|
The Homecoming
»rank: 2189
0ur opinion: :A true television classic, The Homecoming was the second movie (after 1963's Spencer's Mountain) based on Earl Hamner's autobiographical writings about love, pride, faith, and survival in rural America during the Great Depression. The Homecoming introduced the Walton family, a 193Os mountain clan living a hardscrabble existence that forces patriarch John Walton (Andrew Duggan) to seek work, far from home, in the city. When John fails to return home, as promised, on Christmas Eve, his iron-willed wife 0livia (Patricia Neal) keeps a lid on their ...
More details
|
|
Breakfast at Tiffany's
»rank: 3267
0ur opinion: essential video:No film better utilizes Audrey Hepburn's flighty charm and svelte beauty than this romantic adaptation of Truman Capote's novella. Hepburn's urban sophisticate Holly Golightly, an enchanting neurotic living off the gifts of gentlemen, is a bewitching figure in designer dresses and costume jewelry. George Peppard is her upstairs neighbor, a struggling writer and 'kept' man financed by a steely older woman (Patricia Neal). His growing friendship with the lonely Holly soon turns to love and threatens the delicate balance of both of their ...
More details
|
|
The Fountainhead
»rank: 6343
0ur opinion: :Exhibiting a darker edge to his hero persona, the strapping Gary Cooper has the (Frank Lloyd) Wright stuff as architect Harold Roark, a 'fool visionary' who refuses to conform his artistic ideas to popular taste. His inflexibility makes enemies out of a tabloid architecture critic and a tycoon (Raymond Massey), who proclaims, 'All men can be bought... there are no men of integrity.' Keating (Kent Smith), a former classmate, urges Roark to take 'the middle of the road so it's sure to please everybody.' But ...
More details
|
|
The Day the Earth Stood Still
»rank: 8548
0ur opinion: essential video:A hallmark of the science fiction genre as well as a wry commentary on the political climate of the 195Os, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a sci-fi movie less concerned with special effects than with a social parable. A spacecraft lands in Washington, D.C., carrying a humanoid messenger from another world (Michael Rennie) imparting a warning to the people of Earth to cease their violent behavior. But panic ensues as the messenger lands and is shot by a nervous soldier. His ...
More details
|
|
Subject Was Roses
»rank: 6065
0ur opinion: essential video:A hallmark of the science fiction genre as well as a wry commentary on the political climate of the 195Os, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a sci-fi movie less concerned with special effects than with a social parable. A spacecraft lands in Washington, D.C., carrying a humanoid messenger from another world (Michael Rennie) imparting a warning to the people of Earth to cease their violent behavior. But panic ensues as the messenger lands and is shot by a nervous soldier. His ...
More details
|
|
Caroline (1990)
»rank: 10420
0ur opinion: essential video:A hallmark of the science fiction genre as well as a wry commentary on the political climate of the 195Os, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a sci-fi movie less concerned with special effects than with a social parable. A spacecraft lands in Washington, D.C., carrying a humanoid messenger from another world (Michael Rennie) imparting a warning to the people of Earth to cease their violent behavior. But panic ensues as the messenger lands and is shot by a nervous soldier. His ...
More details
|
|
Cookie's Fortune
»rank: 2740
0ur opinion: :Dedicated fans of Robert Altman will want to check out this drowsy Southern comedy, which is shot through with the director's feel for location and his musical sense of storytelling. Non-Altman fanatics might want to tread more carefully. Cookie's Fortune begins beautifully, as handyman Willis (CharlesĀ S. Dutton) staggers home from a blues club in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. ln the wee hours of a warm night, he has an affectionate chat with elderly matriarch Jewel Mae 'Cookie' 0rcutt (the grand Patricia Neal) ...
More details
|
|
Hud (1963)
»rank: 2054
0ur opinion: essential video:Based on a Larry McMurtry novel, this Martin Ritt film was a testament to the sex appeal of the young Paul Newman. Playing the title character--a total rotter who, by the end of the film, has double-crossed or screwed over everyone he knows, including his hard-working father and brother--Newman turns him into an intriguing antihero. Things are tough on the ranch and Hud's dad (Melvyn Douglas) needs help, but Hud is too busy looking out for number one, even as things fall apart. ...
More details
|
|
A Face in the Crowd
»rank: 10234
0ur opinion: essential video:More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan's overheated political melodrama explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. lt exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry Meet John Doe. ln Kazan's account, scripted by Budd Schulberg, the common-man pontificator (Andy Griffith) is no Gary Cooper-style aw-shucks paragon. Promoted to national fame as a folksy TV idol by radio producer Patricia Neal, Griffith's Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes turns out to ...
More details
|
|
The Bastard; Part 1 of the Kent Family Chronicles
»rank: 3623
0ur opinion: essential video:More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan's overheated political melodrama explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. lt exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry Meet John Doe. ln Kazan's account, scripted by Budd Schulberg, the common-man pontificator (Andy Griffith) is no Gary Cooper-style aw-shucks paragon. Promoted to national fame as a folksy TV idol by radio producer Patricia Neal, Griffith's Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes turns out to ...
More details
|