Edgar J. Scherick Movies

Inspired by author Robert A. Caro's massive biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the made-for-cable Path to War retraces the world-shaking events occurring between LBJ's jubilant inaugural in 1965 and his tired, dispirited decision not to seek another presidential term in 1968. At the crux of these tumultuous three years is the war in Vietnam, which forces Johnson (here played by Michael Gambon) to shunt his proposed "Great Society" to the back burner. Though famous in political circles as a wrangler and compromiser, LBJ cannot seem to do anything right in pursuing the war; nor are his chief advisors, the hawkish Robert McNamara (Alec Baldwin) and the dove-ish Clark Clifford (Donald Sutherland), able to forge a permanent policy agreement. As Clifford warns Johnson that "escalation will ruin you, and all the great good you want to do," McNamara presses for a continuation of the war lest America lose face and Vietnam fall to the Communists. The story unfolds with the inexorability of a Shakespearean tragedy, with Johnson as a modern-day Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear rolled into one. Of interest to non-history buffs is the appearance of two original cast members of the 1969 film M*A*S*H: Donald Sutherland as Clark Clifford and Tom Skerritt as William Westmoreland. Directed by political-movie veteran John Frankenheimer, Path to War made its HBO cable network debut on May 18, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The tragic story of the Ruby Ridge "massacre" has been so thoroughly covered and disseminated by the mainstream press that to add anything here would be pointless. Suffice to say that the two-part TV movie The Siege at Ruby Ridge uses the facts at hand to show how the tragedy occurred, and how but for a multitude of blunders and miscommunications on both sides, it could all have been avoided. Randy Quaid stars as white separatist Randy Weaver, who for ten terrible days in 1992 barricaded himself, his family, and a number of zealous followers in a tiny refuge on a remote Idaho mountaintop, while 200 government agents surrounded Weaver's headquarters with orders to arrest Weaver's group alive -- if possible. The catalyst for the crisis is of course Randy Weaver himself, though his wife Vicki (Laura Dern) is shown to be just as rigid, stubborn, and foolhardy as her husband -- maybe even more so. Ultimately, blood is shed and lives are lost, the result of such gross ineptitude that the ramifications of the tragedy would reverberate for decades to come. Featured in the cast is Laura Dern's real-life mother, Diane Ladd, and, in the small role of the Weaver's daughter, a very young Kirsten Dunst. The Siege at Ruby Ridge first aired over CBS on May 19 and 21, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-television movie tells the story of the tumultuous life of heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson. The movie follows the boxer (played by Michael Jai White) from his early New York youth as criminal offender all the way to his years as a national boxing celebrity. With the help of controversial promoter Don King (Paul Winfield), Tyson became the World Heavyweight Champion, only to lose it all and go to jail for a rape conviction. This biopic was based on Jose Torres' book on Tyson, Fire and Fear. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Mare Winningham stars as a sister determined to find out the truth in this fact-based made-for-television drama. Patricia Arquette stars as an FBI informant who has a secret affair with a married agent (Stephen Webber). When her older sister Dana (Winningham) admonishes her to be careful, she refuses to heed the warning and plunges deeper into the relationship, which unfortunately has deadly consequences. TV-movie veteran Winningham is good as always and Arquette and Webber are a believable duo. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

A lawyer whose wife is missing becomes obsessed with the below that a woman he has seen is his wife. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV drama, adapted from a book by Vincent Bugliosi, is based on a true story about an ex-cop who deceives and murders a number of women for their life insurance benefits. The video release includes scenes not shown in the original. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this ironic drama, a hard working, devoted doctor finds herself accused of murder after the man who raped her dies under her care. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable adventure chronicles the fictionalized exploits of the famed British reporter cum novelist who created the character "James Bond." Starring Jason Connery, the son of the first feature-film 007 Sean Connery, the story alleges that Fleming based Bond's adventures on his own extraordinary experiences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Robert Conrad grits his teeth and flecks his pecs--this time with motivation--in the fact-based TV movie Anything to Survive. Conrad plays a divorced father who takes his three children (Matthew LeBlanc, Ocean Hellman and Emily Perkins) on a sea journey to the Alaska panhandle. Disaster strikes, and Conrad is forced to brave the Alaskan wastes with his three citified youngsters in tow. 24 days pass: The authorities assume that the family is dead, but they couldn't be more wrong. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Anything to Survive is the fact that Conrad's character is dead wrong at times--and he's willing to admit it. The film was based on Elmo Wortman's book Almost too Late. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this detective drama, a private investigator from Phoenix is determined to prove that a young woman's death was caused by a psychologist and a mail-order minister. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

For years, the name "Uncle Tom" and the title Uncle Tom's Cabin have been synonymous with the most egregious form of racial condescension. John Gay's script for the 1987 film version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin hoped to "set the record straight" and restored the reputation of the 1852 abolitionist novel--mostly by returning to the source. Eliminating such theatrical "improvements" as Eliza's crossing the ice, this adaptation of Cabin depicts Uncle Tom (Avery Brooks) as an intelligent, non-submissive slave (there is only the slightest hint of "revisionism"); likewise, Jenny Lewis is a fully three-dimensional Little Eva. Simon Legree is as hateful as ever, but as played by Edward Woodward, Legree is shown to be more a product of his times than a cardboard hissable villain. Gay is very careful in his depiction of precocious preteen slave girl Topsy (Endyia Kinney), who still is so sexually misinformed that she believes she "just growed," but is not quite the mental midget described in Mrs. Stowe's novel. Produced for the Showtime Cable service, Uncle Tom's Cabin premiered on June 13, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hands of a Stranger was adapted by playwright Arthur Kopit from the best-selling novel by Robert Daley. Armand Assante plays a New York City narcotics officer who aids DA Blair Brown in her investigation of a rape case in which drugs were involved. In the subsequent days, Assante becomes something of an expert in rape evidence. Thus, when his wife Beverly D'Angelo is sexually assaulted while en route to a rendezvous with her lover, Assante suspects something even though D'Angelo remains mum about the incident. Conducting his own investigation, Assante determines the rapist's identity while wiretapping a phoned-in attempt to blackmail his wife. Will Assante forget everything he's learned about police procedure and attempt to take the law into his own hands? Co-starring in Hands of a Stranger is Arliss Howard as the scummy rapist. Preceded by a warning that the film contained scenes of a violent and graphic nature, Hands of a Stranger was originally broadcast in two parts, on May 10 and 11, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide