Author: Peter J Patrick
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The DVD Report #364
New This Week A war film with the title Lone Survivor obviously forecasts how it will end, but how it gets there is what makes the most violent and yet most moving war movie since Saving Private Ryan worth your time. Peter Berg’s film chronicles the 2005 mission of a group of Navy SEALS in…
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Oscar Profile #189: Darryl F. Zanuck
Born September 5, 1902 in Wahoo, Nebraska to the promiscuous daughter of the town’s only hotel and her husband, the hotel’s alcoholic night clerk, Darryl F. Zanuck was on his own by age 13 having been abandoned by both parents. He joined the Army at 15 by lying about his age and fought in Belgium…
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The DVD Report #363
New This Week Howard Hawks directed his first film in 1926. He was a prolific filmmaker who excelled in all genres from psychological war movies (The Dawn Patrol) to gangster films (Scarface) to screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby) to action-adventures (Only Angels Have Wings) to gender-bending remakes (His Girl Friday) to biographies (Sergeant York) to…
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Oscar Profile #188: Walter Brennan
Born July 25, 1894, Walter Brennan was the second of three children of an engineer and inventor and his wife. He became interested in acting in high school and began performing in vaudeville at the age of 15. While serving with the U.S. Army in France during World War I, he suffered a gas attack…
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The DVD Report #362
New This Week Two of the films that were expected to earn major Oscar nominations last year were not released until early this year making them ineligible for consideration for the 2013 awards. Will they factor into the 2014 race? Perhaps not, but they shouldn’t keep anyone from enjoying them. Held back because it wasn’t…
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Oscar Profile #187: Nancy Kwan
Born May 19, 1939 in Hong Kong to Cambridge educated Chinese architect Kwan Wing Hong and his English wife, Marquita Scott, Nancy (AKA Ka Shen) Kwan is an internationally celebrated Eurasian actress and producer. Two years after her birth, as World War II escalated, Kwan’s parents divorced and her mother returned to England. In fear…
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The DVD Report #361
New This Week Films about men falling in love with other-worldly creatures have long been a staple of movies as they were in mythology going back to the Greeks. We’ve had films about men falling in love with angels (I Married an Angel; witches (I Married a Witch; statues One Touch of Venus and more…
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Oscar Profile #186: Susan Hayward
Born Edythe Marrener, the daughter of a transportation worker, in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, N.Y. on June 30, 1917, the future Susan Hayward went to the movies a lot as a child to escape the boredom of her poor surroundings. A stunning beauty even as a child, she became a photographer’s model as a…
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The DVD Report #360
New This Week Diehard fans of Veronica Mars, which ran on the CW TV network from 2004-2007, contributed money to the on-line Kickstarter website to finance a new film based on the series. The film was made for $6 million, but grossed only $3.4 million partially due to Kickstarter contributors receiving free tickets or downloads…
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Oscar Profile #185: Michael Douglas
Born September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Michael Douglas was the first of four sons of Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas. He made his film debut in an uncredited role as a jeep driver in his father’s 1966 film, Cast a Giant Shadow. Determined not to be a chip off the old block, he…
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The DVD Report #359
New This Week Second generation director Jason Reitman began his film career like a house-afire with his first film, 2005’s Thank You for Smoking which earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, Aaron Eckhart. His second film, 2007’s Juno earned Golden Globe nominations for…
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Oscar Profile #184: Alan J. Pakula
Born April 7, 1928 in the Bronx, New York to parents of Polish Jewish ancestry, Alan J. Pakula majored in drama at Yale. He began his Hollywood career as an assistant in the cartoon department at Yale. Having convinced his father, who owned a successful printing business, to give him the money to finance a…
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The DVD Report #358
New This Week William Friedkin was riding high. His last two films, The French Connection and The Exorcist were world-wide box-office hits and multiple awards magnets. His next film, a reimagining of Henri-Georges Clozot’s 1953 French film classic, The Wages of Fear was intended to be his masterpiece. Instead, that film, titled Sorcerer was a…
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Oscar Profile #183: Geraldine Fitzgerald
Born November 24, 1913 in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of a prominent lawyer and his wife, Geraldine Fitzgerald had a multi-faceted career as an Oscar nominated actress; Tony nominated director and cabaret star. Her father’s law firm, D&T Fitzgerald, is mentioned in James Joyce’s classic novel “Ulysses”. Joyce was a close friend and client. On…
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The DVD Report #357
New This Week Based on Martin Sixsmith’s The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Stephen Frears’ Philomena takes the emphasis off the child and puts it squarely on his mother. Writer-producer and co-star, Steve Coogan, not Frears, is clearly the auteur on this one. He and his co-writer, Jeff Pope, collapse about 80% of the book…
