THE HURRICANE – Denzel Washington – d: Norman Jewison

The Hurricane (1999)
Direction: Norman Jewison
Screenplay: Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon; from Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter’s The 16th Round, and Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton’s Lazarus and the Hurricane
Cast: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah, Dan Hedaya, Debbi Morgan, Clancy Brown, Harris Yulin, David Paymer, Rod Steiger

Like Stanley Kramer, Norman Jewison has often been dedicated to commercial filmmaking with a socially conscious edge: labor relations in F.I.S.T.; corruption in the U.S. justice system in . . . And Justice for All; religious fanaticism in Agnes of God; anti-Semitism in Fiddler on the Roof; and racism in both A Soldier’s Story and the Academy Award-winning cop thriller In the Heat of the Night. Though never a [...]

by Andre Soares | December 9, 2004
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Tags: Biopic, Dan Hedaya, Deborah Kara Unger, Denzel Washington, Film Reviews, Liev Schreiber, Norman Jewison, Oscar 1999, Oscar Movies, Rod Steiger, Rubin Hurricane Carter, Socially Conscious Movies, The Hurricane, Vicellous Reon Shannon

MUSIC OF THE HEART – Meryl Streep – d: Wes Craven

Music of the Heart (1999)
Direction: Wes Craven
Screenplay: Pamela Gray
Cast: Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett, Aidan Quinn, Cloris Leachman, Gloria Estefan, Kieran Culkin, Charlie Hofheimer, Michael Angarano, Jay O. Sanders

Wes Craven, the director of the Scream franchise and of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, is hardly the kind of filmmaker from whom one would expect a syrupy motion picture about a determined violin teacher who wins the hearts and minds of her inner-city school students.
Yet, Craven is the man responsible for Music of the Heart, a film completely devoid of slashed faces, lethal stabbings, and deadly fingernails. Instead, this distaff version of Mr. Holland’s Opus — with touches of To Sir with Love — offers loads of sentiment, [...]

by Andre Soares | December 6, 2004
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Tags: Aidan Quinn, Angela Bassett, Charlie Hofheimer, Cloris Leachman, Film Reviews, Meryl Streep, Music of the Heart, Oscar 1999, Oscar Movies, Roberta Guaspari, Three-Star Movies, Three-Star Oscar Nominees, Wes Craven

THE INSIDER – Al Pacino, Russell Crowe

The Insider (1999)
Direction: Michael Mann
Screenplay: Eric Roth and Michael Mann, from Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article “The Man Who Knew Too Much”
Cast: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Colm Feore, Michael Gambon, Rip Torn

"It’s old news. … We’ll be ok," says Don Hewitt (Philip Baker Hall), the creator of the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes. "These things have a half-life of 15 minutes."
"No, that’s fame," replies 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer). "Fame has a 15-minute half-life. Infamy lasts a little longer."
The infamous "things" referred to by Hewitt and Wallace are the scandals that erupted in early 1996, when it was revealed that CBS News had refused to air an interview [...]

by Andre Soares | December 6, 2004
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Tags: Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer, Eric Roth, Film Reviews, Michael Mann, Oscar 1999, Oscar Movies, Russell Crowe, Socially Conscious Movies, The Insider