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As always, our retrospective and eclectic collection of films explore facets of our theme. Read the online essays (click on the film title) before you watch them, then participate in the panel discussions that follow each screening and you will see these films (and perhaps your world) in a new way...
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The Nativity Story (2006) - Special Sneak Peek Preview
Written by Mike Rich. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
The heroic journey of two young people, a miraculous pregnancy, and the history-defining birth of Jesus. This dramatic and compelling story stars Academy Award® nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) as Mary, Oscar Isaac (Guerrilla) as Joseph, and Academy Award® nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) as Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
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Bread and Roses (2000)
Written by Paul Laverty. Directed by Ken Loach
An important film about human dignity, cultural identity and the perpetual collision of earning a living and having a heart. Set in Los Angeles, immigrants find themselves exploited, then organize to unionize. But the costs are high... and the conflicts in their personal lives mirror the layers of contradictory solutions to the social and legal issues raised in the film. |
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A Man For All Seasons (1966)
Screenplay by Robert Bolt, based on his play. Directed by Fred Zinneman.
Regarded and rewarded as one of the most dramatically intellectual explorations of "what price glory" in cinema. Bolt's language is unsurpassed in it's precision and Zinneman expands the wordplay with visual verisimilitude. "I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos." We'll talk... |
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We Were Soldiers (2002)
Screenplay by Randall Wallace, based on the book by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. Directed by Randall Wallace.
This is a very personal and compelling exploration of the seeds that would change our national self image. Finding acts of heroism in surprising places, the film takes us inside the human and spiritual context of war and examines the transition from victors in a black and white war (WWII) to the ambiguously gray shadings (and costs) of Vietnam and beyond. |
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The Man In The Iron Mask (1998)
Screenplay by Randall Wallace, based on the novels by Alexandre Dumas. Directed by Randall Wallace.
Honor. Sacrifice. Destiny. Dark secrets that must be undone at great personal risk to the benefit of an entire (and long suffering) nation. And the swashbuckling, legendary characters of Alexandre Dumas. Nature vs. Nurture with swords. But for all the popcorn elements, the film refuses to back down from the essential moral conundrums whose answers define heroic acts. |
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The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1966)
Story by Luciano Vincenzoni & Sergio Leone, screenplay by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni & Sergio Leone. Directed by Sergio Leone
A landmark foreign film film that shifted the most iconic expression of American heroism: Westerns would never be the same again. It examined heroism with the wary sensibilities of the era that spawned it and enshrined the concept of "anti-hero" in the zeitgeist. |
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Braveheart (1995)
Written by Randall Wallace. Directed by Mel Gibson.
A powerful and cinematically adroit tale of the much aggrieved commoner who inspired and led the 13th century rebellion in Scotland against the oppressive rule of the English. The unquestioned artistry (5 Oscars, including Best Picture, and WGA Best Screenplay) of this epic film resonates with the universal human craving for basic freedom and consistently ignites heroic urges in audiences. What will you do with that urge? |
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