Rachel Ward Movies

Celebrated British-born actress Rachel Ward (The Thorn Birds, Against All Odds) makes her feature directorial debut with this unique and occasionally provocative drama, featuring longtime husband Bryan Brown and produced in Brown's native Australia. A loose adaptation of the 1982 novel by Newton Thornburg (Cutter's Way), it transposes the events of that roman from Chicago to an Australian farm. Ben Mendelsohn stars as Ned Kendall, a fortyish author who takes his young, slightly uncouth girlfriend, Toni (Maeve Dermody) along to visit his dying father, Bruce (Brown) a failed politician and farmer now cared for by daughter Sally (Rachel Griffiths) on the clan's Aussie property. The relationship between Ned and Bruce remains supremely dysfunctional, as father constantly berates and pushes his son; the focal points of their conflicts spring from the teenage death of Ned's twin sister Kate (Sophie Lowe) and the suicide of his older brother Cliff (Josh McFarlane). After Toni and Sally each storm out of the home in a nasty huff, director Ward intercuts two parallel narratives: the circumstances (including Kate's insatiable sexual curiosity during adolescence) that once led to the family's two tragic losses, and, in a contemporary framework, the delicate steps that Bruce and Ned begin to take toward reconciliation, in the period immediately preceding Bruce's death. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

In the three-hour period television miniseries Blackbeard, Angus MacFadyen (Braveheart, Jason and the Argonauts) assumes the title role of the dreaded marauder who spent 1716-1718 terrorizing the Caribbean Sea. Born Sir William Teach, the mariner rechristens himself Blackbeard, and subsequently builds a legend around himself as the most merciless and loathsome pirate in world history by plundering as many ships and murdering as many seafarers as he can lay his dirty mitts on. Directed by Kevin Connor (Motel Hell, The Land That Time Forgot), Blackbeard co-stars big screen vets Rachel Ward, Stacy Keach, and Richard Chamberlain. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

The backdrop for this epic Western, which aired in August 2002 on the Hallmark Channel, will be familiar to fans of the genre and students of Western history. The Johnson County War took place in northern Wyoming in April 1892, growing out of the familiar story of big-money ranchers who suspected homesteader neighbors of rustling. Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana adapted Frederick Manfred's 1957 novel, Riders of Judgment, which used some of the events and people but changed the names, including the county (which becomes Bighorn) and the main town (from Buffalo to Antelope). Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1981) also employed elements of the Johnson County War in its story. Manfred's book and this film center on Cain Hammett (Tom Berenger), a lonesome cowboy who hankers for Rory (Michelle Forbes); she has married his younger brother Dale (Adam Storke) in spite of the fact that she really loves Cain. A third Hammett brother, Harry (Luke Perry), unlike his honest, homesteading siblings, is a rustler who runs afoul of Marshal Hunt Lawton (Burt Reynolds), who is in the employ of wealthy Lord Peter (Christopher Cazenove), an Englishman in cahoots with the owners of big ranches to exterminate all of the homesteaders, guilty or innocent. Cain Hammett's real-life counterpart, Nate Champion, was a prime target of mercenaries hired by the big cattlemen, and the siege of Cain's cabin, which was the opening salvo in the war, provides the film with its climax. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

Based on a true crime story, the two-part TV movie And Never Let Her Go recounts the disappearance of Anne Marie Fahey in June of 1996, and the subsequent arrest and conviction of her accused murderer. Hired as a secretary by powerful Delaware attorney and gubernatorial aide, Thomas Capano (Mark Harmon), Anne Marie enters into a torrid and ofttimes abusive affair with her kinky boss. When Anne Marie's relatives report that she is missing, the governor of Delaware solicits the aid of the U.S. Department of Justice to solve the case. Although detective Frank Gugliatta (Paul Michael Glaser) and assistant U.S. attorney Colm Connolly (Steve Eckholdt) suspect that Capano has done away with Anne Marie, they are stymied by a lack of tangible proof...notably, the girl's body. It is not until Anne Marie's diary turns up in a most unexpected manner that Gugliatta and Connolly are able to fully act upon their suspicions -- and even then, the ultimate solution rests with the cooperation (or lack of same) of Capano's brother, Gerry (David Hewlett). Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis appears as Thomas Capano's formidable mother. Filmed in Toronto and told largely in flashback, And Never Let Her Go was originally telecast by CBS on April 1 and 4, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on George Dell's 1934 novel The Earth Abideth, the two-part CBS TV movie Seasons of Love covers thirty years (1866-1896) in the lives of Kansas farming couple Thomas and Kate Linthorne (Peter Strauss, Rachel Ward). A dynamic, forceful person who manages to carve a home and livelihood out of virgin territory, Thomas emerges as one of the leaders of his tiny community, despite the resentment and opposition of rival farmer Gorm Schrader (John Finn). At home, the sometimes rocky relationship between the Linthornes is put to the test by the arrival in town of Lucille (Chandra West), the young wife of one of Thomas' best friends. Later on, a series of devastating setbacks--some directly related to an bitter quarrel between Thomas and his son Hocking (Justin Chambers), not to mention the profligate ways of his other son Grover (Nick Stahl)--threatens to destroy everything that Thomas has built. Eschewing the usual Hollywood Happy Ending, the film remains doggedly faithful to its source--that is to say, forgiveness is not a part of the characters' makeup, and there are some wounds too deep and painful to heal. Filmed on location in Ontario, Seasons of Love originally aired March 7 and 9, 1999, on CBS. The film has since been shown on cable TV under the title Love on the Land. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Olivia D'Abo's sister Maryam and Mariel Hemingway's sister Margaux star in Double Obsession. Heather Dwyer (Margaux) falls in love with her roommate Claire Durka (Maryam), but "happily ever after" is not in the cards. Claire, you see, loves someone else, and Heather, you see, can't live with that. The sadistic one-upsmanship and domination games played throughout the film make Single White Female look like The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. The suspense lies not in who will survive, but how long it will be before the neighbors complain. Frederic Forrest carries a what-am-I-doing-here? expression all during his brief scenes. As psycho-roommate films go, Double Obsession certainly delivers what its target audience craves. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Glen directed this throwback to the costume dramas of the 1930s and 1940s, but without a smidgen of their energy and verve. George Corraface plays Christopher Columbus as a dynamic and muscular comic-book hero. He has a dream to set sail to find a new passageway to India, but he needs the backing of the Spanish government to do it. First, he must undergo a grilling by Tomas de Torquemada (Marlon Brando in, hands down, his worst performance). After passing muster with Torquemada, he gets the blessing of Queen Isabella (Rachel Ward) and King Ferdinand (Tom Selleck). Columbus then sets sail in a series of picture-postcard travelogue shots as he sails the ocean blue and discovers a new world of wonders -- particularly the Indian chief's well-endowed daughter. As a sop to revisionists, a rat is seen scampering down the plank as Columbus' vessel lands on "undiscovered" turf. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this made-for-cable TV movie, a man (Bruce Boxleitner) travels to visit his ex-girlfriend (Rachel Ward) and arrives just in time to witness her kill her vicious boyfriend. However, when his lawyer wife (Sela Ward) is assigned to his ex's case, the man finds himself in the problematic role of key witness. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Partially filmed in Hawaii and Tahiti, And the Sea Will Tell was a two-part TV movie based on a real murder case. A wealthy couple (James Brolin and Deidre Hall) are killed on their yacht off the coast of a secluded South American island called Palmyra. The suspects are a hippyish pair (Hart Bochner and Rachel Ward) whom the rich folks had befriended. It's fairly clear that the hippies were involved in the crime: The question is, did the man do it while the girl looked on helplessly, or was she a willing accomplice? Richard Crenna plays real-life defense attorney Vincent Bugliosi, upon whose book And the Sea Will Tell was based. The first part of this teledrama premiered on February 24, 1991; part two, in which the girl's testimony consumes most of the screen time, was shown on February 26. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After discovering that his terrorist brother has committed suicide, Marco (John Savage) travels to Columbia to investigate, in this action film. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In an Australian outback town so small that children of all ages share a single classroom, teacher Sally (Rachel Ward) suffers the typical frustrations of life in the provinces. She really finds something to fret about when a gang of gun-toting, mask-wearing criminals kidnaps her and the students and drives them to the remote wilderness. With the kids' safety, perhaps survival, in the balance, Sally must appease the lewdly suggestive bandits while scheming for a way to escape their clutches. After several abortive attempts result in multiple deaths, she and the oldest children manage to usher the young ones to at least provisional safety. Free but stranded in a mountain hideaway, the class must band together to survive and perhaps turn the tables on the men who continue to hunt them. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi