Audio-Visual Materials: P: Language & Literature

The Greek tragedy of Sophocles in which King Creon orders Antigone's death for burying her slain brother against the King's desire.

Traces Greek theater from ancient harvest rites to the golden age of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. Key scenes from 'Antigone', 'Oedipus Tyrranus', 'Medea', and 'Lysistrata' show how these works remain relevant by exploring the timeless themes of honor, class, gender, sexuality, and politics. Essential concepts such as catharsis, hamartia, and the use of masks and a chorus are discussed.

In 1193 B.C., Prince Paris, the son of the King of Troy, falls in love with Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, and convinces her to follow him away from her husband Menelaus, which results in an epic war. The Greeks sail to Troy and lay siege. Achilles, the greatest warrior in all the world, is called in to fight against Troy and give Greece the upper hand. Hector, the eldest son of Priam, King of Troy, and the greatest Trojan warrior, embodies the hopes of the people of his city.

Oedipus searches for the killer of his father, only to find he is the guilty party and that his wife Jocasta is actually his mother.

An adaptation of Virgil's Aeneid.

Moliere's timeless comedy, starring the incomparable Donald Moffat portraying the scoundrel Tartuffe, who manipulates his way into the confidence and affection of Orgon, an affluent bourgeois concerned with his own salvation, and whose wife and daughter Tartuffe attempts to seduce.

An American Conservatory Theatre production of one of Rostand's most celebrated plays. Rostand's swashbuckling, romantic comedy is beloved for its tragic love story and its witty hero, Cyrano de Bergerac.

Antonio Fava explains the history of commedia dell'arte and shows examples through his classes in this art form.

"Journeying back to the dawn of Italian theater, this program unmasks the intriguing and often underappreciated tradition known as commedia dell' arte. Viewers will discover the history of Italian masked theater, the origins of commedia dell' arte and its various iterations, and the nature of its performers' improvised style. The program explains how the tradition's inspired characters - Pantalone, Colombina, Pulchinella, and many others - evolved and rose to prominence in the hearts and minds of 16th, 17th, and 18th-century audiences. It also illustrates how Italian masked troupes influenced countless other cultures as they performed across Europe, thus shaping the theatrical sensibility of western society as a whole."--Container.

An introduction to The Divine Comedy, with interpretation and analysis by scholars, dramatized sequences, contemporary images and works by artists inspired by Dante's work.

4 Discs

Presents the lives and literary output of more than 60 of America's most read authors in concise, stand-alone segments presented in chronological order. Program 1. The awe-inspiring saga of America's greatest authors comes alive in Great American Authors since 1650. As the American colonies moved toward becoming an independent nation, a unique and distinctive voice poured forth from the pens of its authors. Once the nation was founded, America's first literary giants -- Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe -- told stories and wrote poems that could have only come from the heart and soul of this fledgling country. Program 2. Between the War of 1812 and the Mexican American War that ended in 1848, America experienced an exuberant economic period of growth. And, it was during this time that American authors produced the nation's first great wave of classic literature. In this program, such literary giants as Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow make their mark on the American psyche. Program 3. After the Civil War the modern American novel took shape ... It was led by Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain and Henry James. It was also the time that the American literary voice came from everyone and from everywhere. Program 4. During this time frame America lost its innocence. Its writers now began to struggle with the problems that accompanied modernization and industrialization. It was also the beginning of the lost generation of American authors. Program 5. This was the most turbulent period in American history, a time of extremes: the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. As the 20's came to a dreadful close and the country struggled through the 30's, America's greatest collection of writers, known collectively as "the lost generation, " set a new standard for American literature. Program 6. Through the dark years of WWII and in its aftermath, America entered the technological age. The most popular American authors were becoming legends in their own time with the growth of mass media and popular culture. Their response was as diverse as the nation's response to living in the nuclear age. Program 7. If the lost generation authors were searching for identity and meaning, the group of authors in the middle of the last century rejected everything that mainstream America embraced. Ultimately they would speak to the baby boomer generation, first as children, then as proactive teens, and ultimately as adults in the later part of the century. Program 8. This half century spanned generations of writers who witnessed or participated in WWII, Korea, The Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam and multiple wars in the Middle East. Their diverse experiences influenced them intellectually, spiritually and emotionally which contributed to the eclectic collection of thought-provoking literature of the period.

Julie Harris takes viewers into Emily Dickinson's everyday world in a small New England town, from her father's mansion in Amherst, Massachusetts, to Amherst College and Mount Holyoke College, to couple and contrast facts and insights about the poet.

Adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale, shot on location in historic Salem. Captures the mystery and the menace of the primordial forest and the terrifying drama of a witches' sabbath. After the film the filmmakers discuss the context of the story.

Horror melodrama in which a woman disappears after spending the night in an isolated motel which adjoins an eerie Victorian mansion, inhabited by a disturbed young man and his mother.

Miss Emily Grierson was the fading aristocrat of a small Southern town. When she was young, her tyrannical father drove away all her suitors. Finally free after his death, Miss Emily quickly succumbed to the advances of a Yankee day laborer. Only years later does the town realize the chilling consequences of this ill-fated romance.

A dramatization of the story about the struggle of a Boston teacher, Annie Sullivan, to communicate with and teach the deaf, blind, and mute child, Helen Keller.

Five people make a return visit to a Midwest farmhouse to solve a crime which was committed the day before.

A Chicago South Side black family experiences the impact of an unexpected insurance bequest. Each family member sees it as the means of realizing long-nurtured dreams and of escape from grinding frustrations.

The story of the decline of an aging salesman provides a corrosive look at the dark side of the American dream.

An abbreviated television adaptation of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a middle-aged man's emotional turmoil.

Television adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, set in a detention room in Vichy in 1942, where a number of Jews await interrogation before being sent to concentration camps. Issues of personal responsibility are explored through the character of an Austrian prince who has been guilty of silent complicity during the German occupation of France.

In Riverton, Maine, circa 1893, Dr. Thomas Stockman wants to disclose that the town's moneymaking health spa "Clearwater Springs" has been fouled by pollution from a tannery. But his proposal to go public is opposed by his brother Peter, the town mayor, who prompts a wave of public outrage against Dr. Stockman and his family.

A classic American drama of love, revenge, murder and suicide set against the backdrop of a small New England town in the post-Civil War era. Each episode concludes with an after word by Erich Segal containing biographical information on Eugene O'Neill.

Stage production of Wilder's play; a study of life, love, and death in a New England town at the turn of the 20th century.

Biographical sketch of the Afro-American writer, Richard Wright. Includes a discussion of his literary works and the times in which he lived, weaving together dramatic recreations from Wright's work and recollections of friends and scholars. It follows Wright's journey from a childhood of poverty through the Chicago Black cultural renaissance of the 1930's, the Communist Party during the Depression, the MacCarthy-era, the American expatriate community in 1950's Paris and his final years.

Presents a look at author James Baldwin's life as reflected in his own words and reminiscences of family and friends.

"First documentary on one of the most gifted and intellectually provocative authors of modern American literature ... presents the first scenes ever filmed from Ellison's landmark novel, Invisible man"--Container.

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slaying of the patrons at an all-night diner. A tribute to tough film noir crime films.

A chance encounter in a nursing home leads to an unexpected friendship between a dowdy housewife and a spry octagenarian who tells her the story of a fiercely independent woman half a century ago, inspiring the housewife to change her life, often with hilarious results.

The history of blacks in the South as seen through the eyes of a 110-year-old former slave. Based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines.

City banker Andy Dufresne arrived at Shawshank Prison in 1947. Convicted of two brutal murders, he received a double life sentence. Within the confines of the prison, Andy forms an unlikely friendship with the prison "fixer" Red. He also becomes popular with the Warden and the prison's guards, as Andy is able to use his banking experience to help the corrupt officials amass personal fortunes. With the extraordinary twist in the tale, Andy finds that survival comes down to a simple choice: get busy living or get busy dying.

Gregory Peck plays a southern lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape in this film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The way in which it captures a time, a place, and above all, a mood, makes this film a masterpiece.

Probably the most misunderstood First Lady in history, Mary Todd Lincoln comes alive in all her complexity and controversy from the early years after the assassination of President Lincoln to her shocking and tragic decline.

Fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm come to vivid theatrical life in Paul Sills' innovative Yale Repertory Theatre production. Taking simple narrative stories, Sills eliminated the customary use of sets and costumes and relied instead on the transforming talents of his gifted actors.

An uneducated woman living in the rural American south who was raped by her father, deprived of the children she bore him and forced to marry a brutal man she calls "Mister" is transformed by the friendship of two remarkable women, acquiring self-worth and the strength to forgive.

When Shirley, the mother of five grown children with different lifestyles, finds it difficult to get her whole family together at the same time to tell them some important news, Madea, the family "Matriarch General" steps in to help.

A production by the Williamstown Theatre Festival of Anton Chekhov's classic comedy-drama depicting man's propensity for destroying those he is close to. The main protagonists are Trepleff, the youthful aspiring writer who dreams of bringing new forms to the theatre and Irina Arkadina, Trepleff's self-centered mother, an accomplished actress, who derides her son's ambitions.

Talks about Kafka's characters who suffer for no apparent reason. And shows the Kafka's world which ruled by anonymous bureaucracies where the innocents suffer meaninglessly.

Describes the evolution of contemporary theater through the revolutionary writings of dramatist Henrik Ibsen with numerous excerpts from plays illustrating the four main periods of his life: early years, epic dramas, sociological plays, and the eight great final plays.

"For Gregor Samsa, the ill-fated protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel Metamorphosis, home is where the horror is. Filmed in Kafka's native Prague and narrated by actor Jeff Goldblum, this program blends creative reenactments with expert commentary to explore how Kafka's prescient masterpiece about a man turned into an insect shattered notions of the happy family and anticipated the darkness descending on Europe. The autobiographical aspects of the novel are richly documented, as are modern-day examples of what is now called Kafkaesque ..."--Container.

Nora is sheltered first by her father and then by her husband. All her life, she has been protected like a fragile possession ... like a doll in a doll's house. After she marries, Nora becomes frustrated, realizes that under the dominance of her husband she will never have an identity of her own, and leaves to find a new life for herself.

"This definitive program traces the development of medieval drama, from Hildegard von Bingen's musical morality play Ordo Virtutum (The ritual of the virtues) to the seminal Everyman. Featuring extended excerpts from these influential works, as well as from The Second Shepherd's play and the 1998 staging of the Mystery Cycle in York, England, the video also establishes the genre's socioreligious context."--Container.

While our new nation was suffering attacks from both within and without, John Adams had a vision of a nation of liberty and justice for all. He guided his peers--General George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson--in setting the values and agenda for a glorious, free America. Adams and his wife Abigail refined these ambitious democratic ideals, and their partnership became one of the most moving love stories in American history.

A bound murder victim is found stuffed in the trunk of a car. With no witnesses or original crime scene, the detective must rely heavily on forensic evidence to find the killer.

Filmed at New York's Winter Garden Theater in 1982, the classic story of King Arthur and the love triangle between him, his wife, Queen Guenevere, and his best friend Lancelot.

The story of a young girl who had to go into hiding during World War II for being different. Anne Frank's diary manages to create a truthful and timeless picture of domestic life in all its pettiness and normalcy, while never letting us forget the extraordinary threat of death that awaits the characters if they are discovered.

Sydney Hansen, a 30ish plastic surgeon from Beverly Hills, is taking a long, hard look at her life. If she were older, she might be having a mid-life crisis, but, since she is too young for that, let's call it a crisis of confidence.

6 Discs

Stephen Sondheim, Winner of 9 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize.

"Robert Clayton Dean is a successful Washington D.C. attorney who-- without his knowledge-- is given a video that ties a top official of the National Security Agency to a political murder! Instantly, every aspect of Dean's once-normal life is targeted by a lethal team of skilled NSA surveillance operatives, who wage a relentless, ultrahigh-tech campaign to discredit him and retrieve the incriminating evidence!"--Container.

In 1959, Truman Capote was a popular writer for The New Yorker. He learns about the horrific and senseless murder of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas. Inspired by the story, Capote and his partner, Harper Lee, travel to the town to do research for an article. However, as Capote digs deeper into the story, he is inspired to expand the project into what would be his greatest work, "In Cold Blood." He arranges extensive interviews with the convicted killers, especially with Perry Smith. However, his feelings of compassion for Perry conflicts with his need for closure for his book which only an execution can provide. That conflict and the mixed motives for both interviewer and subject make for a troubling experience that would produce an literary account that would redefine modern non-fiction.

Loosely based on her actual first-hand account, depicts the final ten days of Nazi Germany as seen through the eyes of Hitler's then-secretary Gertraud (Traudl) Junge. Joining Hitler and his inner circle at their bunker in Berlin, she witnesses the collapse of Hitler's plans for the Third Reich. As the Russian army takes the city, the dissipation, horrific beliefs, and merciless logic of Hitler's philosophy and followers becomes ever more apparent and visceral.

A revealing drama that focuses on the 16th president's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country, and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.

Presents the life of an Irish man whose dreams inspired hope, whose words ignited passion, and whose courage forged a nation's destiny.

In 1981, Chris Gardner was a struggling salesman. His wife worked double shifts to support the family including their young son, Christopher. In the face of this difficult life, Chris has the desperate inspiration to try for a stockbroker internship where one in twenty has a chance of a lucrative full time career. Even when his wife leaves him because of this choice, Chris clings to this dream. The odds become more daunting by the day. Together, father and son struggle through homelessness, jail time, tax seizure and the overall punishing despair in a quest that would make Gardner a respected millionaire.

"In a quest to find his biological parents, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller)--joined by his wife (Patricia Arquette) and a sexy adoption counselor (Téa Leoni)--embarks on a cross-country search for his 'roots.' Yet as he careens from one outrageous situation to another, Mel finds himself tempted by the seductive counselor--even as his wife starts a flirtation of her own! By the time they meet up with his free-spirited birth parents, the whole situation is spinning out of control"--Container.

A devastating satire on the effects of mass production on the lives of factory workers. Shows Charlie as a factory worker, jailbird, night watchman, and a singing waiter. Primarily a silent film with music and sound effects, but voices emanate from TV sets and radios.

A gifted, rebellious teenager finds himself in competition with a wealthy older man for a favorite teacher's affections.

A poverty-stricken singer in Depression-era Paris becomes convinced that the only way she can earn a living on the nightclub circuit is to masquerade as a man who impersonates women. Then she meets the man of her dreams.

Enemy agents mistake a New York City advertising executive for an American spy.

Errol Morris sets out to prove that a convicted hitchhiker did not kill a Dallas policeman in 1976 - and that the lowlife that fingered him did. Based on a true story.

Police investigating an exploded boat on a San Pedro pier discover 27 bodies and $91 million worth of drug money. The only survivors are a severely burned Hungarian terrorist and Roger Kint, a crippled con-man. Reluctantly, Kint is pressured into explaining what happened on the boat. His story begins six weeks earlier with five criminals being dragged in by New York police desperate for suspects in a truck highjacking, and ends with the possible identification of a criminal mastermind.

A detective with a fear of heights is drawn into a complex plot involving a woman who is apparently being driven to suicide by one of her ancestors.

A young, handsome man with a Harvard education and success on Wall Street has terrible urges that take him in pursuit of women, greed, and murder.

Chronicles the life of Gandhi beginning with his political activities in South Africa during the late 1890's and ending with his assassination at the hands of a Hindu extremist in 1948. Shows the development of his philosophy of non-violence as he leads the people of India to independence from the British.

A French Resistance fighter is sent to an infamous prison in Lyon in 1943, where 7,000 of the 12,000 prisoners housed there died either by natural means or by execution. Lt. Fontaine is certain that execution awaits him, and begins planning his escape. For a period of time he goes it alone, but reluctantly takes on a partner. He gets some help from a couple of prisoners allowed to stroll in the exercise yard, but for the most part he is a figure of isolation.

Two childhood best friends, Rafe and Danny, grow up wanting to fly planes. When Rafe gets the chance to join the Royal Air Force during World War II, he takes it, leaving his new love, Evelyn, a dedicated Navy nurse, and Danny, also a pilot, behind. Danny and Evelyn are transferred separately to the idyllic paradise of Hawaii, where they eventually meet through a connection to Rafe, who has been declared missing. But just as the love triangle begins to get complicated, Dec. 7, 1941 arrives, changing all of their lives forever.

Set in the 1920s, adventurer Rick leads Egyptologist Evelyn and her brother Jonathan to mysterious Hamunaptra. While Johnathan is keen on finding the legendary Egyptian treasures, Evelyn wants to search for the Book of the Living, which would clarify a lot in historical knowledge about the ancient Egyptians. Unfortunately, they free Imhotep's mummy from his eternal prison. Imhotep, a former high priest to the pharoah, wants not only to use Evelyn's body to bring back his mistress Anck Su Namunut, but also to rule the world.

When Melanie Daniels rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner, the small California town is inexplicably attacked by thousands of birds.

The story of a Catholic war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life and went bankrupt in order to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps. He employed Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army. At the same time he tries to stay solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant and negotiates business with a vicious Nazi commandant who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa that overlooks the prison camp he commands.

A recent college graduate from an affluent family is seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, then subsequently falls in love with her daughter.

In this first-ever full-text film of William Shakespeare's work, the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

Six weeks after the Sisters have staged their first benefit (Nunsense) they give a thank-you show for their supporters. They find out there is a talent scout in the audience. And the Franciscans now want to claim Sister Mary Amnesia as their own because she is the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes winner.

Tony Award nominee Cathy Rigby stars in this dazzling new state-of-the-art production of the long-running Broadway hit.

Time travel, the fate of air disaster victims and the future of mankind provide the thrilling ingredients for Millennium. Bill Smith, chief investigator for the NTSB, is sifting through wreckage of two jumbo jets involved in a midair collision when he uncovers a strange alien device amid the rubble. What is it? Where did it come from? His questions are answered when he meets Louise, a woman from the future whose do-or-die mission is to travel back in time and recover the lost "stunner." Will Bill Smith's knowledge of the future jeopardize the course of history? Is the future of mankind now a thing of the past?

Don Haskins, a future Hall of Fame coach of tiny Texas Western University, bucks convention by simply starting the best players he can find: history's first all-African American lineup.

Lean on me: A bat-and-bullhorn wielding principal in New Jersey turns a failing school around with his tough love methods. Stand and deliver: A teacher in a Los Angeles barrio inspires his students to excel at math and to pass the Calculus Advanced Placement Test.

In this realistic depiction of the lives of ordinary German soldiers Paul Baumer and his school chums are encouraged to enlist by their bombastic, slogan-chanting teacher, but they quickly learn that actual war is more gore than glory, as they crawl through mud, huddle in trenches, suffer the ordeal of frenzied hand-to-hand combat and dodge screaming shells during World War I.

The story of a man who becomes a legend and an important political figure by falsely claiming he shot a ruthless gunman (Liberty Valance)

Arizona in the late 1800s. Infamous outlaw Ben Wade and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans, struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the train that will take the killer to trial. On the trail, Evans and Wade, each from very different worlds, begin to earn each other's respect. But with Wade's outfit on their trail, and dangers at every turn, the mission soon becomes a violent, impossible journey toward each man's destiny.

Special agent James West and fellow agent and crackerjack inventor Artemus Gordon team up on a daring assignment to stop legless Dr. Arliss Loveless and his diabolical plot for a Disunited States of America.

Cathy is the perfect 50s housewife, living the perfect 50s life: healthy kids, successful husband, social prominence. Then one night she surprises her husband Frank having sex with another man, and her tidy world starts spinning out of control. In her confusion and grief, she finds consolation in the friendship of their African-American gardener, Raymond--a socially taboo relationship that leads to the further disintegration of life as she knew it.

Josey Aimes needs a job and goes to work at a Minnesota steel mine after splitting with her violent husband. But the job proves to be almost as harrowing as her marriage. The male miners are resentful of women taking their jobs, so the men verbally abuse and play humiliating pranks on the female miners. After being physically assaulted by a coworker, Josey tries to fight against the harassment, but none of the other women will join her case for fear that things will only get worse. A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the U.S. - Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won a landmark 1984 lawsuit.

