| AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, BEN HUR, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and UNFORGIVEN.
BEN-HUR: After his boyhood friend Messala's fanatic loyalty to Rome makes him a powerful enemy, Judah Ben-Hur is found guilty of an attempted murder he did not commit. His family is banished and he is enslaved on a warship. Through his ferocity in a raging sea battle, he is able to escape and become a horse trainer. To exact his revenge, Ben-Hur decides to compete against Messala in the Roman chariot races. They race, locked in a battle to the death. Barely surviving, Ben-Hur forsakes the sword for Christ and finally finds redemption. Winner of a record 11 Academy awards including Best Picture of 1959 and Best Actor (Charlton Heston).
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
Phileas Fogg bet his fellow club members that he can circle the globe in eighty days. That may not be impressive today, but in 1872, it was nearly impossible. Accompanied by his valet, Passepartout, and the wandering Princess Aouda, Fogg crosses Europe, India, Japan, the Pacific and the United States.
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
A nice rest in a state mental hospital beats a stretch in the pen, right? Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a free-spirited con with lightning in his veins and glib on his tongue, fakes insanity and moves in with what he calls "nuts." Immediately his contagious sense of disorder runs up against numbing routine. No way should guys pickled on sedatives shuffle around in bathrobes when the World Series is on. This means war! On one side is McMurphy. On the other side is Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), among the most coldly monstrous villains in film history. At stake is the fate of every patient on the ward. Based on Ken Kesey's acclaimed bestseller, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest swept all five major 1975 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Adapted Screenplay. Raucous, searing and with a superb cast that includes Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd in his film debut, this one soars.
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
HMS Bounty sails for Tahiti by way of Cape Horn... and into movie lore as an American Film Institute Top-100 American Films selection. Grandly filmed, Mutiny on the Bounty captured the 1935 Best Picture Academy Award and eight nominations total. Charles Laughton portrays Captain Bligh, a seafaring monster ruling with the law of fear.
Solidifying his status as Hollywood's #1 male star, Clark Gable is first officer Fletcher Christian, whose will to obey erodes under Bligh's tyranny. And Franchot Tone plays idealistic midshipman Byam, torn by his allegiance to both. T hat all three portrayals are vividly memorable is accented by the fact that for the only time in Oscar history, three stars from the same film were Best Actor nominees.
UNFORGIVEN
Clint Eastwood's film Unforgiven is an exciting modern classic that rode off with four 1992 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director. "The movie summarized everything I feel about the Western," Eastwood told the Los Angeles Times. "The moral is the concern with gunplay." Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired, down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey. Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper, a colorful killer-for-hire called English Bob. Best Supporting Actor winner Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand of law enforcement ranges from unconventional to ruthless. Big trouble is coming to Big Whiskey.
|
