Bill Couturie Movies

Bill Couturie's Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from Iraq features a variety of people reading correspondence sent from American soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom to their families. These words are set to images from the war. Couturie earned praise for his previous film about soldiers from letters serving during the Vietnam War. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Originally aired as a two-part miniseries on NBC, The 60's follows two families whose lives mirror much of the political and social tumult of that decade. The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian (Jerry O'Connell) joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael (Josh Hamilton) becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie (Julia Stiles) gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor (Charles S. Dutton), a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet (Leonard Roberts) moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton (David Alan Grier). The 60's incorporates much newsreel footage from the era in an attempt to give the proceedings a greater realism, as well as a soundtrack of many popular songs of the era, including a new recording of Bob Dylan's Chimes Of Freedom by Dylan and Joan Osborne. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This exhaustive treatment of the roots of environmental destruction in the modern world has come in for scathing criticism from those spearheading the "environmental backlash" movement, which is composed largely of rabidly pro-corporate thinkers and those who take "pure" capitalism as their religion. The filmmakers demonstrate that, beginning with Columbus' activities on the island of Hispaniola, the drive to exploit the natural world has increased explosively all over the world. In the case of the United States, doctrines like "Manifest Destiny" are shown to have played their role in justifying these developments. In this passionate indictment of current trends, the filmmakers have spared no offender, and the overriding tone is bleak indeed. As a propaganda piece, they might have done better to moderate their tone and speak of some of the benefits of modernity along with the depredations caused by it. It is also clear that almost none of the villains the documentary names thought of themselves as such, or are willing to do so now. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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