Michael Murphy Movies

Part four of the acclaimed PBS series explores the rise of two great Irish dynastic families in America, the Kennedys and the O'Neills. The trial, triumphs, and tragedies of these two clans are investigated in detail and held up as examples of the final arrival of the Irish in the New World. The lasting contributions of the Irish to American culture are investigated, as well as the continuing effort of Irish-Americans to both celebrate their heritage and remain true to their roots. Serious in tone and well documented, this tape is appropriate for use in the college classroom. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Part three of the acclaimed PBS series explores the golden age of Irish-Americans living in America as immigrants, with children who begin to make their first indelible marks upon American society. Included are brief profiles of such figures as Al Smith and Ned Harrigan. Also covered is the rise of the first Irish political machine, Tammany Hall, which proved both a blessing and a curse for the Irish in America. Serious in tone and well documented, this tape is appropriate for use in the college classroom. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

The real-life story of Olympic diver Greg Louganis is chronicled in this made-for-television drama. Mario Lopez stars as Louganis, an adopted child who went through a difficult adolescence, only to emerge as a world-class diver in the 1988 Olympics. After a notorious diving injury during those games, Louganis went on to win two gold medals. After the games ended though, Louganis was forced to face an even more challenging period and go public with his homosexuality and deal with his HIV-positive status. The film is based on the book of the same name. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

A father and his teenaged daughter get the shocks of their lives the night he surreptitiously rings for a high-class hooker and she shows up for the appointment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dana Carvey plays a private detective who forgets everything when he goes to sleep at night, waking up each morning with a "clean slate," in this hit-and-miss comedy that plays like a companion piece to the much funnier Groundhog Day. Pogue (Carvey) is afflicted with his unique form of amnesia after getting injured in a car explosion. With the aid of a mysterious woman (Valeria Golino) who allegedly died in the bombing, he must find a priceless coin and evade the murderous clutches of the mobster (Michael Gambon) who executed the explosion and who wants to silence Pogue before he can testify against him. Carvey fares reasonably well in his role, but the best moments are provided by Pogue's dog, a one-eyed Jack Russell named Barkley who makes a habit out of running into things headfirst. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, stockbroker Jon Aldrich (Tom Selleck) is the man who has it all, until his ill, aging parents (Don Ameche and Anne Jackson) move in with him. As his perfect life begins to disintegrate bit by bit, Jon becomes more and more depressed and disillusioned. Finally, broke and friendless, Jon begins to listen to his addled parents' insistence that he do away with them and use their insurance money to start again. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Joan Micklin Silver tries her mighty best to wring something substantial out of Frank Mugavero's banal sit-com screenplay concerning the effect of divorce on the divorced parents' off-spring. Hillary Wolf stars as Laura Chartoff, a lonely thirteen-year-old girl who is the victim of multiple parental divorces and remarriages. She lives with her current stepfather Keith Powers (David Strathairn), a cool businessman, and her flighty, self-absorbed mother Melinda (Margaret Whitton). Her biological father David (Griffin Dunne) is a struggling artist separated from his second wife Barb (Patricia Kalember) and is now living with a younger woman Stephanie (Adrienne Shelley), who is pregnant with twins. After a fight with her mother and stepfather, Laura runs away to a rustic cabin in the woods being built by her older stepbrother Josh (Dan Futterman). When she spots Keith and Melinda walking up the road to the cabin, Laura dashes off into the forest. Reported missing, all of the members of Laura's extended family converge at the cabin to try to find her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

On September 1, 1983, the Russians caused a major international incident by shooting down Korean Air Flight 007 -- a jet transporting 269 civilians including Georgia congressman Lawrence McDonald -- when it strayed into Soviet airspace. The U.S.R.R. claimed that they misinterpreted the plane as the product of a CIA operative. This factual docudrama chronicles the global political crisis surrounding the event. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Written by Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman, this is an amusingly vicious squint at the American electoral process. Michael Murphy plays Jack Tanner, Democratic Presidential nominee. Also featured are Cynthia Nixon as Jack's teenage daughter Alex, and Pamela Reed as campaign manager T. J. Cavanaugh. Despite the mocking nature of the material, the "cinema verite" style and inclusion of real-life political figures (Bruce Babbitt, Kitty Dukakis) in cameos led some impressionable viewers to believe that Jack Tanner was an actual candidate--resulting in quite a few write-in votes in November! Originating as a two-part special, Tanner was expanded into twelve chapters, which ran irregularly from February 15 through August 27, 1988, on the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While Salvador wasn't Oliver Stone's first film (a pair of offbeat horror stories preceded it), it defined his style of fiercely dramatic, politically oriented filmmaking, staked out his territory as one of the major directors of the 1980s and 1990s, and remains one of his strongest works to date. Veteran photojournalist Richard Boyle (James Woods) has been taking his camera to the world's trouble spots for over 20 years; while he does good work, Boyle's fondness for booze and drugs, and his colossal arrogance, have given him a reputation that's left him practically unemployable. Broke and with no immediate prospects, Boyle and his buddy Doctor Rock (Jim Belushi), an out-of-work disc jockey, head to El Salvador, where Boyle is convinced that he can scare up some lucrative freelance work amidst the nation's political turmoil. However, when Boyle and Rock witness the execution of a student by government troops just as they enter the country, it becomes clear that this war is more serious than they were expecting. Increasingly convinced that El Salvador is a disaster starting to happen, Boyle eventually decides that it's time to get out; but he has fallen in love with a woman named Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), and he doesn't want to leave her behind. James Woods gives one of his best performances as Boyle; and the passion of Stone's message, aided by the power of its truth (the film is based on actual events), propels the film forward. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An ex-convict turned sheriff's deputy must face his guilty conscience, which is obsessed with his identity change following a million-dollar heist. With a notoriously troubled production history, this Canadian picture was shot in 1979 and sat on the shelf for half a decade, until Orson Welles had died. In the credits, the name of the director -- Selig Usher -- is a pseudonym for both George McCowan and Zale Magder. ~ All Movie Guide

Juvenile actor Henry Thomas, late of E.T., is the star of Cloak and Dagger. Given to telling whoppers, Thomas finds himself in a boy-who-cried-wolf dilemma when he overhears two spies plotting to smuggle valuable info out of the US. When he can't get his own father Dabney Coleman to believe him, Thomas turns disconsolately to a computer game called "Cloak and Dagger" and begins to fantasize, imagining that he is in cahoots with secret agent Jack Flack, also played by Coleman. Finally coming to grips with the fact that the mythical Jack Flack cannot help him this time, Thomas takes on the spies with the help of his schoolmates, who are also "Cloak and Dagger" addicts. Cloak and Dagger is a heavily disguised remake of 1949's The Window; both are based on the Cornell Woolrich story The Boy Cried Murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While staying at the Hollins Communication Institute, a stuttering accountant fittingly falls for a squirrel huntress who has a similar speech impediment. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide