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Anne of Green Gables [VHS] Walt Disney Video This gorgeous adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomerys classic childrens story is well worth watching with the whole family Produced for Canadian television its one of those rare productions that actually sticks to the book and even enhances it through first-rate performances and an excellent script Set on bucolic Prince Edward Island in the late 19th century Anne of Green Gables is the story of Anne Shirley an imaginative and headstrong orphan When brother and sister Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan boy to help Matthew work the farm they are astonished when Anne arrives at the train station by mistake What use is she to us grumbles the gruff Marilla We might be of some use to her answers Matthew who has taken an instant liking to the talkative Anne As Anne grows up her adventures are both hilarious and moving Its a delight to watch as she forms a friendship with the beautiful Diana and her admirer--the dashing Gilbert Blythe--then dyes her hair green cracks a slate over Gilberts head when he calls her Carrots and finds a sympathetic teacher who encourages her to attend college Richard Farnsworth is perfect as the shy and gentle bachelor Matthew who confides to Anne that he never went courting because I would have had to say something Colleen Dewhurst delivers a nuanced and powerful performance as Marilla a seemingly cold-hearted spinster whose no-nonsense exterior conceals a warm heart And as Anne Megan Follows strikes the perfect note maturing from freckle-faced orphan to elegant and poised young woman --Elisabeth Keating Shirley Valentine [VHS] Paramount British actress Pauline Collins repeats her stage success as the character Shirley Valentine a married woman who decides in her middle years that she wants more out of life Leaving her spouse behind she heads to Greece where she grows close to a low-key local bloke Tom Conti Collins and director Lewis Gilbert Educating Rita choose to let the character as she did in the play speak directly to the audience at times and the gamble works in terms of creating a gentle intimate atmosphere Conti is a bonus a warm presence and funny to boot --Tom Keogh Jesus of Nazareth (3pc) [VHS] Live / Artisan Originally made for TV in 1977 this in-depth six hours plus version of Jesus life is so thorough that the first hour is devoted solely to the story of his birth The film doesnt skimp on some of the other landmark events of this famous story either Director Franco Zeffirelli gives more than 12 minutes screen time each to the Last Supper and the Crucifixion Passages of the Bible are quoted verbatim the locations have a Palestine-like authenticity and aside from some of the principals Robert Powell as Jesus Olivia Hussey as Mary and Stacy Keach as Barabbas many of the non-Roman characters are actually played by Semitic-looking actors Zeffirelli diligently provides the sociopolitical background that gave rise to Jesus following and the crisis in belief it caused for the people of Israel and one or two Romans While not graphic by todays standards some of the scenes--baby boys being ripped from their mothers arms and slaughtered nails being driven into Jesus hands--may disturb young and/ or sensitive children --Kimberly Heinrichs Gandhi [VHS] RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video Sir Richard Attenboroughs 1982 multiple-Oscar winner including Best Picture Best Director and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley is an engrossing reverential look at the life of Mohandas K Gandhi who introduced the doctrine of nonviolent resistance to the colonized people of India and who ultimately gained the nation its independence Kingsley is magnificent as Gandhi as he changes over the course of the three-hour film from an insignificant lawyer to an international leader and symbol Strong on history the historic division between India and Pakistan still a huge problem today can be seen in its formative stages here as well as character and ideas this is a fine film --Tom Keogh The African Queen [VHS] CBS/Fox VIdeo One of Bogeys best movie If you are a Bogey fan then you want this movie for your collection John Huston made better more powerful films than The African Queen but none so universally beloved on first appearance and over the decades since In this adaptation of the C S Forester novel Humphrey Bogart who would win the best-actor Oscar and Katharine Hepburn costar as an unlikely pair thrown together in German East Africa during the First World War Hes the gin-soaked skipper of what we might call the title character a none-too-reliable steam launch chugging along the backwaters of the Dark Continent Hepburns a straitlaced Methodist missionary who following the demise of her bachelor brother Robert Morley and the burning of their village by Kaiser Wilhelms troops determines that the Queen should be used to attack the K nigin Luise a large German gunboat patrolling a lake downriver Its an absurd proposition Then again John Huston and the absurd were always on familiar terms It wasnt until he got to the Congo that the director realized what a funny picture The African Queen was going to be thanks to the odd coupling of Bogie and Kate One brought out a vein of humor in the other and this comic sense which had been missing from the book and screenplay grew out of our day-to-day shooting Within the gunwales of a not-very-large boat Huston managed to devise myriad ways to keep his two leading characters on separate visual planes even as circumstance and tender emotional urgency conspired to push them together This was Hustons first feature film in Technicolor and the peerless Jack Cardiff The Red Shoes was there to shoot it Unfortunately neither of them could do anything about the process-screen technology needed for and glaringly inadequate to the sequence of Bogart and Hepburn shooting the rapids--just about the only lapse in an enchanting fairy tale for adults The script is credited to Huston and James Agee the uncredited Peter Viertel summoned to the African locations to write some additional material would later fictionalize the experience as White Hunter Black Heart a savage roman clef --Richard T Jameson Harold & Maude [VHS] Paramount Black comedies dont come much blacker than this cult favorite from 1972 and they dont come much funnier either It seemed that director Hal Ashby was the perfect choice to mine a mother lode of eccentricity from the original script by Colin Higgins about the unlikely romance between a death-obsessed 19-year-old named Harold Bud Cort and a life-loving 79-year-old widow named Maude Ruth Gordon They meet at a funeral and Maude finds something oddly appealing about Harold urging him to reach out and grab life by the lapels as opposed to dwelling morbidly on mortality Harold grows fond of the old gal--shes a lot more fun than the girls his mother desperately matches him up with--and together they make Harold Maude one of the sweetest and most unconventional love stories ever made Much of the earlier humor arises from Harolds outrageous suicide fantasies played out as a kind of twisted parlor game to mortify his mother whos grown immune to her strange sons antics Gradually however the films clever humor shifts to a brighter outlook and finally arrives at a point where Harold is truly happy to be alive Featuring soundtrack songs by Cat Stevens this comedy certainly wont appeal to all tastes it was a box-office flop when first released but if youre on its quirky wavelength it might just strike you as one of the funniest movies youve ever seen --Jeff Shannon Thelma & Louise [VHS] MGM (Video & DVD) Thelma Louise is a feminist manifesto writ large on the big screen a smart and funny gender reversal of the standard Hollywood buddy formula a road movie extraordinaire with characters who became instant cultural icons No matter how you define it Ridley Scotts 1991 box-office hit pinched a nerve and made the cover of national news magazines for tweaking gender politics like no movie before or since Callie Khouris screenplay overhauls the buddy formula with its story about two best friends Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis who embark on a liberating adventure that turns into an interstate police chase after a traumatic incident makes both women into fugitives they are en route to a destiny they could never have imagined The perfect casting of Sarandon and Davis makes Thelma Louise a movie for the ages and Brad Pitt became an overnight star after his appearance as the con-artist cowboy who gives Davis a memorable but costly night in a roadside motel --Jeff Shannon Persuasion [VHS] Sony Pictures Movie adaptations of Jane Austens classic novels were all the rage relatively speaking in the mid-1990s Clueless updated Austens Emma which was more conventionally adapted in another version Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow Emma was produced yet again this time for British television as were a celebrated miniseries of Pride and Prejudice and this splendid film of Austens Persuasion Persuasion is the story of a love that survives eight years of dormancy and the frustrating obstacles of class prejudice in 19th century England Anne Amanda Root is captivated when she meets the dignified naval officer Capt Wentworth Ciar n Hinds but she is advised to discourage his romantic overtures because he has no fortune They meet again eight years later but now Capt Wentworth has become wealthy while Annes father is in reduced circumstances in the wake of reckless extravagance A series of circumstances ensue which prevent Anne and Wentworth from expressing their mutual and inevitable love The films success depends entirely on the subtle superb performances of Root and Hinds The film builds slowly occasionally leaving you wondering if anything at all is going to happen When it does you realize how carefully crafted a film this is and the final result is grandly rewarding --Jeff Shannon Last Emperor [VHS] Columbia Tristar Hom Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping grand epic that tells a very personal tale The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi the last of the emperors of China It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people He was later forced to abdicate and unable to fend for himself in the outside world became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man He died in obscurity living as a peasant in the Peoples Republic We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role but this movie focuses more on visuals than characterization anyway Filmed in the Forbidden City it is spectacularly beautiful filling the screen with saturated colors and exquisite detail It won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director --Rochelle OGorman Strangers in Good Company [VHS] Touchstone / Disney This touching 1991 Canadian film directed by Cynthia Scott takes the unusual step of casting nonprofessional actors and the gamble pays off very well indeed The story concerns eight elderly women whose tour bus breaks down driving through the wilderness While waiting to be rescued they find an abandoned house and look for food The days and nights they end up spending away from civilization prove restorative to their spirits as each character gets an opportunity to tell her life story The ensemble cast as it turns out essentially plays themselves in the film the tales they tell are truly their own A very talky slowly paced production its best to get into the gentle rhythm of Scotts design and let the experience flow in the same way it does for the performers --Tom Keogh