Lists and Suggestions

Commemorate the twenty fifth Anniversary of Steven Spielberg's cinematic masterpiece of one of the most historically significant films of all time. Winner of seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director, the incredible true story follows the enigmatic Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. It is the triumph of one man who made a difference and the drama of those who survived one of the darkest chapters in human history because of what he did.

Marlon Brando gives the performance of his career as the tough prizefighter-turned-longshoreman Terry Malloy in this raggedly emotional tale of individual failure and institutional corruption. This film charts Terry's deepening moral crisis as he must choose whether to remain loyal to the mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly and Johnny's right-hand man, Terry's brother, Charley, as the authorities close in on them.

This epic masterpiece is about a group of 16th century samurai who are hired to defend a small Japanese village that finds itself annually raided by an army of bandits who steal the meager crops harvested by the peasants. Tired of relinquishing their food supply but woefully inept in combat skills, the villagers decide to hire a band of samurai to protect them. In addition to the primary conflict between the villagers and the bandits, much of the tale revolves around young Katsushiro's coming-of-age, both sexually and emotionally. Kikuchiyo's search for acceptance forms the other major storyline. Indeed, everyone in Seven Samurai is searching: for adventure, for experience, for freedom from their oppressors.

A jury of white men is ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. However, one juror forces the others to consider whether the evidence--or the jurors' own prejudices--influences their deliberations. The story plays out in real time over ninety minutes in one sweltering room.

Recounts the problems faced by three returning veterans of WWII as they attempt to pick up the threads of their lives. Captain Derry is returning to a loveless marriage, Sergeant Stephenson is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him, and sailor Parrish is tormented by the loss of his hands.

One night, Margo Channing entertains a surprise dressing-room visitor: her most adoring fan, the shy, wide-eyed Eve Harrington. But as Eve becomes a fixture in Margo's life, the Broadway legend soon realizes that her supposed admirer intends to use her and everyone in her circle, including George Sanders's acid-tongued critic, as stepping-stones to stardom. The multiple-Oscar-winning film is the most deliciously entertaining film ever made about the ruthlessness of show business.

Walter Neff is a smooth talking insurance salesman who meets the very attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and have an affair. They scheme together to murder Phyllis' husband for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go as planned. Barton Keyes is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out.

Pursued by creditors, Joe swerves into a driveway of a seemingly abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. He finds Norma, an ex-screen queen dreaming of a dramatic comeback and her husband/servant living there. She takes a fancy to Joe and, learning that he is a scriptwriter, persuades him to help her with her comeback screenplay.

In this deeply personal tale of estrangement and reconciliation between two rebellious brothers, set in a dreamlike and timeless Tulsa, Francis Ford Coppola gives mythic dimensions to intimate, painful emotions. The director's "art film for teenagers" was his second adaptation of young-adult novelist S.E. Hinton's work in a single year, after the more classically styled The Outsiders. Graced with a remarkable cast headed by Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, and Diane Lane; haunting black-and-white visuals that hark back to German expressionism and forward to Coppola's own Tetra; and a powerful percussive score by Stewart Copeland that underlines the movie's romantic fatalism, Rumble Fish pulsates with genuine love and dread

In a sleepy Northern California town in the 1940s, Ed Crane, a humble barber, suspeacts that his wife Doris is having an affair with her boss. When a stranger comes into town hinting that there is a fortune to be made in investing in the new invention of dry cleaning, Ed hatches a blackmail scheme he hopes will make him rich and get him some revenge at the same time.

Ian Curtis has aspirations beyond the trappings of small town life in 1970s England. Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, he joins a band, and his musical ambition begins to thrive. Soon though, the everyday fears and emotions, fueled by his music, slowly begin to eat away at him. Married young, with a daughter, he is distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band, Joy Division. The strain manifests itself in his health. With epilepsy adding to his guilt and desperation, depression takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on his shoulder, Ian's tortured soul consumes him and leads him to commit suicide at the age of 23.

With his eighth and most personal film, Alfonso Cuaron recreated the early 1970s Mexico City of his childhood, narrating a tumultuous period in the life of a middle-class family through the experiences of Cleo, the indigenous domestic worker who keeps the household running. Charged with the care of four small children abandoned by their father, Cleo tends to the family even as her own life is shaken by personal and political upheavals.

Taking place largely over the course of one tense night, Carol Reed's psychological noir, set in an unnamed Belfast, stars James Mason (Lolita) as a revolutionary ex-con leading a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves (Kathleen Ryan) searches for him among the shadows.

Alan's desire for success in music and love is hampered by one thing - himself. He decides to leave his busted-up band and heads for New York City, and a new musical adventure. He is only half-heartedly romancing radio DJ Sara and promoting his fledgling band, Mutual Appreciation. Alan tries to stay focused and manages to fend off some of his distractions. A love story that portrays the art of miscommunication.