There are 2 types of war movies; the ones that take a slightly more romantic view of war, and then there are the ones that seek to portray war more realistically. They depict war as something that dehumanizes human beings, with no nobility being there. People suffer huge emotional and physical trauma, including both the people who take part in it, and the collateral damage to civilians (people in the territories where the war is taking place and the relatives and friends of the war participants). There are a number of movies that came out during and after the Vietnam War that portray the horrors of the war, such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, etc. The Deer Hunter is another movie of the same type, that takes 3 people who enter the war as soldiers, suffer the horrors of the war including capture and torture in a VietCong Prisoner of War camp, and then takes their experiences just after the war (not their life, but their experiences still related to Vietnam).

The film was loosely based on a screenplay called “The Man Who Came To Play” (by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker) depicting people who come to Las Vegas to play Russian Roulette (the game is a dangerous game of taking a chance with a bullet in a gun, just not knowing which chamber the bullet is in); this screenplay idea was then combined with an idea about a group of steel workers who go to Vietnam for military service, with their life now revolving around the effects of the war and its aftermath. The movie showed several serious and challenging subjects such as suicide, mental illness, the effects of war, etc.
The movie centers around these 3 Rust belt workers, Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken). In their service in Vietnam, they are captured and help in a POW camp; the guards, to relieve their boredom, force the prisoners to play the game of Russian Roulette. Steven shoots the bullet above his head, and is punished by the guards for not following the rules of the game. Nick and Michael manage to overcome the guards, kill them, and escape along with Steve.
Escape in Vietnam means floating down the river, and that is what the 3 friends do. Only of them (Nick) manages to escape in a rescue helicopter, while Michael jumps in after Steve who has fallen into the river, since Steve’s legs were damaged in the fall. Steve and Michael eventually manage to make it friendly lines, and lose contact with Nick, who eventually finds himself in a Saigon bar playing Russian Roulette all the time.
By the time much later that Steve and Michael reunite, Nick has become totally lost to everybody else, his only place being the Saigon bar. By the time Mike manages to locate him, Nick no longer can remember anything and refuses to go back to the US, and then it happens. He finally shoots himself in the head.
The Deer Hunter won
Best Picture,
Best Director (Michael Cimino),
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken),
Best Film Editing, and
Best Sound.

Nominated for
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro),
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep),
Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Psycho (released in 1960) was arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous movie, and acknowledged as one of the best movies of all times. The movie set new standards in the field of horror movies, something that slasher movies later have found it difficult to emulate. This was also a movie that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to use to establish his reputation, especially when ‘Vertigo’ had failed 2 years earlier (neither the critics nor the audience gave it much of a reception); and the story of a murderer (a novel by Peter Bloch) was something that appealed to him. He had not made such a movie in the past, although he had made his name in suspense, and the making of a movie of the genre of a psychotic murderer would be a different movie.

To that extent, the story of Psycho was something that Hitchcock guarded to a very high degree. Even the film rights to the novel were bought under a different name so that viewers would not guess the twists in the story. This quest for secrecy manifested itself in several different ways. Hitchcock forbade most promotion on the usual media - television, radio, and print interviews so that there was no fear of revealing the truth. In addition, critics were not allowed the usual private screenings, but had to see the movie with the general public, so that the plot remained secret (even though preventing the critics from their screenings might cause reviews to be not so positive).
The movie also struggled on a different front. The studio for which Hitchcock was supposed to make another movie, Paramount, was not happy with the script or with the thought of Hitchcock making this movie. They did not believe that the script was suitable for a movie, and in fact, such a movie was essentially a pet peeve for Hitchcock. Accordingly, his usual budget was denied, causing Hitchcock to raise money on his own and cut costs. He hired his regular staff, managed to get the lead star Janet Leigh for much less than her regular fee; the overall budget was less than a million dollars.
The movie was reviewed poorly by critics, but turned out to be a major commercial success, earning some $32 million overall. Since the movie was produced by Hitchcock’s company, his share of the profits was much greater than one would have expected otherwise. The success of the movie led critics to change their views, do a re-review, and the movie earned a total of 4 Oscar nominations.
The movie is a gripping psycho drama, with a shower murder scene that is one of the most famous scenes ever; this scene has been copied and parodied many times. There has been countless research done over the decades to evaluate as to why the scene has had such an impact to users; as an aside, it has been popular lore that the scene impacted the actress Janet Leigh so much that she found it difficult to take a shower after that.
The movie is set in a out-of-the-way motel called Bates motel. It is run by the young man called Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who lives with his ailing mother. And who arrives to this motel ? The lady on the run, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). She is in love with Sam Loomis (John Gavin), but both of them do not have much money. They are in dire need of money since Sam is in debt and also has alimony payments to an wx-wife that are ongoing. Marion steals $40,000 from the office in Phoenix, Arizona that she works in (she is asked to deposit the money in the bank, but she runs off with the money), and wants to drive to the town in California where Sam works.
She is suspicious, wondering about whether the police is after her; in this state, she even changes her car to try to throw pursuers off her track. In this state, she finds a motel on the way, and is persuaded to stay there. She finds Norman Bates a bit strange, but nothing prepares her for her end. When she is showering in her motel room, an apparently elderly woman attacks her and is stabbed to death (with a powerful musical score playing in the background).
Norman finds the corpse of Marion, and in order to protect his mother, he dumps Marion and all her belongings (including the car) into a nearby swamp. However, it is not the end; a private detective Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam) is hired to find Norman. He manages to find the Bates motel, and starts to question Norman who gets all nervous. He meets the same end as Marion, being slashed to death by Norman’s mother after being pushed down the stairs. When Milton does not report back, Marion’s mother Lila and Sam get concerned and contact the sheriff. When the sheriff is told about Norman’s mother, he is surprised since Norman’s mother had died 10 years back.
Sam and Lila investigate further, and slip into the motel. They find a slip of paper talking about the money that Marion was carrying ($40,000), and so decide to confront Norman’s mother. Lila is tasked with talking to the mother, while Sam would divert Norman. However, Norman soon has a fight with Sam and knocks him out; Lila is shocked when she discovers the preserved body of Norman’s mother; and the secret is out - Norman is wearing his mother’s clothes when he comes with a knife to kill Lila. Sam arrives just in time and knocks Norman out.
In the end, a psychiatrist explains the truth; Norman and his mother lived together with no one else. So when Norman’s mother took a lover, Norman killed them both, and then tried to erase the guilt by preserving her body, and acting as her (in a classic case of split personality). In this reverse state, the split personality is jealous of any woman to whom Norman comes in touch with, and kills such a women. His psychosis prevents him from realizing the enormity of his crimes. Norman lands up in a cell, his mind dominated by his mother. In this alter ego, she believes that she is harmless and Normal is responsible for her current state.

A classic science fiction novel, Nightfall was first published as a short story in the September 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, written after some friendly persuasion by the editor of the magazine - John W. Campbell. The story was later adapted into a complete novel, and one that was acknowledged to be an incredible piece of science fiction (but it was not just science fiction, but a psychological look at a society when it suddenly encounters a very changed environment and raises questions about how humans respond to unknown stimulus). The influence and power of this story was such that it was declared in 1968 as the best science fiction short story ever written prior to the establishment of the Nebula Awards (the awards were established in 1965) by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Nightfall has a pretty simple story. The story deals with human (like) society on an alien planet Lagash (Kalgash in the novel adaptation) that has a unique sky. It has a total of 6 suns all around it the stellar configuration (the various suns being Onos, Dovim, Trey, Patru, Tano, and Sitha). Because of these 6 suns, the planet is always in light and the inhabitants have not known darkness. They are so habituated to always having light that standing a time of darkness can be unnerving for most people. For example, a new amusement park ride that promises a time of total darkness has scared and traumatized many people.
The story has 3 main plots that all move to the same merger. There are the archaeologists who make the discovery that the ground strata of the planet seems to indicate that civilization builds up and then destroys itself, and that this has not happened once, but seems to keep on happening in a cycle. The researches are puzzled as to why such a thing keeps on happening, after all, most civilizations advance and maybe stagnate, but don’t keep on going through a repetitive cycle of advance and decline.
Similarly, physicists discover that the there are irregularities in the orbit of Kalgash around its primary sun Onos. After more studies, the conclusions that they keep on heading towards is a horrifying one. The discovery is that the planet has a so far unknown satellite that causes the irregularities, and plotting the orbits of the planet, the satellite and the 6 suns lead to a conclusion that just cannot be true. After all, everybody knows that the planet has always had sunlight, so how can there be a time of many hours when the suns and the satellite reach a position where there is no light on the planet. Such a situation can cause mass hysteria and madness.
And then there is the political angle. There is a group known as the Apostles of the Flames, that calls itself as an ancient society; their belief (like a religious belief) is that civilization dies out with the appearance of darkness and then the stars that unleash fire. They are trying to gain more authority and political power.
These 3 combine together to reach a conclusion - every 2,049 years, the sole sun on one side of the planet is eclipsed for half a day, and this is a time when society (never having experience darkness) will go through madness and anarchy, with fire and chaos.
The rest of the novel is about this time coming closer, and then what happens when that time appears. This is a fascinating propounding of the state of the human mind, its irrationality in believing weird faiths and religious fervor when faced with a new thing.

What an unusual name, you might wonder. After all, how easy is it for a movie to get named something like ‘The usual suspects’ ? Well, if you have seen Casablanca, then you should stop wondering. In the end, when the policeman wants to save the resistance fighter (Humphrey Bogart), he instead tells his men to round up ‘the usual suspects’ (actually the name of the movie is based on a column in Spy magazine called ‘The Usual Suspects’). Besides the unusual name, the movie is also regarded as a neo-noir film. To add to the myth around this movie, it was shot on a $6 million budget and released in 1995 in a few theatres, but gained publicity through word of mouth and good reviews, and was then released in a much wider way. The movie also picked up 2 academy awards, further adding to the fame of the movie. As always while making of such iconic movies, the making of the movie went through many twists and turns in terms of getting the budget, getting the actors, and so on. But it did get made, and turned out to earn $24 million.

The movie was nominated for 2 Oscars, and won both. The awards were:
* Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Kevin Spacey
* Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - Christopher McQuarrie
It was nominated and won other awards such as BAFTA. Get the list here.
The movie had a good line up, with the following line-up:
* Kevin Pollak (played Todd Hockney)
* Kevin Spacey (Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint) - An award winning role
* Benicio Del Toro (Fred Fenster)
* Gabriel Byrne (Dean Keaton)
* Stephen Baldwin (Michael McManus)
These were the 5 members of the gang, seemingly being manipulated behind the scenes by a mega-criminal, a ruthless man. But is the truth what it seems like ? The movie works at different levels, with story being told in flashes; with so many twists and turns. You start with a story, being told cleverly, but are never very sure about what is true or not. Miss parts of the movie, and you may not be able to identify what is going on in the movie when you get back ! The Usual Suspects is a gripping story, very cleverly told (although you will find critics who are dismissive of a movie that seems too clever). There is a good chance that you will start reading every gesture, every glance, and the dialogues to figure out where the story is going. And then the ending. What a story !
The central theme of the movie is one of detection: Who is the criminal mastermind Kyser Söze ? This is the character who is the mover behind the scenes, who manipulates a group of criminals like puppets on a chain, and about whom nobody really knows as to who he is.
Imagine a squad of policemen who reach a boat on a pier, and find a mini-battle has happened, with 27 people dead and a massive amount of heroin found. The only 2 wounded survivors are a Hungarian who fears a mass-killing master criminal known as “Keyser Söze”, who was in the boat killing people. And the other survivor is Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), who agrees to cooperate with the police in return for immunity. And this is the guts of the movie !
Kint and 4 others were earlier arrested and taken to a police line-up (with ‘the usual suspects’ being arrested); incensed over this arrest, they decide to strike back and plan a major robbery that will also implicate the corrupt police officers in the NYPD. The reluctant members are convinced, and the robbery happens without a hitch, and they travel to California to peddle the goods to a fence called Redfoot.
There, they are persuaded to commit another robbery that goes wrong, and they are forced to kill Saul Berg, a purported jewel smuggler and his bodyguards. And what do they end up with ? Not the reported cash and jewelery, instead heroin. When they confront Redfoot, they realize that the orders came from a lawyer called Kobayashi (Postlethwaite), who is in turn working for “Keyser Söze”, something that scares them because of his background and supposed ruthless nature.
The lawyer has proof of their activities, and blackmails them into doing another job for Keyser Söze, the destruction of cargo of a rival coming into the port. And then Kint starts to explain to the police who exactly Keyser Söze is (as explained to him by his fellow criminals); a superman of the criminal world, a man so ruthless that when his family is threatened, he first kills his family and then carries on a vicious vendetta against his rivals and all their known people; this done, he vanishes and now only works through henchmen. They try to fight back after one of their own is killed, but back down when facing the ruthless nature of the lawyer and his apparent boss.
The criminals attack the boat of Keyser’s rivals, and a major battle starts; Kint is held back to be able to escape and report in case the others do not survive; but things start to go haywire. There is no cocaine on the boat, people are killed who the criminals have not yet attacked, and then the remaining gang members are seemingly killed by Keyser Söze. The police seem to believe that Keaton was actually Keyser Söze, and Kint supports this theory. He gets bail, leaves; leaving behind policemen who slowly start to discover that the story that they have been told is actually bull. The police sketch of Keyser Söze is very close to Kint, but it is too late. He has disappeared in front of their eyes.

What can you say about a movie that is deemed to be among the greatest movies ever made, and that is one of the few movies to win the top 5 Oscars (more on that later). It is also another of the movies where the original author, on whose novel the movie is based, finally has a dispute with the released movie. In this case, the movie was based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. Ken was so incensed over a dispute over financial rights that he promised to never see the movie, and so it happened.
The final actors and actresses who played key roles in the movie were not the final choices either. Both Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher were not the first choices for their roles, with more leading stars being proposed, but eventually these two were the final choices, and both went onto win Oscars for their portrayals. The movie itself got great critical acclaim, with most reviewers at the time of release giving a fair amount of praise. And over a period of time, the movie got rated upwards, being deemed among the greatest movies of all times.

The movie was the first movie after It Happened one Night (1934) to win the 5 leading Oscars, and the same feat was only managed after 16 years by Silence of the Lambs. The Oscars won:
* Best Actor for Jack Nicholson
* Best Actress for Louise Fletcher
* Best Direction for Miloš Forman
* Best Picture
* Best Adapted Screenplay for Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman
The movie was also very successful in terms of earning money, far more than expected out of a movie shot in a hospital (and starring the leading man as a person trying to over-turn the dictatorial head of a mental institution who eventually dies). Shot on a budget of approx $ 4 million, the movie earned more than $ 300 million worldwide.
The movie centers on the conflict between a patient at a mental hospital McMurphy (Jack Nocholson), and the element of authority, the supervisory nurse Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). McMurphy is the anti-authoritarian fighter, unwilling to accept authority and repression while the nurse represents the worst of state authority; ultimately the conflict is settled in the nurse’s favor when McMurphy goes down fighting. The movie, by Czech Director Milos Forman, could also be seen as a representation of the ongoing conflict between Soviet repression and the urge of the people under their yoke to be free, or die fighting.
McMurphy is a 38 year person having seen frequent conflict with the law, and sentenced to a prison sentence for statutory rape. He is sent to a mental hospital for evaluation due to his frequent defiance of authority; he sees the mental hospital as a place that will be much lighter for serving the sentence, rather than in the labour work farm where he was imprisoned. In the prison, he comes against the rule and process oriented Nurse Mildred Ratched. She is bureaucratic and authoritarian, and various patients in the hospital all suffer under her repression. Some of the main other characters are:
* The silent, huge and towering Indian giant “Chief” Bromden, aka “Broom” (Creek Indian Will Sampson in his film debut) (who pretends to be dumb as his way of dealing with the repression of the nurse)
* The pathetic, incessantly stuttering, paranoid boychild, thirty-year old Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif in his film debut)
* The short, smiling Martini (Danny De Vito in one of his earliest roles) with an immature personality
* An ineffectual, rationalizing intellectual Dale Harding (William Redfield) - suffering from his wife’s betrayal
McMurphy starts trying to bring some change in to the lives of the inmates, starting them to play basketball, card games, and many mind games over trying to get permission to watch the opener of the 1963 World Series baseball game (including getting the patients to vote on a change of their schedule so that the game can be watched). He keeps on trying to enthuse the patients, to get them to rise against the repressive authority with which their lives are being run, and constantly tries to be one-up against the nurse.
He starts getting traction, with the patients starting to respond back, to question things more, and use their own independent will. In a breakout, they manage to commander the bus and go for a fishing trip after McMurphy manages to convince the charter boat manager that they are all doctors of the mental hospital, but when they get back, the police are waiting for them. Nurse Ratched is even more determined to keep McMurphy and break him.
She gets a chance when disobedience breaks out, and McMurphy and others assault a guard. They are shackled and then taken for electro-shock treatment, but soon comes back to his normal state and starts planning an escape; this is going to be final chapter of his story in the mental hospital. He plans a party in the hospital (against all rules), and gets his 2 girl-friends Candy and Rose to enter the hospital as part of a wild drinking party. After Billy expresses a desire, McMurphy gets Candy to sleep with Billy so that he can finally get rid of his virginity.
The next morning, all hell breaks lose. In the wild drinking party, McMurphy could have escaped, but choose not to. Nurse Ratched, desiring to re-establish authority, starts with Billy and gets him severely guilt-stricken over his conduct (after using his feelings regarding his authoritarian mother), enough that he starts stammering again, and then cuts his throat. McMurphy then loses control, and tries to throttle Nurse Ratched, at which point he is led away and then, it happens. In order to cut his anti-authority tendencies, he is lobotomized, and returns to the ward as a shell of his former self. His friend, the gentle giant, Bromden realizes what has happened, and liberates McMurphy by smothering him to death with his pillow. He finally realizes McMurphy’s dream by escaping from the hospital, but not the other inmates.

Imagine not being able to stand on a tall step-ladder because of the fear of heights - called as acrophobia. This fear forms the basis for the movie, now known as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest movies, and part of any list of the top 10 movies of all times. The movie however did not always have that reputation. When it released in 1958, it did not create much of a stir, and got a total of 2 Academy nominations (nominations in technical categories - Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color and Best Sound). It did not win a single Oscar, and was essentially not acclaimed for some time.
And then came the re-evaluation. In the 1960’s, the movie started catching the attention of critics and reviewers, and got much more attention when it was re-released commercially in October 1983 and then on home video in October 1984. In the next few years, Vertigo was recognized as being among the best films ever made. Alfred Hitchcock rated it as his favorite movie.

The movie was an unusual movie in the sense that it combines the familiar Hitchcock trait, obsession, with some great sets, a story that is very gripping. Adding a touch of the paranormal to this story also enriches the whole movie; when coupled with a great double role by Kim Novak and the obsessed role played by Jimmy Stewart make this movie worth watching in a repeat mode. For those who have not seen the movie, it is worth watching.
The movie is shot in some great locations in San Francisco, and a great many of the fans of this movie make it a point to visit them. Some of the locations features in the film include such locations as Fort Point at the Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of the Legion of Honor, Muir Woods, Mission San Juan Bautista, Mission Dolores, Palace of Fine Arts, and a few others.
The movie is all about the obsessions of a former police detective John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson. He has always suffered from acrophobia (fear of heights) to some degree, but this develops into a full blown acute fear when he watches his police partner plummet to death during a chase on rooftops (Scottie himself is clutching onto dear life on his fingertips). It is now of the level that he cannot continue in the police force and resigns.
And this fear forms the backdrop of the movie. At such a time, he gets a case from an old wealthy friend, Gavin Elster, to have his wife Madeleine followed. Elster believes that Madeleine may be possessed by the spirit of a woman called Carlotta Valdes who killed herself a 100 years back. And Madeleine plays the part, visiting the grave and moving around in a trance. At one point, Scotties saves her when she throws herself into the San Francisco Bay. They are traveling together when she wants to visit the Mission San Juan Bautista, and then runs up the bell tower. Scottie is unable to follow because of his acrophobia, and can only watch in horror as she throws herself off the tower to her death.
Scottie suffers from depression over this whole incident, and starts to go back to the places that he visited along with Madeleine. And then he meets Judy Barton who looks a lot like Madeleine. She does not tell him the truth about being hired to act as Madeleine while Elster uses Scottie as a pawn to actually throw his real wife off the tower (she writes a letter to Scottie about this, but destroys it soon enough). However, Scottie’s obsession with Madeleine starts to show, making Judy dress up like Madeleine (including even the hair style).
Eventually Scottie forces her to go up to the top of the bell tower, and she confesses the truth to him, making him rage at her. However, Scottie has made it to the top of the bell tower, and this emotional turmoil causes him to lose his fear of vertigo. They reconcile, and then Judy pays a terrible price for his escape from acrophobia. She gets scared of a shadow (a nun) and falls down; Scottie is able to look down at her, thus showing that he has lost his fear of heights, but at a massive price.

This is an all-time classic, that somehow has stood the test of time. It is one of the best money-making films of all time. Considering that the film was made in 1956, if one adjusts its earning for inflation, it’s current earnings would be in the range of around $ 840,000, making it one of the top five grossing films of all time. It is widely acknowledged as an epic, and one of the finest creation of Cecil B. DeMille. It stars Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, and John Derek in the pivotal roles.
The movie is based on the Ten Commandments, a list of religious imperatives necessary to be followed by humans, and form the basis for morality in Judaism and Christianity. For more about the 10 commandments, read this Wikipedia entry.
The movie follows the life story of Moses, a prophet of ancient, who led the children of Israel out of slavery under the pharaohs in Egypt and to the promised land, without himself setting foot in the promised land. Moses was found by the Egyptian princess, and raised as part of royalty. He is the favourite of the Pharaoh, and rival of the Pharoah’s son, Rameses II. Eventually Moses learns that he is the son of hebrew slaves, and this changes his life.
Brought before the pharoah, and accused of being the Hebrew ‘Deliverer’, Moses, even when faced with the removal of his status and persecution, does not recant from his belief in freedom for the Hebrew slaves. Stripped of his name and status, and losing the companionship of Nefretiri, the Princess, he is exiled to the desert.
While wandering among the desert in a desolate condition, he comes across his companions, and then in a life-turning moment, he comes across the Burning Bush on Mount Sinai and is charged by god with freeing the slaves. And thus starts the battle. He proclaims his mission in front of Rameses and brings a number of divine plagues to hit the land. After Rameses loses his child in a plague, he gives the slaves their freedom, resulting in a masterful scene of the slaves leaving Egypt.
However, Rameses recants and goes with his army to get the slaves back and kill Moses. And then the divine miracles start. First Rameses is held back at the Red Sea by a pillar of fire, and then the Sea parts for Moses, and drowns Rameses army when it tries to follow. So the slaves are now free. But when they do not see deliverance and Moses is away on top of the mountain, they lose faith and indulge in unpardonable activities. Moses, in the meantime, has been granted the Ten Commandments by God’s own hands. However, when he comes back down and sees the happenings, he condemns the perverted. After a period of 40 years wandering in the desert to show their loyalty to God, he hands over the Jews to Joshua.

Crimson Tide is a gripping tale of conflict between the commander and executive officer on board an Ohio-class missile submarine of the US Navy, USS Alabama. Acting by Gene Hackman as the captain and by Denzel Washington as the executive officer was intense, and I do like this movie tremendously. The movie was released in 1995, and because the subject of the movie was controversial (a mutiny on board a submarine), the US navy refused to cooperate; and all filming had to be done in special sets.
So what is an Ohio class missile boat (submarine) ? It is the quietest boat that the US navy has, very very difficult to detect once it is in the water. It runs on energy from a nuclear reaction and hence does not have the problem of diesel boats that it has to come up for air. It is also a critical part of the US plan for retaliation (second-strike) in a nuclear scenario. A Ohio class submarine has 24 ballistic submarines, each with 8 warheads. The firepower that can be thrown up by an Ohio class submarine can decimate an entire nation.
There are many technical issues in the movie, most of them listed here. The chief one being whether the captain of a nuclear submarine has the ability to fire the missiles without receiving a direct approval from the commander-in-chief (the President). Having said that, it is a very entertaining movie.
The movie deals at a time of tension with Russia. A Russian renegade has taken control of a Russian missile base and has threatened both Russia and the US from taking any action. The USS Alabama is ordered to be on patrol, with the aim of being able to fire on the Russian base if there are any hostile actions taken by the Russian. Gene Hackman is the captain (Captain Frank Ramsey) and his executive officer is Denzel Washington (Lt Commander Ron Hunter). The boat does receive an order to fire on the Russian base, but then a second order starts to come through, is aborted however when the Alabama is attacked by a Russian Akula hunter submarine. The captain believes that he has a valid order, but Washington refuses to concur, wanting to review the second aborted order.
This sets off a confrontation. The XO (executive officer) orders the arrest of the captain (who is normally god of the submarine) for over-reaching his authority, and in a sudden fight with the Akula, suffers further damage while destroying the Russian sub. The damage is severe, with communications knocked out, people having dies, and water having flooded part of the sub. The captain’s loyal officers get him releases, and he then orders the arrest of the XO and his loyal officers.
Ramsey is determined to launch the missiles, and is only prevented by the weapons officer who has been convinced by the XO to delay this operation. In this stand-off, they determine to wait for the second communication, and communications finally get restored. The second order was a reversal of the first order, ordering a cease and desist. The US navy came this close to launching nuclear missiles on a nuclear-capable nation.
In the post battle review, the admirals are astonished at the level of conflict on board the sub, and the net result is that the captain resigns and the XO takes over. Realistic, maybe not; gripping, sure; and very very interesting. Almost the entire action takes place inside a submarine.

This is a classic tome from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For Sherlock Holme’s lovers and for the lovers of detective novels, it is a must-read. Set in the moors of England, you can get a feel for the desolation of the place and for the suspense hanging. It is considered to be one of the best works for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and was released in 1902 in book form.
What is the story about? Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in their Baker Street lodgings when they receive a visit from Dr. James Mortimer, who is due to receive the last heir of the Baskerville Mansion, who is returning from abroad. He is very apprehensive about taking Sir Henry Baskerville to Baskerville estate in Broadmoor; when pressed, he reveals that this is due to the circumstances of the death of the last lord of Baskerville Hall, who died in his garden with a sign of acute terror on his face. Examination did not show any apparent physical reason for this death.
There is apparently a family legend about a huge and terrible hound that killed one of the previous owners of the Hall, Sir Hugo Baskerville, a couple of centuries back. Holmes is not exactly a believer of the supersititious, but does not dismiss anything outright. Dr. James Mortimer is more likely to believe it because of the death of Sir Charles Baskerville. In addition, near the body he had found the footmarks of a giant dog.
What begins is a cat and mouse game between Holmes and his unseen adversary. Things start happening before Sir Henry Baskerville even leaves London, with his shoes being stolen. Holmes sends Watson to Baskerville Hall, but refuses to come himself. Watson does his end of the investigation, and finds a few things, such as a convict being loose on the moors, and being related to the house-keeper who sends food to him. Sir Henry becomes acquainted by the brother-sister pair of Stapletons who are naturalists, and starts developing an affection for the sister. All attempts are made to keep him away from the moor, so that even if they do not believe in a giant dog, still no reason to put him in harm’s way.
When things start heating up, Watson pursues a figure in the moor, who turns out to be Sherlock Holmes, who has been living on the moor. He had learnt a lot of things, but in order to get proof, Holmes needs to offer Sir Henry Baskerville as a bait to the hound, and when a sudden mist arrives on the scene, can they prevent the bait from being accepted? It is a suspenseful climax, but well worth the reading.

The producer David O. Selznick had just had a great movie the previous year (Gone with the Wind - 1939), and signed on Alfred Hitchcock for the first Hollywood movie by Hitchcock (his earlier movies were all British). What is less known is that in the entire fabulous career of Alfred Hitchcock, Rebecca was the only movie that won him a Best Picture award. And that too in the year 1940, when competition was fierce with the movie, ‘Grapes of Wrath’, ‘The Great Dictator’, and ‘The Philadelphia Story’.
Rebecca was conceived on a grand scale, and was fairly expensive to make. Based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier (published in 1938), it cost a bit more than a million dollars to make. Rebecca also starred the leading star, Laurence Olivier in the lead role of Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter (her first name is never revealed in the movie), George Sanders as Jack Favell, and Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers.

The movie follows the book accurately, except where the Hollywood Production Code of that time intervened (the murderer of a spouse had to be shown as being punished), and hence in the book, while the husband murders the first wife; in the movie, the death is an accident.
The movie is renowed for its Gothic look, and for the sheer suspense ! There are very few actual characters in the movie, and all of them had to play pretty good roles if the movie had to have an impact. The overall movie is very impressive. The movie dwelt on the phrase used in the book ‘Last night I dreamed that I went to Menderley again’ by advertising its posters with the following line: ‘What was the secret of Manderley?’
The movie was a great success, both critically and financially. It got a total of 11 nominations and won 2 awards:

Nominated
# Best Actor in a Leading Role - Laurence Olivier.
# Best Actress in a Leading Role - Joan Fontaine.
# Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Judith Anderson.
# Best Director - Alfred Hitchcock.
# Art Direction, Black and White - Lyle R. Wheeler.
# Special Effects - Jack Cosgrove, Arthur Johns.
# Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern.
# Best Music, Original Score - Franz Waxman.
# Best Writing, Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison

The movie won these 2 awards
# Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures - David O. Selznick.
# Best Cinematography, Black and White - George Barnes

The movie depicts the emotions of the novel pretty well, taking us through the tale of a young girl who suffers through emotional turmoil as she feels inadequate when constantly compared to the first Mrs. de Winter (Rebecca), who was very sophisticated, and apparently very suitable to the role of being an aristocratic lady; and Maxim was apparently very much in love with her; if all this emotional burden was not enough, there is the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers who was very much fond of Rebecca and spares no opportunity to remind the second wife of the supremacy of the first wife, going as far as to tempt her to end her life. This was a superb role of the housekeeper, and was a critical element of the movie.
The second Mrs. de Winter was an assistant to an elder haughty American lady vacationing in Monte Carlo, when she mets Maxim, elder to her. Soon enough they hit it off and Maxim proposes to her. She comes with Maxim to the estate and to Manderley, the mansion. The young bride is somewhat overcome with being the mistress of this large aristocratic and having a team of servants to run the mansion. And then she meets Mrs. Danver who continually reminds her of the greatness of Rebecca, to the point where the second wife starts feeling that she does not know why Maxim married her. At one point, she is almost about to give it all up when there is a massive surprise; the boat in which Rebecca died has been found.
And this is the element of total surprise; the oh-so-perfect Rebecca was in fact a promiscuous lady whom Maxim hated within a few days of marrying her. She had affairs a plenty, and taunted Maxim that he could not divorce her because of the status and name of his family. But she had pushed Maxim to a stage when he was on the verge of killing her, and he almost did (she had an accident during the confrontation and dies; as opposed to the book where Maxim killed her). He then puts her body in a boat and scuttles the boat; but now her boat and the body has been found and Maxim is now in threat of being held responsible.
He finally gets free from suspicion, but the more important emotional upheaval for the second Mrs. de Winters is that she knows now that Maxim hated Rebecca; such an immense boost it gives to the emotions of the almost scarred new wife; she is now ready to assume her responsibilities as the true mistress of the mansion and the strength of the marriage. Everything happy ? Not quite. The by now deranged Mrs. Danvers cannot accept that the second wife will be the happy and successful wife, and sets fire to the mansion causing it to get destroyed. And that is how it ends, they move away from there, and Manderley is now in ruins.

The Hitchcock collection: