The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, loosely based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

Review:
Tim Robbins stars as Andy Dufresne, a successful young banker who is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Andy is sent to Shawshank prison, a dour and depressing place where brutality from both guards and other prisoners is commonplace. Andy makes friends with Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), a lifer who has already spent many years inside. Red specialises in smuggling items into the prison for the other prisoners. Red soon discovers that Andy is a most unusual prisoner, although at first it seems to do him little good – he is brutalised by other prisoners.
He starts to get both other prisoners and guards on his side when he offers to help one of the most notorious guards with a tax problem in exchange for bottles of chilled beer for everyone in his work party. From then on, Andy always seems to be working on one thing or another. He improves the prison’s tiny library, and helps those prisoners who want to study. He also handles the guards’ tax returns, and even helps the swindling Warden (Bob Gunton) cook the books. Over the years, he gains the respect of most of the other prisoners and guards. More importantly, he never loses hope for the future – a hope he tries to pass on to the other prisoners. He never stops believing in life’s possibilities, but to make the most of them he needs to be free.
Both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman do a fine job in terms of making their roles genuine and appealing, and also in the way they work so well together. The production values throughout are outstanding, but this is not a “fancy” film. Rather, it sticks to the story it is telling without resorting to flashy tricks to grab the audience’s attention. Although there is violence, some of it extreme, it is necessary to show the kind of place the prison is and is certainly not gratuitous. The main theme is hope, not despair, and the violence serves only as a backdrop to that message.

Cast:
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Actors: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, William Sadler, Bob Gunton
Writers: Stephen King (short story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption")
Frank Darabont (screenplay)
Release date: 1994
Rating: 9.5/10
Genre: Drama Thriller
Duration: 142 minutes
Country: United States

Casablanca

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Beidt, Sydney Green Street and Peter Lorre. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, love and virtue. He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her Resistance leader husband escape from the Vichy- controlled from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

Review:
Bogart is wonderful as the mysterious café owner with a past, set up in the nightclub business with his long time friend and piano player, Sam (Dooley Wilson). As we meet his employees, we see Rick’s not quite the cynic he pretends to be. All are clearly refugees under his protection. The emotional Russian bartender, the polished French croupier, the grandfatherly German waiter and Sam at the keyboard make Rick’s café the only place to be.
His haven is disrupted when his one-time love Ilsa (the luminous Ingrid Bergman) arrives in the company of a world-renowned resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whom the Nazis would very much like to get their hands on. She’s looking for safe passage, first from Rick, who believes she jilted him for Laszlo, and then from the marvelously sinister Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari, owner of the rival Blue Parrot club.
Claude Rains nearly steals the movie as Captain Renault, the deliciously corrupt prefect of police, who accepts money and the favors of especially lovely refugees to arrange escapes. Peter Lorre(Ugarte) runs a cut-rate smuggling trade, and Conrad veidt is a first-rate Nazi villain.
Bogart and Bergman shine in their only screen pairing, but it’s the flawless direction and ensemble cast that make this movie, from the nameless pickpocket in the opening sequence to the elderly Jewish couple earnestly fracturing English phrases as they prepare for the passage to America. With a few spare lines of dialog, a glimpsed gesture, a few moments on screen, all the characters are fully sketched, and Rick’s café seems very real.

Cast:
Cast: Humphrey Bogard,
Ingrid Bergman,
Paul Henreid,
Claude Rains,
Conrad Veidt,
Sydney Greenstreet,
Peter Lorre,
Dooley Wilson

Director: Michael Curtiz

Producer: Hal B. Wallis

Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch based on the play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison

Cinematography: Arthur Edeson

Music: Max Steiner

U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers

Goodfellas

Goodfellas is a released in 1990 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorese. It is based on the non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The film follows the rise and fall of three gangsters, spanning three decades.

Review:
The basis comes from the true-life story of Hill (played by Ray Liotta), who grew up with dreams of becoming a gangster, skipping school for months at a time to work for the cab service across the street run by mob boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino). The way of life for a mobster, as seen through young Henry's impressionable eyes, is the ultimate way of life He's like the kid in the candy store, only this time, stealing is the only way to get what he wants, with no fear of penance. As a man of 21, and very much acquainted with the underworkings of the "family," Henry knows more connections and has more money than most people have in a lifetime, all through heists, thefts, and criminal operations kept quiet by the higher-ups. We get a real sense of the mafia's inner workings from this film, as Scorsese lays out an intricate map of loyalties and alliances, bonds and relationships, all walking a tightrope that revolves around one thing and one thing alone: money

I think Scorsese's choice to include the voice-over of the Hill character is his smartest move in the film. There's so much that we learn about the criminal profession through his explanations of life in the mob: for instance, when he recalls that "Paulie might have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody," we have a complete sense of Paul as a brooding mob boss, and all in less than two words. Scorsese, and his co-writer Nicholas Pileggi there's Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), one of the most feared men in the entire city, and then there's Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), the fast-talking, short-tempered hot-head who tends to speak (and shoot) before he thinks. These are men who have no inhibitions about their occupations: if it means killing someone to keep others from getting "pinched," then that's it, That's all there is to it. Even Henry's wife, Karen (Lorraine Bracco), soon becomes accustomed to life with a gangster: when he asks her to hide the gun he just used to beat someone's face in with, a voice-over regails Scorsese makes them into all-out despicable criminals that form an entirely different concept. As the story progresses, we see the rise and fall of each of the characters, each coming to their downfall at an unexpected point, none ever realizing or acknowledging the possible consequences of their actions. They have been blinded by the mob life for so long, wrapped up in the protective blanket of their camaraderie and influence, that they feel as if nothing can bring them down. The events that lead to the outcome of the story ultimately proves otherwise: where there's crime, there's almost always a comeuppance.

The usual Scorsese trademarks are back in fine form here. There's a scene in which a bartender rebukes one of his remarks with a derogatory comment. Tommy sits there, stunned, as his pals cheer the bartender on; then, without warning, he empties his gun into the poor S.O.B. Even Lorraine Bracco is powerful as the wife, a once virtuous woman now transformed into a tool for her husband's shady dealings. More than any other film I've seen, I think "Goodfellas" captures most significantly the fact that the mafia isn't solely a bunch of guys sitting around, arguing in Italian, and shooting one another, though we do get a taste of all these things. There's more to it than that: outside sources can include everyone from cops, lawyers, judges, even employees of intended targets hoping to get in on the action. "We ran everything," says Henry. "Everyone had their hands out. Everything was for the taking." That Scorsese broadens his canvas to include the outside influences as well as the inner sanctum of the family is what makes his film so hardhitting and true; "Goodfellas" is the best Scorsese picture to date, the work of someone driven by the music of his story, his characters, and the meaning behind it all.

Cast:

Directed : Martin Scorsese
Produced : Irwin Winkler
Written by Screenplay : Nicholas Pileggi Martin Scorsese
Book : Nicholas Pileggi
Narrated: Ray Liotta Lorraine Bracco
Starring :

Ray Liotta

Robert De Niro

Joe Pesci

Lorraine Bracco

Paul Sorvino

Cinematography: Michael

Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by Warner Bros.

Release date(s) September 21, 1990
Running time 146 minutes
Language: English

Godfather I

The Godfather is a 1972 American drama film based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola, and Robert Towne, who was not credited. The story spans ten years from 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. Two sequels followed: The Godfather Part II in 1974, and The Godfather Part III in 1990.

Review:
Marlon Brando is Vito Corleone, also known as “The Godfather”, who is head of one of the most powerful mafia families in America. Don Vito is a fair but ruthless man who runs much of his business by doing favours and expecting favours in return. The Corleone family are drawn into a bitter and violent war with other mafia families over their refusal to participate in the lucrative but dangerous drug trade. Don Vito is shot but the attempt on his life does not succeed – he is seriously injured rather than killed. While Don Vito is in hospital, control of the family passes to his eldest son Sonny (James Caan). Sonny is a hot-head, and with his contributions the war continues to escalate.
Don Vito's youngest son is Michael (Al Pacino). He has stayed outside the family business, and his father had aspirations of him holding some legitimate position of power, perhaps through politics. When Don Vito is shot, however, Michael returns home to do what he can to help the family through the crisis. He protects his father against the killers trying to finish what they have started. Michael starts to show promise in this violent world. He takes his revenge against those trying to kill his father, shooting them during a meeting at a restaurant. Ultimately, Sonny is shot and now it is Michael who finds himself with all the responsibility.
It may not be possible for a film to be faultless, but this certainly comes close. The ensemble cast are wholly convincing, and there are a string of well-known names involved who weren't at all familiar until this film. The story progresses at perfectly measured pace, moving almost gently between moments of calculated violence. The cinematography and direction are picture-perfect, with immaculate attention to detail. Every aspect of life in those turbulent times is faithfully recreated with great accuracy. “The Godfather” is a credit to all involved.

Link:-

http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/242

Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden, John Cazale

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Producer: Albert S. Ruddy

Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo based on the novel by Mario Puzo Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Music: Nino Rota

U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Godfather II

The Godfather Part II was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro, and has been selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.

Review:

The film opens in the study of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the Godfather, who is holding court. It is the wedding of his daughter Connie (Talia Shire), and no Sicilian can refuse a request on that day. So the supplicants come, each wanting something different - revenge, a husband for their daughter, a part in a movie.
The family has gathered for the event. Michael (Al Pacino), Don Vito's youngest son and a Second World War hero, is back home in the company of a new girlfriend (Diane Keaton). The two older boys, Sonny (James Caan) and Fredo (John Cazale), are there as well, along with their "adopted" brother, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the don's right-hand man.
Don Vito's refusal to do business with Sollozzo strikes the first sparks of a war that will last for years and cost many lives. Each of the five major mob families in New York will be gouged by the bloodshed, and a new order will emerge. Betrayals will take place, and the Corleone family will be shaken to its roots by treachery from both within and without.
Although the issues presented in The Godfather are universal in scope, the characters and setting are decidedly ethnic. Even to this day, there is an odd romanticism associated with New York's Italian crime families. The word "Mafia" conjures up images of the sinister and mysterious - scenes of the sort where Luca Brasi meets his fate. Francis Ford Coppola has tapped into this fascination and woven it as yet another element of the many that make his motion picture a compelling experience.
We come to The Godfather like Kay Adams - outsiders uncertain in our expectations - but it doesn't take long for us to be captivated by this intricate, violent world. The film can be viewed on many levels, with equal satisfaction awaiting those who just want a good story, and those who demand much more. The Godfather is long, yes - but it is one-hundred seventy minutes well-spent. When the closing credits roll, only a portion of the story has been told. Yet that last haunting image coupled with Nino Rota's mournful score, leaves a crater-like impression that The Godfather Part II only deepens.

If you want more details u can find this link..

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3950681344/tt0071562

Cast:
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden, John Cazale

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Producer: Albert S. Ruddy

Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo based on the novel by Mario Puzo Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Music: Nino Rota

U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Running Length: 2:51

Godfather III

Part III is a 1990 American Thriller film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Micheal Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire. The movie also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events – the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-1982 – and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. Coppola mentions that The Godfather series in fact two sequels, and Part III is the epilogue.

http://www.fdr9.com/

Review:

The characters that carry over from the earlier films bear little resemblance to themselves the dread curve of Michael Corleone's life, which provided a dramatic spine for the family saga has lost its sinister bend. At the beginning of "Part III," Michael has come very close to realizing his dream of a completely legitimate family business. At a ceremony in his New York penthouse, he receives the Order of St. Sebastian from the Catholic Church, a lofty honor that may be connected to the $100 million donation given to the church by the Vito Corleone Foundation, a charity run by Michael's daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). Michael is a businessman now, and in divesting himself of his criminal interests he has lost what made him interesting, his murderous darkness.

It loses its moral dimension and becomes just another mob story. The two main plot threads concern the Corleone family's dealing with the Vatican, and Vincent's emergence as Michael's successor. The motives for Garcia's Vincent aren't split, the way Michael's have been. Violence is natural to him. He suffers no pangs of conscience when he takes revenge on his family's behalf, and in this he is supposed to be strong in the uncomplicated way Don Vito Corleone was. Garcia, as a result, seems to be the only actor in the film who knows what he's playing, the only one with a clear mission, and he gives a thrilling, feral performance. It's the film's strongest.

Even though she is authoritative in the role, Keaton suffers tremendously from having no real function except to nag Michael for his past sins. Eli Wallach has a few hammy moments as Don Altabello, an old mob friend who turns out to be an enemy. Bridget Fonda, who plays a journalist, has only two small scenes that contribute nothing whatsoever, and George Hamilton contributes a few atrocious moments as the family's PR man. Talia Shire's part as Michael's sister, Connie, She's a screaming crackpot and the next a power-hungry behind-the-scenes plotter.

Mary, Sofia Coppola is hopelessly amateurish. Still, the part is a relatively small one, and her failure -- contrary to much that has already been written -- contributes very little to what is actually wrong with the film. It may be that Coppola was right to put off filing this last instalment all these years; from the evidence here, he had nothing more to say. As an epic metaphor for the American dream, the first two "Godfather" films are nearly perfect. The connections they made go deep into the story of this country, deep into our sense of our-selves and the contradictions in our lives. As a generational story, they had the richness and scope of Shakespeare. But the man who made those two masterpieces is not the man who has given us this failed final chapter. Though he reassembled many of the members of his old team -- his actors, Puzo, cinematographer Gordon Willis and production designer Dean Tavoularis -- his talent for filmmaking is eclipsed now by his gift for self-destruction. If that great earlier artist ever had a chance of resurfacing, it was here. But he didn't and you can't help but see "The Godfather Part III" as his headstone.

Cast:
Directed and Produced: Francis Ford Coppola
Writer: Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Alpacino Diane Keaton Diane Keaton Talia Shire Talia Shire Andy Garcia Music: Carmine Coppola Theme: Nino Rotta
Cinematography: Gordon willis
Editing: Lisa Fruchtman, Jane Jenkins, Roger Mussenden
Studio: American Zoetrope
Distributed: Paramount Pictures
Release date: December 25,1990
Running time: 170 minutes
Language: English, Sicilian

Movie review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099674/

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film tells the story of Forrest Gump's epic journey through life meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture, and experiencing firsthand historic events of the late 20th century while being largely unaware of their significance, owing to his borderline mental retardation.

http://www.moviemarket.com/Forrest_Gump__T101487

Review:

Forrest Gump (Hanks), named after a civil war hero, grows up in Greenbow, Alabama, where his mother (Sally Field) runs a boarding house. Although Forrest is a little "slow" (his IQ is 75, 5 below the state's definition of "normal"), his mental impairment doesn't seem to bother him, his mother, or his best (and only) friend, Jenny Curran (played as an adult by Robin Wright). In fact, the naivete that comes through a limited understanding of the world around him gives Forrest a uniquely. On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny Curran, whose life is followed in parallel to Forrest's at times. Despite his below-average intelligence quotient (IQ), his ability to run at great speed gets him into college on a football scholarship. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army, where he makes friends with a black man named Bubba, who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. They are sent to Vietnam, , and during an ambush, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest ends up saving much of his platoon, including his platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs as a result of injuries. Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. While Forrest is in recovery for a shot to his buttocks, he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status, later playing ping-pong competitively against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy. He is subsequently promoted to sergeant. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., now Sergeant Gump is reunited with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle.

Returning home, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles, earning himself $25,000, which he uses to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Dan joins Forrest, and although they initially have little success, after finding their boat the only surviving one in the area after Huricane Carmen, they begin to pull in huge amounts of shrimp. They use their income to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats. Dan invests the money in Apple Computer and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life, and also donates a large portion of money to Bubba's family. He returns home to see his mother's last days. One day, Jenny returns to visit Forrest and he proposes marriage to her. She declines, though feels obliged to prove her love to him by having sex with him. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, he decides to keep running across the country several times, over three and a half years, becoming famous in the process. In present-day, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he is reunited with Jenny, she introduces him to his son, also named Forrest. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from a virus (probably HIV, though this is never definitively stated). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry but she dies soon afterwards.The film ends with father and son waiting for the school bus on little Forrest's first day of school. Opening the book his son is taking to school, the white feather from the beginning of the film is caught on a breeze and drifts skyward.

Link:-
http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Forrest_Gump/Links/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/digg/the-curious-case-of-forrest-gump







Video:-


Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcOt6mfjxeA
Cast:
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Producers: Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, and Steve Starkey
Screenplay: Eric Roth based on the novel by Winston Groom
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Music: Alan Silvestri
Languague:English
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Languague: English

Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur (or Benhur) is a 1959 epic film and 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ. The film went on to win a record of eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a feat equaled only by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King.

Review:

The film's prologue depicts the traditional story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Twenty-six years later, Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is a wealthy merchant of noble blood in Jerusalem. Preceding the arrival of a new governor, Ben-Hur's childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), a military Tribune, returns as the new commanding officer of the Roman garrison. At first Judah and Messala are happy to meet after years apart, but their differing political views separate them: Messala believes in the glory of Rome and worldly imperial power, while Ben-Hur is devoted to his faith and the Jewish people. Messala asks Ben-Hur to caution his countrymen about protests, uprisings, or criticism of the Roman government. Judah counsels his countrymen against rebellion but refuses to disclose dissidents' names, and the two part in anger.
Judah's family welcomes two of their slaves who arrive with a caravan from Antioch: Simonides (Sam jaffe), their loyal steward, and Simonides's daughter Esther (Haya Harareet), who is preparing for an arranged marriage. Judah gives Esther her freedom as a wedding present, and the two realize they are attracted to each other.
During the welcoming parade for the new Roman governor, a tile falls from the roof of Ben-Hur's house and startles the governor's horse, which throws him off, nearly killing him. Although Messala knows that it was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Judah's mother Miriam (Martha Scott) and sister Tirzah (Cathy O’Donnell), in an effort to intimidate the restive Jewish populace by punishing the family of a known friend. Ben-Hur swears to return and take revenge. En route to the sea, he is denied water when his slave gang arrives at Nazareth. He collapses in despair, but a then-unknown Jesus Christ gives him water and renews his will to survive.
After three years as a galley slave, Ben-Hur is assigned to the flagship of Consul Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), tasked by the Emperor to destroy a fleet of Macedonian Pirates. The commander notices Ben-Hur's self-discipline and resolve, and offers to train him as a gladiator or charioteer, but Ben-Hur declines, declaring that God will aid him.
As Arrius prepares the galley for battle, he orders the rowers chained but unaccountably orders 41 (Ben-Hur) to be left unchained. When the pirates attack the Romans, Arrius's galley is rammed and sunk, but Ben-Hur escapes and saves Arrius's life and, since Arrius believes the battle ended in defeat, also prevents him from committing suicide during their time afloat. Eventually, they are rescued by a Roman vessel and Arrius is credited with the Roman fleet's victory, and in gratitude petitions Tiberius Julus Caesar(George Relph) to drop all charges against Judah, eventually adopting Judah as his son. With regained freedom and wealth, Judah learns Roman ways and becomes a champion Charioteer.
On his journey home to Judea, he happens to become acquainted with an Arab sheik Ilderim (Hugh Griffith), along with Balthasar(Finlay Currie), who owns four magnificent white Arabian Horses and wishes to have them trained for chariot racing. Discovering that Judah had been a winning charioteer in Rome, Ilderim introduces him to his "children" and requests that he drive his quadriga in the upcoming race before the new governor, Pontius Pilate(Frank Thring). Ben-Hur accepts upon learning that Messala, considered the finest charioteer in Judea, will also compete in the race. (As Ben-Hur is leaving, Ilderim adds, "There is no law in the arena. Many are killed.")
Returning to Judea, Judah finds that Esther's arranged marriage did not occurr and that she is still in love with him. He visits Messala and demands that he free his mother and sister; Messala sends Drusus the fortress to look for them. When the soldiers enter the cell, they discover that Miriam and Tirzah have contracted, and they turn them out of the city. Esther learns of their condition when she finds the two women after nightfall in the Hur house's courtyard; and they beseech her to conceal their condition from Judah and allow him to remember them as they were. Esther tells Judah that his mother and sister have died in prison.
Eventually, Judah witnesses the Crucifixion. Immediately after Christ's death, Miriam and Tirzah are healed by a miracle, as are Judah's heart and soul. He returns to his home and tells Esther that as he heard Jesus talk of forgiveness while on the cross, "I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand." The film, which had begun with the Magi visiting the infant Jesus, ends with the empty crosses of Calvary in the background and a shepherd and his flock (a prominent Christian symbol) in the foreground.

Cast:-

Ramon Novarro ... Judah Ben-Hur
Francis X. Bushman ... Messala
May McAvoy ... Esther
Betty Bronson ... Mary
Claire McDowell ... Princess of Hur
Kathleen Key ... Tirzah
Carmel Myers ... Iras
Nigel De Brulier ... Simonides
Mitchell Lewis ... Sheik Ilderim
Leo White ... Sanballat

Links:-
http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Ben-Hur/Links/
http://www.judahbenhur.com/privacy.html

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQvpJsTvxU

Schindler's List

Review:

The film begins in 1939 with the relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to the Krakow Ghetto shortly after the beginning of World War II. Meanwhile, Oskar Schindler(Liam Neeson), an unsuccessful businessman, arrives in the city from the Sudetenland in hopes of making his fortune as a war profiteer. Schindler, a member of theNational Sccialist Party, lavishes bribes upon the Wehrmact and ss officials in charge of procurement. Sponsored by the military, Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits. Not knowing much about how to properly run such an enterprise, he gains a close collaborator in , an official of Krakow's (Jewish Council) who has contacts with the Jewish business community and the inside the Ghetto. They lend him the money for the factory in return for a small share of products produced. Opening the factory, Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his newfound wealth and status as "Herr Direktor", while Stern handles all administration. Schindler hires Jews instead of Poles because they cost less (the workers themselves get nothing; the wages are paid to the SS(to the Reichswirtschaftshauptamt)). Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed "essential" to the German war effort, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or being killed.
SS Captain arrives in Krakow to initiate construction of the new . He orders liquidation of part of the ghetto and begins, with hundreds of troops emptying the cramped rooms and murdering anyone who protests, appears uncooperative, elderly or infirm. In many cases, the killings were arbitrary. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the area, and is profoundly affected. He nevertheless is careful to befriend Göth and, through Stern's attention to bribery, he continues to enjoy the SS's support and protection. During this time, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp for his workers. Originally, his intentions are to continue making money, but as time passes, he begins ordering Stern to save as many lives as possible. As the war shifts, an order arrives from Berlin commanding Göth to exhume and destroy the remains of every Jew murdered in the Krakow Ghetto, dismantle Płaszów, and to ship the remaining Jews to the .
At first, Schindler prepares to leave Kraków with his ill-gotten fortune. Then however, he prevails upon Göth to let him keep "his" workers, so that he can move them to a factory in his old home of away from the "final soluton", now fully underway in occupied Poland. Göth acquiesces, but charges a massive bribe for each worker. Schindler and Stern assemble a list of workers who are to be kept off the trains to Auschwitz.
"Schindler's List" comprises these "skilled" inmates, and for many of those in Płaszów camp, being included means the difference between life and death. Almost all of the people on Schindler's list arrive safely at the new site. The train carrying the Jewish women is accidentally redirected to Auschwitz. There, the horrified women are taken to what they believe to be the gas chambers; but weep with joy when water falls from the showers. The day after, the women are shown waiting in line for work. In the meantime, Schindler had rushed immediately to Auschwitz to solve the problem. Intending to rescue all the women, he bribes the camp commander, with a cache of diamonds in exchange for releasing the women to Brinnlitz. However, a last minute problem arises just when all the women are boarding the train. Several SS officers attempt to hold back the children and prevent them from leaving. Schindler, however, insists that he needs their hands to polish the narrow insides of artillery shells. As a result, the children are released. Once the women arrive in Zwittau-Brinnlitz, Schindler institutes firm controls on the SS guards assigned to the factory, forbidding them to shoot or torture anyone. He also permits the Jews to observe the Sabbath. In order to keep his factory workers alive, he spends much of his fortune bribing Nazi officials. Later, he surprises his wife while she is in the village church during mass, and tells her that she will now be the only woman in his life, a concession he had refused to grant previously. She goes with him to the factory to assist him. He runs out of money just as the Wehrmacht surrenders, ending the war in Europe.....

As a Nazi Party member and a self-described "profiteer of slave labor", in 1945 Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army. Although the SS guards have been ordered to "liquidate" the Jews of Brinnlitz, Schindler persuades them to return to their families as men and not as murderers. In the aftermath, he packs a car in the night, and bids farewell to his workers. They give him a letter explaining he is not a criminal to them, together with a ring secretly made from a worker's gold dental bridge and engraved with a Talmudic quotation, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Schindler is touched but deeply ashamed, feeling he could have done more to save many more lives. Weeping, he considers how many more lives he could have saved as he leaves with his wife during the night.
The Schindler Jews, having slept outside the factory gates through the night, are awakened by sunlight the next morning. A Soviet dragoon arrives and announces to the Jews that they have been liberated by the Red Army. The Jews walk to a nearby town in search of food.

After a few scenes depicting post-war events and locations such as the execution of Amon Göth for war crimes, and a brief summary of what eventually happened to Oskar Schindler in his later years, the film returns to the Jews walking to the nearby town. As they walk abreast, the frame changes to one in color of the Schindler Jews in the present day at the grave of Oskar Schindler in Jerusalem. The film ends by showing a procession of now-elderly Jews who worked in Schindler's factory, each of whom reverently sets a stone on his grave. The actors portraying the major characters walk hand-in-hand with the people they portrayed, and also place stones on Schindler's grave as they pass. The audience learns that at the time of the film's release, there were fewer than 4,000 Jews left alive in Poland, while there were more than 6,000 descendants of the Schindler Jews throughout the world. In the final scene, Liam Neeson (though his face is not visible) places a pair of roses on the grave and stands contemplatively over it.
The film concludes with a statement, "In memory of the more than six million Jews murdered"; the closing credits begin with a view of a road paved with headstones culled from Jewish cemeteries during the war (as depicted in the film), before fading to black.

Links:

http://www.oskarschindler.info/page_14.htm

http://www.schindlerjews.com/

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPHvLtitxug&feature=PlayList&p=040B406CC056E500&index=0&playnext=1