Category: Movies
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Music Album Review: ‘Victory at Sea – Richard Rodgers, Robert Russell Bennett & the RCA Symphony Orchestra’
Victory at Sea – Richard Rodgers, Robert Russell Bennett & the RCA Symphony Orchestra Label: RCA Victor Genre: Classical/Film and TV Score Released: 1992 Although Richard Rodgers is best known for his legendary musical theater collaborations with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II—especially the emotionally resonant scores for South Pacific and The Sound of Music—his…
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Music Album Review: ‘Platoon and Songs from the Era: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’
Platoon and Songs from the Era: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Year of Release: 1986 Record Label: Atlantic, Warner Records (International) Genre: Film Score (Classical/Pop/Rock) Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) remains, nearly four decades later, one of the most searing and authentic portrayals of the Vietnam War ever committed to film. Drawing from Stone’s own harrowing experiences…
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Music Album Review: ‘Casablanca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’
Casablanca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Labels: Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino (1997);Sony Music (Reissue) Year of Release: 1997 (Original), 2010 (Sony Music reissue) Genre: Film Score/Standards/Spoken Word 🎶 Casablanca Soundtrack: Memory, Melody, and the Music of Longing Of all the soundtrack albums I’ve collected over the years, none is quite as haunting—or as structurally unusual—as…
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Movie Review: ‘Minority Report’ (2002)
Minority Report Written by: Scott Frank and Jon Cohen, based on a Philip K. Dick story Directed by: Steven Spielberg Starring: Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Lois Smith, Kathryn Morris, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002) is a gripping fusion of science fiction, mystery, and action, set in a future that feels…
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Movie Review: ‘Not Another Teen Movie’ (2001)
Not Another Teen Movie (2001) Written by: Mike Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman, and Buddy Johnson Directed by: Joel Gallen Starring: Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Eric Jungmann, Mia Kirshner, Deon Richmond, Cody McMains, Sam Huntington, Samm Levine, Cerina Vincent, Ron Lester, Randy Quaid, Lacey Chabert, Riley Smith…
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Music Album Review: ‘Holst: The Planets’
Holst – The Planets: Chicago Symphony Orchestra/James Levine Label: Deutsche Grammophon Released: 1991 Genre: Classical/Symphonic Review: Holst’s The Planets – A Celestial Tapestry in Seven Movements Two years before Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status (not that Pluto minds, I suspect), I wrote an earlier version of this reflection on Gustav Holst’s The Planets,…
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The Making of ‘A Simple Ad’ (Which is…Festival Bound!)
🎬 The Making of A Simple AdBy a first-time screenwriter It started with six words. Not mine — and not Hemingway’s either, despite the legend. The famous micro‑story “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” has been floating around for more than a century, long before anyone attached it to Papa. But the emotional punch of…
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Festival Bound! ‘A Simple Ad’ Selected for the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival
🎬 A Simple Ad Selected for FLIFF: A Quiet Victory for Flash Fiction on Film In 2019, I wrote a short screenplay inspired by one of literature’s most haunting fragments: “For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn.” Often attributed to Hemingway, the six-word story evokes a universe of loss, memory, and emotional restraint. I wanted to…
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Movie Review: ‘The Battle of Britain’ (1969)
The Battle of Britain Written by: James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex Directed by: Guy Hamilton Starring: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, Curt Jurgens, Ralph Richardson, Ian McShane, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Patrick Wymark, Michael Redgrave, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, and Robert Shaw The Battle of Britain (1969): A War Epic That Soars, Stalls, and…
A Certain Point of View, Too 