Uprising

Starring:Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Jon Voight, Donald Sutherland, Stephen Moyer, Sadie Frost, Radha Mitchell, Mili Avital, Eric Lively, Alexandra Holden, John Ales, Andy Nyman, Nora Brickman, Jesper Christensen, Cary Elwes, Palle Granditsky, Luke Mably, Nadiv Molcho, Zuzana Barutova
Director: Jon Avnet
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Originally broadcast in November 2001, this exceptional made-for-television film recalls Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan while forging its own distinct identity. It was the first American film to dramatize the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, during which an underground collective of Polish Jews dared to defy the Nazis. Hank Azaria leads an all-star cast as resistance leader Mordecai Anielewicz, and the film follows his close-knit collaborators (including David Schwimmer and Leelee Sobieski) and their battle against the Nazi general (Jon Voight) assigned to clear all Jews from Warsaw. The uprising was eventually crushed (some heartbreaking outcomes are listed in the closing credits), but director Jon Avnet expertly maintains a sense of courage and hope amidst the palpable horror of the Warsaw Ghetto. Combining physical and historical accuracy with intimate character details, Uprising is suspenseful without being sensational, thus honoring one of the greatest symbolic victories in all of Jewish history. --Jeff Shannon
Description
After Germany invades Poland in 1939, the Nazis decree that 350,000 Warsaw Jews be forcibly moved into a cordoned area known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Idealistic teacher Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria) decides the Jews must rise up against the Nazis and creates the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO). He tries to secure the support of Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland), the morally conflicted head of the Warsaw Ghetto's Jewish Council, but Adam declines because he knows that any act of resistance will provoke the Germans to retaliate by killing innocent Jews. Determined to mobilize a resistance alone if he has to, Mordechai recruits his friends and covert couriers whose ability to pass as Aryan helps them smuggle in arms and explosives from the Aryan side of the city, building up an arsenal to fight the Nazis.

When the Germans begin deporting 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp, the JFO begins acts of resistance that culminate with ghetto fighters firing their first gunshots against the Nazis. When it becomes clear that the JFO is a force to be reckoned with, the German High Command sends in General Stroop (Jon Voight), who is determined to end the uprising in two or three days.

Capturing the horror that unfolds is Fritz Hippler (Cary Elwes), a filmmaker assigned by Hitler's chief propagandist to promote anti-Semitism with a film about Jewish life in the ghetto.

Amazon.com

A love letter to movies (and the French new wave of the 1960s in particular), Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers starts with a 1968 riot outside of a Parisian movie palace then burrows into an insular love triangle. Matthew (Michael Pitt, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), an expatriate American student, bonds with a twin brother and sister, Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel), over their mutual love of film--they not only quote lines of dialogue, they act out small bits and challenge each other to name the cinematic source. Matthew suspects the twins of incest, but that doesn't stop him from falling into his own intimacies with Isabelle. As the threesome becomes threatened, Paris succumbs to student riots. The Dreamers aspires to be kinky, but the results are more decorative than decadent; nonetheless, the movie's lively energy recalls the careless and vital exuberance of Godard and Truffaut. --Bret Fetzer

Description

From Academy Award®-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, 1987), comes an erotic tale of three young film lovers brought together by their passion for movies -- and each other. When Isabelle and Theo (Eva Green, Louis Garrel) invite Matthew (Michael Pitt) to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and anything is possible. Featuring an engaging, seductive cast, The Dreamers is a ?spellbinding, provocative feast!" (Ebert & Roeper)

Customer Reviews:

perfect quality and cheap, too.......2007-05-13

For $5, a great film at an even better price...

Adequate productions, etc........2007-05-07

This was an ok flick...........always good to see up and coming artists and these were fine......Eva Green should definitely do more of these types........very sexy.....sequel might do better.........

Great Movie!.......2007-05-07

If you haven't seen it you should, if you have then you're already here to buy it.

Some of the finest modern film making, subtle, sensual, insightful.

Not a fan of the last 4 minutes though.. other than that better than great till that point.

House of 'Yes' in the War Zone or The First Tango in Paris.......2007-04-26

When Bernardo Bertolucci makes a new film, I want to see it. I know it will be visually beautiful, deep and meaningful. Even when he is not completely successful - his films are difficult to forget. It applies to "The Dreamers" (2003)

In this film, Bertolucci returns to Paris of 1968. His First Tango is as shocking as Last one - it received NC-17 rating for very open scenes of nudity, masturbation, sex, and the hints to incest. But it is not just about sex - it is about film itself. It was the time when Pauline Kael said, "Bertolucci and Brando have altered the face of an art form". It was the time when a crowd in Chicago would line up under umbrellas on the sidewalk, waiting in the rain to get into the next screening of Godard's "Weekend." It was the time when movie makers became the Artists. It was the time when closing down of the famous Cinematheque Francais in Paris by the government started the student culture riots which became the part of youthful rebellion all over the Western World.

Young American, Mathew, a devoted movie buff (Michael Pitt who by the opinion of several reviewers looks like cross between Leo DiCaprio and Macaulay Culkin. I found him looking more like young Roger Ebert would've. ) becomes friends with two French students and fellow movie lovers, twins Isabella (Eva Green, in a star making debut) and Theo (Louis Garrel) and accepts their invitation to stay with them at their apartment while their intellectual parents are away for vacation.

All three are big fans of movies - they not only talk about movies, they live their favorite scenes. "The Dreamers" is Bertolucci's love letter to cinema, and his irony toward people taking it so seriously that the real world is ignored.

When Matthew moves in with the twins, the result closely resembles "Last Tango in Paris". Much of the film's second half occurs in that apartment, as insular as Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider's more than thirty years ago. Flirting becomes passion becomes dark and dangerous games to see how far someone will go. The difference is that the kids of "The Dreamers" are not as complicated and interesting as Paul or Jeanne (especially Paul, one of the greatest performances by genius Brando).

With this wistful ode to sex, cinema, and the heated atmosphere of the '60s, Bertolucci has proved that he is still on the top of his game. I will be happily waiting for his next film.

It is unique!.......2007-04-24

How great is the story to describe the life of teenagers in France during late '60, which makes this movie becomes unique when compared with other movies regarding teenagers. Furthermore, Eva Green was so beautiful with her natural body when she was 23. It is not a real erotic movie but with unforgettable sexual scenes.

Average customer rating:

maybe he shouldve stocked some nice rainbow ices ...
Boycott the Motherf**ker That Don't Like This Film!
Powerful Film
spike lee's best flick
so, what IS the right thing?

Do the Right Thing
Starring: Danny Aiello , Rick Aiello , Paul Benjamin , Ossie Davis , and Ruby Dee
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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Breakthrough Cinema | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 0783227949
Release Date: 1998-07-22

Amazon.com essential video

Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

maybe he shouldve stocked some nice rainbow ices ..........2007-06-11

poor spike lee: for 20 years now he has been trying to live up to the promise of this early movie -- but sad to say, two decades down the line, there wasnt as much there as people thought there was. the imagery of the streets (based on the real life howard beach horror) is a trifle too parochial, and the actions of the protagonists just a bit too easy to project before they occur. i honestly can say i didnt like a single person here; in attempting to show their flaws, lee ignores their decency. that aside, there are images that will stay with you a long time -- but as i said earlier, this should have been the heralding of a directorial career, not the peak.

Boycott the Motherf**ker That Don't Like This Film!.......2007-05-08

Sizzling hot! Music by Public Enemy, and a film by the great Spike Lee. And it's all set in the middle of summer, on one of the hottest days ever (Spike would return to this theme again with "Summer of Sam"), and with the coolest cast ever!
Look here, string-cheese head motherf**ker: Rewind it and watch the s**ts again and again! Boycott the motherf**ker who doesn't like this film!
This is a milestone in filmmaking, it's reality...It's the Powers that be!
WAY ahead of its time, speaks to many generations to come, and excellent, awesome filmmaking with never a dull moment.
I would give this film 10 stars if possible...Classic!!
And, that's the truth Ruth!

Powerful Film.......2007-02-16

I remember not saying a word for at least fifteen minutes after watching this film..It was one the most powerful films I've ever seen and makes the viewer reach inside his/herself and examine their attitude toward racism...

spike lee's best flick.......2007-02-03

this mother conjures a time when a new spike lee movie was an event. this movie packs more emotion, beauty, exuberance and life in every minute than 99% of the movies coming out of hollywood. the music, the cinematography, the kaleidoscope of viewpoints and characters, the strong sense of place (NYC, of course), the amazing cast...all in the service of an honest, complex look at racism. Lee leaves you with two choices at the end, as symbolized by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

at the same time that i praise this wonderful movie, i have to wonder what's happened to spike lee since. mo better blues and jungle fever were interesting but never come close to the impact of this movie. crooklyn is sweet and malcolm x is a great film, but still pale compared to lee's best movie.

so, what IS the right thing?.......2007-01-25

Spike Lee's study of urban racial tensions stirred controversy when it was first released. Did he intend to advocate violence or merely record it as so many have experienced it? At the end of this film powerful quotations from Martin Luther King and Malcolm X support either view. Set in the sultry summer of inner city Brooklyn, nearly every scene in this film crackles with tension. The black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyevesant is patrolled by white cops, and commercialized by an Italian family pizzeria that has been a mainstay for twenty-five years, and an upstart Korean grocery store. The racial tensions simmer just as much within the black community; there is only derision for a plan to boycott the pizzeria, Da Mayor is part village idiot and part wise elder, and even Mookie (Spike Lee) is caught betweeen allegiance to his black community and his Italian employer. Doing the right thing is sometimes hard not only to do but even to know.

The John Wayne Film Collection (Without Reservations / Allegheny Uprising / Tycoon / Reunion in France / Big Jim McLain / Trouble Along the Way)

Average customer rating:

A Centennial Birthday Present for John Wayne Fans!
The John Wayne Film Collection
the Duke pays his dues
The John Wayne Film Collection
Showcases John Wayne in a wide variety of roles

The John Wayne Film Collection (Without Reservations / Allegheny Uprising / Tycoon / Reunion in France / Big Jim McLain / Trouble Along the Way)
Starring: John Wayne
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000O599XA
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Amazon.com

Pilgrim, let's talk. John Wayne starred in something like 150 feature films, and the most loyal Duke devotee cannot insist that all of them were U.S. Grade A, even if the man himself never stinted. So what we have in this boxed set--now that the classics have been corralled in previous collections--is a mixed bag. A couple of these movies should be happy discoveries. A couple are honorable misfires. A couple are downright (to borrow a disturbing word from McLintock!) unprepossessing. But all are new to DVD and all are welcome, because there's no such thing as a John Wayne movie that isn't worth checking out.

The likable Allegheny Uprising (1939) was made at RKO half a year after Wayne achieved stardom in Stagecoach. It's an odd little picture: a "Western" set in Pennsylvania, a "forgotten footnote of history" about a rebellion against King George III's forces a decade-and-a-half before the American Revolution, and a basically B-movie production (over and done with in 80 minutes) with some middling-large action scenes and lots of fresh air and sunlight. Wayne plays a thoughtful fellow named Jim Smith who leads his "men of the Conococheague" in a brief shooting war in which they scrupulously strive not to kill anybody; they're still loyal British subjects, for all their buckskinned orneriness. Just as buckskinned and just as ornery is love interest Claire Trevor, and George Sanders gives yeoman service as the obdurate Brit officer responsible for a lot of the civil unrest.

Reunion in France (1942) finds Wayne out of his element at chintzy MGM in a Parisian-set WWII melodrama conceived for and dominated by Joan Crawford--the only occasion these stars worked together. She's a cosseted but curiously principled fashionista shaken by the Nazis' inconsiderate invasion of France--and still more by the willingness of her millionaire industrial designer fiancé (Philip Dorn) to collaborate with Hitler's war machine. The Duke makes a delayed entrance as a Yank whose RAF plane has crashed in the French countryside. Crawford shelters him, against her better judgment, then begins to be drawn to someone with even more imposing shoulders than her own. In later years everybody involved in this film preferred to forget it had ever happened, but its wackiness can be endearing.

In Without Reservations (1946), the Duke again is essentially a featured player in a woman's picture, with Claudette Colbert as a novelist searching for "the Man of Tomorrow" to play the main character in the film version of her visionary bestseller. That turns out to be the Marine she bumps into on the transcontinental train taking her to Hollywood. The script, like their much-interrupted journey, is all over the map, and the comedy scenes are shockingly mishandled--though it looks as if director Mervyn LeRoy was trying to imitate Preston Sturges in some of them and Ernst Lubitsch in others. Cary Grant has a charming cameo, as himself.

Tycoon (1947) inspired a sublime one-sentence review from James Agee: "Several tons of dynamite are set off in this movie; none of it under the right people." Wayne's an engineer trying to drill and blast through the Andes, and his worst obstacle is the aristocratic railroad magnate (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) he's working for--chiefly because Wayne and the magnate's daughter (Laraine Day) have fallen for each other. The script spins its wheels (the film runs two hours plus), and neither the corporate politics nor the romance makes a lick of sense, but fans of vibrant Technicolor will O.D. on this movie's psychedelic palette. The supporting cast (able but wasted) includes James Gleason, Anthony Quinn, Judith Anderson, and Paul Fix, and the Andes are played by the Alabama Hills at Lone Pine, Calif.

The kindest and most damning thing to say about the 1952 Big Jim McLain is that it's a Cold War artifact, a snapshot of that American moment when Sen. Joseph McCarthy could pass for a patriot and a hero. Wayne, companioned by equally big Jim Arness, actually plays an investigator for McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, searching out Commies in Hawaii. The Red agents on view are a robotic bunch who look as if they couldn't menace a dog pound, but that was consistent with such contemporary portrayals of fifth-column lifestyle as the TV series I Led Three Lives. Latterday liberal sentimentality about the Party can be as absurd as '50s paranoia was, so the point here is not to condemn Wayne's politics, but to deplore how completely he lost his moviemaking savvy whenever he set out to crusade. This personal production of the actor's own company is an embarrassingly shoddy piece of work. Still, it is a window into its time.

Even John Wayne fans have tended to skip the dubious-sounding Trouble Along the Way. Well, don't. This comedy-drama about a former big-time football coach signing on at a venerable Catholic college turns out to be an intriguingly complicated entertainment. The title invokes the sentimental classic Going My Way, with the great Charles Coburn taking the doddering-but-sly priest (and school administrator) role. Besides the threatened shutdown of the college, there's the vicious campaign of Wayne's ex-wife Marie Windsor to regain custody of daughter Sherry Jackson, who pretty much lives out of the bar where her disreputable dad runs a bookie operation. Donna Reed plays a social worker who has to make the call in this contest. The script by future Bob Hope writers Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose and direction by Michael Curtiz combine to scuff up Wayne's heroic image, and instead of the sappy big-game climax we think we see coming a mile away, the movie veers toward a finale in which several "happy endings" are put on hold. For his part, Wayne gets to deliver more syncopated dialogue than usual, and seems both refreshed and startled by the experience.

The packaging of the six feature DVDs falls a mite short of the wraparound "Warner Night at the Movies" extras in other collections: one live-action short, one cartoon, and sometimes the movie's trailer. The cartoons are fine, and the live short packaged with Allegheny Uprising is one of those Technicolor history lessons featuring studio contract players that Warners used to win awards for--the 1939 "The Bill of Rights." There are no commentaries. --Richard T. Jameson

Studio description

Includes: Without Reservations (1946), Allegheny Uprising (1939), Tycoon (1947), Reunion in France (1942), Big Jim McLain (1952), Trouble Along the Way (1953).

Customer Reviews:

A Centennial Birthday Present for John Wayne Fans!.......2007-06-19

As part of the celebration of John Wayne's 100th birthday, "The John Wayne Film Collection" offers an unusual but fascinating collection of titles without a cowboy hat in sight...and while not his best, all are worth watching!

"Allegheny Uprising" (1939): While under contract to Republic, much of Wayne's value was as a loan-out to other studios; when United Artists' March release of John Ford's "Stagecoach" was a hit, RKO snapped him up, re-teamed him with Claire Trevor, and prayed for 'Colonial' lightning, as the film was released a week after Ford's "Drums Along the Mohawk", in November. While only a modest hit, Wayne received good reviews, and Republic prepared it's own big-budget 'debut' for the new superstar, "Dark Command". This is an important title in Wayne's emerging career...(4 stars out of 5)

"Reunion in France" (1942): With most of Hollywood's leading men in uniform, Wayne's availability and rising popularity made him a very hot commodity, and MGM was quick to 'borrow' him for Joan Crawford's first 'war-themed' drama. While in a supporting role, he received billing above Crawford's actual leading man, Philip Dorn, and Wayne's image was LARGER than either Crawford or Dorn in much of the film's advertising! A routine film, but Wayne's presence guaranteed box office... (2 1/2 stars out of 5)

"Without Reservations" (1946): Released just months after the war's end, this RKO-Claudette Colbert vehicle, while not top-notch, was directed by the legendary Mervyn LeRoy, and provided the Duke a chance to do his first service comedy...and he was excellent! Teamed with veteran comic actor Don DeFore, he'd offer intellectual author Colbert a taste of the 'real world'; their growing romance, if convoluted, was charming...and don't miss Cary Grant's brief 'cameo'! (3 1/2 stars out of 5)

"Tycoon" (1947): Most of Wayne's films of the late forties were westerns, and this inept 'action/drama' may be a reason why! As an engineer dynamiting a railroad tunnel through a mountain, he steamrolls through romance and friendships to become the 'heel' he perfected in "Pittsburgh", and neither critics nor fans liked either him, or the film. It would take Howard Hawks to make Duke's 'dark side' believable, and sympathetic, in "Red River". (1 1/2 stars out of 5)

"Big Jim McLain" (1952): Wayne's 'love letter' to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and proof that "Homeland Security" isn't the first time the government has trampled on civil liberties in the name of patriotism. Duke attempted to justify the 'witch hunt' with this flag-waving piece of propaganda; Commies were all secret agents of the Kremlin, and Duke, at his brawling, romancing 'best', was the Committee investigator out to stop them, in Hawaii. It's sad, it's silly, but it does reflect the paranoia of the times...and offers a warning for today. (2 stars out of 5)

"Trouble Along the Way" (1953): Released 8 months after "McLain", this delightful comedy/drama, offering one of Wayne's most rounded performances, was largely ignored by critics. As a disgraced college coach who uses illegal methods to attempt to save a small Catholic school, and retain custody of his daughter, Wayne is completely natural and believable, with a first-rate cast and legendary director Michael Curtiz, in a small gem...(4 stars out of 5)

If you want a more 'complete' view of the Duke, 'warts and all', away from his westerns and war movies, you'll never find a better collection!

The John Wayne Film Collection.......2007-06-13

This collection of John Wayne movies comes out right in time for the 100 year anniversary of his birth. He stars with Claire Trevor in Allegheny Uprising, his costar in Stagecoach. This was made in 1939 as he was beginning his rise to super-stardom. Reunion in France was made in 1942 and costarred Joan Crawford. Without Reservations was made in 1946 with Claudette Colbert. Tycoon came out in 1947 with Laraine Day as his costar. Big Jim McLain released in 1952 saw Wayne fighting a Communist espionage ring in Hawaii with James Arness as his partner, who Wayne would later recommend for the part of Matt Dillon on TV's Gunsmoke. Trouble Along the Way teamed Wayne with Donna Reed and had Wayne as a win at any cost football coach who reforms in the end to keep from losing his daughter. Three decades of movies that demonstrate the range of an actor that still ranks as one of the top three actors of all time. And he did not play the cowboy in a single one. A must have collection for anyone who has ever seen the great man's movies.

the Duke pays his dues.......2007-06-11

This six disk collection gathers together some of John Wayne's movies that have not been available on DVD or VHS before, and for that reason alone deserves space in the collection of Wayne fans. John Wayne made over 100 movies, yet the same twenty or so keep getting release while the bulk of his work is ignored, so it is nice to see some of his "forgotten" movies seeing the light of day.

These movies are from an interesting period in John Wayne's career. They were made as he was transitioning from a second-rate actor into a star. The first - "Allegheny Uprising" - dates from the same year as his breakout hit "Stagecoach" which elevated him from a low-rate cowboy serial actor into a hot studio property. It is interesting to note that in both movies, Claire Trevor actually had higher billing than John Wayne - something that seems odd to those of us who grew up watching movies in the years when he was a superstar. "Allegheny Uprising" is probably the best movie in this collection.

The second movie in the collection "Reunion in France", from 1942, is from the War era, when John Wayne was one of the few movie stars who did not join the armed services, as a result he found himself in demand both as a supporting actor and leading man and, as he said in interview after the war years - he started making money for the first time, and had a family to support. "Reunion" is interesting in that Wayne is, once again, not the star of the movie, and seems to be hired mainly for his rugged good looks rather than his acting ability. He doesn't even get the girl.

The third movie in this set is a romantic comedy "Without Reservations", from 1946, and is one of the last few movies Wayne made in which he did not receive top billing. It is one of a handful of comdedies John Wayne made over the years, and people who were surprised at his comedic performances in "True Grit" and "Rooster Cogburn" probably weren't paying attention. The Duke had a gift for dry comedy, which is demonstrated in this film.

The fourth movie in the set is "The Tycoon" and is the first in which he has top billing. It is an interesting railroad story burdened with an added-on romance that makes the movie drag. Movies like this were probably one of the reasons John Wayne began to want full control over his career. That would come a few years later after he starred in John Ford's cavalry trilogy, which turned him into a star who could write his own destiny.

The fifth movie in this collection is "Big Jim McLain" fromn 1952, and is an early product of John Wayne's Batjac Productions. It is one of two pure propaganda films that he made in order to put his personal political opinions before the public. This was made during the Macarthy era, when the House Unamerican Committee, under the leadership of Joseph Macarthy, was trampling citizen's rights and accusing anybody who disagreed with them of being a communist. Many Holliwood actors, directors and workers ended up being blacklisted because they refused to testify before the committee. John Wayne supported witch-hunt looking for commies under every rock, and this film was his way of trying to turn people who were trampling human rights and creating hysteria for their own political ends into heroes. "Big Jim" is actually much more watchable than his second propaganda film - The Green Berets - in which he tried to portray the Vietnam war as a "Good War" like World War II and utterly failed. "Big Jim" is worth watching as a warning against those who tell us "If you are not with us, you are with our enemies" and then try to subvert our constitutional rights.

The final movie of the set is "Trouble Along the Way" - the second comedy in the collection. This 1953 gem was made after Wayne finally became a first rate star and could write his own ticket. The great Cavalry Trilogy is now behind him, and his best work (as well as some of his worst work) are yet ahead of him. Wayne plays a single father and defrocked football coach who is called upon to rescue a failing Catholic college by turning a pathetic football team into winners, while trying to keep custody of his tomboy daughter and romancing the girl's social worker (Donna Reed). Sherry Jackson, playing Wayne's daughter, steals the show and turns what might have been a second rate movie into a little gem.

This collection is worth adding to your library because the films fill a void in available Wayne movies. But the extras - a featurette and cartoon or comedy short of the same vintage as each film, are icing on the cake. They bring back the days when you went to the movies for fifty cents and got a B-movie, a featurette, a cartoon and a main feature for your money. None of the movies are great, but they are all worth watching.

The John Wayne Film Collection .......2007-05-31

Allegheny Uprising
Here we have the duke as a young American who is captured by Native Americans then freed only to be subject to the tyranny of the British. He plays a riveting role as a rebel bent on setting the wrong right with a strong cast of supports who pull you into this awesome story.

The video
Here we have black and white Full frame its one of the better transfers simply because it was already restored once and colorized. It runs smoothly without grain or degradation of the picture.

The Audio
Here is a disappointment its only 1.0 mono where a 5.1 surround sound update would have really made this and epic

The Extras
The Bill of rights
A nice piece on the revolution it wasn't cleaned though and is a damaged print. It is in color and moves a long quite nicely. Shot in august of 1939 it runs 21 minutes and I didn't notice the time as it went.

The Land of the Midnight Fun
A story of Alaska a cartoon of course which I surprising me personally I had never seen. It starts in New York on a cruise ship and ends in New York on a cruise ship.

Summary
Of John Wayne's films this is a must have. It is and epic on par with gone with the wind. It moves at a pace that is solid its story is well written it is superbly acted and one I have watched many times before owning this DVD. The only thing I wonder why is missing on this DVD is the colorized print. Not a necessity but would have been a nice extra just to see the difference between the two.

Trouble Along The Way

The Movie
A story about saint andrews church. From the very begining its clear the plot is that st andrews church needs money and teh duke is the man they think can provide. He plays Steve a former football coach who was thrown out for being dishonest. He also has a daughter who he is raising.Along comes Donna Reed as a social worker and the plot thickens.

The Video
it doesn't have the DisneyTreatment but is watchable on my 42 inch plasma. It has mments of grain and goes out of focus in some frames but its brief and barely a distraction.it is presented in. It is in Black & White and is full frame.

The Audio
It is mono 1,0 nothing that is going to rattle the walls but it works for this movie.

The Extras
So You Think You Can't Think Sleep.
A charming story of a man who can't sleep its runs about 15 minutes and is very looney tunes. I enjoyed it not sure i watch it again but was entertaining once.

Muscle Tusle
A Merrie melodies cartoon with daffy duck
Its the one wher a muscle bound duck keeps stealing daffy's gall and he tries to beef up to compete. Most viewers have seen this one many times

Theatrilce Trailer
Like most older trainlers it doesn't really tell you what the movie is about. It is not restored it looks very bad with the white blips but it is a piece of the duke

My Opinion
It turns out to be one of the more enjoyable non cowboy pictures of the duke. I bought this in the six disc set. For those who have seen it is worth a new viewing for those who havn't its a worth while effort.

Reunion in France
The Movie
Basically it's the occupation of France with John Wayne in it. It on par with his B pictures it's not very well paced nor is it very interesting to watch. I personally think this may have been and attempt to squash the dukes guilt at not being able to serve in WWII. He is the only bright spot on this horrible movie.

The Video
In need of a restoration, it has some grain issues and focus problems. It is in black and white full frame and shows its age.

The Audio
1.0 mono no extra treatment here

The Extras
We Do It Because
A look at the customs of manners and there origins they came from. This feature is actually better than the movie.

War Dogs
Here a cartoon about dogs in boot camp and there training just a propaganda film for our side I had not seen this one before but did enjoy it.

Without Reservations
The Movie
This movie has obviously been influenced by Singing in the Rain, which isn't a bad thing. It takes the formula without of course the musical and runs with it 2 guys one gal the main guy falls for the girl she falls for him and yes it even rains on them go figure......lol. It's a story of a writer Christopher Madden who rights a book the book is bought to be made a movie. She boards a train and bam there the duke. From there the fun begins. This movie shows the lighter side of the duke which is always fun to watch.

The Video:
Made in 1944 it is black and white full frame. It's nothing spectacular. It could use a cleaning, but it watch able.

The Audio
Presented in 1.0 mono so it's and old movie that's not been updated.

The Extras
I Love My Husband But
A very Looney tunes episode like story about the different types of husbands and the wife who deal with them. I have no real idea why this is here. It was made in 1947 and Without Reservations was made in 1946 so I am not sure why it is here. It is silly and something to watch once.

Holiday for Shoestrings
This is the shoemaker and the elves story from Merrie Melodies that ran before this movie aired it is a charming cartoon. One that I am sure many of us have seen many many times a very nice addition to the collection.

Summary:
All in all a good picture nothing to go crazy over but as for a duke picture it's a nice ride for a couple of hours. The DVD is well done with nice menus and a couple of extras that make it a night at the movies.

Tycoon
The Movie
Here we have the Duke as a railroad man blasting tunnels thru a mountain. He falls for a weird rich mans daughter. Then all the drama begins. It takes a long time to get to it too. It is slow paced not edited well and not one of the dukes best films. That's not to say its bad it just doesn't move along and doesn't pull you into the story

The Video
The video is bright lots of color in full frame. It has some damage here and there but all in all a watch able print.

The Audio
Mono 1.0 no update which is a shame with all the dynamite it been nice to have a 5.1 mix too rattle the windows.

The Extras
Hollywood Wonderland
Sixteen minutes of a musical about Hollywood made in 1947. I am not sure what this has to do with the movie but its here it's a Disney like parade of music and dance with some cameos interesting once but like most extras never watched twice.

Red Hot Rangers
A Tex Avery cartoon with two bears trying to put out a forrest fire. Most of us have seen this one before but due to the smoking in the first scene it is not shown on regular tv anymore.

Summary
As for my collection of duke movies it is a most. For the casual fan it's a rent if u can find it. For six bucks though it is priced right.

Big Jim McClain
The Movie
Here we have John Wayne in a propaganda film about why you should hate communists. He plays and agent of homeland security bent on breaking the communist groups of America. It comes off as a hate film to be honest and as a fan of the Duke I don't like this side of him at all. It is easy to see why they took so long to release this film to DVD. Its one not a very good movie and two full of stereo types that in its day I guess was necessary.

The Video
It's presented in Full Frame Black and white. It has a lot of blips and a little flicker in the picture they did not put anything into correcting the films need for restorations. It is a very poor transfer.

The Audio
1.0 mono which is just as well cause it's not that great to listen to anyhow.

The Extras
So You Want To Enjoy Life
This is a Story of a guy who wants to die because he only has 30 days to live. Well it's on the DVD why I have no clue its really not that funny. It's like one long joke that runs about 15 minutes...lol it's actually better than the movie though.

The Super Snooper
A classic Daffy Duck as a private eye we have all seen a million times good one to have.

Theatrical Trailer
Just what the movie is about shows they weren't as good as today. For the life of me I don't understand why they include um if they aren't going to clean them up.

Showcases John Wayne in a wide variety of roles.......2007-05-26

This is a good collection of perhaps lesser known films starring John Wayne that show a wide range of roles for the actor. This is not one of Warner Bros. "Signature Collections", so don't expect extras other than a vintage short and cartoon for each movie.

"Allegheny Uprising"(1939) was made before Wayne's break-through role in "Stagecoach", but released afterwards, thus Claire Trevor is billed ahead of Wayne. Wayne actually didn't look back very fondly on this film or his role in it, but it has its good points. It's basically a western set east of the Mississippi concerning Pennsylvania settlers in pre-Revolutionary times who are angry that they are being attacked by Indians supplied by white traders. The settlers prevail upon the British to outlaw trading with the Indians, and the British oblige. The businessmen and the settlers go back and forth over this issue both inside and outside the law. The businessmen's sentiment - "What's the government for if not to protect business? Certainly not to interfere with it!" - is one that is still timely.

"Reunion in France" (1942) again has Wayne being second billed to the other lead, Joan Crawford. This is a film that was obviously targeting a wartime audience with the objective of building patriotism and morale, so you have to look at the miscasting in the context of the times. Joan Crawford plays a French woman who seems to be plumbing the depths of shallowness in her high-rolling lifestyle until the Germans invade. She returns to Paris to find her fancy home confiscated, her boyfriend helping the Germans, and her inner patriotism aroused. She runs across an RAF pilot (Wayne) who has been shot down, and she must play up to her boyfriend and his German friends in order to help Wayne evade capture. Forget the fact that the actors playing Frenchmen don't sound French, that Wayne doesn't sound British, and that the Germans are portrayed as not being smart enough to find Berlin on a map, and just have fun with it.

"Without Reservations" (1946) is a romantic comedy that is much like "It Happened One Night" with a twist - with Claudette Colbert even costarring. In this version, however, Colbert is playing an analog of Gable's old role - she's an author - and Wayne is first the object of her professional attention and then her romantic attention. This doesn't sound like it could work on paper, but in the end Colbert and Wayne have amazing chemistry.

"Tycoon" (1947) was actually RKO's biggest failure of the year. This movie has Wayne playing an engineer who is building a railroad bridge across a gorge. He and his financier partner in this effort dislike each other intensely with spats that range from the inadequate financing of the project to the shotgun wedding of Wayne's character to the tycoon's daughter. This is where The Duke completely breaks from the hero he normally plays and acts like a spoiled child who believes that he who dies with the most toys wins. He and the tycoon's spat escalate to the point that sabotage is occuring and lives are being lost. There's some beautiful cinematography in this one, and although the plot just didn't work for me, Wayne's acting did. Most people don't like this film at least in part because Wayne convincingly plays someone completely unlikeable - and that's the point. He's given a role completely out of step with what he usually plays and does a good job.

"Big Jim McLain" (1952) has Wayne back playing the heroic patriotic persona that most of his fans will recognize. However, this is clearly a propaganda film that will have most people rolling their eyes in light of what has been revealed to be the truth about this episode in history. Thus, this is another Wayne film you must look at in the context of the times in which it was made. John Wayne plays the title role of Jim McLain, a federal agent working for the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee in search of a pesky ring of Communists believed to be operating in Hawaii. I resist the urge to call this movie good campy fun mainly because of all of the lives and careers that were ruined in the actual investigations. However, history aside, it is an entertaining film perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Notice that the people hunting the Communists are all good-looking, athletic, and well-liked while the Communists, on the other hand, look like they spent to much time indoors as children and are unlikeable introverted types. And Alan Napier, the beloved Alfred of the 60's Batman TV series, as the murderous Sturak? Holy (retrospective) strange casting decision Batman!

"Trouble Along the Way" (1953) shows the sentimental side of Wayne as he plays a former professional football coach recruited to put together a winning football team for a Catholic college that is short on funds. The head of the college, played by Charles Coburn, thinks that a winning football team is the thing to open the checkbooks of the alumni, and believes that Steve Williams (Wayne) is the man for the job. As a Green Bay Packer fan, and hence a fan of Vince Lombardi, I was surprised to find that the quote "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" actually was first said by Wayne's character in this movie. The other plot in this film is that of Wayne trying to keep custody of his little daughter. Williams has to be employed to keep his ex-wife from winning her case, and Wayne's scenes with Sherry Jackson in the role of Williams' daughter are quite touching. To me, this film was the best of the six. It had many opportunities to turn into an melodramatic potboiler, and yet it didn't.

This collection, purely on the merit of being six random films, would rate about four stars. On the merit of displaying the range of John Wayne's acting abilities in a wide variety of roles I would give it 4.5 stars. I round up to give it my five star rating.

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Uprising
Starring: Damn Yankees
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: DVD
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Influence
Unchain the Night
One with Everything
Stryper: Greatest Hits - Live in Puerto Rico
The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life With Styx

ASIN: B000LW7Z4G
Release Date: 2007-03-13

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Allegheny Uprising
Starring: Claire Trevor , John Wayne , George Sanders , Brian Donlevy , and Wilfrid Lawson
Director: William A. Seiter
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
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Tycoon
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Reunion in France

ASIN: B000O599LW
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Amazon.com

Allegheny Uprising is an engaging blend of historical fiction, boisterous backwoods comedy, and pretty much nonstop rowdydow that qualifies as one of John Wayne's more offbeat vehicles. Made half a year after his stellar breakout in Stagecoach, the picture re-teams Wayne with Claire Trevor as a frontier tomboy who supplies feisty love interest. A decade and a half before the Revolutionary War, a community in south-central Pennsylvania (apparently Chambersburg) stages a principled rebellion against King George III's forces that's more social protest than full-fledged revolt. Wayne plays a thoughtful fellow named Jim Smith who, with his "men of the Conococheague," demonstrates to the Crown that it's bad faith to lend military protection to unscrupulous traders (cue Brian Donlevy) clandestinely peddling firearms and English-made weaponry to the Indians.

Amazon.com

Originally broadcast in November 2001, this exceptional made-for-television film recalls Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan while forging its own distinct identity. It was the first American film to dramatize the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, during which an underground collective of Polish Jews dared to defy the Nazis. Hank Azaria leads an all-star cast as resistance leader Mordecai Anielewicz, and the film follows his close-knit collaborators (including David Schwimmer and Leelee Sobieski) and their battle against the Nazi general (Jon Voight) assigned to clear all Jews from Warsaw. The uprising was eventually crushed (some heartbreaking outcomes are listed in the closing credits), but director Jon Avnet expertly maintains a sense of courage and hope amidst the palpable horror of the Warsaw Ghetto. Combining physical and historical accuracy with intimate character details, Uprising is suspenseful without being sensational, thus honoring one of the greatest symbolic victories in all of Jewish history. --Jeff Shannon

Description

After Germany invades Poland in 1939, the Nazis decree that 350,000 Warsaw Jews be forcibly moved into a cordoned area known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Idealistic teacher Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria) decides the Jews must rise up against the Nazis and creates the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO). He tries to secure the support of Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland), the morally conflicted head of the Warsaw Ghetto's Jewish Council, but Adam declines because he knows that any act of resistance will provoke the Germans to retaliate by killing innocent Jews. Determined to mobilize a resistance alone if he has to, Mordechai recruits his friends and covert couriers whose ability to pass as Aryan helps them smuggle in arms and explosives from the Aryan side of the city, building up an arsenal to fight the Nazis.

Capturing the horror that unfolds is Fritz Hippler (Cary Elwes), a filmmaker assigned by Hitler's chief propagandist to promote anti-Semitism with a film about Jewish life in the ghetto.

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Description

The hottest day of the year explodes onscreen in this vibrant look at a day in the life of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Featuring a stellar ensemble cast that includes Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nunn, Rosie Perez, and John Turturro, Spike Lee's powerful portrait of urban racial tensions sparked controversy while earning popular and critical praise. Criterion is proud to present Do the Right Thing in a new Director Approved special edition.

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Half Past Dead 2
Starring: Bill Goldberg , Kurupt , Robert Madrid , Angell Conwell , and Joe Perez (II)
Director: Art Camacho
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
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ASIN: B000NOIVSQ
Release Date: 2007-05-15

Product Description

Former WWE & WCW World Champion Bill Goldberg and hip-hop group Tha Dog Pound's Ricardo "Kurupt" Brown push life to the limit in this explosive sequel to the 2002 hit movie Half Past Dead.

Burk (Goldberg) and Twitch (Kurupt), are two inmates serving time at Craton Prison, a notoriously tough and violent penitentiary ruled by rival gangs. When a riot breaks out and the prison goes into lockdown, the two must form an unlikely alliance to stay alive. Together, they navigate the hostile gang territory under the watchful eye of unsympathetic prison guards, in order to learn the identity of the inmate responsible for the riot. Eventually Burk discovers that gang leader, Cortez, is behind the riot and find that he's taken two hostages: Cherise, Twitch's fiancee and Ellie, Burk's daughter. Twitch and Burk find they must work together in order to save their loved ones and bring Cortez down.

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The Dreamers (R-Rated Edition)
Starring: Michael Pitt (II) , Eva Green , Louis Garrel , Anna Chancellor , and Robin Renucci
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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