Evicted from their Manhattan apartment, Walter and Anna buy what looks like the home of their dreams, only to find themselves with a bank-account-draining nightmare. Evicted from their Manhattan apartment, Walter and Anna buy what looks like the home of their dreams, only to find themselves with a bank-account-draining nightmare.

George Bailey is not having a good day. His life in the sleepy little town of Bedford Falls has been thrown off track, perhaps never to recover. His business has failed, he's wanted by the police, and he's had a fight with his beloved wife Mary. On this disastrous day, his responsibilities and frustrations overwhelm him, leading him to a bridge and serious contemplation of suicide. It's up to an angel named Clarence to convince George that his life has been one of worth and that it's still worth living. After taking a long look at George's life, the angel offers a portrait of what life in Bedford Falls would be like if George had never been born. This classic, sentimental favorite has become a Christmas tradition.

Tells the adventures of a free-spirited mental ward inmate whose rebelliousness pits him against the repressive head nurse, and whose charm wins him the loyalty of his fellow inmates.

15 Discs

Contains 14 motion pictures directed by Alfred Hitchcock, originally released between 1942 and 1976.

Ten films based on the plays of Henrik Ibsen in which morality, independence, politics, and family values are explored.

Private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California is hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair. Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in Chinatown.

Lavish retelling of the final years of the Russian Tsar and Empress. The film begins in 1904 and shows the stark contrast between the opulent life of the nobility and the poverty of the peasants. Over the years Nicholas cannot satify the needs of the people or prevent Russia's entry into World War I, and the Empress falls under the spell of the evil monk, Rasputin. The film ends with the Russian Revolution and the execution of the royal family.

When Pope Julius II (Harrison) commissions Michelangelo (Heston) to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the artist initially refuses. Virtually forced to do the job by Julius, he later destroys his own work and flees Rome. Eventually resumed, the project becomes a battle of wills fueled by the artistic and temperamental differences that form the core of this movie.

At the start of World War I, German imperial troops burn down a mission in Africa. The mission's clergyman was so overtaken with disappointment that he passes away. Shortly after his well-educated, snooty sister Rose buries her brother, she must leave on the only available transport, the 'African Queen' steamboat. The boat is manned by the ill-mannered bachelor, Charlie. Together they embark on a long difficult journey, without any comfort. Rose grows determined to assist in the British war effort and presses Charlie until he finally agrees and together they steam up the Ulana encountering an enemy fort, raging rapids, bloodthirsty parasites and an endlessly branching stream which always seems to lead them to what appear to be impenetrable swamps. Despite their opposing personalities, the two grow closer to each other and ultimately carry out their plan to take out a German warship.

Dramatic biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali, which focuses on the ten-year period of 1964-1974. In that time, the brash, motor-mouthed athlete quickly dominates his sport, meets and marries his first wife, converts to Islam (changing his name from Cassius Clay), and defies the United States government by refusing to submit to military conscription for duty in Vietnam. His world heavyweight champion title thus stripped from him entirely for political reasons, the champ sets about to win back his crown, culminating in a legendary unification bout against George Foreman in Zaire, dubbed the "Rumble in the Jungle."

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington moves relentlessly towards her goal: taking the reins of power from the great actress Margo Channing. The cunning Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critics see through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

Chronicles the 1839 revolt on board the slave ship Amistad bound for America. Much of the story involves the court-room drama about the slave who led the revolt.

A collection of plays by Chekhov originally produced for television by the BBC.

Adapted from Shaffer's play, the film presents the life of Antonio Salieri, a mediocre 18th century Viennese composer obsessed with and jealous of the musical genius of the age, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

William Wallace is a bold Scotsman who used the steel of his blade and the fire of his intellect to rally his countrymen to liberation.

A small-time hood kills a policeman and tries to leave France, but his American girlfriend betrays him to the police and he gets killed trying to escape.

An heiress determined to catch a zoologist uses her pet leopard, Baby, to get his attention.

Bourne, is pulled from the sea suffering from amnesia with a pair of bullet wounds in his back. His only clue to his own identity is a bank account number etched on a capsule implanted in his body. He finds the Zurich bank where money, a gun, and several passports with different names await. He quickly realizes he can trust no one and offers a German gypsy named Maria ten thousand dollars for a ride to Paris. With Maria's reluctant help, Bourne edges closer to the truth, something CIA officials want concealed at all costs.

Private eye Philip Marlowe is hired to protect General Sternwood's wild young daughter from her own indiscretions and finds, several murders later, that he has fallen in love with her older sister.

In her mid-thirties, still single and still being set up with dates by her mom, Bridget decides she needs to make a change in her life. She falls for her boss who uses her and then dumps her. In the meantime, Bridget keeps running into the divorced guy her mom tried to set her up with, and he happens to be ex-friends with her boss. She uses her diary as a confessional and she begins to wonder if she will ever find true love.

William Wallace, a Scottish folk hero, leads his men to battle against the British oppression.

British soldiers captured by the Japanese during World War II are forced to construct a strategic railroad bridge which a commando team is instructed by the British High Command to destroy. British soldiers captured by the Japanese during World War II are forced to construct a strategic railroad bridge which a commando team is instructed by the British High Command to destroy. British soldiers captured by the Japanese during World War II are forced to construct a strategic railroad bridge which a commando team is instructed by the British High Command to destroy. British soldiers captured by the Japanese during World War II are forced to construct a strategic railroad bridge which a commando team is instructed by the British High Command to destroy.

Re-creates the 1905 mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin." It focuses on a mutiny by the battleship's crew and the subsequent massacre of civilians, reflecting the spirit of the times.

An all-powerful press magnate, Kane, dies in his fabulous castle Xanadu, his last word being "Rosebud", which leads a reporter to seek the meaning behind the word and find the meaning of Kane. Prominant publisher, William Randolph Hearst, saw the film as a thinly disguised version of his career and attempted to suppress it.

The romantic lovers' triangle between the impossibly heroic Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo, his beautiful wife Ilsa and her ex-lover, cynical American Rick Blaine is still the same old story, but it's never looked better.

8 Discs

An 8-disc set of Chaplin's greatest films: Modern Times, The Great Dictator, The Gold Rush and Limelight. Each film comes with a second disc featuring documentaries and rarely seen footage.

Includes: Chaplin Revue (2 discs) (his work from 1918-23), The Circus (2 discs), City Lights (2 discs), The Kid (2 discs), King in New York, Woman of Paris, Monsieur Verdoux and Charlie: The Life And Art of Charles Chaplin (documantary)

Taylor stars as the ambitious queen of Egypt whose involvement with Marc Anthony and Julius Caesar led to her eventual downfall and suicide.

A New York cab driver believes everything is a conspiracy, and tries to convince a Justice Dept. attorney that he is right.

Reworking of Chaucer's epic 14th century tale, largely set in 1940s wartime Kent, with three modern-day incarnations of Chaucer's pilgrims: a plainspoken American Army sergeant, a resourceful British sergeant, and a melancholy girl. While enroute to Canterbury they are waylaid and forced to solve a local crime, the mystery of a man who pours glue over the hair of village girls at night.

