
            Told through the narration of a grown-up "Shakes", four young boys: Lorenzo "Shakes"(Joseph Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), and John (Geoffrey Wigdor) are the best of friends growing up in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. Their family lives are hard, involving broken homes and spousal abuse, and the boys turn to street antics and volunteering as altar boys to escape. Father Bobby (Robert De Niro), an ex convict turned priest, watches out for them and tries to mould them into upstanding members of society. Despite their good hearts the boys get into all kinds of trouble, including sneaking into confessionals and pretending to be priests and playing pranks on nuns. Shakes becomes an errand boy and fast friends with a street kingpin named King Benny who runs all the illegal activity in Hell's Kitchen.One fateful day Michael suggests they knock off a hotdog vendor out of boredom. When Shakes runs off with a hotdog the vendor gives chase, leaving the stand unsupervised and allowing the three other boys to feast in his absence. Michael suggests that they leave the cart teetering on the edge of the subway entrance so when the vendor comes back he'll have to struggle to keep it from falling, giving them time to escape. In a tragic turn of events, the cart crashes down the stairs hitting and almost killing an elderly man.The boys are sentenced to a year in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. Because Shakes arrived at the scene of the cart crash later than the others (and because of the vouching of Father Bobby), he's only sentenced to 6 months. The boys hardly fit into the home which is filled with boys who have committed much more serious crimes and are subject to their ridicule and beatings. Worst of all is a guard named Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon) who quickly turns the boys lives into a living hell. He begins by humiliating them along with three other guards, Henry Addison, Adam Styler and Ralph Ferguson (Jeffrey Donovan, Lennie Loftin and Terry Kinney respectively). Nokes embarrasses them in front of the other inmates by making them eat off the floor. The abuse escalates to beatings at night. He and the three other guards drag the four boys into the basement of the home where they repeatedly beat and rape them. It's suggested that this abuse becomes a nightly occurrence for the boys.The boys, no longer innocent and filled with shame, write to their parents to tell them not to visit; afraid they'll know what's been going on. Father Bobby refuses to stay away and urges Shakes to not let the home change him for the worse.The home holds a football game between the guards and inmates once a year for all the town to see. Michael convinces Rizzo, an intimidating black inmate to not let the guards win this year out of fear of the consequences but instead fight back as hard as possible. Rizzo agrees and the four boys and a few other inmates fight dirty and beat the guards in front of the whole town. Disgraced and angry, Nokes and the other guards throw the four boys into solitary confinement, starving them for two weeks straight. Shakes wakes up in the infirmary and is told by Michael that the guards beat Rizzo to death.As Shakes' release date nears, the four boys agree that once they get out of the home they won't breathe a word about what happened there to anyone and bury it as deep in their minds as possible.---------More thirteen years later, two men walk into a pub and order a drink. Shakes' narration describes them as two of the most dangerous men in Hell's Kitchen. Both are members of the gang The West Side Boys. Both are murderers and drug users. The blonde man walks towards the bathroom and notices Nokes sitting by himself and eating dinner. He stares him down and Nokes reacts with annoyance. The blonde man tells him to enjoy his dinner and enters the bathroom. He returns to his dark-haired friend at the bar and tells him to look closely at Nokes. The dark-haired man recognizes him too and they both approach him. They sit down and introduce themselves as grown-up Tommy and John (Billy Crudup and Ron Eldard). Nokes says they were wimpy kids and he tried to make them tough. They point their guns at him. He tells them they're going to burn in hell. John says "You first", before they shoot him dead. Several people in the bar witness the shooting and hide their heads as Tommy and John walk out.Meanwhile, Shakes (Jason Patric), now a newspaper columnist, meets with Michael (Brad Pitt), now an assistant district attorney. Michael says he's going to take the Sean Nokes murder case as the prosecuting attorney. Shakes reacts with anger before Michael tells him he's going to take the case to lose. Not only that, he's planning on revealing the corrupt Wilkinson Home for what it really is. He asks Shakes to help him bring his plan to fruition. Michael hands Shakes years of research on the three other guards who had tortured them all those years ago.Shakes meets with Carol (Minnie Driver), a childhood friend of the boys and ex-girlfriend of Michael, and asks for her help finding files for the case since she has access as a social worker. She tells him that she's with John now and asks why he never asked her out. He said he never had the guts because she was Mikey's girl.Shakes enlists the help of King Benny who makes sure the fallen and disgraced drunk, Danny Snyder (Dustin Hoffman), is Tommy and John's defense lawyer, making it seem even less likely the two men will walk. Shakes meets with an internal affairs agent to give him information on Adam Styler, who has now become a cop, and his cocaine habit as well as his illegal trafficking activity. King Benny meets with drug kingpin Little Caesar, revealed to be Rizzo's older brother, and tells him the truth of Rizzo's death at the hands of Henry Addison in the Wilkinson home. Little Caesar was told Rizzo died of pneumonia.Shakes and Carol meet with Father Bobby and ask him to be Tommy and John's alibi for the night of the murder. Father Bobby doesn't want to swear to God and then lie on the stand. He asks why he should lie to let two guilty men, who will surely kill again, go free. He asks why Nokes' life means nothing to Shakes. Shakes tells him and Carol everything that happened while he, Michael, Tommy and John were at Wilkinson's. Afterward, Father Bobby says he has some thinking to do and tells them goodnight.In court, Michael successfully begins to throw the case, conveniently forgetting to present the jury with a motive. With the help of a list of questions and answers Michael previously provided him, Snyder successfully displays one of the witnesses as a "scared woman who had too much to drink", making it questionable whether Tommy and John were ever in the bar to begin with. Michael calls a character witness for Nokes by the name of Ralph Ferguson. Ferguson tells the jury that Nokes was a good man and didn't deserve to be killed by two street punks. Snyder uses Michael's question list to grill Ferguson on the goings-on of the Wilkinson Home for Boys. He asks him about the beatings and rapes and whether he and Nokes participated. Ferguson, realizing who the defendants are, breaks down and confesses. He's dismissed by the judge but told not to stray too far from home since there are people who will "want to talk to him".The next day Father Bobby gets on the stand, swears to tell the truth, and says that Tommy and John were with him at a Knicks game the night of the murder. Michael asks him if he has any proof. Father Bobby produces three ticket stubs.The jury finds Tommy and John not guilty.Addison's body is found in a swamp by La Guardia airport. Shot to death by Little Caesar's men. Adam Styler is arrested by internal affairs.The four friends and Carol meet for a private party. They share stories of their childhood and sing "Walk Like a Man" for Carol. Shakes' narration explains that this was the last night they would ever be together. Not long after that, John's body is found in an apartment stairway next to a bottle of booze that killed him. About a year after that, Tommy's body is found by the river with five bullets in his head. Both of them never reached thirty. Michael moves to England, becomes a carpenter, and never marries. Shakes still lives in Hell's Kitchen and writes for the paper. Carol is an unwed mother, compliments of John, and named her son John Michael Thomas. She calls him 'Shakes'.
    

