Vincent D'Onofrio Movies
An actor whose hulking presence belies his ability to slip quietly into an astonishing variety of roles, Vincent D'Onofrio is one of Hollywood's most unpredictable and compelling performers. Throughout his career, D'Onofrio has played a diverse range of characters, from Full Metal Jacket's fatally unhinged army recruit to a wholly convincing Orson Welles in Ed Wood to a bisexual porn star in The Velocity of Gary.Born in Brooklyn, NY, on June 30, 1959, D'Onofrio was raised in the diverse locales of Hawaii, Colorado, and Miami's Hialeah section. His career as an actor began on the stage, with study under Sonia Moore of New York's American Stanislavsky Theatre and Sharon Chatten at the Actors Studio. D'Onofrio's early years in the theater were filled with an obligatory helping of obscurity and miniscule paychecks (so miniscule that he worked for a time as a bouncer to help pay the bills). His fortunes began to shift in 1984, when he joined the American Stanislavsky Theatre as a performer. There, he appeared in such well-regarded productions as Of Mice and Men and David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and also made his Broadway debut in Open Admissions.
D'Onofrio debuted onscreen in the straight-to-oblivion 1983 comedy The First Turn-On!, but it was not until his haunting portrayal of Pvt. Pyle (a role for which the actor gained 70 pounds) four years later in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket that he earned much-deserved notice for his work. Defying easy categorization, D'Onofrio next appeared in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza (1988), slimming down to his normal weight and giving a convincing portrayal as Lili Taylor's lovestruck boyfriend.
Having thus given audiences a glimpse of his remarkable versatility, D'Onofrio spent the next few years making his presence felt in such films as JFK (1991), in which he played assassination witness Bill Newman; The Player (1992), which cast him in the pivotal role of ill-fated screenwriter David Kahane; and Nancy Savoca's Household Saints (1993), which, through a particularly odd feat of casting, had him playing the father of Lili Taylor. Although D'Onofrio worked at a prolific pace, it was not until he portrayed Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard in the 1996 The Whole Wide World that he really had his screen breakthrough. A low-key romantic drama about the relationship between Howard and a schoolteacher (Renée Zellweger), the film allowed D'Onofrio to take center stage, rather than lend support to better-known co-stars. Critics roundly applauded his performance, but although the actor kept working steadily, he was by no means a Hollywood fixture. Eschewing the limelight, he turned in particularly memorable performances in Feeling Minnesota (1996) as Cameron Diaz's cuckolded fiancé and in the 1997 blockbuster Men in Black, which cast him as the film's resident bad guy.
D'Onofrio had a host of projects lined up in 2000, lending support to the thrillers Imposter and The Cell, and starring as Marisa Tomei's endearingly freakish boyfriend in Brad Anderson's Happy Accidents. He also had one of his biggest roles to date in Steal This Movie, in which he starred as legendary 1960s activist Abbie Hoffman. As D'Onofrio continued to carve a distinctive path in the world of indie feature films (with notable supporting roles in The Salton Sea [2002] and Thumbsucker [2005]), he gained the greatest notoriety of his career on television, as Detective Robert Goren in the phenomenally successful Law & Order spin-off Criminal Intent. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Teenager Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) would rather party with her boyfriend, but when her beau breaks their date she reluctantly accepts a babysitting job. It isn't all TV and icebox-raiding when Chris' best friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) calls her to announce that she's stranded at the bus station. With her youthful charges in tow (one of whom, 15-year-old Brad (Keith Coogan), has a hopeless crush on the babysitter), Chris heads into downtown Chicago to go to Brenda's rescue. Thus begins a roller coaster ride of comic mishaps, unexpected perils and hairbreadth escapes. IN one bit, blues singer Albert Collins refuses to allow Chris and company to leave the nightclub they've wandered into until they agree to sing along with a song borrowed from, of all things the 1939 B-picture Nancy Drew, Reporter! . Screenwriter and Steven Spielberg protégé Chris Columbus made his directorial debut with Adventures in Babysitting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elisabeth Shue, Maia Brewton, (more)
Heather Morgan (who also scripted the film) portrays a dog-walker who has decided to stop talking and begins to act like the animals she tends to. The film is concerned mostly with her husband Peter (Lee Tergesen) and his attempts to help his wife. The supporting cast of this whimsical comedy includes Hank Azaria as Peter's most trusted friend, Vincent D'Onofrio as a psychiatrist who is in need of some mental health care, and Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow as a veterinarian. Kasia Adamik, the child of famed director Agnieszka Holland, helms this quirky comedy that played at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tergesen, Heather Morgan, (more)
- 1993
- PG13
Five fables, each set in a different historical era, make up this quirky comedy from director Bill Forsyth. Each tale features Robin Williams as a basically decent but troubled average man named Hector. Beginning with the Bronze Age, where Hector struggles for survival against barbarians, the film proceeds through Roman times, the Middle Ages, and the 16th century, concluding in the present day, where Hector is a divorced father attempting to reconcile with his children. The film clearly intends to draw parallels between these stories in order to illustrate the universal nature of human experience, though the segments themselves vary widely in tone, from broadly comic to philosophically reflective. Additionally, some may find the film's attempts at creating a fantasy atmosphere rather cloying, while others may be charmed by the project's determined oddness and whimsicality. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, John Turturro, (more)
The second outing in the Boys Life series collects another set of gay-themed shorts. Must Be the Music follows a group of Los Angeles teens, three gay and one straight, through a night of romantic misadventures at a hip dance club. In Nunzio's Second Cousin, police Sgt. Tony Randozzy (Vincent D'Onofrio) turns the tables on a group of homophobes (one of them played by Seth Green) and forces one of them, Jimmy (Miles Perlich), to have dinner with him and his mother (Eileen Brennan). Alkali, Iowa uses the backdrop of a Midwestern agricultural community to tell the story of Jack (J.D. Cerna), a gay teen who discovers tantalizing glimpses of his dead father's life buried on the family farm; Mary Beth Hurt plays the boy's distant, defeated mother. The Academy award-winning Trevor relates the tale of a chunky, effete youngster (Brett Barsky) whose love of Diana Ross is matched only by his obsession with Pinky (Jonah Rooney), a handsome classmate. For Boys Life 2's video and DVD release, The DadShuttle replaced Trevor, which had received a video release of its own. An almost plotless tale that takes place during a single car ride to the airport, The DadShuttle focuses on the emotional distance and between a city-dwelling gay man and his suburban father. Alkali, Iowa director Mark Christopher would go on to direct the Hollywood feature 54, while Nickolas Perry, director of Must Be the Music, would go on to helm the Gus Van Sant-produced Speedway Junky. Before directing Trevor, Peggy Rajski was known primarily as a producer; her credits include the Jodie Foster directorial efforts Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Another in a long line of "revisionist" Sherlock Holmes dramas, the made-for-cable Case of Evil offers a 28-year-old Holmes (James D'Arcy) who, in contrast with his later and more familiar persona, brashly brags about his deductive skills, egotistically basks in his fame and popularity, and drinks like a fish. But young Sherlock is in for a sobering and humiliating return to earth when he first crosses the path of Professor Moriarty (Vincent D'Onofrio), the "Napoleon of Crime." The brilliant but inexperienced Holmes not only fails to connect Moriarty with the murders of London's most notorious opium dealers, but even ends up falling into the clutches of the master criminal, who introduces the hapless detective to a relatively new and exotic drug known as heroin. Helping Sherlock put himself back together after his horrendous experience are his friend Dr. Watson (Roger Morlidge), his brother Mycroft (Richard E. Grant), and a comely young lady (Gabrielle Anwar) -- whose last name happens to be Doyle. The story is climaxed by a thrilling sword duel inside Big Ben (and never mind that the famous clock tower hadn't yet been built). Filmed in Romania, Case of Evil made its USA Network debut on October 25, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James D'Arcy, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
Actor Ethan Hawke takes the director's chair for a test drive with this independent feature, based on a play by Nicole Burdette, in which a number of creative types living in New York's famed bohemian enclave the Chelsea Hotel struggle with their muses as well as their personal concerns. Middle-aged novelist Bud (Kris Kristofferson) is having problems with his latest project, as well as his appetite for alcohol, while he juggles two relationships -- with his wife Greta (Tuesday Weld) and his lover Mary (Natasha Richardson). Audrey (Rosario Dawson) is a poet who is attracted to Val (Mark Webber), but Val has a hard time staying away from drugs, and his pal Crutches (Kevin Corrigan) is doing nothing to help. Grace (Uma Thurman) is trying to make a name for herself as a poet, but in the meantime she supports herself waiting tables; she's developed a crush on her neighbor Frank (Vincent D'Onofrio), but she can't figure out how to get him to pay attention to her. And Ross (Steve Zahn) and Terry (Robert Sean Leonard) are a pair of would-be rock stars who have just arrived in New York from the Midwest, wondering how to get noticed as they try to pick up women. Jeff Tweedy from the acclaimed rock band Wilco composed the film's musical score, while legendary jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott appears in a nightclub scene. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Corrigan, Rosario Dawson, (more)
American filmmaker Lodge Kerrigan (Clean, Shaven) directed this French production, set in New York. Dublin native Claire (Katrin Cartlidge of Naked and Career Girls) is a New York prostitute constantly working to eliminate her debt to menacing Roland Cain (Colm Meaney), who's known her since she was a child. After the death of her mother, Claire sets out to unleash her pent-up feelings and gain control of her life. She meets a guy in a bar and has sex, is befriended by calm cabbie Elton (Vincent D'Onofrio), visits her Newark cousin, plays with her niece, and eventually tells Elton that she wants to have a baby. Atonal score by Ahrin Mishan and Simon Fisher. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katrin Cartlidge, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
Adapted from the Robert Boswell novel, the film focuses on a very troubled family beset from all sides by conflict, arguments and scandal. The father (Peter Coyote) brings his wife (Cindy Pickett) and two sons (Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Berg) to Washington State to begin a new life, but finds that the same problems have followed them. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
- 1993
- R
Greta Scacchi plays a famous feminist activist, while Vincent D'Onofrio portrays a humble Scots fisherman in this film from director Andrew Birkin. Despite the obvious ideological chasm between them, the two fall in love. The couple spend the rest of the film running away from commitment, only to be reunited at every turn. Salt on Our Skin is also known under the title Desire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Scacchi, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
Directed by Joel Schumacher, Dying Young was adapted from a novel by Marti Leimbach. When Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott) discovers that he is suffering from leukemia, his wealthy family hires pretty, young Hillary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) to help nurse him through his chemotherapy treatment. As the two struggle through the debilitating effects of Victor's treatment, they fall in love and attempt to make the most of their time together. Campbell Scott's real mother, the late Colleen Dewhurst, plays his "reel" mother in the film. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, (more)
Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, (more)
- 1995
This anthology is comprised of three steamy vignettes from three different filmmakers. The first, Cinzia Torrini's "Sweeties," follows the desperation of a rotund, neglected housewife who goes to a psychic for help. The mystical woman gives the housewife a few special sweets with the warning that she should not eat too many. The candies are delicious though, and the greedy housewife gobbles them all and finds herself paying a terrible price. In the second, "Hotel Paradise," from Nicolas Roeg, a woman awakens on her wedding day chained to a bed with a stranger. He informs her that they just spent the wildest night of her life together. Unfortunately, she remembers nothing and arguments ensue as she dons her gown and prepares for her nuptials. The third story comes from Polish director Janusz Majewski. "Devilish Education" centers on the deflowering of a luscious Polish farm girl at the turn-of the-century by a handsome artist who hires her as his model and begins tutoring her in the art of lovemaking. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
It's not unusual in the movies for a woman to be torn between two brothers, but she usually doesn't change her mind on her wedding day. Then again, hardly anything goes the way one might expect in this black comedy. Freddie (Cameron Diaz), a pretty but hard-as-nails stripper, dreams of some day dancing in a Las Vegas revue, but for the meantime she works at a seedy dive in Minnesota. Freddie is forced by the owner of the club, Red (Delroy Lindo), to marry his accountant, the less-than-charming Sam Clayton (Vincent D'Onofrio), as punishment for supposedly stealing from the strip joint's till (as a further indignity, Red has also had the word "slut" tattooed on her arm). Sam has a rocky relationship with his brother Jjaks (Keanu Reeves) -- his curious name is the result of a typing error on his birth certificate -- but Jjaks receives an invitation to the nuptials from their mother Nora (Tuesday Weld), and he arrives at the wedding reception only a few hours after he's released from prison. When Freddie and Jjacks meet for the first time, there's an immediate chemistry between them, so immediate that before the evening is out, the new in-laws are making love in a bathroom and Freddie has persuaded Jjacks to run away with her; Freddie has also grabbed Sam's bankroll to finance the unscheduled vacation. Sam, understandably enraged, vows to track them down and enlists the help of Ben Costikyan (Dan Aykroyd), a sleazy career criminal. Feeling Minnesota was the debut feature for writer and director Steven Baigelman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
A Cuban woman who escapes to America finds herself in political, financial, and romantic jeopardy in this taut drama. Cuban refugee Isabel (Greta Scacchi) flees her country and makes her way to Miami after her husband, Nestor (Jimmy Smits), a political activist, is sentenced to a long stay in a Cuban jail. In their dangerous voyage to the United States, Isabel and her daughter are rescued by Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio), a fisherman from Miami; Sam helped Isabel find her way in her new home, and a romance blossoms between the two. However, when Nestor is finally released from prison eight years later and escapes to Miami to be with his wife, he discovers that Isabel's affections are now divided between himself and Sam, while his daughter barely remembers or recognizes him. Danger faces all three sides of this romantic triangle; Sam is asked to use his boat to smuggle Cuban dissidents into Miami, Nestor falls in with a radical fringe group hoping to stage an armed invasion of Cuba, and Isabel, who has become involved with a numbers racket, is in deep trouble after several massive payments were made to someone who never placed a bet. Fires Within was also shown under the title Little Havana; it premiered in Miami, appropriately enough, in its short-lived theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Scacchi, Jimmy Smits, (more)
Stanley Kubrick's return to filmmaking after a seven-year hiatus, this film crystallizes the experience of the Vietnam War by concentrating on a group of raw Marine volunteers. Based on Gustav Hasford's novel The Short Timers, the film's first half details the volunteers' harrowing boot-camp training under the profane, power-saw guidance of drill instructor Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey, a real-life drill instructor whose performance is one of the most terrifyingly realistic on record). Part two takes place in Nam, as seen through the eyes of the now thoroughly indoctrinated marines. Ironically, Full Metal Jacket was filmed almost entirely in England. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, (more)
Aside from the fact of his disability and the possession of a nickname, what does Tony "Ole" Olezniak (Vincent D'Onofrio), a bitter, blinded, football player have in common with wheelchair-bound Bernard "Bern" Lemley (Gregory Hines)? Absolutely nothing until Bern enthusiastically convinces Ole to join him in a whitewater rafting adventure as part of the first step in Bern's plan to offer this and other extreme sporting adventures to other disabled people. During their arduous journey, the disparate duo learn more about themselves and each other, and in so doing, become real friends. This film features appearances by sports-greats Joe Theismann and Roy Firestone as themselves. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Gregory Hines, (more)
- 1996
- R
Simply switch on the nightly news and you will see that the media has become increasingly intrusive into the lives of people involved in extraordinary circumstances. What is the true impact of the omnipresent camera upon those circumstances? How does it change the existence of those living beneath a publicly broadcast microscope? This provocative drama takes the notion of the intruding camera a step further to follow the machinations of a determined documentary filmmaker who chooses an ordinary man on the street for the subject of her latest probing film. In following her attempts to chronicle even the most intimate details of his mundane existence the film offers a double character portrait, not only of the victim himself, but also of the disaffected (and but for her hands, unseen) filmmaker who is unable to relate to life without the barrier of a hand-held camera to protect her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Hope Davis, (more)
Is Ruby Weaver's Mr. Right really an emissary from the year 2,470, or is he just a complete loon ball? This question is at the heart of Brad Anderson's whimsical romantic comedy. The story opens with Ruby (Marisa Tomei) lamenting over her boyfriend Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio) to her shrink (Holland Taylor). In a series of flashbacks, the film quickly sketches Ruby as a neurotic with an unhappy track record concerning men and Sam as an oddball who is afraid of small dogs and has a barcode tattooed to his arm. But he's nuts over Ruby, and at least initially, that is enough for her. Slowly, Sam begins to reveal his "past." He tells her that he is from the Dubuque of the future and that he hails from a rare "anachronistic" family who believe that reproduction should occur the old-fashioned, fun way as opposed to the more popular cloning method. At first, Ruby is amused, until she realizes that he's not kidding. After a series of arguments, he agrees to visit Ruby's analyst, which yields unexpected results. This film premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marisa Tomei, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
- 1997
As dozens of commuters look on in horror, John Langer (Vincent D'Onofrio) falls between the cars of a subway train. No one, however, is quite certain whether Langer fell accidentally, jumped, or was deliberately pushed. But the homicide detectives on the scene are certain about one disturbing fact: If any attempt is made to move Langer, he will probably die on the spot. As the grimly philosophical Langer awaits the inevitable, the detectives search for two people -- one of whom may be a killer. "Subway" was the episode profiled on the PBS documentary Anatomy of a 'Homicide: Life on the Street' (originally telecast November 4, 1998). The episode was also nominated for two Emmys: one for D'Onofrio as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, the other for James Yoshimura for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, (more)
- 1993
- R
Household Saints is a leisurely-paced portrait of three different generations of working-class, New York-based, Italian women. Carmela Santangelo (Judith Malina) is an elderly immigrant whose son (Vincent D'Onofrio) wins a wife, Catherine Falconetti (Tracey Ullman), during a pinochle game. The pair have a daughter, Teresa (Lili Taylor), who becomes obsessed with religion, eventually believing that she will become the bride of Christ. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
Usually cast in showy or unsympathetic supporting roles, Harvey Keitel here gets the rare chance to play a leading role as a "nice guy" -- albeit a nice guy with some serious problems -- in this family drama. Ray Weiler (Keitel) is the widowed father of two girls, high school senior Sonya (Fairuza Balk) and her younger sister Greta (Elizabeth Moss). Ray is full of get-rich-quick schemes that never quite pan out and often skirt the edges of the law. While it's obvious that he loves his daughters, he's hardly a healthy role model, and Sonya and Greta both know it -- dealing with bill collectors and angry investors who've dumped money into one of their father's schemes is just a part of life at the Weiler household. Ray has enrolled Sonya in a private school that he can't actually afford, but he's certain his latest mining venture is going to bring him some real money. Mr. Webster (Vincent D'Onofrio), one of Sonya's teachers, thinks she has a real gift as a writer and should go on to college. Sonya, however, knows that Ray would be against it -- and even if he did approve, how would they pay for it? Meanwhile, Ray seems to have found a backer for his latest mining project -- a man named Jarvis (Chris Penn) -- but one of his partners starts to get cold feet, and Jarvis looks like a man who does not take disappointment well. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harvey Keitel, Fairuza Balk, (more)
This long-delayed science fiction thriller from director Gary Fleder was actually filmed prior to his box-office hit Don't Say a Word (2001), which preceded it in theaters by several months. Based on a 1953 short story by Philip K. Dick, the film shares that schizophrenic author's long-running obsessions with concealed identity and humanity's potential inferiority to alternative life forms. Gary Sinise stars as Spencer John Olham, a respected government scientist in the year 2079 trying to devise a secret weapon that will help his fellow humans win a decade-long war with invading aliens that are cloning human subjects and using the replicas as walking time bombs. Suddenly, Olham is accused of being an alien spy and a nationwide manhunt to capture him ensues. With even his doctor wife (Madeleine Stowe) unsure that she can trust him, Olham must uncover the truth on his own, even as he's relentlessly pursued by Hathaway (Vincent D'Onofrio), a federal agent charged with destroying the clones. Imposter has a complicated history, originally produced in early 2000 as a 30-minute short to be included in an anthology entitled "The Light Years Trilogy," a project that never got off the ground. So impressed was Dimension Films with the completed piece, however, that the footage was incorporated into a new feature version. That film was then shuffled around the release schedule for more than a year as effects were completed, reshoots were ordered, and the film was recut for a PG-13 rating instead of its original R. The R-rated "director's cut" was later released on DVD. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe, (more)
- 1985
The comedy and thrills are a little anemic in this movie based on a real-life experience of director Jacob Burckhardt. Warren (Reed Bye) is accosted in Brooklyn one evening by rather unusual muggers -- they steal his can of film (this movie's first version?). Warren is alone in his anxiety over his work being lost for good, since the police, his neighbors and friends, and several other characters including the muggers themselves are not deeply moved by his problem. This motley crew misuse him, harass him, threaten him, or they just offer advice. In spite of the efforts of poet Allen Ginsberg as a shady lawyer and William Burroughs as a shadier Mafioso, the stolen film recedes into the murky distance, taking with it the conclusion to Warren's dilemma. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Bye, Allen Ginsberg, (more)
The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder conducted under the guidance of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren distressed many observers, even though subsequent careful investigations have been unable to find much fault with the conclusions his commission drew, the central one of which was that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone. Instead of satisfying the public, one result of the Warren Commission Report was that an unimaginable number of plausible conspiracy theories were bruited about, and these have supported a sizeable publishing mini-industry ever since. In making this movie, director Oliver Stone had his pick of supposed or real investigative flaws to draw from and has constructed what some reviewers felt was one of the most compelling (and controversial) political detective thrillers ever to emerge from American cinema. Long before filming was completed, Stone was fending off heated accusations of artistic and historical irresponsibility, and these only intensified after the film was released. In the story, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) is convinced that there are some big flaws in the investigation of Oswald (Gary Oldman), and he sets out to recreate the events leading up to the assassination. Along the way, he stumbles across evidence that a great many people had reason to want to see the president killed, and he is convinced that some of them worked in concert to frame Oswald as the killer. Among the suspects are Lyndon Baines Johnson (the next president), the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Mafia. Over the course of gathering what he believes to be evidence of a conspiracy, Garrison unveils some of the grittier aspects of New Orleans society, focusing on the shady activities of local businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones). Garrison's investigations culminate in his conducting a show trial that he knows he will lose and which he is sure will ruin his career in order to get his evidence into the public record where it can't be buried again. This movie won two of the many Academy Awards for which it was nominated: one for Best Photography (Robert Richardson) and the other for Editing (Joe Hutshing). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, (more)
- 2001
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When crimes make the headlines, the NYPD Major Case Squad goes to work in ensuring that the worst offenders on the streets are securely held under lock and key. Homicide Investigator Robert Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) is the best in the Big Apple, and along with his partner Detective Alexandra James (Kathryn Erbe), the crimefighting duo are ready to tackle any case that Captain James Deakons (Jamey Sheridan) assigns them. As Investigator Goren and Detective James attempt to look into the minds of the city's toughest criminals, District Attorney Rom Carver (Courtney Vance) is always willing to lend a hand. When a scheming thief and his girlfriend enlist the aid of three master criminals in pulling off a major jewelry heist, the resourceful detectives will need every trick in the book to crack the case and bring the devious diamond thieves to justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, (more)