Maggie and Brick visit Brick's parents at their Southern plantation as the domineering family patriarch dies.

Why is the Grinch such a grouch? No one seems to know, until little Cindy Lou Who takes matters into her own hands and turns both Whoville and the Grinch's world upside down, inside out ... and funny side up in her search for the true meaning of Christmas.

"The hottest day of the year explodes onscreen in this vibrant look at a day in the life of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. A portrait of urban racial tensions sparked controversy while earning popular and critical praise, "--Container.

A prep school English teacher inspires his students to live life to the fullest. The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm, changing their lives forever.

A cunning manipulator takes control of a Caribbean island and declares himself emperor.

Acclaimed filmmaker Errol Morris paints a fascinating portrait of four obsessed eccentrics. Morris weaves interviews with a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot designer and an expert on the naked mole rat together with old movies, cartoons and stock footage for a compelling, kaleidoscopic look at the very thin line which separates madness from genius.

A 13-year old girl and her estranged father learn what family is all about when they adopt an orphaned flock of geese and teach them how to fly.

The story follows the life of low I.Q. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) and his meeting with the love of his life Jenny. The film chronicles his accidental experiences with some of the most important people and events in America from the late 1950's through the 1970's including a meeting with Elvis Presley, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, fighting in Vietnam, etc. The problem is, he doesn't realize the significance of his actions. Forrest comes to embody a generation.

Two idealistic young Bostonians lead the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, America's first Black regiment in the Civil War.

Focuses on a group of men involved with organized crime while giving an inside look at the Mafia from 1955-80. Based on the life of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood.

Scarlett O'Hara is the daughter of a wealthy southern plantation owner. Ashley is the love of her life, but he is going to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton. At a barbecue at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler. News of the Civil War starting arrives at the barbecue. As the war continues, Scarlett becomes a widow, all while still pining for Ashley. After the war, Scarlett travels to her family's plantation only to find it in ruins, with no food, animals and her mother dead. Later, Rhett courts Scarlett and they get married and have a daughter, Bonnie. When Bonnie dies, Rhett goes mad. Then Melanie dies. Rhett feels that Scarlett will go to Ashley to be with him. Not understanding Scarlett's intentions, Rhett walks out on Scarlett.

a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy, based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel of the same name. It is the first installment in The Godfather trilogy. It stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the father and son of a fictional New York crime family. The story, spanning 1945 to 1955, chronicles the family under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando), focusing on the transformation of the son Michael Corleone (Pacino), raised to have a life outside of crime, from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.

An unscrupulous newspaper editor uses every dirty trick in the book to keep his ace reporter/ex-wife from retiring and remarrying in this twist on The front page.

Follows the story of four lifelong friends, whose lives are filled with joy and heartbreak, and shows how their experiences have affected the hopes and dreams they hold for each of their children.

Dith Pran is an aide, translator and friend of a journalist who is covering the war in Cambodia. He is eventually exiled to the labor camps in Cambodia's countryside, where he endures four years of starvation, torture and war before escaping to Thailand.

The love of Hawkeye, rugged frontiersman and adopted son of the Mohicans, and Cora Munro, aristocratic daughter of a British colonel, blazes amidst a brutal conflict between the British, the French and Native American allies in colonial America.

In a final attempt to make something meaningful with his life, George launches a last ditch effort to build the house of his dreams. In the process, he renovates his crumbling relationship with friends and family.

Join Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, and brave members of he Fellowship as they continue their quest to destroy the Ring of Power. As darkness descends on Middle-earth, a strange creature named Gollum leads the heroes to the Black Gates of Mordor. The rest of Middle-earth prepares for a battle that will decide the fate of all.

"A mild-mannered bank clerk discovers a mysterious ancient mask that brings his innermost desires to wild, screaming life!" ... [container]

2 copies

A U.S. Army platoon, captured in the Korean conflict, is whisked to Manchuria for three nightmarish days of experimental drug-and-hypnosis-induced conditioning to carry out the orders of the enemy upon release. When a decorated Korean War veteran who has been brainwashed starts to commit political assassinations, his old military commander begins to suspect and must stop him.

Dziga Vertov's Man with a movie camera is considered one of the most innovative and influential films of the silent era. This dawn-to-dusk view of the Soviet Union offers a montage of urban Russian life, showing the people of the city at work and at play, and the machines that endlessly whirl to keep the metropolis alive.

Her legs are waxed, her lips are glossed, her gun is ready. FBI agent Gracie Hart is going undercover as one of the hopefuls to be the next Miss United States. But Gracie, whose idea of a fashion accessory is the set of handcuffs she slaps onto lawbreakers, doesn't have a beauty pageant bone in her body.

An ex-fighter gets a job working on the gang-ridden waterfront under a crooked gangster boss. Terry Malloy is a washed-up ex-prize fighter corrupted along with brother Charley at an early age by a ruthless Mob-connected union boss named Johnny Friendly, who runs the waterfront. Malloy is now an errand-boy for the union, while Charley (in return for a college education) is now a lawyer for them. Malloy assists in the killing of a longshoreman who was talking to the crime commission investigating the union. He soon meets the dead man's agonized sister, Edie Doyle, and has a change of mind. Activist priest Father Barry argues with Malloy about morality, responsibility, and doing the right thing. Malloy's guilt, his romantic feelings for Edie, and an assault on Father Barry overwhelm him and he turns informer. Malloy's defiant testimony before the commission leads to a climactic bloody battle that wrests the union from the boss' tenacious grasp.

Aided by the goddess Athena, warrior-king Odysseus braves the terrors and temptations of a fantastic array of creatures as his return from the Trojan War becomes a decade-long quest to reach his homeland and his faithful wife, Penelope.

[Our hospitality] A New York man returns to his southern antebellum home to find himself embroiled in a longstanding feud between his family and that of the woman he loves. [Sherlock Jr.] Dramatizes the uproarious exploits of a meek theater projectionist turned amateur sleuth.

A collection of four of Oscar Wilde's masterpieces, and a 1995 documentary about his life, his relationship with Alfred Douglas and the trials that destroyed his career. Includes reflections by Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland, and Douglas' grandniece Alice Douglas.

Based on the Greek legend of Theseus, who returned from war with the Minoans to become king of Athens, and took Phèdre, daughter of the vanquished King Minos, to be his wife. Phèdre falls in love with Theseus' son Hippolyte, who does not return her love. In anger she prays to Neptune to destroy him, but when Hippolyte is in fact killed after fighting a sea monster, Phèdre kills herself in remorse.

In a remake of the original film, after an astronaut crash-lands on an uncharted planet he finds himself at odds with a society in which apes are the rulers - and humans are little more than slaves.

Professor Henry Higgins works to make a pretty flower girl into a young lady of society.

Return to a time when men were men and swamps were fire swamps, full of quicksand and rodents of unusual size. Lagoons were inhabited by shrieking eels, and the most beautiful woman in the world was named ... Buttercup? Well, it's a bent fairy tale, complete with all the fencing, fighting, chases, and escapes.

Disgruntled Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. One Friday, Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and run, Marion leaves town. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man named Norman Bates, who seems to be dominated by his mother. Features one of the most iconic scenes in film history, the infamous "Shower scene."

Begins with several interviews with contemporary newsmakers and residents of Phenix City who participated in the fight against organized crime. Main feature is a dramatized account of the crusade to clean up corruption in Phenix City following the murder of Albert Patterson, Alabama's newly-elected attorney general, in 1954.

Tale of a family caught between their heritage and a dream for the future. The Charles family clashes over the fate of a magnificent, carved piano that carries their family's story from their days as slaves. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to buy a farm - the same fields their family worked as slaves. But his sister, Berniece, refuses to part with it. For her, the piano is their very soul, a legacy of pride and struggle that symbolizes their survival as a family. To resolve the conflict they must first deal with the past.

The story of the relationship between a prominent high school football coach in a small South Carolina town and the illiterate, mentally-challenged man nicknamed Radio whom he mentors. Although their friendship raises some eyebrows at first, Radio's growth under the coach's guidance ultimately inspires the local townsfolk.

Includes 2 pamphlets in pocket: pam. 1: 24 pages featuring writings by Jean Renoir, Francois Truffaut, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bertrand Tavernier, and an essay by Alexander Sesonske; pam. 2: List of films in the Criterion Collection with issue nos. A comedy drama set on the eve of World War II. It contrasts the affairs of the French aristocracy and the working class at a weekend house party. Masters and their servants are involved in an immoral erotic charade that builds to a shattering climax.

Based on the true story of two brothers, Norman and Paul Maclean, growing up in Montana. While Paul rebels against the stern nature of the boys' father Rev. Maclean, Norman pursues his dream of becoming a writer. However, despite the brothers' differences they are ultimately bonded by their mutual love of fly-fishing.

Jake La Motta is a boxer whose psychological and sexual complexities erupt into violence both in and out of the ring. His brother Joey falls prey to Jake's mounting paranoia and jealousy, while fifteen-year-old Vickie, becomes Jake's wife and most prized trophy. The same anger that drives Jake in the ring, ultimately drives him to beat his wife and brother, and sends Jake down a self-destructive spiral of paranoia and rage.

Anna and Ben, the two children of Jackie and Luke, have to cope with the fact that their parents divorced and that there is a new woman in their father's life: Isabel, a successful photographer. She does her best to treat the kids in a way that makes them still feel at home when being with their dad, but also loves her work and does not plan to give it up. But Jackie, a full-time-mother, regards Isabel's efforts as offensively insufficient. She can't understand that work can be important to her as well as the kids. The conflict between them is deepened by the sudden diagnosis of cancer, which might may be deadly for Jackie. They all have to learn a little in order to grow together.

After being exiled from her hometown of Auriol, Mississippi for seducing a seventeen-year-old boy at the school where she taught English, Blanche DuBois arrives unexpectedly at the New Orleans home of her pregnant sister Stella Kowalski and her Stella's husband Stanley. Stanley, both repulsed by and attracted to Blanche, discovers that she has mortgaged property left to both sisters and spent all the money. He sets about discovering everything else he can about her past, and tension between Blanche and Stanley is further intensified when Blanche begins dating one of Stanley's poker buddies.

The story of an aging film queen who prepares for her grand comeback to stardom

FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist.

Actors are caught in the bumpy transition to talking pictures; a Spoof of the early days of "talkie" films.

Two unemployed musicians accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and flee to Miami disguised as female musicians in an all-girl band.

Guy Haines, a tennis star who hates his wife, is approached on a train by a stranger, Bruno Anthony, who hates his father. Anthony offers a plan: each could kill the other's victim. No motive, no clue would link the two murders save the casual meeting of strangers on a train.

Depicts a jury of men who must decide the fate of a teenage boy who has murdered his abusive father. The jurors are from all walks of life, and bring with them their own opinions, prejudices, fears, and personal demons.

The story of the 'Fighting 99th' - the first squadron of black American pilots to be allowed to fight for their country. It is 1943 and the U.S. is suffering huge losses on the ground and in the air. Four newly recruited pilots are united by a desire to serve their country, at a time when black flyers were not welcomed in the Air Force. Now, the "Tuskegee Airmen" must undertake the riskiest mission of their lives and to prove to America that courage knows no color.

An elaborate mystery involving a corrupt police official in a squalid town on the Mexican border and a murder that ensnares a narcotics agent and his wife.

The harrowing account of a black man, born free in New York State, who was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in 1841. Having no way to contact his family, and fearing for his life if he told the truth, Solomon Northup was sold from plantation to plantation in Louisiana, toiling under cruel masters for twelve years before meeting Samuel Bass, a Canadian who finally put him in touch with his family, and helped start the process to regain his freedom.

Tokyo Story follows an aging couple, Tomi and Sukichi, on their journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling, post-war Tokyo. Their reception is disappointing: too busy to entertain them, their children send them off to a health spa. After Tomi falls ill she and Sukichi return home, while the children, grief-stricken, hasten to be with her.

A strong willed woman attempts to impose her shattered dreams into the life and personality of her shy, reclusive daughter.

Two retired, down-on-their luck outlaws pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey.

Set in Atlanta in the 1950's, a textile factory owner insists on hiring an ever-patient chauffeur for his aging head-strong mother. The Jewish woman and her African American driver eventually build a relationship over many years.

Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. She has a pet dog named Toto. When Miss Gulch takes Toto away, Toto escapes and runs back to Dorothy. Soon, she runs away from home, and runs into the fake psychic, Professor Marvel. He tells Dorothy that her Auntie Em is sick, so Dorothy and Toto run back home, but a tornado comes and takes Dorothy and Toto to Oz, a place somewhere over the rainbow. She lands in Munchkinland. Her house accidentally lands on the Wicked Witch of the West's sister and Dorothy magically inherits the pair of ruby slippers that were on her feet. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North tells Dorothy to follow the Yellow Brick Road to see the Wizard so she can get back home. Along the way, she befriends Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion. They are also seeking help from the Wizard because the Scarecrow needs a brain, Tinman needs a heart, and Lion needs courage.

Set in 1879 Africa, hours after the battle of Isandhlwana. A group of British soldiers stood their ground at a farm house against an onslaught of Zulus.

Rosalind, in love with the naive Orlando, disguises herself as the male Ganymede to counsel him about courting Rosalind. This staging was performed at Shakespeare's Globe in London, a reconstruction of the open-air theater designed in 1599.

Retells the story of the historic 1836 battle in the Texan War of Independence. Facing 4,000 Mexican troops, 186 Texan soldiers and volunteers - including William Travis, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie - retreat within the walls of the Alamo, a Franciscan mission that was converted into a military fort. Once inside, the men prepare themselves for what will be a bloody battle to the death. U.S. General Sam Houston leads the charge from the outside. The Texans held the fort for 13 days under siege by General Santa Anna.

History was made in 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the professional baseball race barrier to become the first African American MLB player of the modern era. 42 tells the life story of Robinson and his history-making signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey.

Michael Oher is a homeless African-American teenager who is from a broken home. Mike is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, Mike faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome-- as both a football player and student. Mike works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle.

With exacting detail, the film re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare. Helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers were assigned to capture key lieutenants of Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aidid, but when two Black Hawk choppers were felled by rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. soldiers were forced to fend for themselves in the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu, attacked from all sides by armed Aidid supporters.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox live a happy home life underground with their eccentric son Ash. Mr. Fox works as a journalist, but against the advice of Badger, his attorney, he moves his family into a larger and finer home inside a tree on a hill. The treehouse has an excellent view of the nearby farms of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Ash becomes hostile when his cousin, Kristofferson, joins the family for an extended stay. Mr. Fox decides to raid the farms, but this leads the farmers to stakeout the treehouse. The farmers try to dig the Fox family out, but they dig even faster. Mr. Fox organizes a tunneling project to burrow under all three farms and steal all the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.

If it's true that we are what we eat, then how do we even know who we are? Don Anderson is trying to balance his search for the truth with an apparent desire not to do anything that might hurt his career. Raul and Sylvia, having crossed the border illegally, take up dangerous, stomach-turning jobs at the meat-processing plant. Amber is a teenage burger-slinger who wants to both change the world and get out of town. These two desires--to fight the system and to win by its rules--are not necessarily incompatible, though they may seem contradictory. Everyone has something to say, but hard ethical choices are set down by the logic of 21st-century consumer capitalism.

During the nineteen sixties, a bouncer, whose nightclub closes for renovations, finds a temporary employment as a driver for black pianist Don Shirley going on a tour into the Deep South states.

Ringo possesses a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, the Beatles are chased from London to the Austrian Alps to the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientists and the London police.

Based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a five-star-hotel manager who uses his wits and persuasion in striving to save more than 1,200 Tutsis and Hutus from being massacred by the Interahamwe militia during the 1994 Rwandan conflict.

In 1960s Mississippi, Skeeter, a southern society girl, returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends' lives, and a small Mississippi town, upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen, Skeeter's best friend's housekeeper, is the first to open up, to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community.

Told by 11-year-old Christy, a child wise beyond her years. An Irish couple bring their two young daughters to America in search of a better life. Christy and her sister, Ariel find New York's Hell's Kitchen a place of magic where anything is possible. To their parents, it represents a place to begin anew. Carried by the girls' youthful hope and faith, the family finds the heart to live and love again.

The U.S. government decides to go after an agri-business giant with a price-fixing accusation based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president turned informant Mark Whitacre. The FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent.

A young woman escapes the violence in Bosnia to find paradise in Chicago with her long lost brother. She is forced to live on the mean streets of Chicago, while being pulled deeper and deeper into her brothers criminal world.

Idi Amin's despotic reign of terror is viewed through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan, a fictional Scottish doctor who arrives in Uganda in the early 1970s and becomes Amin's personal physician. His perspective as an outsider causes him to be initially impressed by Amin's calculated rise to power. A pointed examination of how independent Uganda (a British colony until 1962) became the scene of Amin's genocidal tyranny. Amin is both seductive and horribly destructive; Garrigan grows increasingly prone to exploitation.

Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who assembled a contending baseball club on a shoestring budget by employing a sophisticated computer-based analysis to draft players.

Two boys, Ellis and his best friend Neckbone, find a mysterious man named Mud hiding out on a deserted island in the Mississippi. Mud tells the boys fantastic stories about his life, including how he killed a man in Texas and vengeful bounty hunters are coming to get him. He says he is planning to meet and escape with the love of his life, Juniper. The boys agree to help him, but it isn't long until their small town is besieged by bounty hunters out for blood.

It's now 1933, 10 years after Rick and Evie met. They're married, settled in London and are raising their 8 year old son, Alex. Imhotep's corpse has been brought to the British Museum, and resurrected; the mummy walks the earth again, determined to become immortal. Another force born of the darkest rituals of ancient Egyptian mysticism, even more powerful than Imhotep, has also been set loose in the world. When these two forces clash, the world will hang in the balance, sending the O'Connells on a desperate race to save the world, and rescue their son.

In rural west Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Instead of reporting the discovery to the police, Moss decides to just take the two million dollars he finds for himself. This puts Anton Chigurh, a psychopathic killer, on his trail. Anton dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even his employer in the pursuit of his quarry and the money. Moss desperately tries to keep one step ahead, but the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the Sherrif Ed Tom Bell blithely oversees the investigation, even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart.

A profound story of courage and sacrifice depicting the final twelve hours in the life of Jesus Christ.

Based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew, who was a brilliant pianist. He watched as his family was shipped off to Nazi labor camps. He managed to escape and lived for years in the ruins of Warsaw, hiding from the Nazis.

Flashing back intermittently to dream-like scenes from his hardscrabble rural childhood, "Ray" chronicles Ray Charles' remarkable rise from sideman and Chitlin Circuit fixture to innovator, icon, and international superstar. Yet even as Charles ascends to the heights of the musical and cultural elite, he remains hobbled by heroin addiction and compulsive womanizing, a prisoner to his own insatiable needs. Through it all, Ray Charles possessed a rock-solid confidence in his music, a statement of faith in the inclusiveness of American culture. Ray Charles made a place for himself in the America of the '40s and '50s, and promptly transcended the barriers that defined what that place was. He incorporated and encompassed R&B, soul, rock and roll, blues, jazz, country, pop, gospel--all American music--giving us the lush sounds he had always heard in his head, unifying America's disparate musical bits into a cohesive whole.

Italy, 1944. As the war takes its toll on Allied forces in Europe, a squadron of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen are finally given the chance to prove themselves in the sky, even as they battle discrimination on the ground. Featuring jaw-dropping aerial action and thrilling special effects, Red Tails is a breathtaking tribute to the unsung heroes who rose above extraordinary challenges and ultimately soared into history.

Based on the incredible true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his ingenious assassination plot targeting Adolf Hitler, this engrossing thriller reenacts the daring operation to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known.

Animated feature with the Beatles trying to save Pepperland from the Blue Meanies.

Science fiction tales of derring-do, heroism and romance. Set in the distant past, they relate the adventures of Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo as they battle the forces of the evil Imperial Army.

10 Discs
Dramatizations of short stories written by some of America's greatest writers.

• V.1: Richard Wright's Almos' a Man


• V.2: William Faulkner's Barn Burning


• V.3: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Bernice Bobs Her Hair


• V.4: Stephen Crane's The Blue Hotel


• V.5: James Thurber's the Greatest Man in the World


• V.6: Katherine Anne Porter's The Jilting of Granny Weatherall


• V.7: Mark Twain's The Man that corrupted Hadleyburg


• V.8: Willa Cather's Raul Case


• V.9: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter


• V.10: Ernest J. Gaines' The Sky is Gray

Interviews with costume designers who explain the processes of designing, constructing and maintaining costumes for the stage, with examples from past productions.

This program traces the earliest Renaissance attempts to stage classical drama through the application of medieval concepts of production; follows the deductions made from Vitruvius' De Architectura and the impetus provided by the appearance of dramas in Italian; the building of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and the theatres in Ferrara and Parma; shows the varying uses of perspective in scene painting and the development of moveable scenery; and explains how, when the facade was eliminated and the door opened to reveal the scenery behind, the proscenium arch and the picture frame theatre were born.

A complete theater workshop focusing on the major production departments: set, prop, costume, makeup, lighting and sound.

A complete theater workshop focusing on character interpretation, timing, underplaying, movement, positioning, dialects and accents; portraying pain and drunkenness; and other principles elements of acting including mime performance.

Discusses many aspects of set design, including production management, supervising construction, creating atmosphere, the relationship between the design elements, lighting, research and visual influences, budget, space limitations, props and the technical rehearsal.

An ambitious stepmother, a pragmatic father, impassioned sweethearts, and starry-eyed suitors are all sent spinning in Oliver Goldsmith's classic comedy of manners-and errors.

Discusses Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki: how they developed, how they promote a sense of harmony with nature, the kinds of stages or settings they require, and the performing style of each. Includes excerpts from plays to demonstrate.

"A conversation with "The New York Times" columnist Thomas Friedman. Friedman is the author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century." -- Container.

An introduction to The Divine Comedy, with interpretation and analysis by scholars, dramatized sequences, contemporary images and works by artists inspired by Dante's work.

An adaptation of the 14th century poem, Gawain and the Grene Knight, which raises a number of questions about human virtue and imperfectibility in Gawain's quest to keep his word and prove his worthiness.

6 Discs

A dramatization of all 37 of William Shakespeare's plays, featuring some of Britain's most distinguished actors and directors.

• V.8: Henry IV, Part One


• V.9: Henry IV, Part Two


• V.10: Henry V


• V.23: Midsummer night's dream


• V.25: Othello


• V.31: The Tempest

Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh star in this absorbing documentary, which follows the Renaissance Theatre Company's production of Hamlet from first read-throughs to opening night. Narrated by Patrick Stewart. Chronicles Derek Jacobi's directorial dispute and Kenneth Branagh's first professional appearance as the Danish prince. Bonus disc with hours of never-before-seen footage.

"Lear, King of Britain, has three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Intending to divide his kingdom among his daughters according to their affection for him, he asks them to say which loves him most. Goneril and Regan profess their extreme affection, and each receives one-third of the kingdom. Cordelia, disgusted with their hollow flattery, says she loves him according to her duty, no more or less. Infuriated with this reply, Lear divides her portion between Goneril and Regan. Eventually, the two daughters reveal their true heartlessness and a tragic chain of events are set into motion." -- Container.

Presents William Shakespeare's play about a foolish king who divides his realm between two ungrateful daughters.

The King of Navarre and his friends think that they cannot love again. When the Princess of France and her attendants arrive for a visit, their plans are completely turned upside down.

The original Royal Shakespeare Company stars in this classic, world-renowned production of the Great Bard's riveting tale of murder, revenge, and insanity from Tony Award winner Trevor Nunn.

"Antonio, a successful but cash-poor merchant, approaches Shylock, a wealthy moneylender, for a loan to help his young friend Bassanio woo the fair Portia. Despite being longtime enemies, Shylock grants the request, but demands one pound of Antonio's flesh if the debt is not repaid on time. When Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock seeks what is legally owed him but soon learns that those to whom evil is done, do evil in return."--Container.

The capriciousness of lovers is the theme of this romantic and entertaining comedy, given a frolicsome rendition by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

With his wedding a week away, Claudio can't wait to marry the beautiful young Hero. To distract him, his best friend Don Pedro devises a mischief: a romantic trap for arrogant confirmed bachelor Benedick, and the sharp-tongued Beatrice, his favorite verbal jousting partner. For Beatrice, the man she loves to hate may well be the perfect foil for her in their "merry war" of the sexes. The amusement is almost spoiled by the jealous scheming of Don John, but love and laughter prevail when the local constable unwittingly exposes the plot--and all the trouble proves to be "much ado about nothing."

In this dramatization of William Shakespeare's tragedy a great man's vanity is manipulated by a jealous aide to bring about his downfall. Betrayal, deception and murder end the friendship between Othello and Iago and culminate in the tragic death of Desdemona.

Romeo and Juliet presents Shakespeare's tragedy about two teenagers who fall in love, encounter opposition from their families, and take their lives.

Film version of Shakespeare's tragedy in which two teenagers who fall in love, encounter opposition from their families, and take their own lives.

A commedia dell'arte production of Shakespeare's play about the courtship of a beautiful but sharp-tempered woman by her persistent suitor.

The Royal Shakespeare Company production of The winter's tale is presented here for the first time in a complete and un-edited edition. This landmark production was hailed by critics and played to packed houses both in Stratford and London.

This three-man troupe perform all of Shakespeare's plays in 90 comedic minutes.

Begins with Shakespeare's youthful obscurity in Avon. As he struggles to survive as a playwright, he faces multiple hardships, but defeats all obstacles to achieve unprecedented success in London.

Gives students an introduction to Shakespeare's plays.

Join a troupe of actors in various stages of rehearsal, presenting some of the bard's most poignant speeches that have earned their illustrious place in the history of theater, and in all of literature.

4 Discs

John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in nine intensive acting workshops, demonstrating how the Company makes Shakespeare's classic plays accessible to modern audiences without compromising the text's integrity.

First performed in 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's sophisticated comedy of manners satirizes the extravagance and corruption of London society. "The School for Scandal's" combination of elegant language and earthy comedy weaves a deliciously nasty tale of intrigue, slander and clandestine love affairs. Blair Brown stars in this timeless, witty look at the wages of scandal mongering and social climbing, scheming and hypocrisy.

"In the dock of a British courtroom, French aristocrat Charles Darnay stands accused of spying. The outlook appears grim until some last-minute help comes from the mysterious Sydney Carton. Darnay goes free and makes plans to marry Lucie Manette. Carton keeps his love for her to himself, yet assures her that he would make the ultimate sacrifice for her 'or for anyone you love'"--Container.

The story of a Catholic war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life and went bankrupt in order to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps. He employed Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army. At the same time he tries to stay solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant and negotiates business with a vicious Nazi commandant who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa that overlooks the prison camp he commands.