Carl Cofield Movies

A 12-year-old Harlem youth is killed in a hit-and-run. The driver, an elderly Jewish man named Joshua Berger (Michael Constantine), is not indicted. This is all it takes for outspoken (and blatantly bigoted) black activist Reverend Ott (Tony Todd) to foment racial tensions that explode in violence. The scenes involving Assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) and black defense lawyer Shambala Green (Lorraine Toussaint) are among the most powerful ever seen on Law & Order; small wonder that "Sanctuary" was cited by TV Guide as one of television's best individual series episodes. As a bonus, actor J. K. Simmons, who later became a series semiregular in the role of police psychologist Dr. Emil Skoda, is here seen in an entirely different characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Former Starsky and Hutch star Paul Michael Glaser warmed the director's chair for Band of the Hand. The film zeroes in on five juvenile delinquents who are plucked from their various detention facilities and unceremoniously dumped in the wilds of the Everglades. The boys begin to panic until hardcase Vietnam veteran Stephen Lang arrives. Lang explains that they've been paroled in his custody, and that it is his task to teach them how to work as a team in order to survive. The logic of this plan is to whip the boys into an elite vigilante unit, then sic them on the various drug dealers of America. The film features early performances by Lauren Holly and Larry Fishburne and Bob Dylan can be heard singing the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi