A Day in Black & White

Starring:Harold Perrineau, Stephanie Berry, Anthony DeSando, Francie Swift, Lonette McKee, Ron C. Jones, Joseph Siravo, Billy Staples, Carolyn Neff
Director: Desmond Hall
Studio: Xenon
Product Type: DVD

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Otto Preminger expanded his vision in the 1960s with a whole series of ambitious, expansive dramas with huge casts and big themes. Advise and Consent (1962), an examination of deal making, party politics, and congressional diplomacy in Washington's legislative halls (based on the novel by Allen Drury), is one of his best. Preminger broke the blacklist with his previous film, Exodus, and it rings through in this drama about a controversial nominee for secretary of state (a confident, stately Henry Fonda) accused of being a Communist. The nomination process becomes the center ring of the political circus, with fidgety accuser Burgess Meredith in the spotlight; devious, silver-tongued Charles Laughton cracking the whip as a southern senator with a grudge against Fonda; and party whip Walter Pidgeon lining up votes behind the scenes. Arm twisting and diplomatic hardball turns to perjury and blackmail, and a melodramatic twist gives this lesson in party politics a salacious soap opera dimension.

With The Americanization of Emily (1964), screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Marty) sinks his satirical fangs into a story of an American naval officer (James Garner) selected to be the first victim at the invasion of Normandy. Julie Andrews plays a prim, British war widow who falls for him. Cynical in tone, the story becomes an interesting collision of manipulative interests and renewed life, the same formula that worked so well in Chayefsky's scripts for Network and Hospital.

One of the first Hollywood films to deal openly with white racism toward Japanese Americans during World War II, Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) (directed by action maestro John Sturges, The Great Escape) stars Spencer Tracy as a one-armed stranger named MacReedy, who arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock on a hot day in 1945. Seeking a hotel room and the whereabouts of an ethnic Japanese farmer named Komoko, MacReedy runs smack into a wall of hostility that escalates into serious threats. In time it becomes apparent that Komoko has been murdered by a local, racist chieftain, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who also plans on dispensing with MacReedy. Tracy's hero is forced to fight his way past Smith's goons (among them Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin) and sundry allies (Anne Francis) to keep alive, setting the stage for memorable suspense crisply orchestrated by Sturges. Casting is the film's principal strength, however: Tracy, the indispensable icon of integrity, and Ryan, the indispensable noir image of spiritual blight, are as creatively unlikely a pairing as Sturges's shotgun marriage of Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven.

Novelist Evan Hunter burst America's postwar bubble when he described an inner-city school terrorized by switchblade-wielding juvenile delinquents. Director-screenwriter Richard Brooks's 1955 adaptation of Blackboard Jungle still packs a tremendous wallop (even if it was shot mostly on the back lot). A forerunner of Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story, this black-and-white classic--set to Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock"--is part exposé, part melodrama, part public-service announcement. Glenn Ford, at his slow-to-rile best, plays Richard Dadier, an incoming English teacher at North Manual High School. An idealist who knows how to handle himself in a dark alley, Dadier stands his ground and earns the begrudging respect of school thugs led by Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier. Anne Francis plays Ford's especially vulnerable wife; Richard Kiley is the timid math teacher with the priceless jazz-record collection; Louis Calhern and John Hoyt are among the more cynical North Manual High veterans. See if you can ID Jamie Farr and director Paul Mazursky as gang members. The film was nominated for four Oscars.

More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan's overheated political melodrama Face in the Crowd explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. It exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry Meet John Doe. In 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 be a megalomaniacal rat bastard. The film turns apocalyptic as Rhodes exploits his power to sway the masses, helping to elect a reactionary presidential candidate. The parodies of television commercials and opinion polling were cutting edge in their day (Face in the Crowd was the Network of the Eisenhower era), and there are some startling, near-documentary sequences shot on location in Arkansas. An extraordinary supporting cast (led by Walter Matthau and Lee Remick) helps keep the energy level high, even when the satire turns shrill and unpersuasive in the final reel.

Fury is tough stuff from director Fritz Lang (M), making his first American film with this 1936 story of an innocent man (Spencer Tracy) who escapes a lynch mob and then orchestrates his apparent murder at their hands. Tracy is superb, and the film is uncompromising, until studio interference takes some of the wind out of Lang's sails right at the end. But as the portrait of a character who comes to reflect the destiny he is trying to avoid, this is still essential Lang and a pre-noir classic.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) is one of the toughest and most uncompromising movies to ever come out of Hollywood. Paul Muni stars as a regular Joe, just back from World War I, who is unjustly convicted of a crime and sentenced to 10 years of bruisingly unfair treatment on a chain gang. Even a successful escape can't shake the spectre of the chains, nor the amazingly fatalistic twists the screenplay has in store. This picture could only have been made at Warner Bros., where social-justice movies flourished in the 1930s and criticism of judicial systems and prisons was sanctioned. Muni's weird acting style (he was recently off Scarface) somehow fits the film's furious tone, and director Mervyn LeRoy--as in his earlier Little Caesar--was dexterous enough to build the action to an unforgettable ending. It's a film that filters the American Dream through Depression realities and noirish pessimism (with a streak of pre-Code sexual frankness--note the one-night "friend" Muni makes the night of his escape). This one holds up, folks; it's a stunner.

Description

The Controversial Classics Collection features the debut DVDs of seven groundbreaking motion pictures, released in America over three decades from the '30s to the '60s that had dramatic social impact, changed attitudes and brought important political and social reforms. The films include A Face in the Crowd, Blackboard Jungle, Fury, Bad Day at Black Rock, Advise and Consent, The Americanization of Emily and I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. These films, which all took on hot button -- some even taboo -- topics such as prison injustice, racial tension, juvenile delinquency, homosexuality, mob violence as well as political corruption in Washington, the military and the media, caused America to take notice and do something about the issues the movies raised. Each film features either a commentary or documentary examining the film's historical context and political impact.

Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Richard Dadier, a new teacher at inner city North Manual High, is a man eager to make a difference. Topics such as racial and sexual tensions, gang violence and apathy were topics Blackboard Jungle tackled 50 years ago that are still hot-button issues in schools. Glenn Ford as Dadier clings to his ideals and pays a price vying with teen misfits led by Vic Morrow and, in a star-making performance, a young Sidney Poitier. Featuring Bill Haley's classic "Rock Around the Clock," the film is often remembered as being responsible for the breakthrough of rock 'n' roll to the media and consumer mainstream. Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood) directed, based on Evan Hunter's best seller. DVD special features include: Commentary by co-stars Paul Mazursky and Jamie Farr, Glenn Ford's son Peter Ford and Assistant Director Joel Freeman, Droopy Cartoon Blackboard Jumble, theatrical trailer.

A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Andy Griffith made a stunning movie debut as Lonesome Rhodes, whose meteoric rise to TV fame is paralleled by his plunge into booze, sex and political corruption. From On the Waterfront's Academy Award. -winning collaborators, director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, A Face in the Crowd reflects the authenticity of filmmakers who know the media world from the inside out. Lee Remick also made her screen debut in this film which featured cameos from Mike Wallace, Walter Winchell, Betty Furness, Bennett Cerf and Burl Ives as themselves. DVD special features include: New documentary Facing the Past (an all new retrospective with new interviews with stars Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and screenwriter Budd Schulberg) and theatrical trailer.

