Lynda A. Clark Movies
- 2006
This made-for-TV movie is a remake of the theatrical feature Conrack, using the original title of the source novel by Pat Conroy. Set in 1969, The Water Is Wide stars Jeff Hephner as Conroy, an idealistic young teacher whose first assignment is at a run-down school located on Yamacraw Island in South Carolina. The state's imperious school superintendent Henry Piedmont (Frank Langella) has written off the unkempt, illiterate black children of Yamacraw as thoroughly unteachable, while the school's authoritarian black principal Mrs. Brown (Alfre Woodard), evidently unwilling to buck the Anglo-Saxon establishment, insists that Conroy doggedly adhere to an established curriculum that has never worked with the students. Instead, Conroy utilizes compassion and humor as teaching tools, reaching out to his students through a variety of humanistic methods, including adopting the kids' own archaic Gullah dialect in order to teach them proper English. Not surprisingly, Mr. Piedmont and Mrs. Brown are dead set against Conroy's "radical" approach to teaching -- even when it is obviously working -- but fortunately, our hero has a strong ally in the form of deputy superintendent Bennington (James Murtaugh). Echoing elements from another Pat Conroy novel, The Great Santini, the young protagonist is plagued throughout the film by memories of his uncompromising Marine-officer father, who has instilled in Conroy a hatred (and fear) of all authority figures. Produced as part of CBS's Hallmark Hall of Fame series, The Water Is Wide was first broadcast on January 29, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Hephner, Frank Langella, (more)
- 1994
The full title of this made-for-TV film was In the Best of Families: Pride and Madness. Based on a true story, the film details the bitter divorce between overly idealistic Keith Carradine and emotionally disturbed Kelly McGillis. Caught in the middle are the couple's sons, played by Erik Von Detten and Ira David Wood Jr. The crisis erupts into violence, resulting in a triple homicide. Roundly criticized for its lurid and sensationalistic aspects, In the Best of Families was originally telecast in two parts on January 16 and 18, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly McGillis, Keith Carradine, (more)
Dudley Moore stars as Emory Lesson, an advertising genius whose finds himself committed to an insane asylum in Tony Bill's Crazy People. Emory becomes tired with creating phony ad campaigns and decides to create his own campaigns that tell the brutal truth. Since sex sells, Emory designs an explicit ad campaign consisting of unadorned sexuality. The campaign is so offensive that his colleagues have Emory put in a mental institution. At first Emory resists, but under the tutelage of a concerned psychiatrist, Dr. Liz Baylor (Mercedes Ruehl) and the tender love of Kathy (Daryl Hannah) a beautiful patient, Emory begins to like it in the mental home. Befriending the cute and lovable patients in the mental ward, Emory discovers that the crazy people are natural-born advertising geniuses and Emory utilizes their genius for a new ad campaign. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Daryl Hannah, (more)
- 1989
- R
Based on a novel by Thomas Berger, The Feud is a lampoonish look at 1950s manners and mores. There is no love lost between the neighboring communities of Milville and Hornbeck. This is largely due to the animosity between two large and demonstrative families: the Bullards and the Bealers. In the tradition of the Hatfields and McCoys (and also Laurel and Hardy), minor irritations slowly escalate into all-out warfare. The humor is very dark at times, sometimes bordering on the "sick": this is Norman Rockwel as filtered by Hieronymus Bosch. Because the actors play their roles in a broad, slapsticky manner, The Feud is liable to turn off as many viewers as it attracts, but that's the peril of being a "cult film." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- René Auberjonois, Ron McLarty, (more)
- 1987
- R
Better known as It's Alive III, Island of the Alive details the further exploits of the murderous mutant infants introduced in director Larry Cohen's It's Alive! (1974). Said infants are shipped off to a desert island, where they are completely cut off from civilization. The government intends to eliminate the penned-up infants, but Michael Moriarty, the father of one of the babies, organizes a protest against this wholesale slaughter. It is clear to anyone who can read that director Cohen is drawing parallels between the quarantined children and society's treatment of AIDS victims. The strength of Cohen's direction and storytelling prowess is slightly weakened by some inadequate special effects in the closing scenes, wherein the babies reproduce and wreak havoc on the Mainland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, (more)
- 1987
A divorced dad and son attempt to build on their newly resurrected relationship by heading back to pop's hometown in up-state Maine. When he gets there, he finds that all the townspeople have turned into 300-year-old vampires. Some say that director Larry Cohen intended the vampire community to be a parody of old-blooded Republicans who so often rule in small-town America. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Andrew Duggan, (more)