Sleepers


            A rustic Afghan village in a dry, rocky terrain. The villagers look up to the sound of jet airplanes, explosions rock the hillside and buildings and a group of three tanks approach, firing and destroying more of the village. People and goats run for their lives. An Afghan man fires an anti-tank round but misses. Women pelt and hammer a tank with stones until a yellow smoke canister is deployed, the poison gas drives off the Afghans. The gas-masked soldiers get out and continue to ransack the village.Major Daskal (George Dzundza) a tank commander exits and fires his machine gun at another tank being attacked. Koverchenko (Jason Patric) runs to aid the other tank. An Afghan elder is captured and dragged to Daskal's tank and placed under the tread. An interpreter, Afghan tank crewman Samad (Erick Avari) demands to know where the mujaheddin are. As the women wail the village elder is crushed.The three tanks depart but Maj Daskal's tank misses a left turn and heads into an area surrounded by high ridges. Back in the village the menfolk return to see the destruction. Taj Mohammed (Stephen Bauer) is distraught and laments to his uncle Akbar (Kabir Bedi). A group of modern rebels arrive on motorbikes, led by Taj's cousin, Moustafa (Chaim Girafi) with his Ray-Bans, AK-47 and cigarettes. Moustafa reports the tank is lost in the valley of the jackals. Taj is now the village Khan as it was his elder brother who was crushed. His sister-in-law-to-be Sherina (Shoshi Marciano) brings out an old rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher to help avenge the deaths.The lost Russians stop to get their bearings. Major Daskal's map is partially burnt and doesn't have all the details. Koverchenko and Samad chat and Samad admits he doesn't believe in Muslim paradise. Suddenly the tank is attacked by the Afghans on the ridge, the Major fires a round close to the mujaheddin as the tank moves away. Moustafa fires the RPG but misses by a mile. Taj is angry and demands the RPG as the rebels squabble. Uncle Akbar has a leg wound but the Afghans continue to follow the tank.Hot and thirsty the Afghans approach a waterhole, one of them bends down to drink, Taj finds an empty poison box but it is too late and the drinking man suffers an agonizing death. Hidden in bushes not too far away the tank aims at the group by the waterhole. The round misfires and the men quickly evacuate. Maj Daskal suspects Samad had something to do with the misfire. The Major and Koverchenko enter the tank to clear the round. The shell is placed on the ground with a grenade booby trap. The tank continues on it's way.An Afghan finds the tank shell and blows his arm off when he moves it. Taj tells the others to leave the man food and water but Moustafa puts the badly injured man out of his misery. A pack of dogs and the village women arrive at sunset to bury the man.The walking Afghans come up to a man chanting by a large bonfire. He thinks Taj is David come to slay Goliath, the tank. The Russians have camped for the night and Koverchenko and Samad play chess and talk. Samad explains the Afghan philosophy of nanawatai, where anyone, even a sworn enemy can request sanctuary which the Afgans are obliged to provide. Golikov (Stephen Baldwin) and Kaminski (Don Harvey) fight and Maj Daskal discovers Kasminski has been drinking the brake fluid (alcohol) in his canteen. The Major also rips the last page from Koverchenko's diary.A grenade drops down and the Russians take cover. In a wild firefight the panicky Russians manage to get in their tank and drive away blindly. They stop again some distance away, Golikov has a face wound from shrapnel. Once again Maj Daskal is suspicious of Samad. They do a 360 degree sweep with all weapons as they fire tank rounds, flame thrower and machine gun after the perimeter security devices indicate intruders. Samad is sent to investigate. All he finds is a dead goat.At a river Daskal prevents Samad from his prayers and forces him to check the riverbed by walking into the water. While waist deep the Major kills him with a burst from the turret machine gun. Koverchenko is enraged and records the incident in his diary. Daskal rants about giving to the motherland, he fought as an 8 year old against the Germans in WW2 and was called "Tankboy". The three younger tankers start to discuss mutiny. Koverchenko reports they now have no food or water and running low on gas and leaking oil. After another argument Koverchenko is tied down and left on a slab rock with a grenade under his head. Koverchenko pleads with Golikov to let him loose to no avail.Uncle Akbar notices Sherina and the other women are following. Sherina has some C4 and grenades. The dogs find Koverchenko and nip at his heels, as he moves the grenade falls and goes off but Koverchenko is unharmed.Taj expresses doubts to his uncle as he leaves the injured older man behind. Motoring down a wide open area Daskal sees the Kandahar road up ahead in his binoculars. The Russians rejoice! But they have to stop, a large deep chasm blocks the way forward.Koverchenko bakes in the sun, now the Afghan women find him and start to stone him. Desperate, Koverchenko pleads for Nanawatai and the women stop. The men arrive and Taj grants the sanctuary and wonders why the Russians left him. At mealtime the Afghans prepare food and allow Koverchenko first dibs. The RPG is damaged and using simple language and gestures Taj gets the Russian to repair the launcher. Koverchenko also agrees to help destroy the tank.A Russian helicopter lands near the tank. The two young men are happy to board the aircraft but Major Daskal demands they get off, they are "tankers" and have to drive back. The pilot provides some jerrycans of fuel and says they have to go back the way they came. Golikov and Kaminski are stunned as the helo flies away in a cloud of dust. Hiding in rocks the Afghans are happy to see the tank come back. Taj lays out a plan to attack.The tank travels thru the night, Kaminski reports the engine overheating in the morning. At the waterhole the helo is there on the ground. The pilot and crew are all dead, not knowing the water was poisoned. In the distance the Afghans approach, Major Daskal sees Koverchenko running with the mujaheddin. The tank won't start, dead battery. The machine gun is out of ammo. Daskal begins a manual turret traverse cranking a handwheel. The tank fires an anti-tank round over the Afghan's heads, Koverchenko gestures and tells them to spread out. The tank starts up and moves away before Koverchenko can get a shot with the RPG. The Russian notices an oil trail and races after the tank. The tank has to follow a winding path in the canyon while the pursuing Afghans can take a straight line shortcut over the hills. Daskal notices them following and shoots at the ridges, finally the main gun runs out of ammo.Taj and Koverchenko get ahead of the tank and try to aim the RPG. Koverchenko fumbles but gets a shot off, a direct hit on the muzzle of the main gun. The tank continues to the Pass and apparent safety. Taj appeals to Allah and an explosion above sends a rockslide down onto the tank. It is stopped. Sherina and her women look down from above. The tank is disabled as the right tread is broken. Noticing leaking fuel, Koverchenko sends a firebomb that explodes under the tank. Golikov and Kaminski panic and Daskal issues them with grenades, he wants them all to suicide together. Kaminski refuses and the two younger men manage to disarm the Major. The three Russians get out with their hands up surrendering. Golikov gets on his knees disgusting both the Afghans and Daskal. Koverchenko taunts the Maj but uses his nanawatai protection to allow the Russians to leave on foot. At the crossroads Daskal pauses and falls behind the other two, the angry Afghan women approach screaming.At the burning tank Taj gives Koverchenko a souvenir rifle. Sherina arrives all bloody and apologizes to Taj. Another Russian helo arrives and the mujaheddin scatter. Taj calls for Koverchenko to come with them but he puts on the horse collar sling and is lifted up in the air.
    

The Beast of War


            Paul Haggis' In The Valley of Elah is based on actual events, with themes including the Iraq war, abuse of prisoners, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following active combat, family, the military's disregard for the mental well-being of soldiers, and portrays a father's hunt for his son's killers.Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) is a retired army military police sergeant with experience investigating crimes. He learns that his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) has returned to America and has gone AWOL. Hank leaves, hoping to find his son.Though hurrying to the army base, Hank takes the time to stop at the local school, where the United States Flag has mistakenly been hung upside down. Explaining to the school custodian, an immigrant from El Salvador (whose civil flag is a simple blue-white-blue tricolor so doesn't need to be oriented before raising on a pole) that a flag hanging upside down is an international sign of great distress, he helps the caretaker fix the flag before continuing on his way.Upon reaching the base, Hank meets with army personnel; all of them express their condolences, but are largely unhelpful. Although he talks to a few people who knew Mike, he is unable to find any useful information. Faced with this apparent stonewalling, Hank steals Mike's phone from his room and has it analyzed by a local computer expert; the phone's memory has been damaged by heat, but the expert offers to try and recover the video clips from the phone, a process that will take some days. Hank pays the man $100 and awaits his reply by e-mail.With most of his early investigations fruitless, Hank approaches the local police. He sees Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) dismiss a woman's concerns after her recently-returned husband (a veteran of the war) drowned their dog in the bathtub, in front of their son. The woman is worried about how disturbed he may be, but Sanders tells her that there is nothing she can legally do regarding the death of the dog, and sends the woman away, doing nothing to allay the wife's concerns. Later in the film Sanders is called to the woman's house; her husband has drowned her in the bathtub while their son was at his grandmother's house.Hank finds little help from Det. Sanders and heads to a diner where he meets an old friend from Army CID, Arnold Bickman (Barry Corbin) whom he has not seen in over fifteen years. Hank asks Arnold if any of their crowd is left on the base to which Arnold says that they are all gone. This is a pivotal remark because it subtly alludes to the fact that times have changed and the military, as well as the struggles of individual soldiers have also evolved. Asked about his oldest son, Hank informs him that he died serving in the 82nd Airborne in a helicopter crash while on maneuvers ten years ago. When asked about Mike, Hank evades talking about Mike directly. Hank returns to his motel room to find the first imperfect videos dredged from Mike's phone.Meanwhile, the police are seen investigating a crime scene of a dismembered and burnt body. The police are very pleased to pass the investigation off to the military because the murder seemingly happened on land owned by the military; however, the conflict between civilian police and military personnel is clearly exemplified.Hank Deerfield is notified at his hotel room that the remains of his son Mike have been found. The officer is reluctant to offer more information but at Deerfield's insistence, he takes him to see his son's burnt and virtually unrecognizable remains (the officer mentions that they were only able to identify Mike Deerfield from partial fingerprints).Det. Sanders is reluctant to pass the crime off to the military, but is left with little choice. In the morgue, Lt. Kirklander (Jason Patric) showed Hank his son's remains and then asked if Mike did drugs because they suspect that he may have been murdered by a gang of Mexicans involved in smuggling heroin in from the Middle East. A pipe was found under Mike's mattress which Lt. Kirklander says he will not include in his report.Faced with Hank's determination, Detective Sanders is forced to take Hank to the crime scene. He is able to find that the location of the killing occurred outside of military property by locating markings on the ground from where the body was dragged. Also, Detective Sanders mentions a green car that witnesses saw at the crime scene, but Hank points out that the car was most likely blue, as it would just appear green from a under the yellow street lamps.Hank notifies his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) over the phone of Mike's death. Joan is devastated and angry at losing two sons in the military. She tells Hank that he left Mike with little choice and that the young man would not have felt at all like a man if he hadn't joined the army.After putting her young son to bed, Det. Sanders looks over grisly crime scene photos while Hank examines video from Mike's phone; the videos are very fragmented. At work, Det. Sanders is given bad assignments mocking her expertise, and the men in the force clearly believe that she slept her way into her job. Whether or not she slept with him, she does have some pull with the chief (Josh Brolin) who allows her to pursue the case, even though the additional unsolved murder cases reflect badly on him.Hank and Det. Sanders continue to work together solving the case, and keep finding dead ends and twists and turns along the way. At first, they suspect Private Robert Ortiez, a Mexican-American soldier who may be involved in drugs. With the support of some narcotics officers, Sanders leads the police to Ortiez's residence to apprehend him, but Ortiez flees on foot with the cops in ineffectual pursuit. Having followed the police against Sander's objections, a frustrated Hank chases Ortiez down in the street, hits him with the open door of his truck and brutally assaults him. When Det. Sanders tries to pull the frenzied Hank off Ortiez, Hank accidentally hits her as well. No charges are filed, but Sanders is furious with Hank's intervention and loss of control.In interviewing the soldiers with whom Mike was out on the night when he died, Hank and Sanders find inconsistencies in their testimonies. The men had gone out to a fast food restaurant that night, but had ordered only enough for three, despite their claims that the group had numbered four people. Discrepancies in the signatures on Mike's credit slips provide further evidence that the men are not telling the truth. After one of the men commits suicide, it is interpreted by the military as the closest that they will get to a confession. Hank and Emily are not satisfied.In the meantime Hank gets the last video from the mobile over email which shows Mike torturing a prisoner in the back of a Humvee military vehicle. The full story of the night eventually emerges when Penning confesses in front of Hank and Emily. Mike and the men had gotten kicked out of a strip club after Mike became agitated and caused a disturbance. Afterwards, fighting between the men escalated, and as a possible by-product of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Penning stabbed him over forty times. Another had the idea of dismembering and burning the body. Hungry, the men then went to eat. Penning also reveals that Mike used to torture prisoners and that's how he got the nickname "Doc."Hank Deerfield apologizes to Ortiez for the beating when he finds that Ortiez was not responsible. After the two speak, Hank finds that Mike had struck and killed a child with his Humvee in Iraq due to a standing order to keep driving even if something or someone is in their way. This caused psychological problems for Mike, who had made an agitated phone call to his father after the event. Hank had thought that his son was only experiencing typical emotions associated with a tour of duty; he provides no words of comfort to his son and is only worried about Mike crying in front of other soldiers. Mike realizes he will not receive words of comfort or wisdom, and he ends his phone call with his father knowing he will have to find his own way to cope with the horrors of war.With the crime finally solved and the men from Mike's squadron revealed as his killers, Hank returns home to find a flag his son had mailed from overseas, along with a picture of it flying over his squad in Iraq. His faith shattered, Hank takes the flag to the school and hoists it upside down: a sign that everything is not all right and the country is in distress. He duct tapes the ropes of the flag staff and instructs the school's custodian to leave it like that, even at night.The film stresses not only the failings of the military to adequately look out for the well-being of its soldiers, but the failings of a father whose connection to his military past slowly unravels as the film progresses.
    

In the Valley of Elah


            Following the divorce of their parents, Micheal [Jason Patric] and Sam [Corey Haim] Emerson, along with their mother Lucy [Dianne Wiest], move to Santa Carla, California to live with their mother's father, a peculiar old man [Barnard Hughes]. Santa Carla happens to be the murder capital of the world. Santa Carla is a beach town with a boardwalk and the kids that hang out there, including a group of tough kids lead by David [Keifer Sutherland]. While Lucy gets a job working for Max [Edward Herrmann] at the local video store, Sam befriends the Frog Brothers, Edgar [Corey Feldman] and Alan [Jamison Newlander] who inform Sam that Santa Carla is crawling with vampires.Meanwhile, Michael becomes enthralled by the mysterious and beautiful Star [Jami Gertz], who happens to be the girlfriend of David. David and his gang take Michael to their hideout, which is the remnants of an old hotel that collapsed during an earthquake. While there, Michael inadvertently drinks David's blood, thinking it is wine. Michael starts to develop some side effects - including sensitivity to sounds, a lack of reflection, and even flying. Sam accuses Michael of being a vampire but Michael convinces Sam that he can figure out how to fix it. Instead, Michael sleeps with Star. Sam decides to take matters into his own hands and asks for counsel from the Frog Brothers who promptly tell Sam that the only remedy is to drive a stake in Michael's heart but that Michael may only be a half-vampire, in which case, if the head vampire is killed, Micheal will go back to normal.Meanwhile, Lucy begins to date Max and thinks that her boys are just having problems dealing with her dating after the divorce. Finally, Michael decides to take Star, along with a little half-vampire boy named Laddie Thompson [Chance Michael Corbitt], from David's clutches and brings Sam and the Frog Brothers with him to kill David and his gang while Michael grabs Star and Laddie. The inexperienced Frog Brothers manage to kill one vampire before waking the bunch and flee into the daylight. David smiles as the group escapes saying "tonight". Sam, Michael, and the Frog Brothers prepare for the night ahead. They prepare a bathtub full of garlic. They fill squirt guns with holy water. They prepare wooden stakes. Night falls and David and the remainder of his crowd come to Sam and Michael's house to seek vengeance. Sam and Michael take out one of the vampires by electricity and the Frog Brothers are saved by Sam & Michael's dog when the dog knocks a vampire into the bathtub with garlic. Finally, David and Michael face off. Michael kills David by pushing him onto some antlers. The only problem is that Michael doesn't go back to being human. David was not the head vampire.Just then Lucy comes home with Max from a date. Unseen by Max, Michael and Star hide in the shadows as Max approaches the deceased David. Max appears to be upset by the death. It's then that it is revealed that Max is the head vampire and that David and his gang were Max's "children" of sorts. Max wanted David to make Michael and Sam part of the "family" so that Lucy would agree to being with Max knowing what he is. Max wanted Lucy because his boys were in need of a mother. Even though his boys are dead he still wants Lucy. Max takes hold of Sam, telling Lucy that Sam will die if she doesn't come to him. Just then Lucy's father busts into the house in his car equipped with wooden stakes. Max is killed and the day is saved. As Lucy makes sure her boys are okay, the grandfather goes to the kitchen, pops open a beer and says "There's one thing about living in Santa Carla...I never could stomach - all the damn vampires."
    

The Lost Boys


            Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is an undercover cop remembering his last assignment which ended in a strenuous foot chase after a drug dealer named Dowd. Dowd is fast and ruthless, shooting up a bystander with a lethal dose of drugs, although Tellis runs past the victim in order to catch him, although he next grabs a little girl from a playground and threatens to shoot her up too. Tellis however, shoots the dealer anyway, firing several shots. He kills the dealer and the girl is unharmed, but one of his bullets ricochets and hits a pregnant woman who is bleeding badly. Tellis screams for help as children scream in the background, and the woman sobs in pain.We next see Nick Tellis 8 months later, on suspension, talking to a police committee about the incident. They mention the woman nearly dying and losing her baby. Tellis reminds them that these details have been covered and becomes agitated when a woman on the committee, Liz Detmer (Karen Robinson) asks him if he's contacted the Jeanine Mueller (Lina Giornofelice,) the woman who lost her baby. He reveals that he's spoken to her but refuses to give details, feeling it's his own personal business. She asks him if he feels the infant's death could have been avoided if he'd "acted less aggressively."
He responds by saying:
Tellis: My duty assignment was solely undercover narcotic work. Do you have any idea what that entails?
Liz: I have a general idea. Yeah.
Tellis: Well then, generally speaking, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
Detmer keeps questioning whether he could have used more restraint and Tellis insisting she doesn't know what she's talking about. He insists "If you want to talk I'll talk, I have no problem with that, but if this becomes some half ass ambush and you're putting me under the lamp, I will walk. Now." The committee goes quiet and Tellis is asked if he's familiar with "The Michael Calvess case" Tellis says that he is. They reveal that Calvess was a cop who was murdered and they've been investigating for over sixty days without turning up any evidence or suspects, although they're still determined to solve it. The committee feels that due to his quick dismissal from the force after the discussed incident, his drug element contacts may still be intact. They offer him reinstatement as a homicide detective if he agrees to help with the case. Tellis immediately says "No." and walks out while they're talking. He's followed out by Captain Cheevers (Chi McBride) who apologizes for them putting him on the spot and asks him to look through some files. We see Nick at home with his wife Audrey (Krista Bridges) and baby son. Resting on the couch he fills her in on the meeting. He remarks "They expect you to come in with this glad to be here bullshit, head hung low, hat in hand." She asks why he bothered going and he says "They asked." Audrey isn't pleased at at the thought of him looking through files, suspected he'll only get more involved. He mentions that welfare isn't working well enough and she suggests he do something else for work.Tellis goes in and starts scanning files, visualizing how the the murder could have happened. He then asks for Calvess' personal affects, finding pictures from his daughter, awards, an unopened Christmas present, and photos of Calvess with his family. He finds the name "Henry Oak" on most of the relevant and helpful reports. He asks Captain Cheevers about Oak, and Cheevers explains that Henry Oak is restricted from working on the case, because he and Calvess were too close. Cheevers explains that it was Oak that found the body and says "He's swinging a big stick. He makes solid collars that make solid cases. But, between you and me...He's not stable. He's all of that shit a cop just cannot be. Not right now. Not in this city. Not in this department.We're talking about a marked name." We see Henry Oak (Ray Liotta) in the police station, putting a billiard ball into a sock and watching as a convict is escorted out. He approaches the convict and swings the sock into his face, knocking him down and then continuing to beat him with it. The other officers attempt to calm him down (from a safe distance.) Oak screams at the convict "I swear to fucking God, if I get another call you're beating on your wife and kids, you're fucking dead!" His fellow officers pull him back, but he shakes them off and says "Get this piece of shit out of here!" Tellis points out that Oak is likely not listening to the department's ban on him investigating. Cheevers cautions Tellis from putting too much on Oak, figuring that IAD could bring an indictment against him at any time.Tellis suggests that he hold off IAD by requiring Oak's involvement in the case. Cheevers tells him that's only possible if he's involved as well to provide some supervision. Tellis claims he isn't interested in active assignment but needs a paycheck. He tells Cheever he doesn't want to work the streets though and needs a desk job. Cheevers says "Fine. Get me a conviction, I'll get you a desk." Tellis and Oak meet at the police shooting range, then go have coffee. Oak tells Tellis he must be "someone special" to get him reassigned to the case. Tellis downplays it, claiming it was mostly Oak's own work. Oak is up front with his suspicions, asking Tellis if he's working with internal affairs, pointing out that getting dirt on him might get him back into favor with the department.
Oak: You weren't approached or asked in any way to keep tabs on me for IA?
Tellis: No, I was not. Hey, I don't blame you for asking. You don't do what I did and just waltz back in.
Oak: Now what does that tell you?
Tellis: That tells me that this investigation is running on fucking fumes.
Oak: Don't get confused thinking that this is about Calvess.
Tellis: I know it's not.
Oak: This is all politics. This is political appointments, it's referendums, it's squashing a race riot. You think those assholes upstairs give a shit and shake about Michael Calvess? They didn't know him. They don't care about him and they can't forget about him fast enough. The only thing you need to know about me is that I'm going to bag the motherfuckers that killed Mike. If that means breaking every point of procedure, then they're broke. It's because his life is worth a little bit more than a wreath and a rifle salute.Tellis goes home and finds his wife in bed already. She refuses to give him a kiss or talk to him initially. The screen splits and we see Oak questioning people about Jimmy Fredericks (Mike Calvess' street name.) Tellis joins in as well and we see Oaks and Tellis each questioning people on their own. The screen splits into four to show all their activity, and then back to two and one, bringing Oaks and Tellis back together on the job responding to a scene where where other officers responded to a junkie trying to light his girlfriend on fire, and heard him mention Jimmy Fredericks. The junkie claims he used to snitch for Fredericks and will talk to them for a reduced sentence. Tellis and Oak confront the junkie, Octavio (John Ortiz) who claims he tried to burn her for giving him a venereal disease that left him black and blue and unable to wear pants. Despite the fact that they're cops, Octavio asks them if he can take a "quick hit." They look away while he lights up. He tells them he say Fredericks fighting with a Leo Lee. Tellis knows who Leo is. Octavio remembers that Fredericks/Calvess had a bad temper and after fighting, spit on Leo. Oak asks Tellis about Leo Lee, or Leonard Leflore, as Calvess' files never mentioned him. Tellis calls him a nickel bagger into drugs and guns, but figures he has outstanding warrants out on him. Tellis and Oak stage a raid of Leo's place, but only find a badly decomposed corpse in the bathtub. The coroner tells them he's been dead two-three weeks. Tellis finds a gun in the tub with the body and is surprised that the weapon is "tactical issue, Metro PD" and used by the SWAT team. Oak concludes that the man killed himself with it, but Tellis doesn't think so, realizing the gun didn't have a mark from the firing pin. Knowing Leo, Tellis imagines that Leo dropped and broke his pipe and rather than get out of the water, tried to smoke from the gun forgetting there was a bullet in the chamber, and lighting it up, blew his head off. Tellis is bothered by the gun, figuring Leo had to have known a cop.Tellis gets home earlier and fights with Audrey. He acts as if everything is normal but she reminds him what they had to go through when he was undercover. He claims "It's two weeks work." but she doesn't accept that. She can't understand why he'd return to it, but Tellis asks her what if it had been him that was killed.Back at the station Oaks tells Tellis he was right about the gun and it had been a department gun, and that they'd found a set of prints on it from a gang member, Latroy Steeds, who was just released from prison a week ago. Investigating Latroy, they find he hasn't checked in with his parole officer at all. Tellis and Oaks discuss family, Tellis explaining that he's been married a year and a half. Oaks says that he was married for almost sixteen years, and lost his wife to cancer. Tellis feels awkward, but Oaks says he doesn't mind talking about her, and if he wanted to avoid it he could take off his wedding ring. Oaks remembers how she used to comfort him when he started out working vice and calls lying his head in her lap and looking at her "the best place I've ever been." Oak says: "I'll tell you this much, I became a much better cop the day she died. And any half step, any hesitation I had about the job was gone. I see a dead bolted door, I break it down and be the first one in the room. I started working Joint Task Force, the head crack, hang wrecking crew. Zombie squad. It was a diversion. It was just a way to keep from thinking about her. I remember one night I went with the sheriffs on a warrant raid. This dipshit was selling meth out of his apartment. It was just a stop and pop, broke down the door, rousted the guy. I was in one of the back rooms looking for junk. An I hear something. I turn around and see these, these eyes staring at me from a closet. It was a little girl. A little ten year old girl. naked.shaking like a leaf, she was scared to death. Her stepfather was pimping her out for rent. Wrapped her in my coat, carried her out to the squad car. I went back and I beat that motherfucker half to death. I thought of my wife. I thought of the baby we never had, all the things about her that I hung on to. Because a little girl being brutalized, a little girl being abused has got nothing to do with the rules and regulations and everything to do with right and wrong. It's the same thing with Calvess. Tellis looks through Calvess' photos again and decides to visit Calvess' wife, Kathryn (Anne Openshaw) He returns Calvess' personal effects to her. He asks her if the undercover work affected their home life. She's hesitant to discuss this aspect of Calvess with him. She remembers that Oak gave her the news and he had tears in his eyes. While they're talking Henry comes by for a visit and the girls are happy to see him. Oak seems upset with Tellis being there and asks him to step outside. He screams at Tellis, not to talk to her without him being there. Tellis looks through Calvess' files again and in his recovered substances finds chemicals similair to those that the dealer from the beginning used to kill the bystander. He tells Oaks that the drug was called "burnback" and was basically drug tablescraps. He thinks they might have been trying to sell burnback to Calvess. Through another incident he finds a connection to Eugene Sheps (Bishop Brigante) Tellis talks with Eugene while Oaks looks through the cabinets. Tellis wants to know who sold him the burnback since the dealer he killed at the beginning is dead. When Eugene doesn't give them any information they start tearing up his place finding guns in the freezer. They find that Eugene also has a police shield. While they look at it Eugene pulls a gun and starts firing at them, shooting Tellis, while Oaks kills Eugene. Oaks calls it in and Tellis wakes up in the hospital. He overhears his wife talking to doctors who are concerned about his previous drug use. Tellis gets out quickly and he and Oaks meet with Captain Cheevers who informs them that they're closing the case and saying Eugene murdered Calvess. Oaks is mad as neither of them believe that Eugene was capable of it. The badge he had belonged to a Richard Dekolvie, who was stabbed to death three years ago. Tellis points out that Calvess' murder would have required two men much bigger than Eugene. Cheevers, however, says it's out of his hands. At home, Audrey tells Nick he has to stop now. She says she's seen him "like this" before, and although she was willing to go through it then she isn't now. He insists that it isn't done. Audrey says "What, you think catching 'em is going to make you less like them? Purified? Just like Calvess? You know what, that's bullshit Nick 'cause that's not what he was. That's not what you are. I love you. But with everything that I am, I'm still going to leave. 'cause I can't be with you like this." Nick doesn't respond.Tellis goes to work and finds some files left for him. Oaks interrupts him with information on the name that Eugene gave them, on Darnell "Big D." Love. Oaks points out that he was booked with both Latroy Steeds and Eugene and that they had all worked at Titan's Auto. The two two of them visit Titan's Auto with guns out, covering different floors once in the building. Oaks hears talking downstairs and fires before confronting them. Upstairs someone fires at Tellis with an automatic weapon and runs. Tellis chases him down and finds it's Darnell (Busta Rhymes) Oaks has a man, Latroy Steeds (Richard Chevolleau) cuffed already and he questions them both after cuffing them together. Oaks tells them if they don't help they'll leave in bags, but Darnell tells him they can't do that as it's illegal. Oaks and Tellis start searching the place, destroying cars and looking inside everything. Oaks shoots Darnell's personal car with his shotgun while Tellis checks another, finding a trunk full of weapons. Oaks takes a look and finds another police weapon which he says is Calvess' gun. When confronted, Darnell accuses Oaks of planting the gun. Tellis looks a little suspicious but doesn't say anything. Oaks narrates to them how they killed Calvess. When he tells them to remember Jimmy Fredericks, Darnell says "He was a fucking junkie man." sending Oaks into an outrage. Darnell says "Come on man, we sold to that motherfucker every day, three or four times a day." only angering Oaks more. He screams that Darnell is lying and that they found out he was undercover, tried to kill him with a bad score, and shot him when it didn't work. Darnell says that it was Calvess who gave them the cop guns, in trade for drugs. Oaks loses it and starts beating Darnell, screaming "He was a cop! He was a cop you killed! He had a fucking wife! He had kids!" He beats him savagely until Tellis pulls him away. Tellis proposes they take prints off the weapon and call it in but Oaks tells him not to call in as he wants to get confessions on tape first. He tells Oaks to grab the print kit while he goes upstairs to find more evidence. When Oaks leaves the room Tellis blocks the door and talks to the two cuffed men. Darnell remembers him from the past, but also knows that it was him that killed the "burnback" dealer. They tell him that Calvess had sold him out. He asks why Darnell had told Oaks that he already knew who killed Calvess. Darnell answers "That means that your fucking partner Oak is dirty, man. He's lying to you" explaining further that Oaks was in the tunnel. Darnell reveals that he knew Calvess by his real name, because he got strung out and blew his own cover. He supplied them with badges, ID's and guns and other cops identities when he didn't have money and kept them out of reports.Darnell recounts that Calvess had called him to the tunnel at 6 in the morning strung out and shaking with no money or anything to trade. Darnell told him to fuck off and Calvess threatened to arrest him and Oak showed up behind him in the distance. Calvess saw Oaks and reached for his gun trying to arrest them. Darnell and the other man hit him and knocked him down. They both ran as Oaks was approaching and Oaks started shooting, wounding one of them. Darnell overheard Calvess and Oaks arguing before Oaks killed Calvess. Tellis starts hitting Darnell not wanting to believe him. They point out that he had opened the trunk first and ask if he remembers seeing the gun before Oaks checked it out.Oaks finds the door blocked and pounds on it. Tellis unblocks the door and confronts Oaks outside. Oaks is angry that he spoke to them while he was outside, but Tellis insists on answers. He asks Oak if he learned that Calvess had blown his cover and was tailing him for that. Oak claims he wasn't tailing him, but Tellis asserts that he was there before Calvess died. Oaks claims he was helping Calvess with a bust and it went bad, but Tellis asks why he couldn't identify the men then. Oaks calls Tellis a washout, recounting his incident which cost the woman a baby. Tellis gets angry himself telling Oaks "Shut the fuck up! You're a fucking lie!" He shows Oaks a form from child welfare regarding Kathryn Tunney (Calvess wife) who was the girl in the closet from the story Oaks told him. Tellis had found a trail of Kathryn's drug offenses which Oaks had hidden using his influence. Tellis turns his back and says he's calling it in. Oaks pulls his shotgun and demands Tellis' gun and shield. When Tellis doesn't comply, Oaks hits him. On the ground Tellis, theorizes that he killed Calvess to keep him from breaking Kathryn's heart and says "he was a junkie, how long before he started pimping her out right?" Oaks kicks him again and tells him to go home while he goes inside to finish things up. Oaks goes inside and turns on a tape recorder, demanding that they confess to killing Calvess. When they don't cooperate he fires a few shots right next to their heads. He forces them to hold Calvess' gun. Tellis gets up and pulls a gun on Oaks telling him to stop, as it appears he's about to shoot Darnell. Tellis shoots Oaks and he drops. Tellis leans down and demands Oaks admit he was there to kill him. A very weakened Oak says "They ruined him. They made him that way. They made him a junkie. The department takes everything. The pension. Everything. The family gets nothing. Kathy gets nothing. "
Tellis insists "You tell me the truth. Do not fucking go." Oaks whispers to Tellis and we see the scene in flashback. Oaks sees Calvess with Darnell and his associate arguing and approaches them. Calvess pulls his gun and they hit him and run. Oaks runs toward Calvess who is shooting at the dealers. Oaks takes the gun from Calvess and tells him "I'm taking you out." telling him they need to get him help and reminding him what he's doing to his family. He tells Calvess that it's over and apologizes for taking so long to act. Calvess shoots himself and Oaks loses his composure telling Calvess he's sorry. Darnell drags his unconscious partner out of the warehouse while Tellis sits with a deceased Oaks. He looks at the tape recorder near them with a button depressed.
    

Narc

Rush


            The journey that August King takes is one of faith. He is conflicted with what the world tells him in the here and now and resists any idea that he is connected to the plight of this young woman. His journey is a metamorphosis. During this journey he changes and grows in his faith without ever realizing it -- at each turn he is making the critical decision to not only help someone, but to take a leap of faith -- a faith that his wife tried to persuade him exists but one in which he does not immediately believe. He is called upon by a higher power and sees this only at the moment he loses everything. The beauty of it is that he gains everything in the interim. This film is full of symbolism and Biblical references that integral to the plot and affords the viewer an opportunity to experience what it means to chose between right and wrong, good and evil in an almost alcoholic way -- day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. We cannot know in advance, what our mission is in life we can only make critical decision one at a time until the entire mission is revealed. Jason Patric's performance is excellent as well as a performance by Thandie Newton -- before she becomes well known through other films yet to come. As a person involved in the slavery film 12 Years a Slave, I must say that this film in many ways is just as riveting and important in the telling of American History and the nation in which we live past and present. There are some strong images but this film is well worth watching. Renee Moore, themoor78@yahoo.com
    

The Journey of August King


            
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Geronimo: An American Legend

After Dark, My Sweet


            Harry Donovan (Jason Patric) is a talented and enterprising painter who takes in large amounts of cash for his expert forgeries of old masters he produces for clients. Keeping a low profile he is disconnected with his own artistic capabilities and his drive to produce the fake work of old masters is in part an ignoring of his own inner purpose. His father (Rod Steiger), from the Ash Can school is aging and castigates Harry for not following his own artistic merits to follow through on his plan to have his own show with a respectable gallery. However, Harry is disappointed once again, and a gallery rejects to give an exhibition with his paintings. The father is sick with age, he also tried to become a painter, but is not famous. Harry meets up with a group of gallery owners lead by Alastair Davis (Thomas Lockyer) who is seeking an old master to sell for a high price. With Turley (Ian Richardson), Tom Agachi (Togo Igawa) and Iain (Simon Chandler) to raise the funding they go to Harry and offer him $500,000 for a forgery of a Rembrandt. During his research for a lost master Harry discovers a Rembrandt from 350 years ago when it was being transported from Rotterdam to Spain and begins recreating in specific detail the lost painting down to using materials that have been out of use for centuries. During his activities in Paris, Harry meets a young and endearing woman Prof. Marieke van den Broeck (Irène Jacob) who initially introduces herself as a student but in fact is a professor and an authority on Rembrandt. She and Harry are taken with each other and sleep together before Harry leaves for Amsterdam to fabricate his masterpiece. Harry -who told her that he was an art professor- wanted to see her again on another date, but she refuses and remains elusive. The clerk of the hostel where Marieke is staying sees them making love. Marieke also leave a not on her pillow saying "You've been wonderful."The process is tiresome: the pigments, the canvas, the frame... everything has to be perfect. After completing the canvas Harry brings it to Spain for Alastair and his retinue but the art dealers decline to pay Harry the money until they have established from art experts that the painting is real. The critics are attracted by being offered the information that it's a Díaz de la Peña painting which has just been found. Marieke is the most important critic, as she belongs to the board for Rembrandt authentifications, and she is the only one who says that she doesn't believe it's a true Rembrandt. It could have been done by one of his alumni. When Alastair decides to sell the painting at auction Harry disagrees and takes the painting with him. Obviously, the rest disagree with him, but Harry threatens them with Alistair's own gun. Although Harry fires the gun, he doesn't kill anyone. However, when the police go after him, he is accused of killing Agachi. He kidnaps Marieke, who is outraged because Harry has lied to her. As a pursuit ensues across the French, and English borders Harry and Marieke handcuffed together learn many things about each other. Marieke is accused of being an accomplice of Harry, while Alastair tries to get his hands on the fake Rembrandt again. Marieke and Harry argue about what art is, the outrageous quantities of money paid for paintings of dead paintors who died in abject poverty. Harry can't sell his fake Rembrandt. The murder frightens everybody. Two thugs finally accept to pay 100,000 in cash, but they are just Alastair's men trying to get it for free. Harry fights one of them. When Harry gets in touch with one of his contacts, the police is waiting there. Harry runs away, and throws the painting into a garden fire. However, the painting survives. Harry is judged. He says that he painted the fake Rembrandt, but nobody believes him. Only Marieke says that it's a fake. However, she's discredited in front of the jury because of her love/sex relationship with Harry. From gaol, Harry tries to contact his own father, who doesn't want Harry to worry about him. Harrys' father knew about his illegal business, but he never judged him, although he tried to encourage Harry to paint his own works. Alastair visits Harry on jail, and tells him harsh and cruelly that his father has died of a weak heart. Marieke tells Iain that he should be careful, as Alastair Davies may decide to get rid of him as he got rid of Tom Agachi. Eventually, Harry's barrister arranges the final proof: Harry will paint another copy in front of the jury. The judge accepts, although Harry finally is unable to do it - the eyes of his father - his inspiration for the blind eyes of Rembrandt's father - prevents him to go on living making cons. Everything is going bad for Harry. Iain is the last witness. He confesses that Alastair Davies killed Tom Agachi. Alastair goes frantic and threatens to kill him. The judge holds Alastair in contempt, and sends him to jail without bail until a new judgement is set. Iain keeps the painting. Harry is freed, but it's Iain who gets the fake Rembrandt. He sells it to a hotel chain in Hong Kong. However, Harry has not said his last word: he tells Juan del Campo (Ricardo Montez) that he's been cheated. The Spanish government considers the Rembrandt part of Spain's national patrimony, so they have the right to pay the money it was auctioned for and take it to Spain. Because of Juan's ownership, the money will go to him. His lawyer tells Iain this when he's celebrating the great success of selling the fake Rembrandt as a true painting, in his luxurious gallery. They can't do anything about it. The del Campo family wants to share with Harry Donovan some of his rightfully-theirs money. After taxes, there are 600 million pesetas for the family, and they give a part to Harry Donovan.He tries to locate Marieke. He also tries to paint his own materials. The first one is a portrait of Marieke. She finally arrives to look at the painting. Harry Donovan and Marieke kiss passionately.
    

Incognito


            Set in an unnamed Midwestern American city, two urban, middle-class couples deal with their unhappy relationships and shamelessly lie and cheat on one another in their selfish quest for happiness. Jerry (Ben Stiller), is a loathsome, flirtatious theater instructor whom is married to Terri (Catherine Keener), a writer whom is alienated and unfulfilled with his macho love-making skills. Jerry and Terri have dinner with Mary (Amy Brenneman), a writer friend of Terri's, and Barry (Aaron Eckhart) a sad-sack business executive whom is oblivious to his wife's unhappiness with him. During dinner, Mary talks about writing for a local newspaper column about bickering couples and the troubles they have, while Barry does not think that other couple problems are anyone else. After dinner, the lothario Jerry secretly makes a discreet pass at Mary whom he asks her out on a date. Marry, out of frustration in her unsatisfied life with Barry, accepts.The next day, Terri, after going to a local art gallery, meets and begins a secret romance with Cheri (Nastassia Kinski), a lesbian art gallery worker whom Terri feels satisfied with the lovemaking with her and of the quiet of it compared with Jerry's loud and macho performance.Meanwhile, Cary (Jason Patric) is a mutual and caddish doctor friend of Barry's whom is also a devious, sexual predator whom targets naïve and emotionally vulnerable young women whom he picks up, has sex with, and dumps just for the sole purpose to watch them cry. Aware of the distance between Barry and Mary, Cary persuades Barry to leave his wife to have his own swinging, non-monogamous lifestyle that Cary has built for himself. Barry thinks that his marriage can be saved.During Jerry and Mary's rendezvous at a local hotel, Jerry fails to get aroused during foreplay. As a result, he takes out his frustrations on Mary, believing that she has made him impotent. Angry and offended by Jerry's misogynist outburst, Mary abruptly ends their "affair." She feels more miserable a few days later, when Barry unwittingly takes her to the very same hotel room to rekindle their romance. Mary realizes that Jerry had told Barry about being in the room. Barry fails to understand Mary's unhappy attitude and thinks he might somehow be responsible for it.Jerry, Barry, and Cary get together to work out and, in the steam room, Barry tries to get them to reveal their best sexual experiences. Barry tells them that he only feels satisfied with himself. Cary then delivers a chilling monologue about his best sexual experience: partaking in a gang rape 20 years earlier in forcibly sodomizing a male high school classmate in the locker room at his boarding school. Both Barry and Jerry are stunned but fascinated by Cary's sordid and evil story. When Barry tries to persuade Jerry to reveal his best sexual experience, Jerry refuses. After being goaded in the locker room, Jerry angrily responds that his best sexual experience was with Barry's wife. He then leaves, with Barry too stunned to respond. Cary, also caught off-guard, says: "That beats my story."After returning home from the gym, Barry confronts Mary over dinner about her affair with Jerry just as Terri accidentally finds out about Jerry's indiscretion and eventually confronts him too while they are shopping at a local bookstore. Mary and Jerry are both unapologetic for their unfaithfulness and express dissatisfaction to both of their spouses. Terri accidentally reveals her own lesbian romance with Cheri, but does not display any guilt for her infidelity. Jerry confronts Cheri at the art gallery over his wife's affair with her. Cheri also shows no remorse or regret for her relationship with Terri, or with interfering with Jerry and Terri's troubled marriage. Cheri tells Jerry that Terri can do much better than being with him.Both of the couples split up. Terri moves in with Cheri, although she finds her emotional neediness irritating. Jerry continues his philandering lifestyle with his female theater students. Barry becomes miserable because he is no longer able to give himself an erection during masturbation. Mary is revealed to have moved in with Cary, who treats her as coldly as the other women in his life even though she is pregnant with his child. The film closes on Mary and Cary in bed, as Mary realizes that she is even more unhappy in her new relationship with the catty, heartless, misanthropic and misogynistic Cary than she had been with her clueless husband Barry.
    

Your Friends and Neighbors

Walker Payne


            The film begins in March 1836 in the Mexican State of Coahuila y Tejas town of San Antonio de Bexar (now Downtown San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas), site of the Alamo, where bodies of Texan defenders and Mexican attackers are strewn over the Alamo. The film then flashes back to a year earlier. Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) attends a party where he tries to persuade people to migrate to Texas. He meets with David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), recently defeated for reelection to Congress. Houston explains to Crockett that as an immigrant to Texas, Crockett will receive 640 acres of his own choosing. Crockett, with a grin, pointedly asks Houston whether this new republic is going to need a president.Meanwhile, in San Felipe, Texas, the Texas provisional government is meeting to discuss what action to take after the recent capture by the Texans of the Alamo and Bexar from Mexican forces at the first Battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Texas having rebelled against Mexico and its dictatorial president Santa Anna, who is personally leading an army to retake the Alamo, the Texan War Party calls for the Texas army to depart Bexar, cross into Mexico and confront Mexican forces at the town of Matamoros. The Opposition Party seeks to rebuild the Texan army and establish a permanent government to be recognized by other nations of the world. The provisional government votes out Sam Houston as commander of the Texas army. While having drinks with Jim Bowie later, the disgusted Houston tells Bowie to go to San Antonio and destroy the Alamo.William Barret Travis (Patrick Wilson) is also in San Felipe, reporting for duty. His character is quickly established as a man who seeks respect as a uniformed military officer, a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army. Interlaced scenes show him granting his wife a divorce (for his adultery, abandonment, and "barbarous treatment"), and seeking to begin a new life in Texas. The Texas provisional government orders him to take command of the Alamo. There he meets Col. James Neill (Brandon Smith), who informs him that Travis will be in command of the Texas Army regulars while Neill is away on leave. Travis is alarmed that the Alamo's small force cannot withstand the Mexican Army which is rumored to have thousands of foot soldiers, plus the formidable Mexican cavalry. Again he sends a rider to deliver his plea for reinforcements. As small groups of Texans arrive, Travis oversees defense preparations, hoping that enough reinforcements will arrive before the inevitable attack.Crockett arrives in San Antonio, where he tells a crowd, "I told them folks you'all can go to hell, I'm going to Texas'". He is told that the other defenders are impatient for Santa Anna to arrive now that Crockett is on hand to fight alongside them to which a puzzled Crockett replies, "I understood the fighting was over... Ain't it?"Santa Anna (Emilio Echevarría) soon arrives in San Antonio, much to the surprise of the Texan fighters, who were not expecting the Mexican Army to arrive until late March or early April. The Texans retire to the Alamo compound despite its vulnerability, and begin fortifying it as best they can. Amid the chaos Travis writes letters asking for reinforcements. Only a couple dozen men arrive to join them.Santa Anna's army surrounds the Alamo compound and the siege begins. Bowie leaves the Alamo to meet with Mexican General Manuel Castrillón (Castulo Guerra) to talk things over before matters get out of hand; however, an incensed Travis fires the 18-pound cannon on the south-west wall, thus cutting short Bowie's impromptu attempt at diplomacy. This virtually ends the chance to forestall the Mexican attack and Bowie returns to tell Travis that Santa Anna has offered surrender at discretion. Travis offers all within the Alamo an opportunity to leave. Almost to a man the defenders decide to stay and fight to the end. At least one woman remains, Mrs. Susanna Dickinson (Laura Clifton), whose husband, Lt. Almeron Dickinson (Stephen Bruton), has decided to stay. Bowie becomes debilitating ill and is bedridden in one of the buildings. For the next several nights the Mexican Army band serenades the Texans with the "Degüello" (slit throat), followed by an artillery bombardment of the surrounded compound. Convinced that the Texans will not leave the Alamo, Santa Anna orders a blood-red signal flag to be raised, the sign for "no quarter". The flag is visible also to the Alamo's defenders, who know its meaning.On the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, Crockett, having stayed awake through the night, checks the walls and notices the approaching Mexican army. The Texans are awakened by his first shot and begin rushing to their posts. The Texans also hear the battle cry of the Mexican soldiers: "Viva Santa Anna!" After a long, brutal battle the Mexicans, despite taking heavy casualties, breach the north wall of the mission where Travis is killed, shot in the head by a young Mexican soldier. A small group of Mexican engineers, armed with axes and crowbars, assault and break down the boarded-up doors and windows of the west wall, while another small group storms the southwest wall. The few surviving Texans fall back to the buildings, where they are all killed. Attackers discover the bedridden Bowie in his room, where he fires his pistols and attempts to fight with his knife, but is swiftly bayoneted to death. Crockett and the last four defenders retreat into the church where they fight their last stand. The Mexican soldiers use the captured Texan cannons to blow down the front gate to the church and storm in. Crockett is taken prisoner. In a final act of defiance, he mockingly offers to lead Santa Anna and the Mexican Army to Sam Houston in order to ensure the farmers' safety; Santa Anna thereupon angrily orders Crockett to be executed and he is bayoneted to death.Days later, after hearing that the Alamo has been taken, Houston, once again in command of the remnants of the Texan army, orders a general retreat eastward. His army and the families of most of the soldiers flee. They are pursued by the victorious Mexican Army, led by the confident Santa Anna. (Historians call this near-panic flight the "Runaway Scrape".) However, against the advice of his officers, Santa Anna decides to split his army in an attempt to catch the retreating Texans, leaving only a few hundred men to defend him. A few weeks later, Houston halts his retreat near the San Jacinto River (east of the future site of the City of Houston), where he decides to face the Mexicans in a final stand.On the afternoon of April 21, 1836, with the support of two cannons and a small group of mounted "Tejanos"), Houston surprises Santa Anna's army during its afternoon siesta. During the ensuing short rout (called by the victors the Battle of San Jacinto), the vengeful Texans massacre at least seven hundred Mexican soldiers and capture General Santa Anna, whose identity is given away when Mexican prisoners respond to his presence by reverently rising to their feet. Santa Anna surrenders to the wounded Houston, and in exchange for his life agrees to order all Mexican troops to withdraw from Texas and to accept Texan independence, despite the Texans wanting to hang him as revenge for the Alamo. The last scene in the movie shows the spirit of Crockett playing his fiddle on the top of the Alamo and then looking out on the horizon.
    

Jason Patric

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