Fury (1936)
Joe Wilson, a wrongly jailed man thought to have died in a blaze started by a bloodthirsty lynch mob, is alive. Now, Joe aims to ensure his would-be executioners meet the fate Joe miraculously escaped. Spencer Tracy is Joe, Sylvia Sidney is his bride-to-be and Fury lives up to its volatile name with its searing indictment of mob justice and lynching. In his first American film, director Fritz Lang (Metropolis, The Big Heat) combines a passion for justice and a sharp visual style into a landmark of social-conscience filmmaking. DVD special features include: Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, with interview excerpts of director Fritz Lang and theatrical trailer.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Spencer Tracy (a 1955 Best Actor Oscar. nominee for this film) plays World War II veteran John J. Macreedy, who keeps his own counsel about why he's come to Black Rock and who keeps his wits about him when confronted with threats and violence. John Sturges (The Great Escape) directed; Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are among the town's thugs and other denizens. DVD special features include: commentary by film historian Dana Polan and theatrical trailer.

Advise and Consent (1962)
Three years after Anatomy of a Murder, Otto Preminger examined the body politic in Advise and Consent, a story of power and procedure where deals become extortion, closets reveal skeletons and careers are crushed. It was also one of the first mainstream films to deal with homosexuality. History buffs may think they recall real-life counterparts to the characters depicted while movie fans can revel in a rare array of star power: Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, Gene Tierney, Peter Lawford, Franchot Tone and Charles Laughton in his final role. DVD special features include: Commentary by film historian Drew Casper and theatrical trailer.

The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Julie Andrews and James Garner headline this earlier milestone from screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Network) and director Arthur Hiller (also teamed later on The Hospital). Garner plays Charlie Madison, a U.S. Naval officer stationed in London, who cares nothing about glory. That attracts war widow Emily Barham (Andrews), who's had her fill of seeing men go to war and never retim. DVD special features include: Commentary by film historian Drew Casper, featurette Action on the Beach, theatrical trailer.

I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Paul Muni gives a joltingly realistic performance in this powerhouse classic directed by Mervyn LeRoy (Little Caesar), based on autobiographical writings by chain-gang escapee Robert E. Burns. Like many '30s crime sagas, this deals with gritty realities. Yet it also stands apart as a film that made a difference, igniting protests that led to vital penal reforms and Burns himself received a commuted sentence. DVD special features include: Commentary by film historian Richard B. Jewell, vintage musical short 20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang, and theatrical trailer.

Customer Reviews:

A controversial seven-pack.......2007-05-14

Even in the early days of film, there have always been controversial movies. While the majority of films play it reasonably safe, there is that minority of movies that take risks and generate talk. Nowadays, for better or for worse, the truly controversial movie is a little bit more of a rarity, as there are less taboos that aren't discussed or shown. The Controversial Classics boxed set collects seven older movies that deal with dicey subjects in the Production Code-enforced era that tried to keep everything safe and bland; these films are far from the only ones that could be called controversial or classic, but they are a good sampling.

First (chronologically) is I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, an early talkie with Paul Muni as a man unwittingly implicated in a robbery in the deep South. He is put on a chain gang, and though he eventually escapes and rebuilds his life, his past does catch up with him. This is a powerful but very dark film, with even the last line filled with grimness.

Fury is the first of two starring Spencer Tracy. In the first, Fury, he is a man arrested while driving through a small town. He is suspected of a kidnapping and a lynch mob destroys the jail he is in, apparently killing him. He survives, however, and - now embittered - secretly works to get those responsible tried for his murder. Bad Day at Black Rock has Tracy as a crippled World War II veteran who goes to a small desert community and stirs up memories of an old murder. This one co-stars Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Anne Francis. Both films are decent but far from great.

Things pick up with Blackboard Jungle, which also has Anne Francis, though Glenn Ford is the star as a novice teacher at a tough school. It is one of the earliest films to highlight juvenile delinquency. Sidney Potier, Vic Morrow and Jamie Farr are some of the students, each with their own level of criminality. Although preachy at times, it is still pretty good.

A Face in the Crowd stars Andy Griffith in his earliest movie role. For those used to Griffith from his nice guy roles, particularly in The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, this is quite a contrast as he plays an utterly amoral man who uses his homespun humor to go from a bum to an immensely powerful entertainment personality. Also starring Patricia Neal, Lee Remick and Walter Matthau, this is both a great movie and an insightful one.

Advise & Consent starts slow but picks up as it moves into its second half. Otto Preminger's adaptation of the best-selling novel presents the inner workings of the Senate in a somewhat darker light than Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The plot deals with a controversial pick by the President for Secretary of State. This is another great movie, marred only by the ending which wraps things up in a bit too conveniently. Instead of a true star, this features an ensemble cast, including Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, Burgess Meredith and Charles Laughton.

If the set begins with a rather depressing movie, it at least ends with a somewhat happier film, the war satire The Americanization of Emily. James Garner is at his most James-Garner-est as the wheeler-dealer Navy Commander serving as a "dog-robber". His job is to make sure that the admiral he works for gets all the pleasures of home. Set in England in the days before D-Day, Garner is a self-admitted coward; he refuses to die just to become a hero. Julie Andrews is the war widow with whom he gets romantically involved. When his admiral decides that the first man to die on Omaha beach must be a Navy man (to help glorify the Navy), Garner is forced to take part in the invasion. As Arthur Hiller relates in the commentary, this is not so much an anti-war film as one opposing the false glorification of war. Not unlike the much more recent Flags of Our Fathers, this film is critical of the manufacturing of heroes; based on recent news stories on Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, this lesson still needs to be taught.

With I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, A Face in the Crowd and The Americanization of Emily all meriting five stars and the rest four, this set gets five stars overall, helped by the numerous extras, most particularly the commentaries (on all films except A Face in the Crowd, which does have a mini-documentary). I don't know if this is the ideal sampling of controversial classics, but it is a set of good-to-great films.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EXHIBITION RATIO?.......2006-02-01

The butchering of BLACKBOARD JUNGLE is a disgrace. You take a 1.33 picture, mask a large slice at the top and bottom of the screen and, abracadabra, you get an ugly but so modern 1.85 picture. Shame on Warner. Could we have some respect for the industry and the movie buffs?
Thanks to the DVD, we got rid of the dreaded pan and scan. The minority of 1.85 TV screens freaks can enlarge the pictures any way they like. The 1.85 disease infected the films from the sixties, now it's the 50's pictures turn. Some movie buffs are still alive and remember the power of 1.33 ratio.
Same remarks for A FACE IN THE CROWD. THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY SHOULD BE SHOWN IN 1.66. The BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK transfer is disappointing, when you have seen a good 35mm print of this wonderful photography.
Do we have to ask the FBI to protect the US film industry from this travesty, as Hollywood is still the main reason why millions of people across the world love America.
Olivier Comte

Controversial Classics Collection.......2005-08-26

What a wonderful treat this collection is....at first I was skeptic because I am a big Film Noir fan...and did not think that this collection would suffice...how wrong I was. The commentaries are crisp, clean and full of information...the movies are some of the Best Produced...Bad Day At Black Rock...starring Tracy as in Spencer...and Ryan. Then there is The Americanization of Emily with a script by one of the best writers: Paddy C......and one of my favorite movies starring Julie Andrews fresh from Mary Poppins..thank God...and James Garner...both of them a treat. A face in the Crowd should be one of the 10 BEST Movies Ever Produced...Andy Griffith is just magnificent along with Patricia Neal...Watch This Movie! I am a Fugituve from a Chain Gang...a must see of what happened in the disgrace of the American Judicial System...Advise and Consent I really did not care for but it was worth watching just to listen to the commentary....and finally Blackboard Jungle which still pulls no punches with a very young Glenn Ford...with funny commentary by the teen-agers (I am not going to tell you who) that were in the movie.

Get this collection and give yourself a Treat that is seldom if ever seen in the Movies now days....

Controversial Classics Collection.......2005-07-11

I purchased this package of movies for my son who is a real movie buff and who has a Degree in Drama. He has watched one of the movies so far and is looking forward to watching rest of them. He is familiar with the Actors and Directors in this set of movies. Very nice to have classics easy to obtain like this. I would highly recommend it.

