John Chappell Movies

Tommy Lee Jones won an Emmy for his searing performance as wanton killer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song. The film covers the last nine months of Gilmore's life, beginning with his release from prison in 1976. Linking up with teen-age divorcee Nicole Baker (Rosanna Arquette), Gilmore makes a half-hearted effort to go straight, but ends up embarking on a robbery spree that culminates in two cold-blooded murders. Arrested and sentenced to be executed, Gilmore insists upon being put to death (Utah law required a firing squad for this); he spends his final days as a poster boy for anti-death penalty activists and as a "client" for an entrepreneur (Steven Keats) who wants to make a film of Gilmore's life. Adapted by Norman Mailer from his own book, The Executioner's Song originally aired in two parts on November 28 and 29, 1982. It has since been boiled down to a 97-minute theatrical film for European consumption, with additional scenes of violence and nudity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Made for television, the movie concerns a young unmarried girl who must decide whether to have an abortion. With the help of her own mother (Susan Clark), she tries to make the right decision. ~ John Bush, Rovi

The overused title Fighting Back made its first appearance of the 1980s in this TV biopic. Robert Urich stars as real-life football player Rocky Bleier, who joins the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968. Rocky's career is curtailed by military service in Vietnam. On August 20, 1969, Bleier is seriously wounded by a hand grenade. The doctors are certain that he'll never walk properly again, much less play football. But several grueling years of physical therapy yield positive results--all the way to the Super Bowl. The 1980 Pittsburgh Steelers costar with Robert Urich in this inspirational tale, which utilizes stock footage of the real Rocky Bleier in action. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fact-based drama starring Robert Redford as Henry Brubaker, the new inmate at a run-down Southern prison that's become notorious for corruption and violence. After he witnesses several instances of gross misconduct and defuses a tense confrontation with a crazed inmate (Morgan Freeman), Brubaker reveals to the guards and administrators that he's not a criminal at all, but the new warden, assigned by the governor to infiltrate the facility undercover. His identity confirmed, Brubaker takes office and sets about shaping up policies and procedures, despite resistance from, incredibly, even some of the more entitled convicts. With the help of the prison's chief trustee (Yaphet Kotto) and a compassionate ally (Jane Alexander), the warden effects some positive change, but powerful business interests line up against him when his ideas threaten their financial bottom line. A reform-minded, socially conscious, and politically liberal picture of the type usually associated with director Norman Jewison, this fact-based prison drama was the result of a troubled production that saw original director Bob Rafelson replaced with Cool Hand Luke (1967) and The Amityville Horror (1979) helmsman Stuart Rosenberg. Despite the backstage turmoil, Brubaker was an acclaimed release and an Oscar-nominated, career-finale triumph for co-screenwriter Arthur A. Ross, creator of Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) and father of successful writer/director Gary Ross. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A group of religious leaders is up in arms over a WKRP program starring self-styled preacher Little Ed Pembrook (Michael Keenan). In additon to making a farce of all things spiritual, Little Ed insists upon promoting such questionable religious icons as "Baptist shower curtains." But inasmuch as the 300-pound preacher used to be a professional wrestler, no one at the station has the guts to question his ethics--dumping the problem into the trembling hands of Andy (Gary Sandy) and Carlson (Gordon Jump). This is the final episode of WKRP in Cincinnati's first season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jim (James Garner) wants to know why his dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.), currently vacationing in Hawaii, has been receiving huge sums of money in the mail. The Feds would also like the answer to that question--and there are several other interested parties lurking in the shadows. As usual, Angel (played by episode director Stuart Margolin) is no help whatsoever in extricating Jim from the plotline's deadly complications, but Rocky manages to "repay" Angel with a sublimely unique revenge. Future Magnum P.I. costar Roger E. Mosley appears in this final episode of The Rockford Files' third season as a sinister loan shark who has a remarkable way with words. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of four miniseries comprising NBC's Best Sellers anthology, The Rhinemann Exchange was adapted from the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. Stephen Collins stars as American intelligence officer David Spaulding, who under cover of his musician father's concert tours embarks upon a number of fact-finding missions in Europe just before WW2. Once hostilities break out, Spaulding relocates to Aergentina, there to exchange industrial diamonds for a secret gyroscope needed for the American war effort. Naturally, the Nazis are equally interested in those diamonds, putting Spaulding in any number of perilous predicaments. Lauren Hutton costars as Leslie Hawkewood, one of those ravishing "mystery women" so common to espionage fiction. Originally running 5 hours and telecast in three segments on March 10, 17, and 24, 1977, The Rhinemann Exchange was later rebroadcast as a four-hour, two-part "TV movie." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Peter Bogdanovich's early career as a film writer stood him in good stead for this comedy drama about the early days of the motion-picture industry, based in part on his interviews with pioneering directors Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan. Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) is a lawyer and Buck Greenway (Burt Reynolds) is a cowboy and gunman. Both are sent to California to shut down a renegade group of silent-movie makers -- financed by blustery H.H. Cobb (Brian Keith) -- who are in violation of the Motion Picture Patents Co. Trust. Harrigan and Greenway somehow find themselves working with the movie crew instead of shutting them down; they join forces with cameraman Franklin Frank (John Ritter), leading lady Kathleen Cooke (Jane Hitchcock), and precocious prop girl Alice Forsyte (Tatum O'Neal). Greenway becomes a star and Harrigan a respected director, but both battle over the affections of Cooke. Incidentally, Cobb's big speech near the end is taken almost verbatim from a quote given to Bogdanovich in an interview with actor James Stewart. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An effective, low-budget crime drama about a bank robbery gone wrong, this tale begins when three men get together to plan the bank heist over a long weekend. What they do not count on is the presence of two cleaning women who tragically alter their plans. The thieves end up locking the bank manager and a female teller in the air-tight vault -- thereby dooming them to death by suffocation. After the thieves leave the bank, they agree that one of them should call the police and leave the keys to the vault next to the phone. But that plan is ruined when the lone thief is killed in a traffic accident. Caught between the desire to save the two people in the vault and the need to escape, the remaining two thieves are caught in a serious dilemma. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Opening with elaborate preparations for the Queen of England's birthday, The Queen's Guards introduces the audience via voiceover to John Fellowes, a young captain overseeing the participation of the Grenadier Guards in the celebratory parade. A series of flashbacks follow, which fill the viewer in on John's difficult past: a crippled father who is a former Guardsman himself and maintains an obsessive interest with the Guards; a dead brother (also a Guardsman) to whom John is constantly (and unfavorably) compared by his father; and difficulties encountered during his military training when he learns his brother died a coward and caused the death or injury of many of his colleagues (including the father of a girl in whom John has a romantic interest.) Eventually, John is placed in charge of a military operation that has many parallels to the ill-fated one led by his brother, putting him in the position to either repeat his brother's mistakes or atone for them and thereby restore the family's honor. The film mixes shot of actors portraying Guards with footage of actual Guardsmen and soldiers on parade and in action, and also includes some location shots of Battersea Bridge and the Prospect of Whitby. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi