Maurice Copeland Movies

Robert Conrad fills the role of G. Gordon Liddy like the proverbial glove in this macho-driven biopic. Convicted in the Watergate conspiracy, Liddy serves 54 months in prison. At first laughed off by the other cons as merely a white-collar criminal, Liddy proves through various he-man methods that he's the match for any man behind bars. Every highlight of Liddy's autobiography is lovingly detailed, including the blood oath "I will kill for you, Mr.President" and the legendary hand held over the burning flame. Without descending to political partisanship, we note here that Conrad's G. Gordon Liddy is lot more exciting and charismatic than the genuine article. Will: G. Gordon Liddy was first telecast January 10, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brian De Palma's homage to Michelangelo Antonioni's classic art movie Blow-Up (1966) blends suspense and political paranoia when a Philadelphia soundman inadvertently records a murder. Former police technician Jack Terri (John Travolta) makes his living doing sound for slasher flicks. While recording new outdoor effects one night, Jack witnesses a couple's car careen off a bridge into a river, but he can save only the female occupant, Sally (Nancy Allen). Jack begins to suspect something when he learns that her dead companion was a Presidential hopeful. Re-playing his tape over and over, Jack thinks that he hears a gun shot before the crash-causing tire blow-out. When sleazy photographer Manny Karp (Dennis Franz) comes forward with photos of the accident, Jack discovers the real reason that the naïve Sally was in the car -- and also a way to prove his auditory suspicions through motion pictures. Even with all his surveillance talent, however, Jack cannot see (or hear) how dangerous the big picture really is until it's too late. Taking a break from horror films, De Palma turned his interests in technology and voyeurism toward more politically loaded subject matter at the dawn of the Reagan era; the film's red, white and blue mise-en-scène, "Liberty Day" celebration climax, and conspiracy surrounding political "dirty tricks" suggest that American politics are still rotten, seven years after Watergate, . Although Blow Out earned some favorable notice, particularly for Travolta's first "adult" performance, De Palma's downbeat film did not go over well with 1981 summer audiences. Rather than blockbuster escapism, Blow Out instead harks back to 1970s political thrillers like The Parallax View (1974), using cinematic fireworks to tell an unsettling story about one man's struggle against unstoppable corruption. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Audiences loved him as a Berber sheik in the historical saga The Wind and the Lion, so who better to play a Saudi Arabian minister of state who wants to make peace with Israel during the Arab oil embargo of 1976 than Sean Connery? Connery plays Khalil Abdull-Muhsen, a peace-mongering diplomat who wants to sign a mutual assistance pact with Israel and sell Saudi oil to needy nations at cost. The object of his pipe-dream plan is to free those needy nations from the East-West conflict. Unfortunately, the world is not ready for such starry-eyed idealism, and before you can say "Tiger in your tank," Khalil finds himself the victim of choice for a network of Arab terrorist groups. The terrorists clearly have the pick of the litter at the casting office, for Khalil finds himself pursued by the frisky and beautiful Bryn Mawr graduate and cool-as-a-cucumber terrorist Nicole Scott (Cornelia Sharpe). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Having lived his life as the gardener on a millionaire's estate, Chance (Peter Sellers) knows of the real world only what he has seen on TV. When his benefactor dies, Chance walks aimlessly into the streets of Washington D.C., where he is struck by a car owned by wealthy Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine). Identifying himself, the confused man mutters "Chance...gardener," which Eve takes to be "Chauncey Gardiner." Eve takes him to her home to convalesce, and because Chance is so well-dressed and well-groomed, and because he speaks in such a cultured tone, everyone in her orbit assumes that "Chauncey Gardiner" must be a man of profound intelligence. No matter what he says, it is interpreted as a pearl of wisdom and insight. He rises to the top of Washington society, where his simplistic responses to the most difficult questions (responses usually related to his gardening experience) are highly prized by the town's movers and shakers. In fact, there is serious consideration given to running Chance as a presidential candidate. Both a modern fable and a political satire, Being There was based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski and costars Melvyn Douglas, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Eve's aging power-broker husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide