86% (2) The Hospital 103 min, PG-13, [Comedy, Drama, Mystery] [Arthur Hiller] [11 May 1972]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations.
Actors: Barnard Hughes, Diana Rigg, George C. Scott, Richard Dysart
Writer: Paddy Chayefsky (by)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Herbert Bock, the chief of medicine in a New York City teaching hospital, is contemplating suicide; he's impotent, his wife has left him, and his children aren't speaking to him. His hospital is also suffering from a recent spate of inexplicable deaths. In the midst of these setbacks, Bock is romantically drawn to the much younger Barbara, whose father is a patient. As Barbara restores Bock's will to live, it turns out that the hospital deaths are murders.
Rotten Tomatoes: Hospital is a black comedy about a bitter, suicidal doctor (George C. Scott) whose hospital is being destroyed by the murders of several staff members, as well as the staff's own ineptness. Eventually, he falls in love with a young woman (Diana Rigg), who just makes his world more confusing. The film is a black satire, and the witty, satirical Academy Award-winning screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky makes it a very entertaining comedy.
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80% (2) Truman 135 min, PG, [Biography, Drama] [Frank Pierson] [09 Sep 1995]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, Rotten Tomatoes: 88%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 8 wins & 11 nominations.
Actors: Colm Feore, Diana Scarwid, Gary Sinise, Richard Dysart
Writer: David McCullough (book), Thomas Rickman (teleplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Biographical account of America's President for the latter part of WWII. Shows Truman's rise from small-town nobody to leader of the USA, his decision to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan, and subsequent election as the US' post-war President.
Rotten Tomatoes: This award winning made-for-cable movie tells the story of American President Harry S.Truman and his role in the second World War. Gary Sinese stars in the title role of this biographical account, which is based on Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough's book. The film chronicles Truman's rise from unknown farmer to infamous American President -- who is chiefly remembered for being the first to use the atomic bomb. Diana Scarwid stars as Truman's wife Bess. Nominated for many awards that year, the film won the Emmy for "Best Made-for-Television Movie." Gary Sinese won the "Best Actor" Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award for his impressive lead performance.
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60% (2) The Terminal Man 107 min, PG, [Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller] [Mike Hodges] [19 Jun 1974]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 58%, Rotten Tomatoes: 62%, External Reviews
Actors: Donald Moffat, George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard Dysart
Writer: Michael Crichton (novel), Mike Hodges
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: As the result of a head injury, brilliant computer scientist Harry Benson begins to experience violent seizures. In an attempt to control the seizures, Benson undergoes a new surgical procedure in which a microcomputer is inserted into his brain. The procedure is not entirely successful.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this sci-fi thriller, based on a novel by Michael Crichton, a scientist decides to be the lab rat in an experimental surgery to control his violent tendencies. During the surgical procedure, a miniature computer is implanted in his head. Unfortunately, the mechanism malfunctions, and he becomes a vicious killer.
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38% (2) Prophecy 102 min, PG, [Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller] [John Frankenheimer] [22 Aug 1979]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 54%, Rotten Tomatoes: 23%, External Reviews
Actors: Armand Assante, Richard Dysart, Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire
Writer: David Seltzer
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A Savage beast, grown to monstrous size and driven mad by toxic wastes that are poisoning the waters, spreads terror and death on a Maine countryside.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this environmentally conscientious horror film, a young EPA agent and his pregnant young wife are sent to Maine to mediate a fight between the local Indians and a notoriously polluting paper mill. Once there, they find the deep forests inhabited by a terrifying menagerie of monstrous, mutant creatures.
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80% (1) The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman 110 min, TV-PG, [Drama] [John Korty] [31 Jan 1974]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 80%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 9 Primetime Emmys. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors: Cicely Tyson, Eric Brown, Joel Fluellen, Richard Dysart
Writer: Tracy Keenan Wynn (screenplay), Ernest J. Gaines (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Beginning during the racial turmoil of 1960s Louisiana, 110-year-old ex-slave Jane Pittman grants an interview to a persistent journalist and relates the remarkable story of her life. Orphaned early, she toils on a plantation until a chance meeting with a white Union soldier named Brown changes her outlook. Jane's emancipation marks only the beginning of an arduous and heartbreaking odyssey, framed by the horrors of slavery and the justice of the civil rights movement.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on the book by Ernest Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman originally aired on CBS in 1974. In this fictionalized biography, Cicely Tyson stars as the 110-year-old Jane Pittman, who recounts the events of her life as they relate to a century of racism in America. Born into slavery in the 1860s, Jane lives through the Civil War and into the civil rights movement. A winner of multiple Emmy awards, this made-for-TV movie is appropriate for classroom use in junior high and high school. Also starring folk music legend Odetta as Big Laura.
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71% (1) An Enemy of the People 103 min, G, [Drama] [George Schaefer] [17 Mar 1978]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, External Reviews
Actors: Bibi Andersson, Charles Durning, Richard Dysart, Steve McQueen
Writer: Arthur Miller (adaptation), Alexander Jacobs (screenplay), Henrik Ibsen (play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: It's winter in a small southern Norwegian town in the late nineteenth century. After years of struggling, Dr. Thomas Stockmann and his family - his wife Catherine, their young adult daughter Petra, and their two adolescent sons Ejlif and Morten - have returned to town after being away for five years up north, he now well respected and successful as the medical resident of the Health Institute at Kirsten Springs, where he is also a board member. He devised the springs and institute as a center of therapeutic benefits on his own, but developed it with his brother, the town mayor, Peter Stockmann, who is the board chair. They have reinvigorated what was the financially crumbling town. Peter takes credit for giving Thomas this air of respectability, something that has never been important to Thomas, who would rather be seen as a man of conviction in doing the right thing. In this respect, Petra takes after her father. Thomas often writes articles for the local activist newspaper, The People's Daily Messenger, as part of doing the right thing. The Messenger's editor, Hovstad, who is attracted to Petra, sees the mayor as part of a group of townsfolk in positions of power solely for their own benefit - an old boys' club. Thomas' latest article, not yet published and what he wanted to investigate during the springs' off season before tourists start arriving in the spring, concerns the water supply at Kirsten Springs. As he feared, in the board's decision to locate the institute's water supply in the cheapest site and in the process dismissing Thomas' original recommendations, the water is being polluted, contaminated by being located downstream from a tannery. Through the story, Thomas wants to protect the overall public health, and does not want to be seen as a hero or extraordinary in doing so. When Peter finds out about the article, he does whatever he can to quash the story, including fear mongering, intimidation and using the power of being both the mayor and the board chair. His primary concern is increasing the viability of the institute by increasing the number of visitors, while doing as little as possible to increase costs, fixing the water problem, which he is not convinced even exists, being cost prohibitive. Although not his direct motivation, Peter is not averse to ruining Thomas' reputation in the process, making Thomas an enemy of the public which would make it easier to protect his own interests even more.
Rotten Tomatoes: This ecological drama, adapted from an Ibsen play, tells the story of a town doctor who speaks out against the pollution of a local hot springs. At first the townsfolk rally behind him as they are hoping to use the springs to generate tourism. Unfortunately, the doctor insists that they be closed because waste from the town tannery has rendered the springs unsafe. After he closes the springs he becomes ostracized by the angry residents. This results in the loss of his practice, and the break-up of his family.
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63% (1) The Last Days of Patton 146 min, TV-PG, [Biography, Drama] [Delbert Mann] [14 Sep 1986]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 63%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination.
Actors: Ed Lauter, George C. Scott, Murray Hamilton, Richard Dysart
Writer: Ladislas Farago, William Luce
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Following the close of World War II, General George S. Patton is seriously injured in a car accident and not expected to survive. "The Last Days of Patton" tells the story of these last few months of the General's life and the Army Medical Corps efforts to save him. Intermixed with flashbacks, the film also shows Patton's earlier career as a fledging tank commander during the First World War.
Rotten Tomatoes: George C. Scott again plays General George S. Patton in this account of the military hero's final months as a war historian and defender of former Nazis.
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