Heralded as one of the all-time great theatrical releases, "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's deliberations in a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis, played by Henry Fonda) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote moreso for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the deliberations unfold, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities (which range from wise, bright and empathetic to arrogant, prejudiced and merciless), preconceptions, backgrounds and interactions. That provides the backdrop to Mr. Davis' attempts in convincing the other jurors that a "not guilty" verdict might be appropriate.
McMurphy, a man with several assault convictions to his name, finds himself in jail once again. This time, the charge is statutory rape when it turns out that his girlfriend had lied about being eighteen, and was, in fact, fifteen (or, as McMurphy puts it, "fifteen going on thirty-five"). Rather than spend his time in jail, he convinces the guards that he's crazy enough to need psychiatric care and is sent to a hospital. He fits in frighteningly well, and his different point of view actually begins to cause some of the patients to progress. Nurse Ratched becomes his personal cross to bear as his resistance to the hospital routine gets on her nerves.
The story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and the others didn't end with the destruction of the Death Star - it continues in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Imperial forces have since driven the Rebels to hide on the ice world Hoth. But even on such an icy, backwater world, they cannot escape the wicked Darth Vader's eye for long, and he devastates the Rebel base in an assault with the horrible AT-AT walkers. Luke flees to Dagobah to begin Jedi Knight training with Yoda, while Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3PO run the blockade of Imperial Star Destroyers in the Millenium Falcon. The Imperials pursue them across the galaxy and eventually catch up with them at Bespin. Now Darth Vader plans to use them as bait to lure Luke Skywalker to him, and turns Han Solo over to Boba Fett as a prize to be delivered to crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Luke learns a terrible family secret after losing a swordfight with Vader. Will he - and the others - escape the Empire's clutches?
In a distant galaxy eons before the creation of the mythical planet known as Earth, vast civilizations have evolved, and ruling the galaxy is an interstellar Empire created from the ruins of an Old Republic that held sway for generations. It is a time of civil war, as solar systems have broken away from the Empire and are waging a war of rebellion. During a recent battle techical schematics for a gigantic space station, code named The Death Star, have been unearthed by Rebel spies, and a young woman who is a dissident member of the Imperial Senate, under the cover of a diplomatic mission to the planet Alderaan, is trying to smuggle these plans to the Rebellion. But her spacecraft is attacked by a vast warship of the Empire and seized. The dissident Senator is captured, but the plans for the Death Star are nowhere to be found. While soldiers of the Empire search the nearby planet Tatooine, a series of incidents sweeps up a young desert farmer with dreams of being a fighter pilot in the Rebellion, as he winds up with the Death Star plans and also the assistance of an elderly hermit who once served as a warrior of an ancient order whose chosen weapons were powerful energy swords known as light sabers. The pair recruit a cynical interstellar smuggler and his outsized alien copilot with an ancient freighter heavily modified for combat to help them reach Alderaan - but the planet is obliterated and now the foursome must rescue the young woman held prisoner by the Empire and lead an attack by the Rebellion against the Death Star before it can annihilate all hope of restoring freedom to the galaxy.
In 1950-something New York, an adventuresome free-lance photographer finds himself confined to a wheelchair in his tiny apartment while a broken leg mends. With only the occasional distraction of a visiting nurse and his frustrated love interest, a beautiful fashion consultant, his attention is naturally drawn to the courtyard outside his "rear window" and the occupants of the apartment buildings which surround it. Soon he is consumed by the private dramas of his neighbors lives which play themselves out before his eyes. There is "Miss Lonelyhearts," so desperate for her imaginary lover that she sits him a plate at the dinner table and feigns their ensuing chat. There is the frustrated composer banging on his piano, the sunbathing sculptress, the shapely dancer, the newlyweds who are concealed from their neighbors by a window shade, and a bungling middle-aged couple with a little yapping dog who sleep on the fire escape to avoid the sweltering heat of their apartment. ...And then there is the mysterious salesman whose nagging, invalid wife's sudden absence from the scene ominously coincides with middle-of-the-night forays into the dark, sleeping city with his sample case. Where did she go? What's in the trunk that the salesman ships away? What's he been doing with the knives and the saw that he cleans at the kitchen sink?
This is the epic story of courage, honor and the destructive power of war. Set in a Burma in 1943, the drama follows British prisoners of war who are ordered by Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), a remorseless Japanese commander, to build a railway bridge over the River Kwai. Under the leadership of the cool-headed Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), the prisoners are planning to sabotage the bridge. But all of a sudden Nicholson changes his mind and commands his men to build the best bridge possible as a symbol of British morale. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson's fortitude but then they are perplexed to discover that he slowly goes mad and becomes obsessed with building an ideal bridge. When American Major Shears (William Holden) escapes from the camp and informs the British commander of the operation, he is assigned to lead a team of commandos to the jungle so as to blow up the strategic structure.
Based on a true story, "The Great Escape" deals with the largest Allied escape attempt from a German POW camp during the Second World War. The first part of the film focuses on the escape efforts within the camp and the process of secretly digging an escape tunnel. The second half of the film deals with the massive effort by the German Gestapo to track down the over 70 escaped prisoners who are at this point throughout the Third Reich attempting to make their way to England and various neutral countries.
Glorious classic film musical. 1927: Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are the darlings of the silent silver screen. Offscreen, Don, aided by his happy-go-lucky friend and piano accompanist, Cosmo Brown, has to dodge Lina's romantic overtures, especially when he falls for chorus girl Kathy Selden. With the advent of sound in motion pictures, it is decided to turn Don and Lina's new film into a "talkie" and a musical at that. The only problem is Lina's voice, which mere words cannot describe. Thus, Kathy is brought on to dub her speaking and singing voice in secret, and Don's on top of the world. But then Lina finds out...
When the world is ruled by apes, one particular group discovers a mysterious rectangular monolith near their home, which imparts upon them the knowledge of tool use, and enables them to evolve into men. A similar monolith is discovered on the moon, and is determined to have come from an area near Jupiter. Astronaut David Bowman, along with four companions, sets off for Jupiter on a spaceship controlled by HAL 9000, a revolutionary computer system that is every bit mankind's equal, and perhaps his superior. When HAL endangers the crew's lives for the sake of the mission, Bowman will have to first overcome the computer, then travel to the birthplace of the monolith.
The Empire is more than halfway through construction of a new Death Star - almost twice as big, but more than twice as powerful. When completed, it will spell certain doom for Luke Skywalker and the Rebels. Han Solo is a prisoner of crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and Princess Leia soon finds herself in the gangster's hands. Luke Skywalker, aided by C-3PO and R2-D2, makes his way into Jabba's palace, hoping to secure his friends' freedom. But the Hutt has no intention of doing so and tries to kill them all. After escaping from Jabba and the sands of Tatooine, they regroup with the Rebel fleet, which is massing for an attack against the new satellite battle station at Endor. Lando Calrissian is pressed into action to lead the Rebel fighter attack, while Han is put in charge of a group of soldiers to take out the shield generator protecting the Death Star. Luke, however, surrenders to Vader's soldiers on Endor, and is taken in front of Vader's boss - the Galactic Emperor - on the Death Star for final corruption to the Dark Side of the Force. The fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers ambushes the Rebels, cutting them off. Worse, the new Death Star begins turning its giant laser on the Rebel carriers. It appears that nothing will stop the Empire's triumph - unless things start to change quickly...
Marty McFly is an aspiring musician, but he is not sure of what the future holds for him; first his band was rejected as the performing band for the school dance, and historically, no McFly has succeeded in anything. The only bright spots in his existence are his girlfriend and Emmett Brown, the town crackpot scientist, who is Marty's good friend. Marty was helping brown with his latest invention a time machine, which is fitted into a Delorean. The time machine needs a tremendous amount of power to work, which he gets from plutonium. Now Brown got the plutonium from some Libyans who want him to build a bomb; they find Brown and shoot him, Marty gets into the Delorean and drives off and when he reaches the speed of 88 mph that activates the time machine, he finds himself in 1955, cause that was the date that Brown entered, which was when he first conceived the time machine. Now having already used up all the power of the plutonium, Marty must find a way to get it working, so he can go back to his own time. Marty looks for Brown but before he does, he runs into his father as a teenager, and accidentally interferes with his father's first meeting of Lorraine, his future mother. Marty then goes to see Brown and convinces him that he is from the future and to help him. But when he learns of the amount of power that is needed to power the machine, he tells Marty that it's hopeless cause the only other thing that can generate that much power is a bolt of lightning and it's impossible to determine when and where they will strike, but Marty has with him an old newspaper cliping that states that the town clock tower will be struck by lightning, so they plan to draw the energy from the lightning so they can power the machine. But before they do, Marty must act as cupid for his parents cause it seems that because they never met they won't fall in love and get married and Marty will not exist.
Esteemed criminal lawyer Sir Wilfrid Robarts has just returned to practice after suffering a heart attack and is supposed to be on a diet of bland civil suits. But the case of Leonard Vole, a charmer accused of murdering a rich middle-aged widow, proves irresistible — particlularly when Sir Wilfrid meets the accused's wife, the remarkable Christine Vole. Christine will appear as a witness: not the defense, but for the prosecution.
Set in East Africa in 1914, the adventure drama tells the story of Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), a gin-swilling ship captain who ferries supplies to a small village where British missionary Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his maiden-lady sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) live. When German troops invade the village and kill the missionary, Rose is forced to resort to Charlie's help to return to civilization. Despite their mutual dislike, the prim missionary and the daredevil captain set off on the treacherous waters to encounter different obstacles on their way.
Regina Lambert returns to Paris from a ski holiday in Switzerland to find that her husband has been murdered. She is later told by CIA agent Hamilton Bartholemew that Charles Lambert was one of five men who stole $250,000 in gold from the U.S. government during World War II, and the government wants it back. The money was not found among his possessions, and Regina can shed no light on its whereabouts. Later that day she is visited by Peter Joshua, whom she had met briefly while on holiday. When her husband's former partners in crime, who were double-crossed by Charles, start calling her looking for the money, Peter offers to help find it. Thus begins an elaborate charade in which nothing is what it seems to be.
Charley is a hustler. He's been on his own long enough to know how to work people and situations. He finds that the father who threw him out as a teen ager has died. He's left him a now antique convertible and something more important, a previously unknown brother, Raymond. Raymond is Autistic, but is able to calculate complicated mathematical problems in his head with great speed and accuracy. Their father has left his fortune to Raymond who doesn't even understand what money is for. Charley is enraged by what has happened and by his father keeping Raymond's existence from him for his entire life. He kidnaps Raymond from his residential home but then finds that Raymond will only fly Qantas. The two begin a long road trip that will lead them to an understanding of each other.
One hot summer day in 1945, a train pulls into the tiny Californian whistle-stop of Black Rock for the first time in four years. The sole passenger, John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy), a war veteran with a crippled arm, gets off the train. He comes to the town to give a posthumous military award to a local Japanese farmer named Komoko whose gallant son died a hero's death in the very battle in which Macreedy lost his arm. The stranger is met with open hostility by the locals who have something to hide. When Macreedy discovers a sinister secret from the past, he gets engaged in a deadly game with ruthless adversaries.
A hilarious spoof documentary chronicles the ups and downs of the British heavy metal band Spinal Tap that tried to make it big in the United States 17 years ago. Once famous and now almost forgotten, the group, comprised of lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McLean), co-lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), returns to the U.S.A. for a concert tour in support of their 12th album 'Smell the Glove'.
Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His room-mate, Neil, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each, in their own way, does this, and are changed for life.
This satiric Western comedy is regarded as one of the great American comedies of all time. The American Old West of 1874. The new railway is being constructed and it is to go through Rock Ridge, a small frontier town where everyone seems to be named Johnson. The sheriff of Rock Ridge gets killed and the new one, convict Bart (Cleavon Little) is appointed. The first black sheriff of this all-white town, he eventually changes his original plans and embarks on saving Rock Ridge.
Ted Striker just got dumped by his long-time girlfriend Elaine Dickinson, who works as a stewardess at Trans American Airlines. In his wish to get her back, he follows her aboard the plane, although he has had a deep aversion against anything winged since he lost several men in the war. During flight, he tries to contact her again and again, but as the crew and many passengers get seriously ill due to a bad fish meal, he has no chance to get to her. In fact, Ted Striker seems to be the only healthy person aboard that has piloting experience. Now, it is up to him to get the bird down in Chicago safely, before the poisoning starts causing casualties. But Ted Striker's aversion really is a serious psychosis, which breaks open and needs to be cured - right now.
