Israel and the Middle East
*Exodus 1960
Dir. Otto Preminger, With Paul Newman and Eve Marie Saint
Israel's birth pangs from a particular point of view.
*Wedding in Galilee 1987, 100 mins
Dir. Michael Khelifi, With Nazih Akleh and Bushra Karaman
A Palestinian village man in the occupied West Bank invites Israeli officials and soldiers to the traditional wedding of his son in order to circumvent the curfew laws. Although widely praised, this will come across as tedious to most viewers.
Promises 2001 106 mins
Dir. Carlos Bolado and B.Z. Goldberg.
Documentary focused on a group of Palestianin and Israeli children/teens.
Algeria and North Africa
#La Battaglia di Algeri 1965 [in French with English subtitles.]
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, With Mohamed Ben Kassen
- chronicles the Algerian war against French colonialism.
India
*Gandhi
Dir: Richard Attenborough, With Ben Kingsley
Richard Attenborough's hagiography of modern India's founder. In reviewing this movie, also search out information on Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (INA).
TV Series: The Jewel in the Crown 1984 VHS
Dir. Christopher Morahan and Jim O’Brian, with Ralph Arliss and Peggy Ashcroft.
The end of the British Raj in India, and without doubt one of the greatest TV series ever made.
South and Central Africa
*Cry Freedom 1987
Dir. Richard Attenborough. With Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington.
On the life and Death of Steve Biko in South Africa
Mandela 1987 (TV)
Dir. Philip Saville, With Danny Glover
Lumumba (2000) 115 mins
Dir. Raoul Peck, With Eriq Ebouaney and Alex Descas.
Account of Patrice Emery Lumumba rise to power after Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960 and his assassination the following year.
Japan
*Mishima 1985, 121 mins.
Dir. Paul Shrader, With Ken Ogata.
Stunning account of life and death of one of Japan's most important post wat writers. Because of pressure from Mishima's family, his homosexuality is not portrayed explicitly. Philip Glass's music is outstanding.
China
*Farewell My Concubine 1993, 171 mins.
Dir. Kaige Chen
The story of two male lovers in the Peking Opera over fifty years.
The Last Emperor 1987 160 mins
Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, With John Lone and Joan Chen.
The Life of Pu YI, the last emperor of China
*Gate of Heavenly Peace 1995, 189/180 mins.
Dir.Carma Hinton and Richard Gordan.
Documentary on the suppression of the Tiananmen Square rebellion of 1989. It critiques the student leaders as well as the government. See the very good official web site.
The Blue Kite [aka Lan feng zheng] 1993.
Dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang, With Yi Tian and Zhang Wenyao. On the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution from the view of a child in Beijing.
*Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl 1998, 99 mins.
Dir. Joan Chen.
Story of a city girl sent for "re-education" in the countryside.
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Modern Science and its Conflicts
Inherit the Wind 1960, 128 mins.
Dir. Stanley Kramer. With Spencer Tracy and Frederic March.
The story of the Copes "monkey trial" about the teaching of Darwinian evolution in Tennesee schools. The names of the particpants are changed.. There were remakes in 1988 and 1999.
*The Man in the White Suit 1951
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick. With Alex Guinness
Focuses on the anxiety caused by new technology.
*Insignificance 1985, 110 mins.
Dir. Nichola Roeg.
Four icons of the 1950s -- essentially unnamed figures representing Joe DiMaggio, Joseph McCarthy, Marilyn Monroe, and Albert Einstein, meet in a NYC. hotel room in 1954. Includes a great scene where Marilyn Monroe teaches the theory of relativity to Einstein.
*October Sky 1999, 108 mins.
Dir. Joe Johnston.
The true story of Homer Hickin, a working class boy who takes up rocketry after the laucnh of sputnik.
*Apollo 13 140 mins
Dir. Ron Howard. With Tom Hanks.
A great movie about the Apollo 13 disasater
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Post War Themes: 1945-1989
Cold War
*The Day the Earth Caught Fire 1961, 98 mins
Dir. Val Guest.
Two atomic explosions have created a situation in which the earth has been knocked off orbit and is spiralling into the Sun. A classica of Cold War fear.
*Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964 VHS
Dir. Stanley Kubrick. With Peter Sellars, George C. Scott.
An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop. Who is really insane?
*Eleni 1985, 114 mins>
Dir. Peter Yates.
Based on Nicholas Gage's book about his mother's death at the hands of Greek Communists.
*The Manchurian Candidate 1962, 126 mins.
Dir. John Frankenheimer, With Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury.
Lansbury is outstanding in one of the best political thrillers. It was withdrawn soon after release for reasons that will become clear on viewing.
It Is Better To Be Rich and Healthy Than Poor and Sick [aka Lepsie byt bohaty a zdravy ako chudobny a chory] 1992.
Dir. Juraj Jakubisko, With Deana Horavatova and Dagmar Veskrnova.
A Czech film about two women’s lives after the fall of communism.
Third World Poverty and Oppression
Pixote 1981 [in Portuguese]
Dir. Hector Babenco
The life of a small Brazilian boy in a major Brazilian city. The film highlights the social stratifiction of the developing world, where the wealthy participate in a western dominated world culture, while the poor do not have access to the social services of a western welfare state.
The Official Story 1985 112 mins.
Dir. Luis Puenzo and Argentina Puenzo, With Norma Aleandro.
The Dirty War of the 1970s Argentina forms the chilling backdrop to this story of a mother and her adopted daughter.
Post-War Britain
*A Clockwork Orange 1971 137 mins
Dir. Stanley Kubrick.
A highly disturbing work of art "Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven." [Note: before showing to students warn them about the rape scene, which can be traumatic for any students who have been subject to sexual violence.]
*I'm All Right Jack 1959
Dir. John Boulting, With Peter Sellars.
A black comedy of worker/management relations.
*My Beautiful Laundrette 1986 VHS
Dir. Stephen Frears, With Daniel Day Lewis.
Startling presentations of multiculturalism in modern Britain, based on the scripts by Hanif Kureshi.
TV Series: The Buddha of Surburbia
Dir. Roger Miche
Riff-Raff 1990 95 mins.
Dir. Ken Loach, With Robert Carlyle and Emer McCourt.
An account of British working class life under Thatcher.
*My Son the Fanatic 1997 87 mins
Dir. Udayan Prasad, With Om Puri and Rachel Griffiths
A wonderful film on the life of Asians in Britain.
*Queer as Folk (TV) 1999 12 x 30 min
Post War America
Pollock 2000 122 mins
Dir. Ed Harris, With Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden.
Accounts of perhaps the most influential post-war American art scene.
*George Wallace 1997 TV 178 mins.
Dir. John Frankenheimer, With Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolly
*JFK 1991 186 mins (206 director's cut)
Dir. Oliver Stone, With Kevin Costner.
Paranoid account of assassination of JFK.
Nixon 1995 192 mins.
Dir. Oliver Stone, With Anthony Hopkins
*Malcolm X 1992 194 mins
Dir. Spike Lee, With Denzel Washington
*Bread and Roses 2000 110 mins
Dir. Ken Loach
Loach cast's a British socialist's eye on an affort by Latino workers in Los Angeles to organize a union.
The Vietnam War
We Were Soldiers 2002 138 mins
Dir. Randall Wallace, With Mel Gibson
Story of the first phase of the 1960's phase of the war as if there were no politics involved.
Good Morning, Vietnam 1987 119 mins.
Dir. Barry Levinson, With Robin Williams and Forest Whitaker.
One of the best Vietnam films.
Platoon 1986.
Dir. Oliver Stone, With Tom Beringer, Willem Defoe, and Charlie Sheen.
Cynical look at the Vietnam War.
*The Killing Fields 1984
Dir. Roland Joffé
Cambodia's holocaust.
Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement
*Before Stonewall 1994 87 mins
Dir. Robert Rosenberg and John Scaglotti
Documentary account of the lives of lesbians and gay men before the Stonewall rebellion.
After Stonewall 1999 88 mins
Dir. John Scaglotti
Documentary account of the lives of lesbians and gay men after the Stonewall rebellion.
*Stonewall 1995 99 mins
Dir. Nigel Finch.
Fictionalised account of the riots that began the modern Lesbian and Gay Rights movement.
*The Times of Harvey Milk 1984 90 mins
Dir. Robert Epstein.
Documentary on the life of San Francisco's first (opnely) gay city council member, who was murdered by another council member.
*The Celluloid Closet 1995 102 mins.
Dir. Robert Epstein.
Documentary on Hollywood and homosexuality in the cinema.
*Longtime Companion 1990
Dir. Normon Rene.
Account of the initial phases of the AIDS Epidemic among a group of gay men and friends in New York. This gets better with age.
And the Band Played On 1993 TV 141
Dir. Roger Spottiswoode, With Matthew Modine and Alan Alda.
Dramatiziation of Randy Shilts Book on the effects of the initial pohases on the AIDS epidemic, especially in San Francisco.
Faith and Modernityn
*Catholics [aka The Conflict]1973 TV
Dir. Jack Gold, With Martin Sheen and Trevor Howard
Set in 1999, this is one of the few films to address the loss felt by many Catholics over the ending of the Latin Mass and the sudden "modernization" of Catholic theology. Howards gives a superb performance.
The Apostle 1997 134 mins
Dir. Robert Duval, With Robert Duval.
One of the few films to seriously c