Timothy Bottoms Movies
The oldest of three sons of a high school art teacher, Timothy Bottoms was 17 when he toured Europe as a member of the Santa Monica Madrigal Society. Enjoying the "rush" of appearing before live audiences, Bottoms pursued a theatrical career. While playing the lead in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet, he was selected by writer/director Dalton Trumbo to play the blind, deaf, armless, and legless protagonist in the 1971 film version of Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun. That same year, Bottoms was tapped by Peter Bogdanovich to star as Texas teenager Sonny Crawford in the award-winning The Last Picture Show (1971), which featured Tim's younger brother Samuel. Bottoms followed these triumphs by creating the role of harried first-year law student Hart in the 1973 sleeper The Paper Chase. Thereafter, his film roles seemed haphazardly selected. On TV, Bottoms was given an opportunity to age nearly 30 years as Adam Trask in the 1981 miniseries version of East of Eden; he also co-starred with brothers Joseph and Sam in the feature-length TV pilot Favorite Son (1987). Again appearing opposite younger sibling Joseph, Tim made his Broadway bow in The 5th of July (1951). Bottoms surprised no one when he balked at the opportunity of re-creating his Sonny Crawford characterization in Texasville, the 1991 sequel to Last Picture Show. Eventually he not only agreed to co-star in Texasville, but also served as executive producer of a documentary on the making of that film, Picture This (1990). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
After escaping from a Vietnamese POW camp where they had suffered for five years, five American soldiers attempt to get out of the country before being spotted by Russian and Vietnamese troops in this tale of survival from Filipino filmmaker Eddie Romero. As the five escapees descend upon a remote whorehouse in hopes of collecting the supplies needed to reach freedom, a group of desperate prostitutes plea with the men to transport them to freedom and a troupe of Russian soldiers complicate their fragile escape plan. When the desperate group stumbles across an abandoned airplane deep in the jungle, they must bring the battered aircraft back to life long enough to escape the jungle and fly to freedom. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Timothy Bottoms stars as the real-life John Baker in the made-for-TV A Shining Season. A champion University of New Mexico track athlete, the 25-year-old Baker is only momentarily halted when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. His efforts to coach a losing girls' track team in his last months proves an inspiration for the sports world in general, and for a similarly doomed child in particular. Adapted by William Harrison from the book by William Buchanan, this film was first telecast the day after Christmas, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
This by-the-numbers action-revenge drama that plays like several other similarly-plotted, good ol' boy pulp flicks of its era, such as Billy Jack (1971) and Walking Tall (1973). Timothy Bottoms stars as Poke Jackson, a convict who's just been released from prison after a stint for drug trafficking. The catch is that Poke was innocent, having been framed for the crime by a corrupt lawman, Sheriff Duke (Bo Hopkins). Poke makes his way home to his beautiful girlfriend Mary Lee (Susan George) and their illegitimate son, only to find that Duke has moved into his place as Mary's lover. Incensed, Poke sets out on a course of vengeance that will pit him against the tough cop and culminate in a lethal car chase. With supporting characters named "Bull," "Cleotus," and "Buford," the redneck pedigree of A Small Town in Texas (1976) is distinct. The film was penned by screenwriter William W. Norton, who wrote several better examples of this high-octane, macho genre, including White Lightning (1973) and Gator (1976). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Susan George, (more)
- 1994
A girl and her best friend hit the road in this family friendly comedy drama -- only the girl's friend weighs in at 4,000 pounds! Eddie (Remy Ryan) is a ten-year-old girl (her name is short for "Edwina") who has trouble communicating with her mother Sarah (Priscilla Barnes) and doesn't care for Sarah's layabout boyfriend, Jeffrey (Patrick Dempsey). A rag-tag circus comes to town, and Eddie finds herself bonding with Ava, the show's performing elephant. Slayton (Timothy Bottoms), the sleazy owner of the circus, learns that he's deep in debt to the IRS, and since Ava is insured for a large sum of money, he plots to kill the elephant in a way that will look like an accident in order to pay off his debts. Eddie, however, gets wind of Slayton's plan; she helps Ava escape, and runs away from home with her new pet at her side. As the hapless local sheriff (Kaye Ballard) and her staff try to find a missing child travelling with a two-ton elephant, Sarah learns that an escapee from prison is on the loose and she becomes afraid that the criminal will cross paths with her missing daughter. As it turns out, Eddie does meet Clayton (Georg Stanford Brown), the jailbird on the lam, but she soon finds that he means her no harm -- and he happens to know a few thing about Slayton and his business. Ava's Magical Adventure marked the directorial debut of actor Patrick Dempsey, who helmed the project in collaboration with Rocky Parker. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Georg Stanford Brown, (more)
- 1996
Oscar-winning character actor Ben Johnson was never as well known as other stars, and yet for many industry insiders, he was the epitome of cowboy actors. Of Cherokee and Irish heritage, Johnson was born in Oklahoma and became a cowboy at age eleven. He grew up to become the only movie cowboy to win both an Oscar and a rodeo championship. This documentary tells the fascinating, colorful story of his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Independent filmmaker Richard Gabai gives Jack London's literary classic a modern-day makeover with this family-friendly adventure. Nine-year-old city girl Ryan (Ariel Gade) is visiting her grandpa (Christopher Lloyd) in Montana and lamenting the lack of shopping malls when she befriends a wounded wild dog and names it Buck. As the annual sledding race draws near, Ryan and her new friends begin training Buck for the big day in hopes that he can win the gold. Can Buck's wild spirit be tamed in time for the race, or is he more comfortable out in the wilderness, running free with his four-legged friends? Veronica Cartwright, Timothy Bottoms, and Joyce DeWitt co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lloyd, Ariel Gade, (more)
Filmed under the title The Big Dance, this tense, made-for-cable docudrama recreates the events following the devastating terrorist attack on New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. The focus is on President George W. Bush, here played by Timothy Bottoms. Inasmuch as the film was assembled by a man avowedly sympathetic to Bush (Hollywood veteran Lionel Chetwynd), there are few ambiguities here: The president acts swiftly, decisively, and dispassionately, and there's no time to raise any questions about judgment, discretion, or diplomatic missteps, past, present, or future. Chetwynd's teleplay utilizes several well-known factoids (the president wanted to return to Washington immediately after the attack, but his advisors wouldn't let him) along with a number of newly unearthed information bites (the crew of Air Force One had to use cell phones to contact the DC airport, out of concern that their radio would alert terrorists to their location). Also dramatized are the efforts by the government to gather evidence against al-Qaida, and the president's inspiring address to the nation ten days after the tragedy. DC 9/11: Time of Crisis debuted September 7, 2003, on the Showtime network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, John Cunningham, (more)
When the FBI puts its war against terrorism into space, the terrorists fight back in this action drama. In an effort to more closely monitor the activities of underground militia groups, the U.S. government schedules the launch of a surveillance satellite designed specifically to keep tabs on domestic terrorists. The satellite is to be launched during NASA's next space shuttle mission; however, a militia group calling themselves the Diamondbacks have learned the location of the tracking station that monitors the shuttle's activities, and they stage an armed raid that effectively cuts off all communication between the shuttle, its crew, and NASA's tracking computers shortly after launch. FBI agent Frank Jenkins (Miles O'Keeffe) is sent in to take back the tracking station and insure the safety of the astronauts, but he soon discovers that not all of his associates can be trusted. Diamondbacks also features Timothy Bottoms, Chris Mitchum, and Ed Lottimer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1992
This oddly unsettling PG-rated film stars Adam Hand-Byrd as Digger, a 12-year-old whose parents are going through serious domestic problems. To keep him out of the line of fire, Digger is sent to live with his crusty grandmother Olympia Dukakis in the Pacific Northwest. He has a great deal of difficulty adjusting to his new environment, but soon he and the locals are the best of friends. A subplot concerns grandma Dukakis' rollicking romance with suave Leslie Nielsen. Rodney Gibbons' script takes some curious side trips into the Morbid, with Digger making the acquaintance of some very tragic characters. Digger was completed in 1992, copyrighted in 1993, and finally given limited release in 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Hann-Byrd, Joshua Jackson, (more)
Dirt stars Courteney Cox as Lucy Spiller, celebrity journalist and editor-in-chief of DirtNow, a tabloid magazine that traffics in sleaze -- especially sleaze with a Hollywood dateline. She and her photographer Don Konkey (Ian Hart) probe Hollywood's seamy underbelly in search of seepage, in a contant race with other media bottom feeders. Lucy simultaneously tries to engage her personal life, which includes her actor boyfriend, Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart), and her brother Leo Spiller (Will McCormack). This four-disc, 13-episode box set of Season 1 (which aired on cable's FX network in 2007) features an array of character-driven special features, including a behind-the-scenes look at real-life paparazzi darlings and co-producing couple, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, as well as interviews with entertainment leaders and Hollywood gossip gurus, a profile on schizophrenic paparazzo Konkey, and deleted scenes.
- Starring:
- Courteney Cox Arquette, Ian Hart, (more)
The 1955 film version of John Steinbeck's East of Eden will always be popular because of the presence in the cast of James Dean. Even so, the film covered only a small portion of the original novel. For those Steinbeck completists who prefer a more thorough treatment, we submit for your approval the TV miniseries adaptation of East of Eden, which first aired February 8, 9 and 11, 1981. This eight-hour dramatization begins in the years following the Civil War. Braggadocio union officer Cyrus Trask (Warren Oates) is the father of gentle, loyal Adam (Timothy Bottoms) and hellraiser Charles (Bruce Boxleitner). Enter the bewitching, mean-spirited Cathy Ames (Jane Seymour), who leads both brothers on and causes an irreparable rift between them. Eventually, Adam marries Cathy, taking her and their twin sons to a 900-acre farm in California's Salinas Valley. Cathy rebels against this cloistered existence and runs off to work in a house of ill repute. In Part Three, we finally meet the "James Dean" character: Cal Trask (played by Timothy Bottoms' brother Sam), who can never hope to come up to the standards of his "good" twin brother Aron (Hart Bochner) in the eyes of his father. Cal's "bad" reputation obscures his good intentions, but by film's end he is compelled to reveal to brother Aron that their mother had not died as father Adam has claimed, but in fact has become a hard-bitten bordello "madam". Adapted for television by Richard Shapiro, East of Eden was part of ABC's informal "Novels for Television" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Jane Seymour, (more)
Director Gus Van Sant returned to the low-key style of his early independent efforts with this semi-improvised exploration of how violence makes its way into a typical American high school. Eric (Eric Deulen) and Alex (Alex Frost) are two close friends who are students in a well-to-do suburb of Portland, OR. Eric and Alex are at once ordinary and misfits; while they seem to be confined to the edges of the clique-oriented social strata of high school, little about their behavior draws attention to itself. Or at least not during a typical school day; on their own time, the two boys are fascinated by Nazi iconography, enjoy violent video games, tentatively explore homoerotic desires, and coolly begin to make plans for an armed ambush of the school, drawing up working diagrams of the lunch room during study hall and buying rifles over the Internet. Drawing an expected degree of controversy, Elephant had its world premiere when it was screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, where it won both Best Director for Van Sant and the Golden Palm award. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, (more)
- 1980
The made-for-TV Escape was inspired by the true story of Dwight Worker, an American imprisoned in Mexico for smuggling hashish. Given the country's stringent anti-drug laws, Worker's chances of release are slim to none (a situation similar to the protagonist's plight in Midnight Express). Against all odds, Worker plans a daring getaway from the notoriously impenetrable Lecumberri Prison (for obvious reasons, the film was not shot on location). Timothy Bottoms stars as Worker, with Kay Lenz as Barbara Chilcoate, the woman who became his wife; Colleen Dewhurst co-stars as the sympathetic "Mother Jones" type who helped engineer the escape. Adapted from Dwight and Barbara Worker's autobiography, Escape debuted February 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Rosanna Arquette guest stars as convict Constance Ferguson, who tries to get out of solitary confinement by swallowing four razor blades--an act of pathetic bravado that earns the contempt of Cristina (Sandra Oh). Elsewhere, the newborn quintuplets and their mother (Margaret Welsh) are suffering serious post-natal problems, with one of the infants close to death. As Izzie (Katherine Heigl) cares for the ailing child, Addison (Kate Walsh) decides that it is time to teach the idealistic intern a painful but necessary lesson. Also, Alex (Justin Chambers) broods obessessively over a medical mistake, which only serves to make Izzie (Katherine Heigl) even more angry with him; and under pressure, George (T.R. Knight) agrees to treat a skin-cancer patient with leeches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
- PG
It is doubtful that while acting in D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation back in 1914, Lillian Gish ever dreamed that seven decades later she'd be co-starring with a cute dog in something called Hambone and Hillie. It all begins at a busy airport, where octogenarian Hillie (Gish) is accidentally separated from her beloved bow-wow Hambone. In a twinkling, Hambone and Hillie find themselves on opposite coasts of the USA. The rest of the film charts the efforts of both mistress and mutt to find each other again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Timothy Bottoms, (more)
This suspense film features Dennis Hopper as JD, a crazed kidnapper who hijacks a school bus (not unlike his crazed kidnapper in Speed) and holds the students hostage (one of the students is played by former Home Improvement star Zachery Ty Bryan). Even if the hostages are able to break free from their captors, they would have to survive the harsh terrain that surrounds the cabin in which they are being held. Lee Stanley's film was sold directly to Blockbuster Video, never gaining a theatrical release in the United States. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Unlucky in life and love, quirky waitress Trudie (Melissa Joan Hart) takes the holidays -- and the law -- into her own hands. Unable to brave Christmas with her family as a single woman, Trudie kidnaps restaurant customer David Martin (Mario Lopez) and introduces him to her family as her boyfriend. Unable to escape the family vacation house, David agrees to play along until the police arrive. In the meantime, however, David ponders his own romantic life, and questions if he is falling in love with Trudie despite the unlikely circumstances. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Joan Hart, Mario Lopez, (more)
This film showed up on TV as Forbidden Paradise, but you can't fool us. It's really The Hurricane, producer Dino De Laurentiis' ill-advised remake of the 1938 Sam Goldwyn production of the same name. The story of the casual cruelties imposed by the white ruling class on the natives of the isle of Manakoora had the advantage of timeliness in 1938; forty-one years later, the story plays like a Gilligan's Island amateur production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Playing the old Jon Hall role of the native lad whose rambunctiousness incurs the wrath of the provincial governor, the uniquely ungifted Daton Kane makes Hall look like Sir John Gielgud. Even the expensive hurricane finale (which ate up most of the film's $22 million budget) isn't one-tenth as exciting as the corresponding sequence in the earlier film. The saddest aspect of the 1979 The Hurricane is that it was directed by Jan Troell, who showed flashes of brilliance in his earlier The Emigrants and Zandy's Bride; perhaps significantly, Troell hightailed it back to Sweden after wrapping up his obligation to Dino De Laurentiis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Robards, Jr., Mia Farrow, (more)
Tom Selleck stars as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the television film Ike: Countdown to D-Day. The film follows the General in the three months leading up to the decisive invasion that would turn the tide of World War II toward the Allied powers. The film opens with Winston Churchill (Ian Mune) appointing Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander. Ike faces conflicts with British General Montgomery (Bruce Phillips), American General George Patton (Gerald McRaney), and French leader Charles de Gaulle (George Shevtsov). Eisenhower must balance these men's egos as he organizes the risky but necessary military maneuver. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Selleck
A successful Las Vegas singer who lost everything when her casino mogul husband dropped dead of a heart attack gets a second shot at happiness after leaving town in the middle of the night and encountering a spiritual guide who shows her just what she's been missing all these years. Patricia Paradise (Dee Wallace Stone) may be a star on the Las Vegas stage, though she still can't help but feeling unfulfilled with the way her life has turned out. Over the years Patricia made plenty of sacrifices, both for her own career and her husband's as well, though her greatest desire has always been to start a family. When her husband does and Patricia realizes that their business is bankrupt, she sneaks out of town under the cover of darkness and sets out towards an uncertain future. But Patricia isn't alone, because her spiritual guide (Mickey Rooney) appears in her dreams to gently help her through this troubling time. Before long, Patricia becomes pregnant by a mysterious stranger who seems to be the reincarnation of her late husband. Upon giving birth Patricia realizes that no matter what measure of fame or fortune she could have accomplished, it all pales in comparison to the blessing bestowed upon her by her spiritual guide. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dee Wallace Stone, Mickey Rooney, (more)
- 1986
- R
This animal thriller at times verges on becoming a horror film, with gory scenes of mangled heads and torn limbs, but it is intended to be a serious tale of baboons gone berserk. The story takes place in a drought-ridden animal preserve in Kenya where ranger Jack Ringtree (Timothy Bottoms) advises both government officials and Chris Tucker (John Rhys-Davies), the manager of a local mine, that all the people in the region have to be evacuated. Jack is convinced thousands of baboons in the preserve will soon go on a rampage caused by a lack of food and water. As might be expected, the authorities ignore his advice, with the usual slow build-up of menacing hairy creatures arguing for the accuracy of Jack's warnings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Rhys-Davies, Timothy Bottoms, (more)
Invaders from Mars, horror-film director Tobe Hooper's remake of the classic 1950's science fiction film, directed by William Cameron Menzies, centers on a young boy named David (Hunter Carson) who tries to stop an invasion of his town as aliens take over the minds of his parents George (Timothy Bottoms) and Ellen (Laraine Newman), his teachers and the townspeople. With the help of the school nurse (Karen Black), the boy enlists the aid of the U.S. Army to help save the world. With makeup effects supplied by Stan Winston and visual effects by John Dykstra, Invaders From Mars is a wild sci-fi feast that hearkens back to the 1950's invasion films, made popular by the original film and others like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Black, Hunter Carson, (more)
- 1987
The made-for-TV Island Sons stars real-life brothers Timothy, Joseph, Samuel and Benjamin Bottoms as fictional brothers named Tim, Joe, Sam and Ben (too bad there wasn't any Zeppo Bottoms). When their mogul father disappears in Hawaii in the aftermath of a scandal, the four brothers bury their own differences and head to the Islands. There they operate all of dad's neat stuff (his yacht, his limo, his hotel), while assistant DA Sam investigates the death in prison of his father's head bookkeeper. The boys get to the bottom of the scandal that ruined their father, and find more than they ever imagined. They don't, however, find enough to encourage a network and a sponsor to pick up Island Sons as a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
