Stellan Skarsgård Movies

A Swedish actor who has become known to American audiences thanks to roles in Breaking the Waves and Good Will Hunting, Stellan Skarsgård is one of Scandinavia's best-known and most well-respected performers. Renowned for giving measured characterizations that draw their strength from a delicate complexity, Skarsgård is one of those rare actors who is able to do strong work regardless of the quality of the material he is in, displaying the sort of quiet fortitude that allows him to survive even the worst screen fiascos.

Born in Gothenburg on June 13, 1951, Skarsgård became a star in his country, when, as a teenager, he was cast on the TV series Bombi Bitt och jag. After his film debut in 1972, he did years of stage work with Stockholm's Royal Dramatic and made a number of dramas with the director Hans Alfredson, the most notable of which, Den Enfaldige Mordaren, featured Skarsgård in a Silver Berlin Bear-winning performance as a misunderstood man with a deformity. In 1988, Skarsgård got a tentative introduction to a transatlantic audience with a small role in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being; two years later, he had a similarly minor role in another international hit, The Hunt for Red October.

Skarsgård's true international breakthrough came courtesy of his role as Emily Watson's husband in Lars Von Trier's highly acclaimed Breaking the Waves (1996). The actor more than held his own opposite Watson, who gave one of the year's most lauded performances, and he found previously unimagined opportunities available to him in Hollywood. In 1997, he starred as a frustrated mathematician in Gus Van Sant's award-winning Good Will Hunting and was also featured in Steven Spielberg's Amistad; his work in both films culminated in an Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema award from the European Film Academy. Later that same year, the actor appeared in My Son the Fanatic as a German businessman with the unfortunate surname of Schitz -- he also gave a stellar portrayal of a detective who slowly loses his mind while investigating a murder in the Norwegian film Insomnia.

A prolific actor, Skarsgård appeared in a number of small ambitious projects in 2000, including Passion of Mind with Demi Moore, Mike Figgis' Time Code, and Harlan County War. The following year, while he showed up in the poorly-received thriller The Glass House, Skarsgård gained critical praise for his performance in Taking Sides.

2003 saw Skarsgård taking a role in Lars von Trier's highly anticipated Dogville and signing on for the oft-plagued The Exorcist: The Beginning. After several debacles, the prequel to the horror classic finally found its way to movie theaters in 2004, the same year the actor costarred in Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
2000  
 
Add Aberdeen to QueueAdd Aberdeen to top of Queue
Set in Norway and Scotland, Aberdeen is a road movie that is as concerned with the geography of the heart as that of a topographical map. Kaisa (Lena Headey) is an ambitious lawyer who has just celebrated her recent promotion by having dominant sex with a man whose name she has no interest in learning. When her estranged mother, Helen (Charlotte Rampling), whom she hasn't been in contact with for a decade, calls her up to tell her that she is dying of cancer, Kaisa is faced with her mother's request to track down her divorced husband, Tomas (Stellan Skarsgard). A raging drunk, Tomas has been frequenting the pubs of Norway for a number of years, and Kaisa, after some initial hesitation, sets out for Oslo to find him. When she is finally reunited with Tomas, his drunkenness prevents them from being allowed on the flight back to Aberdeen, where her mother is hospitalized. Kaisa and Tomas embark on an overland journey that takes them across Norway and on a ferry to England, with Tomas drinking constantly and Kaisa discovering something that may be love with a self-effacing truck driver (Ian Hart). ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdLena Headey, (more)
1984  
 
Ake and His World is a long, lyrical study of a Swedish country doctor of the 1930s. Ake is the doctor's six year old son, from whose point of view this film is told. Ake watches in innocent bemusement as his busy father weighs life and death issues on a daily basis. It's possible that this Swedish film bore a little influence on the 1991 American comedy My Girl (91), in which the young heroine's father is a mortician. Allan Edwall both wrote and directed this film, which was released in its native country as Ake og hans värld. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Martin LindströmLoa Falkman, (more)
1997  
R  
Add Amistad to QueueAdd Amistad to top of Queue
This Steven Spielberg-directed exploration into a long-ago episode in African-American history recounts the trial that followed the 1839 rebellion aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad and captures the complex political maneuverings set in motion by the event. Filmed in New England and Puerto Rico, the 152-minute drama opens with a pre-credit sequence showing Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) and the other Africans in a violent takeover of the Amistad. Captured, they are imprisoned in New England where former slave Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman), viewing the rebels as "freedom fighters," approaches property lawyer Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), who attempts to prove the Africans were "stolen goods" because they were kidnapped. Running for re-election, President Martin Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) overturns the lower court's decision in favor of the Africans. Former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) is reluctant to become involved, but when the case moves on to the Supreme Court, Adams stirs emotions with a powerful defense. The storyline occasionally cuts away to Spain where the young Queen Isabella (Anna Paquin) plays with dolls; she later debated the Amistad case with seven U.S. presidents. The character portrayed by Morgan Freeman is a fictional composite of several historical figures. For authentic speech, the Africans speak the Mende language, subtitled during some scenes but not others. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Morgan FreemanAnthony Hopkins, (more)
2009  
PG13  
Add Angels & Demons to QueueAdd Angels & Demons to top of Queue
Angels and Demons re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Although the book Angels and Demons was written before the novel The Da Vinci Code, the movie transpires after the events of the earlier movie. Hanks stars as professor Robert Langdon, the most respected symbologist in the United States, who uses his knowledge in order to decode a symbol on the skin of a murder victim. The clues put him on the trail of an international conspiracy involving the Catholic Church. Ewan McGregor and Ayelet Zurer also star in the Sony Pictures production. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Tom HanksAyelet Zurer, (more)
2005  
R  
Add Beowulf & Grendel to QueueAdd Beowulf & Grendel to top of Queue
One of the oldest epic poems in the English language gets a robust visual interpretation in this historical epic shot on location in Iceland. Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård) is a Danish king who murders a troll that has been terrorizing his countryside. But Hrothgar spares the life of the troll's strange young son, who with the passage of years grows to become Grendel (Ingvar Sigurdsson), a fearsome warrior intent upon avenging his father's death. As Grendel begins his slaughter of the king's closest confidants, Hrothgar realizes his life is in danger, and he calls upon the brave and fearless Beowulf (Gerard Butler) to track down and kill Grendel. As Beowulf and his band of warriors search for the vicious and elusive Grendel, he crosses paths with Selma (Sarah Polley), a beautiful and sensuous witch whose alliances are divided between Beowulf and his archenemy. Produced by Canadian, British, and Icelandic concerns, Beowulf & Grendel was a major box-office success in Canada before crossing south to American theaters in the summer of 2006. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Gerard ButlerStellan Skarsgård, (more)
1996  
R  
Add Breaking the Waves to QueueAdd Breaking the Waves to top of Queue
With Breaking The Waves, director Lars von Trier fashions an often disturbing tale of the singular power of love. Bess (the Oscar-nominated Emily Watson) is a naïve, borderline simple young woman who lives in a Scottish coastal town ruled by the religious doctrine of its council of elders. Recovering from a mental breakdown caused by the death of her brother, Bess marries a rough yet compassionate and attentive oil rig worker named Jan (Stellan Skarsgård). For a brief time, the couple enjoys peaceful wedded bliss, with the worldly Jan introducing Bess to the mysteries of sex. Jan must soon return to his job on the rig, however, where he is paralyzed from the neck down in a freak accident. Bess' emotional trauma over Jan's injury turns into obsession as she prays to God for his recovery and offers to do anything to have her husband back whole. Jan, constantly medicated and profoundly depressed, asks Bess to have sex with other men and tell him about it, thinking this will allow her to return to a normal life. Bess, on the other hand, sees it as an expression of her devotion to Jan that even God won't be able to ignore. Bess' resultant downward spiral leads to a finale of both tragedy and spirituality. Breaking the Waves is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive European movies of the 1990s, marking von Trier's movement toward his influential Dogma 95 school of filmmaking, which emphasizes realistic situations of contemporary life, filmed without background music and with a hand-held, restlessly moving camera. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Emily WatsonStellan Skarsgård, (more)
2002  
R  
Add City of Ghosts to QueueAdd City of Ghosts to top of Queue
Leading man Matt Dillon makes his directorial debut with the crime thriller City of Ghosts. Jimmy (Dillon) is a New York con man fleeing the U.S. for Bangkok in order to avoid an insurance scam investigation. He goes to Cambodia to meet up with his former business partner, Marvin (James Caan), to collect his half of the money. Along the way, he makes friends with local man, Sok (Sereyvuth Kem), and romances Sophie (Natascha McElhone). Also starring Gérard Depardieu and Stellan Skarsgård. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Matt DillonNatascha McElhone, (more)
1999  
R  
Add Deep Blue Sea to QueueAdd Deep Blue Sea to top of Queue
Although mako sharks are among the fastest and deadliest predators in the ocean, they're not as smart as humans -- at least, they weren't. However, Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) has been using mako sharks as her test subjects for research on the regeneration of human brain tissues. McAlester has altered the DNA of several sharks, raising them close to the level of human intelligence; the sharks have also become faster and stronger in the process. While these DNA experiments have yielded fascinating results, they're also of questionable ethics and legality, earning her the distrust of several members of her crew, including shark authority Carter Blake (Thomas Jane and cook "Preacher" Dudley (LL Cool J). The financial backers of these experiments have also expressed skepticism, so when McAlester is ready to perform some major tests, financier Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives for the occasion. McAlester and her team are delicately extracting brain tissue from one of the altered makos when the animal regains consciousness - and becomes very angry. The shark not only attacks the researchers but also damages the floating lab, leaving the crew aboard a literally sinking ship, with the makos eager to go a few rounds - in an arena that favors sharks. Deep Blue Sea was directed by Renny Harlin, and filmed in Mexico at Fox Studios Baja in the underwater filming facilities created for James Cameron's Titanic. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Thomas JaneSaffron Burrows, (more)
1992  
 
Carl Hamilton is in one sense a peculiar sort of secret agent in that he has a license to kill but applies his conscience to that license far more often than is comfortable for him. In another sense, since he is Swedish, it makes sense that this would be so. In this story, one of a series of successful films based on this character from the novels of Jan Guillou, he has been given the task of infiltrating a group of terrorists operating out of Hamburg, who reportedly intend to attack the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm. After falling in love with one beautiful terrorist, he attempts to get her to change her ways by the force of moral persuasion rather than arms. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdKatja Flint, (more)
1982  
 
A young man (Stellan Skarsgård) with a harelip deformity has been called the "idiot" since he was little because of his difficulty in talking. When his mother dies, Hoglund (Hans Alfredson), a rich, despotic, Nazi landowner brings the boy to his farm and abuses him through overwork, feeds him food unfit for consumption, and forces him to sleep in the barn. Additional verbal humiliation is piled on top of these inhumane acts, until the boy finds some sympathy and assistance from a kind family nearby. They decide to take him in, and the young man does well enough to save his earnings and buy a motorcycle -- defeating Hoglund's attempt to prevent him from getting a license. While all this is going on, the young man and Anna (Maria Johansson), the kindly farmer's daughter who is confined to a wheelchair, fall in love with each other. But Hogland is determined to ruin the family and he manages to do so by paying off all the farmer's creditors and then expelling the family from their homestead. Pushed beyond his capacity to bend, the young man kills Hoglund and escapes with Anna. During this time, he has visions of three avenging angels who have appeared before whenever he was in trouble or when he was reading the Bible. It is the angels who encouraged him to kill Hoglund, and who stay with him afterwards. He and Anna escape in Hoglund's car, and they find a temporary shelter in a very old house. When Anna starts reading to him from the Bible, he falls asleep, and she looks out the window to see that people are coming to the house. She must make a decision on how to handle this new danger, and as she reaches for the pistol that had belonged to Hoglund, the decision is reached as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdHans Alfredson, (more)
2003  
R  
Add Dogville to QueueAdd Dogville to top of Queue
Set in a small fictional town in the U.S. during the 1930s, Lars von Trier's Dogville was filmed in a studio with a minimal set and features narration by John Hurt. On the run from a group of gangsters, Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives in the small mining town of Dogville. Town philosopher Tom Edison (Paul Bettany) takes her in and strikes a deal with her: She'll work for the townsfolk in exchange for a safe place to hide; after two weeks the people will vote for her to either stay or go. Grace agrees to the terms and ends up meeting the locals, including the town doctor (Philip Baker Hall), shopkeeper (Lauren Bacall), and apple farmer (Stellan Skarsgård). Eventually, Grace's standing in the town takes a downward shift as the search for her intensifies. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Nicole KidmanJohn Hurt, (more)
2005  
R  
Add Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist to QueueAdd Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist to top of Queue
In 2003, respected filmmaker and screenwriter Paul Schrader was hired to direct a prequel to the 1973 box-office smash The Exorcist. However, when Schrader turned in his film to executives at Morgan Creek Productions, the producers felt the film was not marketable, and they opted to remake the picture with director Renny Harlin, who brought a more visually aggressive approach to the story than Schrader's more contemplative vision. In 2004, Harlin's film, Exorcist: The Beginning, was released to middling critical and financial response, while the following year, Schrader's version went into limited release following film festival screenings. In Schrader's Exorcist: The Prequel, Father Lankester Merrin, the aging exorcist from the original story (played here by Stellan Skarsgård) is introduced in 1944, as he serves a flock in Holland during the Nazi occupation. After Nazi officers force Merrin to choose ten members of his congregation for immediate execution, Merrin is left an emotionally broken man, and he takes a leave of absence from his duties. Three years later, Merrin is taking part in an archeological project in East Africa, and he and his crew -- including priest Father Francis (Gabriel Mann), Major Granville (Julian Wadham), and Rachel Lesno (Clara Bellar) -- discover that a church from the fifth century has been buried in the desert. As Merrin and his associates discover that that a porthole to evil is located in the church, Cheche (Billy Crawford), a local boy Merrin has taken under his wing, begins showing signs of having fallen under the spell of Satanic forces. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdGabriel Mann, (more)
2004  
R  
Add Exorcist: The Beginning to QueueAdd Exorcist: The Beginning to top of Queue
Planned for years, but plagued by problems such as the death of director John Frankenheimer before production had even begun and the exiting of star Liam Neeson, the fourth installment of the Exorcist saga finally got off the ground with Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto Focus) behind the camera and Stellan Skarsgård filling the shoes left empty by Neeson. But the pitfalls didn't stop there, as Morgan Creek decided against their initial approach assigned to Schrader after seeing his finished cut, and hired Renny Harlin to reshoot the film with extra gore and head-spinning nastiness. The first prequel in the series, Exorcist: The Beginning is based upon events occurring before the first film. Playing the character made famous by Max von Sydow in the earlier films, this entry finds Skarsgård as a young Father Merrin facing true evil for the first time in Africa in the wake of World War II. When a young local boy begins to behave strangely, it becomes more and more apparent to Merrin that the child is a victim of demonic possession. Boasting a first-time screenplay by best-selling novelist Caleb Carr (The Alienist), Exorcist: The Beginning features a supporting cast headed by Izabella Scorupco (GoldenEye) and James D'Arcy (Master And Commander). ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdIzabella Scorupco, (more)
1985  
 
A nail-biting, hair-raising suspense yarn that feeds on jealousy, this chilling film by Hans Alfredson has John (Sverre Anker Ousdal), a philandering husband, fall in love with Clara (Malin Ek), a young poetess. When Clara and John move into an apartment on the sleazy side of town, neither her former lover nor his wife put up much objection. Then oddly menacing things start to happen in the apartment: objects are misplaced in a dangerous way, the gas leaks, and someone unknown is filling the place with graffiti. Clara's health degenerates rapidly, and as ominous circumstances push her and John to the brink, a shocking revelation looms ahead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Malin EkSverre Anker Ousdal, (more)
1988  
 
John (Dennis Christopher) is a legal assistant who investigates divorce cases in this offbeat comedy drama. He looks forward to marriage to his fiancee Sally (Edita Brychta), but his daydream is interrupted when a model plane crashes through his window. A bratty kid enters the room, followed by the child's parents, another brother, two daughters and the grandmother. The family ignores John's protests and threats to call the police. Although he has never seen these people before, everyone assures John he is among friends. He is seduced by the oldest daughter, and the son make a pass at Sally before the youngest daughter makes a pass at John. His once-predictable world is turned upside down with the arrival of his mysterious "friends." ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Dennis ChristopherSven Wollter, (more)
1998  
 
This Swedish-Norwegian-Danish children's film is an adaptation of the popular 1964 children's book by Maria Gripe, a classic translated into more than 20 languages. Author Gripe refused to allow a film version until she saw Gronos' adaptation of her novel Agnes Cecilia. Set in the 19th Century, the tale has Snow Queen overtones as the spoiled woman of a royal family wants children for the cold corridors of her vast, sterile castle. After her husband kidnaps the glassblower's children, they are turned into amnesiacs and forced to live in the castle, where they are tortured and abused by their tutor, a weird witch. Production design by Jan Olof Agren contrasts the two settings -- the warmth and art of the glassblower's realistic world as opposed to the heightened sense of dread lurking throughout the mythical and stylized castle. Shown at the 1998 Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdPernilla August, (more)
2008  
 
Add God on Trial to QueueAdd God on Trial to top of Queue
In a universe presumably ruled by a benevolent, all-powerful God, how can events such as the Holocaust possibly come to pass? This is the question posed by a group of inmates in Auschwitz, the Third Reich's most notorious death camp, in this reflective war drama written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Millions, Code 46), and directed by Andy DeEmmony (Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story). Realizing that their extermination is imminent, the prisoners attempt to make sense of their fate by putting God on trial. How is it that the deity they call the Almighty could abandon His chosen people in their hour of need? As the sound of prisoners being marched to the gas chambers drifts hauntingly through the walls, the trial gets underway. The questions posed during the inquest are profoundly difficult and deeply complex, and as the hour draws near when they, too, will face death at the hands of their captors, the thoughtful prisoners finally reach a verdict. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Antony SherRupert Graves, (more)
1990  
 
Add Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg to QueueAdd Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg to top of Queue
This historical drama chronicles the struggle of Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg (Stella Skarsgard), as he fought valiantly to save the lives of the Jewish residents of Nazi-occupied Budapest. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan SkarsgårdKatharina Thalbach, (more)
1997  
R  
Add Good Will Hunting to QueueAdd Good Will Hunting to top of Queue
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck co-scripted and star in this drama, set in Boston and Cambridge, about rebellious 20-year-old MIT janitor Will Hunting (Damon), gifted with a photographic memory, who hangs out with his South Boston bar buddies, his best friend Chuckie (Affleck), and his affluent British girlfriend Skylar (Minnie Driver). After MIT professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) stumps students with a challenging math formula on a hallway blackboard, Will anonymously leaves the correct solution, prompting Lambeau to track the elusive young genius. As Will's problems with the police escalate, Lambeau offers an out, but with two conditions -- visits to a therapist and weekly math sessions. Will agrees to the latter but refuses to cooperate with a succession of therapists. Lambeau then contacts his former classmate, therapist Sean McGuire (Robin Williams), an instructor at Bunker Hill Community College. Both are equally stubborn, but Will is finally forced to deal with both his past and his future. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Matt DamonRobin Williams, (more)
2006  
R  
Add Goya's Ghosts to QueueAdd Goya's Ghosts to top of Queue
The lives of a great artist, a corrupted holy man, and a beautiful woman cross paths at a crucial moment in history in this epic-scale historical drama from director Milos Forman. Near the end of the 18th century, Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) is a gifted but controversial artist whose provocative and often satirical work has earned the enmity of the Spanish government as well as the Catholic Church, who hold tremendous power as the Inquisition rages. Surprisingly, Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), a monk involved in the Inquisition, has hired Goya to paint a portrait of himself, and to prove to the Inquisitor General (Michel Lonsdale) he's not in cahoots with the renegade artist, Lorenzo targets Inés (Natalie Portman), one of Goya's favorite models, as a possible heretic. Under torture from Lorenzo, Inés signs a false confession, and her wealthy and powerful father, Tomás Bilbatúa (José Luis Gómez), offers Lorenzo a taste of his own medicine by brow-beating him into signing a document confessing that his mother was an ape. Lorenzo flees Spain as his reputation lies in tatters, and Goya earns greater infamy as he paints a wildly unflattering portrait of Queen María Luisa (Blanca Portillo) under commission from her husband, King Carlos IV (Randy Quaid), but Inés remains in prison thanks to her coerced confession. Fifteen years later, Lorenzo has become a follower of the Enlightenment, and returns to Spain as Napoleon's forces storm the nation and the Inquisition finally collapses; Lorenzo attempts to liberate Inés from prison, but a shocking discovery awaits him. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Javier BardemNatalie Portman, (more)
2000  
 
Add Harlan County War to QueueAdd Harlan County War to top of Queue
The true story of one of the most contentious labor disputes of the 1970s is the basis for this made-for-cable drama. In 1973, many of the men of Harlan County, Kentucky, were employed by Brookside Mining, who operated a number of coal mines. Brookside paid its employees meager wages for dangerous, backbreaking work, and also controlled housing and retail sales in the area, boarding its workers in shacks without central heating or indoor plumbing, and selling them food and clothing at inflated prices. Warren Jakopovich (Stellan Skarsgard), an organizer for the United Mine Workers Association, encouraged Brookside's workers to join the union and go on strike for fair wages and better working conditions. Many of the miners simply couldn't afford the loss of income that a strike would mean, but when two workers died as a result of Brookside's willful ignorance of safety standards, most of Harlan County's mine workers finally went on strike. A judge formerly employed by Brookside handed down an order forbidding the workers to picket the mine sites, but Ruby Kincaid (Holly Hunter), whose husband Silas (Ted Levine) was fired for protesting dangerous conditions and whose father was attacked by scab laborers, organized the wives of striking miners to picket in their place. The Harlan County War was based on the same strike portrayed in the Academy Award-winning documentary Harlan County, USA. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Holly HunterStellan Skarsgård, (more)
1996  
 
A married barber finds himself faced with difficult choices and ends up seeking solace in the arms of another woman in this Swedish comedy. Harry cuts hair in prisons and other government institutions. He, his wife Anna and their seven children lived in a crowded house filled with various relatives, immigrants, and guests that just won't leave. His need to decide arises when his wife announces that she is moving to South America. While trying to escape the tumult of his home life and make a choice, Harry encounters the beautiful Sonja, a fortyish lifeguard married to a soldier of fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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2003  
 
Add Helen of Troy to QueueAdd Helen of Troy to top of Queue
"The face that launched a thousand ships" was the centerpiece of this two-part TV miniseries, which invoked affectionate memories of the overblown Cecil B. DeMille epics of years gone by. Set in the 13th century B.C., the series starred Sienna Guillory as Helen, the Olympian-born, dazzlingly beautiful trophy wife of Sparta's King Menelaus (James Callis). Unhappy in her "marriage of state," Helen yearned for the companionship of the gorgeous young man whom she had seen only in a vision: Paris (Matthew Marsden), the Prince of Troy. As luck would have it, Paris managed to "abduct" Helen and spirit her off to his homeland, where she was welcomed by his father, King Priam (John Rhys-Davies), despite the portents of doom from Paris' foresighted sister, Cassandra (Emilia Fox). Meanwhile back in Sparta, King Menelaus, his honor besmirched, declared war on Troy, thus beginning a ten-year conflict that would culminate disastrously in the incident of the Trojan horse. All of which greatly pleased Menelaus' covetous brother, Agamemnon (Rufus Sewell), who cannily exploited the war in order to emerge as King of the Aegean. Far more elaborate than any of the previous cinematic treatments of the Helen legend, this one was also a bit more sensational, with a number of gratuitous but enjoyable nude scenes. Filmed on location in Malta and Greece, Helen of Troy was seen over the USA cable network on April 20 and 21, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Sienna GuilloryMatthew Marsden, (more)
1987  
 
This plodding, depressing drama concerns the 19th-century painters who were collectively know as the Skaw (or Skagen) Colony. The group rejected the Impressionist style of painting, opting for the realism of natural light and using the lives of the poor fishing villagers as their inspiration. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Stellan Skarsgård

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