The Tin Star directed by Anthony Mann is adapted from a short story of the same name. The movie is considered as a classic in the genre of western films and was nominated for an Oscar for the best screenplay. Veteran Bounty hunter Morgan Hickman comes to a town to hunt an outlaw. The town Sheriff has been killed and is replaced by young Ben Owens. Ben Owens is inexperienced and does not have any people skills. His confidence levels are very low. He is struggling to maintain the law and order and especially is bullied by the brutish Neville.
Morgan Hickman ultimately captures the outlaw and brings him in dead. He is cold shouldered by the town people who treat him with contempt. But as Hickman puts it ”I don’t mind the chill, I’m after money”. He has steeled himself for this reception and does not let him bother him. Initially Ben Owens also treat him the same way, but soon comes to know about his courage.
Ben wants to be the permanent sheriff of the town and needs to impress the people of the town with his skills. He feels that Morgan can help him in this department. He asks him to train him in fire arms.

Morgan initially skeptical, agrees to the bargain and soon he is imparting lessons to the young Owens. He takes a liking to Owens and imparts people management skills also. As Morgan says “A gun is only a tool, you can master it if you got the knack. It is harder to master people”.
During one such interaction Ben is astonished to know that Morgan was a sheriff a long time ago and wore the tin star. He was disillusioned by the the towns people who treat him shamefully when his wife and son was killed. He prefers to be a free bounty hunter with no conscience.
The film also deals with the problem of racism especially against the Indians. A widow is treated as an outcast for marrying an Indian and Morgan develops feelings for her and her son. Ultimately while training Ben, Morgan rediscovers himself and his love for the badge.

War and peace is an epic novel by Leo Tolstoy and tells a love story with in the back ground of the Russo- Napoleonic war. It was directed by King Vidor and produced as an American/Italian collaboration by Carlo Ponti and Dino Laurentelis.
The story starts with Prince Andrei Bolkonsky who is disillusioned by his marriage to Lise and goes away to fight the Napoleonic war’s. Lise, in the mean time lives with his father and sister, princess Marya. Andrei is injured and is supposedly dead but Marya and her father keeps this news away from Lise fearing for her unborn child. However Andrei is under the care of Napoleon himself, recovers and returns home a changed man, ready to love Lise again. But she dies leaving him to care for their son.
Andrei and Nicholas Rostov become friends and they in-turn are introduced to Pierre Bezhukov who has a devil may care attitude. He is attracted to Natasha Rostova who is Nicholas’s sister but marries the beautiful Helene. He comes in to his inheritance from his father and leaves to enjoy life not the least bit interested in war.

A distraught Andrei is disillusioned by war and serves under his father in St Petersburg. Here he meets countess Natasha Rostova and falls in love with her. He proposes marriage and Natasha accepts, except for the fact that it is vetoed by Andrei’s father. He proposes to the couple to wait for a year and then go for the wedding. Andrei accepts and leaves for a tour of Europe.
Natasha is lonely and is seduced by a married Anatole Kuragin and plans to elope with him. She writes to princess Marya breaking off the engagement and the letter reaches Andrei. But Natasha’s cousin Sonya tells her that Anatole is much married and Natasha breaks up with him. She tried to commit suicide and is rescued. Meanwhile her best friend Pierre Bezhukov comes in to his inheritance and is married to a scheming princess Helene. He realizes his mistake and divorces her and reaches St Petersburg.
Andrei is seriously wounded by a grenade in the war and in his trying moments realizes that he is in love with Natasha and is ready to forgive her. An abandoned and wounded Andrei is found by Natasha who cares for him with the help of his sister, but dies of his serious injuries. Natasha meets with Pierre whose wife has died and develops feelings for him. They ultimately marry and have four children.
This film is a golden globe winner for the best film and was nominated for the Oscars for best director, cinematography, color and costume design. The film is often compared to the 1965 version by Sergei Bondarchuk and pales in such comparison. It vastly differs from the book and many of the supporting characters are relegated to the side. This movie was not a big hit and is essentially a love triangle between Andrei, Natasha and Pierre.

Arthur Hailey, a best selling author was born in Lutton, Bedfordshire, England. He emigrated to Canada after actively serving in the Royalk Airforce as a pilot in the World War II. He started his literary career with Flight Into Danger and later came up with amazing titles like Hotel, Wheels, Final Diagnosis tec. He moved to the Bahamas with his writer wife Sheila, and continued to churn out best sellers. He died in November, 2004.
Overload is about the dynamics of power generation. It tells the readers about the difficulty in serving a state like California and how a simple outage can cripple the lives and economy of a nation. Nimrod or Nim Goldman is the Vice President of Golden State Power and Light, who predicts that there is a great possibility a blackout in the future. He feels the need of developing 2 or 3 electricity generating units to combat the electric famine looming alarmingly near. His company has identified sites for developing two power projects and Nim is supporting it through various channels. But critics consider these as ravings of a power hungry, greedy capitalist. Green activists and NGS’s are up in arms agtainst his company and accuse them of pillaging the environment and natural resources. Apart from this the upcoming power projects are opposed by rivals and regulatory bodies.

This book has great significance even today because the hunger for power has not diminished. With lot of other Asian countries developing at a faster rate the need for power has reached its pinnacle. Hailey also takes up the case of power theft by the people. In Overload there is a special drive by the company to catch the culprits which also involves detective agencies. Hailey also refers to the problems various life saving agencies like hospitals face when there is an outage because majority of their equipmentrs like ventilators, X rays etc rely on power. Handicapped people and small businesses thrive on power. These messages are totally put across to the reader along with enviromental concerns.
Ultimately a series of controlled explosions shuts the power and California is plunged into darkness. How the citizens and the company cope with the crisis forms the bulwark of the story. Nim Goldman’s personal life is woven into the story and I feel is an unnecessary distraction. Nim, a modern Don Juan, beds many women or falls in and out of love. He even has an affair with a quadriplegic woman who is totally dependent on the electric power his company generates. His womanizing attitude continues throughout the book in spite of his wife being diagnosed with cancer.
But Hailey ultimately lifts this book with good research about electric theft, shortage, environmental concerns and the effects of a power outage. Even though it was written in the late 70′s the technology and concerns sound even true to this day. Overload gives us a pointer to the future as we are completely dependent on electricity for our needs. Hailey is a visionary indeed !!!

The Ox Bow incident tells the tale of mob fury and violence. It is a western which is adapted from the book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark by the same name. The Ox-Bow Incident was selected for preservation in the United states National Film Registry by the Library of congress and was nominated for the the Oscar for the Best motion picture. When it was released, it tanked at the box office but over the years it has achieved artistic success and is marked for the superb acting of its cast namely Henry Fonda as Gil carter and Dana Andrews as Donald Martin.
The movie opens with Gil Carter and Art Croft (Harry Morgan), two drifters riding in to the town of Bridgers Well. They find that the tension is simmering in the town because of certain incidents of Cattle rustling or the stealing of livestock. The two new strangers are initially suspected of being thieves, but later an uneasy calm prevails. Gil Carter mourning the loss of his girl friend tries to drown his sorrows in the bottle.

Amidst all this a rider comes in with news that a local rancher, Larry Kinkaid is murdered and his cattle has been raided. This enrages the men around and they gang together to form a posse to hunt the cattle rustlers. A local Judge tries to pacify them and tells them not to take law in to their own hands. But the furious mob egged on by Major Tetley, Farnley, Jenny Grier pay little heed to the judges words and go in search of the thieves. Gil and Art are forced to join to avoid further suspicion.
They meet 3 men sleeping near the Ox Bow Canyon with some cattle nearby. It is revealed during interrogation that they are Donald Martin, Juan Martinez an illiterate Mexican and a senile Alva Hardwicke. The furious mob decides that these men are cattle thieves and decided to hang them. Only Gil, Gerard Tetley and Davies support the men and ask for clemency. But the furious mob overpowers them. Davies even reads out an eloquent letter written by Martin to his wife, to support his claims. To make matters worse, Juan Martinez is found to be a gambler knowledgeable in many local languages and in possession of a gun with Kinkaid’s name engraved on it. This enrages the posse which orders the killing with Gerald Tetley being forced by his father to be one of the executioners.
The victorious posse on their return gets the news from the sheriff about the real culprits being caught for the attack on Larry Kinkaid. The judge and the Sheriff condemn their actions and promises to bring them to justice. The posse returns to the saloon and drinks, with Davies reading out the sad letter of Donald Martin. Major Tetley filled with remorse is driven to suicide when his son screams at him for his devilish behavior. At the end of the film Art and Gil is deputed by Davies to deliver the letter to Donald Martin’s widow and ride out of Bridges Well.