Controversial Classics.......2005-07-08

I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932)
Controversy: The oldest movie in the controversial classics set, FUGITIVE also lays claim to the most unwieldy title. Chain gang prison labor is the controversial topic.
Strengths: Paul Muni is absolutely riveting, and his final scene is one of the more memorable in movies.
Weaknesses: The last chain gang prison system was outlawed in the 1940s. The oldest title is also the least relevant.
Bottom Line: Inspiration for other classic movies like Cool Hand Luke and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Although severely dated, FUGITIVE still delivers as top-drawer entertainment.

FURY (1936)
Controversy: German director Fritz Lang's first American film is an exposé of lynching, mob violence, and the corrosive effects of living for revenge.
Strengths: Spencer Tracy's transformation from good-natured innocent to bitter victim is breathtaking. Lang's depiction of the mob is still quite strong
Weaknesses: The first and last act tends to stall out the story. The studio imposed ending is unsatisfying.
Bottom Line: Although not quite as powerful as Lang's German film M, which it resembles, FURY still has a number of memorable moments, and Tracy's Jekyll and Hyde transformation works very well.

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)
Controversy: Xenophobia during World War II and a small southwestern town with a big, ugly secret.
Strengths: Spencer Tracy always adds value to a movie. Robert Ryan, as Tracy's chief nemesis, turns in a typically fine performance, too.
Weaknesses: Anne Francis isn't anything more than a token female and doesn't really seem to fit in the story. A little too much attention paid to the secret keeping, and not enough on what was done that must remain hidden.
Bottom Line: A good Decent Stranger Against the Mob movie that may have dealt a little more directly with the shameful incident everyone was trying to keep buried.

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)
Controversy: Rock `n roll infected juvenile delinquents are taking over the world.
Strengths: Director Richard Brooks really wades into it, and doesn't pull his punches on some issues one simply didn't talk about in the 1950s - racial tensions, rape, middle class apathy and cynicism. Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier and especially young Vic Morrow are very good.
Weaknesses: Because it shows few if any female students, no parents and otherwise little of the students' lives away from school this one's a little exploitative.
Bottom Line: Overall an excellent and honest look at urban troubled youth. Probably Glenn Ford's best film.

A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)
Controversy: Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg's warning about the pernicious encroachment of mass media, especially television, in American life.
Strengths: They got it right, although they were about a decade ahead of the rest of us. Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, as worried onlookers, are very good.
Weaknesses: I may be a minority of one, but Andy Griffith in the lead role too often goes way over the top. Kazan may have wanted to portray him as an irresistible force of nature, but at times he's simply too loud, too out-sized, too outlandish.
Bottom Line: Still fun and entertaining, especially to see how much of it Kazan on got right. After the 2004 elections, it was somewhat chilling to see a politician go geese hunting with the Griffith character in a bid to develop his `common man' credentials.

ADVISE AND CONSENT (1962)
Controversy: Director Otto Preminger's adaptation of best-selling novel and hit play deals with Washington in-fighting over a presidential cabinet nomination.
Strengths: Charles Laughton and Walter Pidgeon as savvy senators give this one backbone and keep it interesting.
Weaknesses: Episodic and ultimately more soap opera than exposé.
Bottom Line: In my opinion this is the weakest entry in the set.

AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964)
Controversy: The Navy needs a hero on D-Day and this movie not only questions hero worship, it pulls it apart and blows it up, bit by bit.
Strengths: Paddy Chayefsky's script is perfect. James Garner and Julie Andrews are perfect as the mismatched lovers.
Weaknesses: Addictive.
Bottom Line: My favorite movie in the bunch, a perfect satire while treating with compassion those it satires. One of the great comedies of the twentieth century.

Average customer rating:

A black comedy that asks the age old question: is a lobotomy a good thing?

A Hole in One
Starring: Michelle Williams , Meat Loaf , Tim Guinee , Wendell Pierce , and Bill Raymond
Director: Richard Ledes
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000BQ5J7C
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Description

Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) delivers a stunning performance as Anna, a young woman in the 1950s obsessed with mental health. When her brother returns home from the war changed and depressed and her gangster boyfriend, Billy (Meat Loaf Aday) kills someone in front of her, it becomes more than she can take and she looks for a way to relieve her pain. She becomes convinced that the only way she can be happy is by having a transorbital lobotomy, the latest technique in brain surgery. Billy hires Tom, a sympathetic Korean War vet to pose as doctor and dissuade her from getting a lobotomy. An attraction between the two develops and eventually she becomes caught between these two men who must then decide her fate.

Customer Reviews:

A black comedy that asks the age old question: is a lobotomy a good thing?.......2006-01-10

I have been checking out movies in which Michelle Williams appears for the past couple of months and have come to the conclusion that she is one of the best actresses working in Independent films. It is not just her performances but also her choice of roles that I find interesting. Since Williams received the Best Supporting Actress award at the Critic's Choice ceremonies tonight for her role in "Brokeback Mountain," it is entirely possible that more people will start to think that she was the best thing to come out of "Dawson's Creek." Watching this 2004 film will give them addition evidence to support that conclusion so that it is not simply a question of earning the distinction by default. Just be aware going in that this is not a Cohen Bros. Film, but it does seem like one.

"A Hole in One" is a black comedy that has such a deft touch that you may have to pinch yourself to remind you it is the functional equivalent of a morality play. Williams plays Anna Watson, a young woman growing up during the Eisenhower years. When her younger brother returns from the war suffering from shellshock she cannot reach him and her parents are not interested in trying. Things become so bleak that Anna becomes the girl friend of Billy (Meat Loaf Aday), a murdering gangster. Finally she decides that what a trans-orbital lobotomy will solve all of her problems. After all, it is National Mental Health Week and Dr. Harold Ashton (Bill Raymond) is in Icetown showing how easy it is to take an ice pick and drive it a couple of centimeters into somebody's brain. Who would not want to be cured of alcoholism or depression with a couple of quick taps on a needle that enters your brain through your eye socket? (Come on, what is the worst thing that could happen?).

There is not much to say about Billy, but he does know that lobotomies are nonsense and that Anna does not need one. So he arranges for her to see Dr. Tom Franklin (Tim Guinee), who will pretend to give her a lobotomy. Of course, it would help if his fake office actually had chairs, but that is a small matter when a woman's frontal lobe is at stake. First-time writer-director Richard Ledes is able to use Williams and her performance to navigate these dangerous waters. I am not sure why Meat Loaf was a good choice to play this role (besides being allowed to sing a rather different version of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"), but Raymond is Anna's true foil as he sells the idea of lobotomies with a skill that used car salesmen would envy. Besides, it is more the role of Billy that stands out as a sore thumb because he does not seem to be an animal of the 1950s, and it is the dark vision of America during that period that is threatening to sweep Anna along with its tide.

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In Your Wildest Dreams
Starring: Trevor Black , Lise Wilburn , Sarah Schaub , Brett Palmer , and Steve Anderson
Director: Bruce Neibaur
Manufacturer: Bonneville Ent.
ProductGroup: DVD
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On Our Own
Just in Time
Split Infinity: A Gift From the Past
Walking Across Egypt
The Angel Doll

ASIN: B0001UNX6M
Release Date: 2004-07-13

Description

When high school senior Mark Andrew's accidental investment makes him a millionaire overnight, he must make a difficult decision about honesty, integrity and the price of wealth and success. Mark dreams of making it big and living the fast-paced life of the wealthy and successful. Mark thinks his wildest dreams have come true when he uses the wrong computer to a make a simulated stock purchase and accidentally makes a million dollars. Unfortunately, Mark's million turns out to be money Mr. Banks needs to save his electricity company. Mark must decide if his idea of success is worth hurting those closest to him.

Arthur Cohn Presents (American Dream/Behind the Sun/Black and White in Color/A Brief Vacation/Central Station/Dangerous Moves/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/One Day in September/Two Bits)

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Arthur Cohn Presents (American Dream/Behind the Sun/Black and White in Color/A Brief Vacation/Central Station/Dangerous Moves/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/One Day in September/Two Bits)
Starring: Fernanda Montenegro , Marília Pêra , Vinícius de Oliveira , Soia Lira , and Othon Bastos
Director: Walter Salles , Vittorio De Sica , and Kevin Macdonald
Manufacturer: Homevision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Edition)
Little Miss Sunshine
An Inconvenient Truth

ASIN: B0001689WY
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Description

In the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Arthur Cohn has received more Oscars® than any other producer. He is the only foreign film producer to have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. Home Vision Entertainment is proud to present this unique collection of highly acclaimed films produced by the legendary Arthur Cohn, available exclusively from HVe in this special nine-disc collector's set.

Assembled and distributed by Home Vision Entertainment, this homage to Academy Award™-winning Producer Arthur Cohn is an unprecedented collaboration among Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Classics, Paramount Pictures,
Universal Studios, Miramax Studios, and Buena Vista's Home Entertainment Group.

This unique set features the following films, produced by Arthur Cohn, on DVD:
American Dream, Behind the Sun, Black and White in Color, Sky Above Mud Below, A Brief Vacation ,The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, One Day in September, Two Bits, and Dangerous Moves

Oscar™ and Academy Award™ are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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A Day in Black & White
Starring: Harold Perrineau , Stephanie Berry , Anthony DeSando , Francie Swift , and Lonette McKee
Director: Desmond Hall
Manufacturer: Xenon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000056BRV
Release Date: 2001-02-27

Amazon.com

A black writer (Harold Perrineau, the poet in the spinning wheelchair in the HBO series Oz) is asked by his white girlfriend to give a speech about race at the racially mixed high school where she teaches. In preparation, he talks to a black friend but does the majority of the brainstorming for the speech with a white friend. Meanwhile, two black women talk sexual politics in a café, a white cabby asks out a black woman, the racist white principal confronts the white teacher about her black students, and the white friend goes to his corporate job where the topic of affirmative action comes up. In this play on film, everybody seems to be talking about race. Specifically, they're all talking about black-white issues, only giving lip service to other groups such as Asians, Latinos, gays, and women. Set in a city as ethnically diverse as New York, the limited scope of the script is disappointing. Many of the arguments have been done to death in previous films (who's allowed to use the term "nigger"?), and the movie tries so hard to be even-handed that it just becomes boring, particularly because it only wants to raise the issues and "start a dialogue." The thing that's good about it is the fact that, as a collection of race arguments of the '80s and '90s, A Day in Black and White will work best 20 years from now as a museum piece or a document for academic study. --Andy Spletzer

Description

Two friends get together to write a speech about race problems. They talk, they sit, they argue—and what they put down on paper is both funny and insightful.

Charlie Rose with Paul Simon; Thelma Golden; Mark Brickell (February 27, 1995)

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Charlie Rose with Paul Simon; Thelma Golden; Mark Brickell (February 27, 1995)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

First, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois talks about the balanced budget amendment and his support for it. Second, Jean Bach, jazz enthusiast and producer; Benny Golson, saxophonist and composer; and trumpeter Art Farmer discuss the documentary, A Great Day in Harlem. Then, Thelma Golden, associate curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, discusses an exhibition called Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art. Finally, Mark Brickell, vice chairman of International Swaps & Derivatives Association, talks about the bankruptcy of Barings Brothers Bank.

Death of a Prophet: The Last Day In the Life of Malcolm X

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Death of a Prophet: The Last Day In the Life of Malcolm X
Starring: Sonny Jim Gaines , Yolanda King , Mansoor Najeeullah , Ossie Davis , and Morgan Freeman
Director: Woodie King
Manufacturer: Legacy Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Drama | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0007CILRK
Release Date: 2005-03-01

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