Don Guest Movies
- 1991
- PG
John Lone, the star of the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor (89), portrays a Chinese revolutionary in Shadow of China. Pursued by the Communists, Lone escapes to Hong Kong, where he builds up a multimillion dollar business enterprise. He hopes to use his international clout to effect changes in Mainland China, but he is defeated by revelations of his earlier underhanded business practices, and by the "dangerous" aspects of his previous political activities. Filmed on location, Shadow of China has its moments of violence, but none so extreme as to detract from the storyline. Also, John Lone proves again how his talents have often been wasted in less ambitious projects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lone, Koichi Sato, (more)
Amazingly, At Close Range was based on a true story. Bored teenager Sean Penn meets his prodigal father (Christopher Walken) for the first time in years. Though Penn is vaguely aware that his father is a criminal, he is nonetheless impressed by his dad's high life style and creature comforts. But Walken's veneer of charm is fragile indeed, and it becomes clear that he is willing to kill anyone--even his family--if they get in his way. When Walken rapes Penn's girl friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) to keep the boy from cooperating with the DA, it is only a warm-up for the horrors to come. The screenplay for At Close Range was written by Nicholas Kazan, the son of prominent film director Elia Kazan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, (more)
Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) is wandering through the Texas desert, a bit shaky and in desperate need of water, when he stumbles into a bar and collapses. A German doctor of dubious credentials finds a phone number in Travis' wallet, which belongs to his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell). Walt is shocked to hear about his brother's condition, since no one in the family has seen or heard from Travis in four years; Walt flies to Texas to bring him home, only to find Travis wandering by the side of the road, and they begin the long drive back to Los Angeles, where Walt lives with his wife, Anne (Aurore Clement), and Hunter (Hunter Carson), Travis' seven-year-old son. At first, Travis refuses to speak and is oddly distant, but in time he begins to talk again, and when he arrives in California, he begins the painful process of reacquainting himself with his son and trying to reconcile with his wife, Jane (Nastassia Kinski). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, (more)
A man discovers that his best friends are actually spies -- or are they? -- in this thriller based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling novel. John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) is the host of a television news show who once a year spends a long weekend with three of his best friends from college, Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson), Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon), and Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper). Tanner is approached by Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt), a CIA agent who has evidence proving that his three pals are actually agents working with the Soviet Union. With Tanner's reluctant approval, his house is wired with video surveillance equipment so that the CIA can monitor what Osterman, Cardone, and Tremayne say and do over their weekend together in hopes of putting the traitors behind bars. However, Tanner soon realizes that Fassett's agenda is not all that it appears to be. The Osterman Weekend was directed by Sam Peckinpah; it proved to be his last film, as he died a year after its release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, (more)
Director Wim Wenders made his American film bow with the ultra-stylish Hammett. Based on the speculative novel by Joe Gores, the story concerns real-life detective novelist Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forest), who early in his career is involved in a complex mystery that will profoundly influence his later works. While hacking away for pulp magazines, Hammett is asked by Jimmy Ryan (Peter Boyle), his old boss at the Pinkerton agency (and the model for the writer's "Continental Op" character), to help out on a particularly difficult case. Before long, Hammett is prowling the nooks and crannies of San Francisco in search of a missing Chinese prostitute-blackmailer (Lydia Lei). Among the several delectable "inside jokes" in Hammett is the presence of Elisha Cook, who'd appeared in the 1941 film adaptation of Hammett's Maltese Falcon, as Eli the Cab Driver. Cinematographers Philip H. Lathrop and Joseph Biroc work overtime to invest Hammett with the "feel" of a classic 1940s detective yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederic Forrest, Peter Boyle, (more)
- 1978
Paul Schrader's directorial debut examines the trials of Detroit autoworkers living at the mercy of a heartless corporation and a corrupt union. Surviving from paycheck to paycheck, Checker Cab assembly linemen Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel), and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto) scrape by and take pleasure in a few rounds of beer or bowling (and occasional illicit amusements). But when their money troubles pile up, Jerry and Smokey join Zeke in a desperate plan to steal cash from their local union office. Along with a piddling $600, they unexpectedly swipe evidence of union corruption. Deciding to use it for blackmail, the men discover instead how powerfully malevolent the union can be in a system that counts on petty divisiveness to keep the larger power structure intact. Inspired by stories of real-life disillusionment, Schrader and his brother/co-writer Leonard Schrader took on politically difficult issues of race and corporate labor, infusing the indictment of unions with a suggestion of post-Watergate paranoia about forces beyond the union that keep workers in their place. From the opening sequence of the assembly line to the final evocative freeze-frame, Schrader maintains an atmosphere of gritty realism, with the lead trio lending low-key dramatic force to a situation beyond their control. Too downbeat for a late '70s audience increasingly drawn to happier fare, Blue Collar flopped, yet it did earn Schrader critical accolades. Although he has reportedly since disowned the film, Blue Collar remains one of Schrader's best works, with Zeke and Jerry powered by the same sense of simmering frustration that would explode so effectively in Affliction two decades later. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, (more)
Director Philip Kaufman took his production of Eskimo life to actual locations in the Arctic Circle, making it only the third film in history (after Nanook of the North and Eskimo) to shoot there. Kaufman also employs authentic Eskimo dialect in the film, which adds a heightened bit of realism. The story concerns three whalers -- Billy (Warren Oates), Daggett (Timothy Bottoms), and Portagee (Louis Gossett Jr.) -- who becomes stranded in the Arctic Circle and are rescued by a tribe of Eskimos. Living in the Eskimo village, the three men introduce the chief vices of their civilization -- gambling, thievery, and Western-style sex -- to the isolated Eskimo village. At first the natives put up with the behavior of the Westerners, but as their ways begin to encroach upon the traditional Eskimo customs, the villagers begin to resist the three men's habits. A clash of cultures results. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, (more)
