Sam Shepard Movies
A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (for 1979's Buried Child), an Oscar-nominated actor, and a director and screenwriter to boot, multi-talented Sam Shepard has made a career of plumbing the darker depths of middle-American rural sensibilities and Western myths. The son of a military man, he was born Samuel Shepard Rogers on November 3, 1943, in Fort Sheridan, IL. Following a peripatetic childhood, part of which was spent on a farm, Shepard left home in late adolescence to move to New York City, where by the age of 20, he already had two plays produced.As a playwright, Shepard went on to win a number of Obies for such dramas as Curse of the Starving Class (1977), which he made into a film in 1994, and True West (aired on PBS in 1986). As an actor, the lanky and handsome Shepard made his feature film debut with a small role in Bronco Bullfrog (1969) and didn't resurface again until Bob Dylan's disastrous Renaldo and Clara (1978). The film followed Shepard's residence in London during the early '70s, where he worked on-stage as an actor and director when not playing drums for his band, The Holy Modal Rounders, which had performed as part of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Also in 1978, Shepard made a big impression playing a wealthy landowner in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, but it was not until he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing astronaut Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983) that he became a well-known actor. Following this success, he went on to specialize in playing drifters, cowboys, con artists, and eccentric characters with only the occasional leading role. Some of his more notable work included Paris, Texas (1984), which he also wrote; Fool For Love (1985), which was adapted from his play of the same name; Baby Boom (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), and The Pelican Brief (1993). In addition to acting and writing, Shepard has also directed: in 1988, he made his debut with Far North, a film he wrote especially for his off-screen leading lady, Jessica Lange, with whom he has acted in Frances (1982), Country (1984), and Crimes of the Heart (1986).
In 1999, Shepard could be seen on both the big and small screen. He appeared in Snow Falling on Cedars and Dash and Lilly, a made-for-TV movie for which he won an Emmy nomination in the role of the titular Dashiell Hammett. In addition, he also lent his writing skills to Simpatico, a Nick Nolte vehicle about friendship and loss adapted from Shepard's play of the same name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Director Billy Bob Thornton explores coming of age in this Western based on Cormac McCarthy's prize-winning novel of the same name. John Grady Cole (Matt Damon) and Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas) are young Texan men who seek a more fulfilling life as cowboys in the slowly fading Old West, circa 1949. One night, the duo head for Mexico in hope of finding some adventure and employment, and along the way run into Blevins (Lucas Black), an even younger drifter who has supposedly stolen a horse from private property. Begrudgingly, Cole and Rawlins take him under their wing before they eventually find themselves in Mexico, working for a wealthy landowner (Ruben Blades). His stalwart and beautiful daughter Alejandra (Penelope Cruz) develops a romantic interest in Cole, which threatens the friendship between him and Rawlins, not to mention their living quarters, where Alejandra's watchful aunt (Miriam Colon) warns Cole that she has professed allegiance to her. Cole and Rawlins' thrill-seeking adventures with Blevins and the stolen horse catch up to them, however, and they are held prisoners in a brutal penitentiary, where their cowboy instincts are put to the ultimate test. Cole, meanwhile, wants nothing more than to get back to Alejandra and resume their love affair. The film also features Bruce Dern in a small role as a judge who eventually gives much-desired guidance to Cole. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, (more)
William Shakespeare's classic tale is brought to the screen for the third time in ten years in this modernized interpretation. Writer/director Michael Almereyda updates the story to the present day, where Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) is a struggling filmmaker whose personal and familial trials are set against the machinations of a huge production firm called the Denmark Corporation. Joining Hamlet as he seeks revenge for the death of his father and the wedding of his mother to an enemy are Kyle MacLachlan as Claudius, Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Bill Murray as Polonius, Sam Shepard as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Diane Venora as Gertrude, Steve Zahn as Rosencrantz, and Dechen Thurman as Guildenstern. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, (more)
- 1999
Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates directed this made-for-cable feature inspired by the true story of one of America's greatest literary couples, Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. Hellman (Judy Davis) was an award-winning playwright whose successes included The Children's Hour and The Little Foxes, while Hammett (Sam Shepard) was a superlative mystery writer whose books inspired such classic films as The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. The couple met in the 1930s, while Hammett was working in Hollywood as a screenwriter. They remained together until Hammett's death from lung cancer in 1961 (never married despite the conventions of the day) in a relationship strained by Hammett's infidelity and their shared alcoholism. Dash and Lilly uses Hellman's 1950s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee as a springboard to look back at their relationship; both Hammett and Hellman were branded as Communists and called before HUAC, leading to a prison term for Hammett. The film also features Bebe Neuwirth as Dorothy Parker, Laurence Luckinbill as Joseph Rauh, and Mark Zimmerman as Walter Winchell. Hellman's relationship with Hammett formed one of the plot points of the 1977 biopic Julia, which starred Jane Fonda as Hellman and Jason Robards in an Oscar-winning performance as Hammett. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Shepard, Judy Davis, (more)
In this fantasy set in the Old West, Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts) is an outlaw on the run from police after a bank robbery. Britton and his gang wind up in a small town called Refuge, where things are rather unusual -- outlaws are warmly welcomed and offered free food and lodging but warned not to swear, and none of the residents carry guns, including Sheriff Forrest (Sam Shepard). Britton and his gang notice that Sheriff Forrest bears a striking resemblance to the famous gunfighter Wild Bill Hickock, who died some years ago. Elsewhere in Refuge, Britton's gang meets dead ringers for such late, great outlaws as Doc Holliday (Randy Quaid), Billy the Kid (Donnie Wahlberg), and Jesse James (J.D. Souther). Britton learns that Refuge is actually Purgatory, where the gunfighters are stranded between Heaven and Hell, hoping to hoping to find a redemptive grace that will bring them salvation as they struggle not to backslide into final damnation. Soon Britton's gang becomes restless, and the men of Refuge may have to return to their guns if they are to protect the town. Produced for the TNT cable network, Purgatory also features Peter Stormare, Brad Rowe, and Richard Edson. The film is also available on home video in a Spanish subtitled edition. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Old rivalries lead to new betrayals in this Sam Shepard drama with comic undertones. Vinnie (Nick Nolte) and Carter (Jeff Bridges) have known each other for years, but their relationship has grown less than cordial. Many years ago, the two men, along with Vinnie's girlfriend Rosie (Sharon Stone), were making good money in a con game at a racetrack until Simms (Albert Finney), the local racing official, got wind of their ruse. Vinnie and Carter hatched a blackmail scheme that ended Simms' career and ruined his life. Years later, Vinnie is an alcoholic low-life who still makes a living from blackmail; Carter is now a successful horse breeder, married to Rosie, and Vinnie has incriminating information about him that he uses to get Carter to pay his living expenses. Carter gets a call from Vinnie one night as he's finalizing the sale of his prize-winning stallion Simpatico; Vinnie is in jail on a morals charge regarding a woman he's been seeing named Cecilia (Catherine Keener). Vinnie makes Carter an offer: if he comes to California to help him out of this mess, he'll hand off the documents that he's been using against him for years. Carter agrees, but when he arrives, it turns out that Vinnie's not in jail, Cecilia has filed no charges against him, and this is just part of a larger scam with Carter as its target. Director Matthew Warchus made his screen debut with this film; he also adapted the screenplay (in collaboration with David Nicholls) from the play by Sam Shepard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, (more)
Nine years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a small town in the Pacific Northwest still struggles with the troubling legacy of U.S. policies against Asian-Americans. In December 1950, just off the shores of San Piedro Island in Washington, a Japanese-American man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) stands accused of murder after his close friend Carl Heine (Eric Thal) is found drowned in icy waters. As the trial gets under way, with Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) prosecuting Kazuo and Nels Gudmundsson (Max Von Sydow) defending him, reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) covers the proceedings for the local newspaper. It's difficult for Ishmael to view the trial objectively, as his first love was a Japanese-American girl named Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), who later married Kazuo. Now, Ishmael has discovered that, when the Japanese-American residents of San Piedro Island were sent to internment camps during World War II, Carl's mother used their incarceration to scuttle a land purchase by Kazuo's family. This could suggest a motive for murder, but Ishmael is reluctant to step forward with the story. Snow Falling on Cedars was based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, adapted for the screen by Ron Bass and writer/director Scott Hicks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, James Cromwell, (more)
In this romantic comedy with supernatural touches, Stevenson Lowe (James Spader) works for a large publishing house, editing and acquiring new projects. Lowe's new boss is after him to buy fewer books that are good and more books that will sell, while his girlfriend Julia (Polly Walker) is trying to convince him that marriage might not be such a bad idea. But marriage is a tough sell for Lowe; in the hopes that a new home might make him think about settling down, Julia suggests that Lowe look at a brownstone that's just gone on the market. Lowe likes the place and buys it, without deciding if Julia should join him. However, Lowe quickly discovers that he's not actually alone in his new digs; the ghosts of Max Gale (Michael Caine) and Lily Marlowe (Maggie Smith), an acting couple who were the toast of the legitimate stage many years ago, are already in residence. Max and Lily are soon offering Lowe all sorts of unsolicited advice on winning the heart of his lady love, though given how much they bicker, they may not be the best people from whom to learn the art of romance. Buck Henry, Sam Shepard, Frank Whaley, and Marcia Gay Harden highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Spader, Michael Caine, (more)
- 1997
This hour-long documentary presents the playwright, actor, and director Sam Shepard giving viewers a glimpse of his inner self through the prism of a group of his plays presented off-Broadway in 1996 and 1997. Shepard, who won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for his play Buried Child, is also the writer behind Curse of the Starving Class, True West, and Fool for Love. Highlights include scenes excerpted from play performances, Shepard in his first television interview, and commentary by actors Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, John Malkovich, and Ed Harris. Directed by Oren Jacoby. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
In this drama about love and how it can go wrong, Reese McHenry (Sam Shepard) is the owner of a clothing store who, in 1966, hires Carol Fitzsimmons (Diane Keaton) to work for him as a seamstress. Carol is a widow, and Reese's wife is in a coma; both are lonely, and they begin a habit of going to the movies every Wednesday afternoon, and sometimes also meeting for furtive sexual assignations. But Reese is unable to commit to a more permanent relationship as long as his wife is alive, despite his feelings for Carol, and their love remains in a state of limbo for the next 30 years. Meanwhile, Reese's son Tom (Robert Patrick) and Carol's daughter Katherine (Diane Lane) become romantically involved with no knowledge of their parent's relationship, but Tom's unwillingness to commit mirrors his father's own failings. The Only Thrill was based on the play The Trading Post by Larry Ketron, who also wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard, (more)
- 1996
- PG
A production of Hallmark Hall of Fame that originally aired on the Showtime Cable Network, this family drama tells the moving tale of a 19 year-old boy's attempts to reconnect with his estranged family. The story is set in Texas, 1910. The boy is Horace Robedaux. His real father died when he was 12; shortly thereafter his mother married a railroad worker, a man who accepted Horace's younger sister Lily Dale but booted the boy from his home. For the past seven years, Horace has deeply resented his stepfather and this complicates the reunion. The costume designer for Lily Dale, Jean-Pierre Dorléac received an Emmy nomination. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Guinee, Stockard Channing, (more)
This miniseries follows the original Lonesome Dove miniseries, and both are based on the characters created by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry. Although much of the cast has changed from the original, the compelling saga is as satisfying as ever. The Western tale continues with the gritty Captain Woodrow Call (played this time by James Garner), a former Texas Ranger who is hired as a bounty hunter to track down the elusive and brutal Mexican gunman Joey Garza (Alexis Cruz). The characters Pea Eye Parker (Sam Shepard) and Lorena (Sissy Spacek) also return in this moving and atmospheric drama. ~ Jessica Frost, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Alexis Cruz, (more)
