway smash hit. Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt a secret agent framed for the deaths of his espionage team. Fleeing from government assassins breaking into the CIA's most impenetrable vault clinging to the roof of a speeding bullet train Hunt races like a burning fuse to stay one step ahead of his pursuers...and draw one step closer to discovering the shocking truth.M:I-2:The world's greatest spy returns in the movie event of the year M:I-2. Top action director John Woo brings his own brand of excitement to the mission that finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) partnering up with the beautiful Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) to stop renegade agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from releasing a new kind of terror on an unsuspecting world. But before the mission is complete they'll traverse the globe and have to choose between everything they love and everything they believe in.

• Selena | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The story of life of Mexican 'Tejano' style singer Selena Quintanilla and the progress of her career resulting in her tragic death at the early age of just 23.

• American Graffiti | Blu Ray | (31/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Garden Of Evil | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £11.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-19.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Three American adventurers sail to California in pursuit of gold. They stop off at a sleepy Mexican village after becoming stranded and it isn't long before someone requires their services. Deep in the mountains a lady's husband is trapped in the local goldmine and they agree to rescue him. However not all of their intentions are strictly honest and danger awaits...

• Diana - The Woman Inside | DVD | (14/08/2017) from £8.96   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Twenty years after Diana s death, this major new documentary rewrites many of the myths of her legacy. Rather than portraying Diana as unhappy, at war with the Royal family and herself; and suffering a tragically death - we discover an exceptional woman who changed the future of the Royal family forever. With a cast who knew Diana intimately, including Ken Wharfe, Diana's long term Protection Officer, her personal trainer, ballet teacher, spiritual healer and personal friends, Diana The Woman Inside highlights Diana as a woman and mother rather than just a tragic icon.

• The Mothman Prophecies (2002) Blu-Ray Imprint Limited Edition #39 | Blu Ray | (07/05/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Sand Pebbles | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £5.38   |  Saving you £7.61 (58.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Director Robert Wise chose to film Robert McKenna's award-winning novel The Sand Pebbles as his follow-up to the success of The Sound of Music. Shot in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the film combines historical sweep and intimate human drama in several parallel stories, all revolving around US Navy machinist's mate Jake Holman (Steve McQueen), a skilful but fiercely independent sailor who joins the "sand pebble" crew of the USS San Pablo, a Navy gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River on the eve of the Chinese revolution in 1926. The San Pablo's inexperienced captain (Richard Crenna) obsessively defends the Navy's mission-however unnecessary or unwanted--to protect American missionaries and businessmen, blind to the more dangerous implications of American involvement with China's opposing political factions. Holman is a defiant voice of humanity in this clash between outmoded values and inevitable change; his final line of dialogue ("What the hell happened?") is a tragic summation of misguided policy, expressing the film's criticism of the Vietnam War. Rather than preach, however, Wise lets McKenna's potent drama emerge from finely drawn relationships: between Holman and a young American teacher (19-year-old Candice Bergen, in her second film); between Holman and the Chinese "coolie" (Mako), whose heart-breaking fate transcends all issues of racial or political difference; and between crewmate "Frenchy" Burgoyne (Richard Attenborough) and the Chinese woman he's sworn to love and protect at all costs. Combined with the film's colourful supporting cast, adventurous scope, and climactic battle scenes, these personal dynamics bring substance and spirit to a complex story of good intentions gone awry. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com