The Thin Blue Line The Thin Blue Line
Using innovative, slow-motion re-enactments, Errol Morris cast new light on the murder of a Dallas policeman. As a result, the man wrongly convicted of the crime went free.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Fredric Paul Smoler
Fantasia Fantasia
When Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck gave way to Bach and Beethoven, the results were as far out as Pluto.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Franz Hoellering
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Steven Spielberg's imaginary childhood friend brought to life, voiced by an aging actress with a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Robert Hatch
On the Waterfront On the Waterfront
Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg used this gritty tale of corruption on the New York waterfront to help put a positive spin on ratting out their colleagues.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Bernard Nossiter
Citizen Kane Citizen Kane
Frequently listed as the greatest film ever made, Orson Welles's masterpiece is also a thinly veiled biopic of William Randolph Hearst.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Anthony Bower
Nashville Nashville
The quintessential Robert Altman film featured a cast of hundreds and about an equal number of subplots, but who's complaining?
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Robert Hatch
Dog Day Afternoon Dog Day Afternoon
Sidney Lumet finds the soul of New York City in a bank robbery that goes comically--and tragically--awry.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Robert Hatch
Wings of Desire Wings of Desire
Angels look for love in some very odd places and discover among other things, a lonely trapeze artist and the real-life Peter Falk (sans raincoat).
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Baumbach
How Green Was My Valley How Green Was My Valley
This tale of the dissipation of a Welsh coal-mining family at the turn of the twentieth century was intended to be another Gone with the Wind.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Anthony Bower
Hail the Conquering Hero Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail Preston Sturges, the king of screwball comedy, whose string of subversive films from 1939 to 1943 rank among Hollywood's funniest ever.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / James Agee