- 1995
Tommy Lee Jones made his directorial debut in this made-for-television movie about an aging cowboy dealing with the changing face of the West. Jones stars as Hewey Calloway, a cowboy who has roamed the West for years, who suddenly finds himself at a crossroads -- torn between the freedom of his lifestyle and the security of a loving family and homestead. The film was based on the book by Elmer Kelton and filmed in Texas. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Terry Kinney, (more)
A large, dysfunctional family awaits word on a loved one's fate in this domestic drama starring Susan Sarandon as Mag Singer, mother of seven sons. One, Percival (Matt Keeslar) is serving in the Marine Corps, and when news comes that his barracks in the Middle East has been bombed by terrorists, Mag's family assembles at her home, anxious for more information. In the meantime, a series of old wounds are reopened and healed. The prodigious Singers include the father, Patrick (Sam Shepard), unhappily estranged from Mag and prone to bouts of hysterical blindness, and Alfred (Robert Sean Leonard), the responsible, sober eldest, who is engaged to divorced mother Cynthia (Marcia Gay Harden). There's also Simon (Nick Stahl), the intellectual Izzy (Sean Astin), two twins, and guilt-wracked Gideon (Jason London), a track star who outshone Percival athletically, inspiring the latter to join the military. While the Singers deal with minor crises like a neighbor's dog that repeatedly attacks Simon, Percival's fate looms, and Mag deals with her fear by cleaning out the ramshackle garage and drinking Tequila with her daughter-in-law to be, Cynthia, with whom she's surprised to find much in common. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Sam Shepard, (more)
- 1994
- PG13
Playwright Sam Shepard wrote and directed this bizarre combination of western film revisionism and Greek tragedy. Silent Tongue (Tantoo Cardinal) is a mute Kiowa who is raped by Eamon McCree (Alan Bates), the owner of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Show. Eamon attempts to make up for his crime by marrying her, hoping for forgiveness. Instead, Silent Tongue enacts a bitter retribution through her two daughters, Awbonnie (Sheila Tousey) and Velada (Jeri Arredondo). Awbonnie, as the film begins, has already died, but her grieving husband Talbot (River Phoenix) refuses to let her go, dragging around her corpse. To assuage Talbot, his father Prescott (Richard Harris) sets out to purchase Velada from Eamon, thinking that only Awbonnie's sister can replace her in Talbot's eyes. But Velada's half-brother Reeves (Dermot Mulroney) protests the attempted transaction. As a result, Prescott kidnaps Velada and flees, with not only Reeves and Eamon chasing him, but also Awbonnie's ghost. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Bates, Richard Harris, (more)
- 1994
- R
Based on the award-winning play by Sam Shepard, this drama offers an unblinking look at a family desperately clinging to the last threads of the American dream. Weston Tate (James Woods) is an alcoholic Viet Nam veteran struggling to hold on to the family's farm; he often brags about his grand plans for the place, but in truth the land is just one step away from foreclosure. His wife Ella (Kathy Bates) is determined to hold her family together, though she often dreams of running away and isn't above sleeping with corrupt land developer Taylor (Randy Quaid) if it will help keep the farm in her family's hands. Their son Wesely (Henry Thomas) has the soul of a poet and dreams of a better life, while his sister Emma (Kristin Fiorella) has inherited her mother's strength, but also her mother's burden in holding the Tates together. Noted filmmaker Bruce Beresford adapted Shepard's play for the screen and served as executive producer; Michael McClary directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Woods, Kathy Bates, (more)
Embroiled in an affair with Thomas Callahan (Sam Shephard), her alcoholic professor, precocious 24-year-old Tulane University law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) writes up an insightful theory about the recent murder of two Supreme Court justices, one of whom, Abraham Rosenberg (Hume Cronyn), served as Callahan's mentor. When Callahan shares this so-called "Pelican Brief" with buddy Gavin Verheek (John Heard), an FBI lawyer, the document makes its way to White House flack Fletcher Coal (Tony Goldwyn), who believes it could topple the current administration. When Callahan is murdered and the President (Robert Culp) convinces the FBI to hold off on investigating Darby's theory, the resourceful student must go into hiding, stalked by relentless assassin Khamel (Stanley Tucci). Her only hope of escaping Callahan's fate and proving her theory lies in Washington investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), who's already had one confidential source back out of sharing information about the assassinations. This John Grisham adaptation is fairly faithful to the best-selling novel, but the book's interracial romance between Shaw and Grantham was left out of the script (or at least the finished product), leaving many progressive viewers annoyed at Hollywood's conservatism. Fans of HBO's Sex and the City will notice one of its future stars, Cynthia Nixon, in a small role as one of Darby's New Orleans classmates. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, (more)
Actor Robert De Niro started a production company to make films just like this one: stories which were unpopular with the establishment and which are unlikely to make a big splash at the box-office. Even so, this is a first-class production, and the filmmakers were the first to receive permission to film on the Pine Ridge (Sioux) Reservation in South Dakota, likely due to director Michael Apted's having previously made an accurate and sensitive documentary about Indian political prisoner Leonard Peltier's case, Incident at Oglala. The film did exactly as well as expected at the box-office but has since assumed greater importance as one of the tiny number of "mainstream" movies which faithfully and respectfully illuminate Native American issues. In the story, loosely based on the earlier documentary, Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) is an ambitious up-and-coming FBI agent in the 1970s with great career prospects. The one thing he will not tolerate is any reference to his half-Indian heritage. As far as he is concerned, his loyalties and culture identify him with the government and his white mother. He is extremely touchy about anything to do with his father, who was an alcoholic full-blooded Sioux. However, the FBI wants to take advantage of his half-Indian blood to mend fences in a politically sensitive murder investigation, and it sends him exactly where he doesn't want to go. Further, he is widely advertised as being Indian, though he knows virtually nothing about his heritage and has renounced it to the best of his ability. Once on the reservation, he becomes deeply involved in a truly messy state of affairs and is drawn into situations where he is forced to confront his background, native spirituality, and the duplicity of the government and its allies within the tribe. Despite his consistent prickliness about his heritage, his heart is in the right place, and the reservation's sheriff (Graham Greene) and a wise spiritual elder (Chief Ted Thin Elk) patiently lead their unwilling FBI pupil on a soul-wrenching wild goose chase which paradoxically takes him straight to the heart of the matter. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Graham Greene, (more)
- 1991
- R
This contemporary western stars Dermot Mulroney as a Montana teenager whose sanity is being eroded by his parent's domestic squabbles. Linking up with Lili Taylor, a Wyoming-bound transient with a checkered history, Mulroney embarks upon an odyssey of self-discovery. Unfortunately, he persists in crossing the paths of people even more emotionally disturbed than his mother and father. Adapted by Richard Ford from two of his short stories, Bright Angel is a film of short, pithy vignettes, handled with subtlety and sensitivity-at least until the unexpectedly brutal finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Mulroney, Lili Taylor, (more)
In this suspense drama, a lawyer finds out more than she wanted to know about her friends and lovers. T.K. Katwuller (Barbara Hershey) is a lawyer with a firm command of her career but an unstable hold on her private life; she's more single than she'd like to be, and she's become romantically involved with one of her clients, Steven Seldes (J.T. Walsh), a real estate agent. When T.K. bumps into her college roommate Ellie (Mary Beth Hurt), she discovers that Ellie is Steven's wife, which T.K. hardly regards as welcome news. T.K. then learns that Steven has been accused of financing porn movies dominated by underage actors; after an angry confrontation, she bitterly breaks off the affair. The next day, Steven turns up murdered, and T.K. discovers that Ellie is the prime suspect. She agrees to handle Ellie's case, and Ellie is acquitted. However, T.K.'s conversations with police detective George Beutel (Sam Shepard) begin to plant a seed of doubt in her mind about Ellie's innocence. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, Sam Shepard, (more)
- 1991
- PG13
Set in the 1950s, Voyager concerns the travels of an American construction engineer (Sam Shepard) who is wandering throughout Europe, recounting his life story through a series of flashbacks while meeting a variety of new characters. At first, he meets a man whom he knew during his time as a student in Europe in the days before World War II. Shortly afterward, he meets a beautiful young German woman (Julie Delpy), whom he accompanies on a journey to her home in Athens, Greece. Voyager is a slowly-paced and well-performed with a surprising, tragic conclusion. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, (more)
The title refers to those seemingly frail Southern belles who survive any and all deprivations through whims of iron. Robert Harling's original stage play was set exclusively in a Louisiana beauty parlor where an all-female cast of characters laughed, cried and compared menfolk. The film expands the playing field by including scenes at picnics, hospitals and the like, and by visually depicting the males who never appeared in the stage version. Dolly Parton plays the goodnatured beauty-shop owner, while Shirley MacLaine is the cantankerous town eccentric, decked out in grungy overalls and speaking fluent Trash. Well-to-do Sally Field bravely endures several assaults to her sensibilities, not the least of which is the illness (and subsequent death) of daughter Julia Roberts. The performances are first-rate, with the possible exception of Daryl Hannah's overemphatic portrayal of a gawky hairdresser. The film stumbles a bit in its depiction of the male characters as fools and deadheads, and in the final overlong hospital scenes involving the comatose Roberts, which play like a road company version of Terms of Endearment. Otherwise, Steel Magnolias is a prime example of ensemble filmmaking, lovingly coordinated by director Herbert Ross. (Sidebar: Herbert Ross was reportedly rather rough on Julia Roberts, deriding her lack of experience. The rest of the female cast rallied around Roberts and told the director to lay off or pay the price). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Dolly Parton, (more)
- 1988
- PG13
Writer/director Sam Shepard's jaundiced view of "Lake Woebegone" territory is essentially a vehicle for his lady fair Jessica Lange. Far North is set in rural Minnesota, at the home of a dour, curmudgeonly farm family. Only Kate (Lange) has been able to escape this repressive environment, but she comes home when dad Bertram (Charles Durning) is laid up in the hospital. Despite her city-bred sophistication, Kate almost instantly reverts to childhood, trying desperately to "prove herself" to her misogynistic papa. To do this, she vows to kill the poor old horse that caused her father's injury. Considering its bleak surroundings and vituperative characters, Far North contains very funny dialogue; in terms of the film's cinematic value, however, Shepard's idea of directing seems to be to yell "Action!" and hope for the best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Lange, Charles Durning, (more)
Management consultant Diane Keaton has no time in her life for anything except her high-profile job. All this changes when she inherits a 14-month-old infant from a pair of recently deceased-and very distant-relatives. Intending to put the child up for adoption, she discovers that she has grown fond of the kid and has begun to thrive on the responsibilities of motherhood. All of this, of course, jeopardizes Keaton's love life and professional standing, but all turns out well when the baby inadvertently leads to a whole new moneymaking agenda for our heroine. Capraesque in concept, Baby Boom avoids phony sentiment and obvious humor, emerging as one of the singular comic delights of the late 1980s. On great bit has Keaton "celebrating" a major business coup by surreptiously performing an under-the-table jig (a bit of business that dates back to the 1924 Reginald Denny comedy Skinner's Dress Suit). Baby Boom was spun off into a TV sitcom in 1989, with Kate Jackson filling Diane Keaton's designer shoes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Harold Ramis, (more)
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Beth Henley (who also penned the screenplay), Crimes of the Heart stars three high-powered actresses as three high-strung sisters. Lenny (Diane Keaton), Meg (Jessica Lange) and Babe (Sissy Spacek) gather at Lenny's deep-South home for her birthday. Lenny, the oldest, can't seem to sustain a relationship with a man. Meg is an aspiring actress who hasn't progressed beyond commercial voice overs. And Babe is released on bond from jail after shooting her senator husband. Add to this information the fact that the girls' mother killed herself in Lenny's house, and that when Meg offhandedly expresses the wish that grouchy grandfather Hurd Hatfield would slip into a coma, he does, whereupon the sisters, despite every effort to treat the situation with proper sobriety, burst into helpless laughter over her "psychic" powers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, (more)
- 1986
Originally aired on American public television, True West is a filmed performance of the Steppenwolf Theater Company's production of Sam Shepard's sibling rivalry play. John Malkovich plays a drifter who comes back home to patch up differences--as well instigate new ones--with his brother, a Hollywood screenwriter played by Gary Sinise. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
