The novelist Thomas Hardy often portrayed honest people who suffered a downfall because of how the industrial revolution corrupted society. Michael Winterbottom, having directed Jude, a television version of Hardy’s 1895 novel Jude the Obscure in 1999, turned to the novelist’s The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) for inspiration for his latest film, entitled The Claim. While in production, the provisional title […]

Is it a bird, a plane, or a super-kungfu-master? In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, based on part four of a five-part novel by early twentieth-century writer Wang Du Lu, kungfu fighting is raised to new heights — literally. The fighters jump up tall buildings with a few simple bounds and even fight in the treetops. Just

Under what circumstances would an American president order a nuclear bomb against a military target in the year 2008? This question is posed in the film Deterrence, directed and written by Rod Lurie, a former West Pointer. The film begins in a diner in snowbound Aztec, Colorado, and short cuts are utilized to juxtapose the conversation

  Before Erin Brockovich begins, a title tells us that the film is based on a true story. The movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by transparently feminist Susannah Grant, focuses on numbers, though the tagline is “She brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees.” After a physician runs

Falcon Down, directed by Philip J. Roth, is about the Falcon, a supersonic airplane equipped with a microwave weapon that totally obliterates objects, presumably derived from alien technology. After Hank Thomas (played by David Midkiff) is court-martialed for his role in accidentally shooting down a commercial airplane, Major Robert Carson (played by William Shatner), the

Most Americans are not millionaires but wish they could be, but most millionaires are too busy to enjoy a comfortable family life after work and rarely contemplate what they are missing, or so we are led to believe in The Family Man, directed by Brett Ratner. Chronologically, the story begins in 1987, when Jack Campbell (played

Why does a seventeen year old become a male prostitute? This question was recently posed by Konstantinos Giannaris, Greece’s only out-of-the-closet film director, in a documentary interview featured on Athens television. In 1998, Giannaris directed a film to go along with the interview, hiring street prostitutes in most of the roles, and the result is From

The Gift, about the psychic powers of Annie Wilson (played by Kate Blanchett), is set in the Georgia bayou town of Brixton near Savannah. Annie, a fortuneteller who accepts “donations,” is the confessor of nearly everyone’s problems, though the problems are caused by those in town who do not consult her. Annie proves that she

When are the dreams of children shattered by the realities of adulthood? Based on a true story, The Girl in the Sneakers (Dokhtari ba kafsh-haye-katani ) focuses on how two fifteen-year-olds grow up within a week due to personal traumas in Iran. Rassul Sadr Ameli, the director, makes the film in the hope that the story will

It is the year 2000. The top executive of a New York corporation is suddenly reported dead. His brother marries the widow and takes over the helm at the firm. Coming home from school is the son, who is suspicious of foul play. His suspicions are confirmed when he encounters a ghost, a spirit of