Melissa Martin Movies
- 2005
- Add American Experience: Victory in the Pacific to QueueAdd American Experience: Victory in the Pacific to top of Queue
Victory in the Pacific documents the ending of the fighting in World War II's Pacific Theater. The film shows how the brutality and fatalities increased, and lays out the timeline of the various choices that led to the dropping of the atomic bomb -- the act that led most directly to the end of WWII. This video is part of the American Experience series. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 2002
A Brilliant Madness chronicles the life of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Nash. Born in Bluefield, WV, the eccentric Nash joined the prestigious math department at Princeton in the late '40s. In 1950, at the age of 21, he developed the Nash Equilibrium, a challenge to traditional game theory that would prove revolutionary to economics. No one, however, recognized its importance at the time. After receiving his doctorate, Nash began teaching at M.I.T. where he met and married Alicia Larde. He was frustrated, though, by the slow progress of his career and began to exhibit signs of mental imbalance. He claimed that aliens were sending him coded messages and that his picture was on the cover of Life disguised as the Pope. Nash was committed for a short time to McLean Hospital where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. For the next 20 years, Nash suffered from the disease until he slowly began to recover in the 1980s. In 1994, he received the Nobel Prize for his work in game theory and resumed his work at Princeton University. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liev Schreiber
- 2002
"The Revolution Has Begun" is part two of American Experience: Chicago - City of the Century, based on the book by Don Miller. David Ogden Stiers narrates. After the Chicago Fire of 1871, the city began to rebuild. Marshall Fields opens his dream department store on State Street and Cyrus McCormick rebuilds his reaper plant. But the big industry becomes cattle dealing, led by butcher Gustavus Swift. Immigrants from Eastern Europe flock to the city to work as meatpackers. The immigrants bring socialism with them, helping to jump-start the American labor movement. In 1886, a labor activist rally becomes violent in Chicago's Haymarket Square. Workers on strike from the reaper factory are killed by police during a riot, leading to a bombing. This program was originally broadcast on PBS in January of 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
- 2002
"Battle for Chicago" is part three of American Experience: Chicago - City of the Century, based on the book by Don Miller. David Ogden Stiers narrates. After the Haymarket Square incident, the unified work force was defeated and crime was on the rise. The various European immigrants in Chicago created ethnic ghettos in opposition to one another. Prostitution, corruption, and drug use increased. In 1889, social reformer Jane Addams established Hull House, a settlement house in the West Side that offered free social services and education for poor people. Social changes led to the construction of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Auditorium Theater. Chicago was named the site for the 1893 World's Fair. This program was originally broadcast on PBS in January of 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
- 2002
"Mudhole to Metropolis" is part one of American Experience: Chicago - City of the Century, based on the book by Don Miller. David Ogden Stiers narrates. The story begins in 1673, when French explorers took a canoe up the Illinois River and found a smelly marshland that the Indians called Chicagoua. The French chose not to settle there and the area was used as a fur trading post until the 1800s. When the Erie Canal was finished, the marsh was a good way to link the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. By 1833, the Potawatomi tribe was forced out and white men from New England bought up the land. Then the Irish immigrants who had dug the Erie Canal arrived looking for work. The city's first mayor, William Butler Ogden, helped make Chicago the world's largest railroad hub, lumber market, and grain port. The city experienced an economic boom until the great Chicago Fire of 1871. Over three miles of the city was destroyed. This program was originally broadcast on PBS in January of 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
