DV delight: movie madness for the living room: from Clark Gable and James Stewart to Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise, from merry old England to modern America, here are over 20 films worth watching

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), May, 2004 by Robert S. Rothenberg

Absence of Malice (117 minutes, $19.95) places journalists in a far less favorable light, showing the consequences that irresponsible reporting can have on the people whose lives are spread across the pages of a newspaper.

Reporter Sally Fields bites on a deliberate leak from a Justice Department agent out to bring down a Miami gang boss, and local businessman Paul Newman, his nephew, winds up accused of criminal activity in the resultant story. When a fragile Melinda Dillon provides an alibi for longtime friend Newman, who had accompanied her to an Atlanta abortion clinic on the date in question (the child was not Iris), the reporter runs that story as well, since it was not told to her "off the record," driving the woman to suicide. Newman then sets out to turn the tables on the government and the newspaper by using their own tactics, leading to a scathing condemnation of all concerned by a senior Justice Department figure played to the folksy hilt by Wilford Brimley. Newman was nominated for the 1982 best actor Oscar, losing to Henry Fonda ("On Golden Pond"), while Dillon was topped for best supporting actress by Maureen Stapleton ("Reds").

REBELS ON MOTORCYCLES

Easy Rider (95 minutes, $19.95) often is regarded as the movie that revolutionized Hollywood, with Time having cited it as "one of the 10 most important pictures of the decade." Others, including this critic, believe it is a self-indulgent drag trip by Peter Fonda (who also produced and co wrote the 1969 film), Dennis Hopper (who directed and co-wrote it), and friends. Looked at from the vantage point of more than three decades later, the movie is frequently incoherent; the dialogue sounds like it was being made up on the spot; and the acting is spotty in many cases. The reasons become readily apparent in the accompanying "Making of ..." documentary, "Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage," in which Fonda, Hopper, and others in the cast and crew readily admit--no, boast of--being stoned through most of the production. Nevertheless, there can be no denying the film's influence at the time and even over the years, and Jack Nicholson turns in a shrewd performance as the alcoholic lawyer who tags along with Captain America (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) on their ill-fated cross-country motorcycle trip, earning him a best supporting actor nomination, though he lost to Gig Young ("They Shoot Horses, Don't They?").

The Wild One (79 minutes, $19.95) has become considerably dated in the half-century since this 1953 release roared onto the screen. The motorcycle gang dialogue, laden with cliches of the period, sounds extremely lame today, and the acting is overboard in most cases. What saves the picture is what made it a smash hit in its day--the brooding performance by Marlon Brando as the leader of the Black Rebels, who ride into a small California town and proceed to trash and terrorize it. His sullen nihilism is best summed up by his response to the waitress who asks him what he's rebelling against. "What have you got?" is his character-establishing answer. What you've got in this cult classic is a peek back into what troubled America in the early 1950s, almost child's play in today's volatile times.