Hearts and Minds - Criterion Collection
by Peter Davis (II)
from Criterion
A courageous and startling film, Peter Davis' landmark documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronts the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Using a wealth of sources-from interviews to newsreels to documentary footage of the conflict at home and abroad-Davis constructs a powerfully affecting portrait of the disastrous effects of war. Explosive, persuasive, and shocking, Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming emotional experience and the controversial winner of the 1974 Academy Award® for Best Documentary.
Operation Dumbo Drop
by Simon Wincer
from Walt Disney Video
An exciting comedy adventure of enormous proportions, OPERATION DUMBO DROP was cheered by critics and audiences across America! A savvy veteran army captain (Danny Glover, LETHAL WEAPON I-IV, ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD) is teamed with a by-the-book West Point officer (Ray Liotta -- NARC, HEARTBREAKERS) to lead the "weightiest" military maneuver ever. Their job: To secretly transport a full-grown elephant across 200 miles of rugged terrain -- fording rivers, scaling mountains, and crossing canyons -- to reach a remote jungle villlage! You'll discover laughter around every hilarious corner as these hardy Green Berets prove that with a little luck ... and tons of hard work ... no mission is impossible!
Four Friends
by Arthur Penn
from MGM (Video & DVD)
Academy Award®-winning* screenwriter Steven Tesich (Breaking Away) and Oscar®-nominated** director Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde Alice's Restaurant) team up for this "charming powerful" (Leonard Maltin) coming-of-age story set against the protest prosperity and broken promises of the '60s.Coming to America with big dreams young Danilo stands before a future of endless possibilities until he falls in love with Georgia. A free-spirited flower child Georgia loves everyone including Danilo's two best friends! But their friendships are strained when she becomes pregnant by one and marries another. Hurt and despondent Danilo begins an angry search for someone to fill the void until their fateful paths cross once again for a last explosive encounter.*1979: Original Screenplay Breaking Away**1969: Alice's Restaurant; 1967: Bonnie and Clyde; 1962: The Miracle WorkerSystem Requirements:Running Time: 115 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616927460 Manufacturer No: 1008755
After winning an Oscar for his first screenplay (Breaking Away), Steven Tesich mixed fact and fiction in a telescopic view of the '60s. Like Tesich, Danilo (Craig Wasson), immigrates to America (Easy Chicago, Indiana to be exact) with his Yugoslavian parents. The center of his life is two other high school friends and the woman all of them are in love with: Georgia Miles (Jodi Thelen), a flower child even before she finds the movement. Georgia and Danilo are probably meant for one another but are too swept up in the '60s to settle down. The men fall in and out of Georgia's arms and through all the touchstone issues of the '60s: Vietnam, civil rights, hippies, sexual politics, and drugs. Director Arthur Penn shies away from the Pomp and Circumstance of later '60s-themed films like Forrest Gump; these characters witness the '60s more than participate. Even the soundtrack is different: it's void of hit songs, continually returning to a beautiful onscreen musical motif. What makes (The New York Times put the film on their 1981 Top 10 list) or breaks the appeal to the viewer is Tesich's tendency--successful or not--to reach for the "big scene," bursting with bravura emotions, most notably in the huge, tragic surprise that is the film's turning point. If you're caught up in Danilo's plight, the movie will make your list of favorites that no one else knows about. --Doug Thomas
Promise Of Love, The
from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
The Promise of Love is a dramatic commentary on the tragic effects of the Vietnam War.
Combat Shock
from TROMA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
In underground NYC director Buddy Giovinazzo's disturbing, horrifying Combat Shock, a vet trades in the jungles of the Nam for an entirely different concrete jungle- The mean streets of New York! Exposure to torture cages destroyed his will. Agent Orange left him with a deformed child. With debts owed to vicious loan sharks, no job and no money, Frankie (Ricky Giovinazzo) wanders streets and alleyways filled with junkies, hoods, teenage prostitutes and brutality that makes war seem like recess. Combat Shock has been hailed as one of the top thirteen most disturbing movies by horror writer Stanley Waiter and this exclusive digitally mastered uncut DVD release will show you why. Nothing you have seen will prepare you for the terrifying desperation of Combat Shock. Features include an interview and commentary track by director Buddy Giovinazzo and outlaw German director Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik, Der Todesking).
Eastern Condors
from 20th Century Fox
A hugely entertaining, Dirty Dozen-style combat film about a group of Asian American ex-con GIs, dropped into postpullout Vietnam to destroy a cache of weapons the Yanks forgetfully left behind. ("Why are foreigners so stupid?" wonders a puzzled Chinese officer.) Director-star Sammo Hung slimmed down to play the tough-as-nails platoon commander and turned in a world-class action-star performance, charismatic and tightly focused. As a director Hung displays great sweep and inventiveness in the staging of action; there are combinations of martial arts stunt work and camera angles here that are like nothing you've ever seen before. The fighters practically leap into your lap. The movie is basically crisp hard-boiled entertainment, but it also gets into the tensions between the various Asian nationalities involved in the mission--native Chinese, Chinese American, Vietnamese, Cambodian--and into everybody's mixed feelings about the U.S. --David Chute
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