Tom Berenger Movies

In a remote branch of the Brazilian Amazon, Americans Lewis (Tom Berenger) and Wolf (Tom Waits) are stranded when their plane runs out of gas. They are kept company by an evangelist missionary (John Lithgow) and his wife (Darryl Hannah). The preacher and his followers want to preach to the primitive Niaruna Indians, while others are interested in the Niaruna for more diabolical reasons-specifically, business concerns that would like to claim the Indians' land for development. The local police chief cuts a deal with the mercenaries Lewis and Wolf: if they will agree to bomb the Niarunas out of existence, they will be paid enough money to leave the country. Instead, Lewis, part Native American himself,aligns himself with the Niarunas. From this moment on, he and the tribe are doomed. A long-standing pet project of producer Saul Zaentz, At Play in the Fields of the Lord was adapted from the best-selling novel by Peter Matthiesen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in Iowa, Betrayed stars Debra Winger as an FBI agent who infiltrates a Klanlike white supremacist organization. Allegedly a woman of intelligence and perception, Winger throws caution and logic to the winds when she falls in love with local farmer Tom Berenger. Much to her surprise Berenger turns out to be the most rabid racist of all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by enlisting with the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. Once he is overseas, however, Kovic's gung-ho enthusiasm turns to horror and confusion when he accidentally kills one of his own men in a firefight. His downfall is furthered by a bullet wound that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns home, spends an appalling, nightmarish stint in a veterans' hospital, and follows an increasingly disillusioned and fragmented path that ultimately leaves him drunk and dissolute in Mexico. However, Kovic somehow turns himself around and pulls his life together, becoming an outspoken anti-war activist in the process. The film is long but emotionally powerful; many consider it Stone's best work and Cruise's best performance. Both were nominated for Oscars, as was the film itself, but only Stone, who co-wrote the film with Kovic from the latter's book, won for Best Director. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

This "prequel" to the Newman/Redford vehicle Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was written by TV sitcom veteran Allan Burns and stars Tom Berenger as Butch and William Katt as Sundance. The film, per its title, traces the formative days of Butch and Sundance's careers as soft-hearted western outlaws, and their creation of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. There's no Etta Place this time around; the fictional heroine, named Mary, is played by Jill Eikenberry. Only Jeff Corey, as Sheriff Ray Bledsoe, repeats his role from the original film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally telecast as a two-hour special (including a 25-minute retrospective of series highlights), the famous final episode of Cheers has since been re-edited as three separate half-hour installments for syndication. In part one, Sam (Ted Danson) is surprised to see his former fiancée Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) on TV, accepting a screenwriting award. Phoning Diane to congratulate her, Sam saves face by claiming that he's happily married -- and she, for the same reason, says the same thing. Meanwhile, plumber Don Santry (Tom Berenger) proposes to Rebecca (Kirstie Alley), who finds it extremely hard to accept even though all of her wants to do so. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally telecast as a two-hour special (including a 25-minute retrospective of series highlights), the famous final episode of Cheers has since been re-edited as three separate half-hour installments for syndication. In the concluding 30 minutes of this fourth-highest-rated series finale in TV history, Sam Malone (Ted Danson) and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) have rekindled their romance and are on the verge of getting married. But this would require Sam to relocate to California -- and to close up Cheers. And what will become of the rest of the gang? Well, at least we know what happened to Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Georges Mihalka directs this psychological thriller about a serial killer who befriends an unsuspecting brother and sister who are still reeling from the death of their father. Adam Turrell (Tom Berenger) takes up residence in a small Oregon burg and pretends he is an English teacher currently writing his debut novel. He is actually a madman who is methodically selecting his next victim. Kate and Mike (Rachel Hayward and Tygh Runyan) must work past their grief and the trust they have developed in Turrell to stay alive.Cruel and Unusual is also known by the title Watchtower. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam was first telecast April 3, 1988, over the HBO cable service. Based on the book of the same name, the program is devoted to poignant recitations of letters to and from American participants of the Vietnam war. The letters are heard over images culled from news footage, home movies and still photography, with contemporary music added to put things in the proper historical context. The 2-hour film, featuring readings from various well-known actors (see cast list), was a co-production involving Bill Couturie, a previous Emmy winner for Vietnam Requiem, and the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theatre Company. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the early 1960's, Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare) and his band The Cruisers enjoyed a brief fling with success, but their career came to a halt when Eddie's badly damaged car was discovered in an accident on a bridge. However, Eddie's body was never found, and years later, a reissue of the group's only album sparks rumors that the mysterious Eddie might still be alive. Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger), Eddie's former piano player and lyricist, finds himself trailed by Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin), a reporter trying to find out the truth about Eddie, as well as another former bandmate who wants Frank to join his revamped version of the Cruisers -- and is trying to track down the tapes for the Cruisers' unreleased second album. While not a box-office success on its original release, Eddie and the Cruisers developed a following after its showings on cable television and release on videotape; this led to the belated success of the film's soundtrack album, featuring a number of bombastic neo-Springsteen numbers by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. Beaver Brown saxophonist Michael "Tunes" Antunes plays Wendell, the Cruisers' sax player and Eddie's best friend (despite the fact that we never hear him speak). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

To paraphrase 1930s wit Wilson Mizner, Fear City is like a trip through a sewer in a glass-bottom boat. In exploitation-flick fashion, the film exposes the seedy "nether world" of contemporary Manhattan. Unsavory Matt (Tom Berenger) and Nick (Jack Scalia) run a topless bar/booking agency, in direct competition with equally scuzzy Goldstein (Jan Murray). It's hard to imagine anyone lower than these low-lives until we're apprised of a serial killer who dutifully keeps a record of his murders in a diary. The killer's victims are all exotic dancers and hookers, prompting Matt to suspect that Goldstein is behind the crimes, and vice versa. Once they've decided that it's better to unite against a common enemy than to throw volleys at each other, Matt and Goldstein arrange between themselves to insure the safety of the women in their employ. Meanwhile, Matt's ex-girlfriend Loretta (Melanie Griffith), saddened by the murder of her lesbian lover Leila (Rae Dawn Chong), resumes her drug habit, while a dispirited Matt begins harking back to his own sordid past. The one redeeming aspect of Fear City is the ultimate triumph over the odds by Loretta, who by process of elimination emerges as the most likeable character in the bunch. For a film of this nature, Fear City boasts an unexpectedly strong cast, including the aforementioned actors and Billy Dee Williams, Rosanno Brazzi, Joe Santos and Michael V. Gazzo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara becomes this sprawling historical epic. As in Shaara's novel, director Ronald Maxwell focuses on a handful of major players to dramatize the events of July 1863, when the armies of the Union and Confederacy clash at the small Pennsylvania town of the title. Among them are Martin Sheen as General Robert E. Lee, who disagrees with his top advisor, General James Longstreet (Tom Berenger) over battle strategy, and Jeff Daniels as Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor whose unorthodox techniques save the day (and possibly the war) for his beleaguered army. Other cast standouts include Richard Jordan in his final film appearance as the ill-fated General Lewis Armistead, and cameo roles for Civil War buff Ken Burns and media mogul producer Ted Turner. Filmed on-location at Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg was shot as a television miniseries for Turner's TNT cable channel, but earned a limited theatrical release. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide