No one would take on his case... until one man was willing to take on the system.

Starring: Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jason Robarbs, Mary Steenburgen, Antonio Banderas, Joanne Woodward

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #27 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of Philadelphia

"Every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens." - Andrew Beckett

Why watch this? ... are all men created equal? Apparently not all men.

Plot Summary: An ambitious lawyer Andrew Beckett is fired from his prestigious law firm after his HIV-positive status and homosexuality are discovered, prompting him to sue for wrongful termination. He hires Joe Miller, a homophobic personal injury lawyer, as his only willing advocate, and together they fight his former employers in a landmark discrimination case that challenges prejudice and reveals uncomfortable truths.

Clinica Estetico Prod.; TriStar Pictures

Blame it on the moon.

Starring: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Julie Bovasso, John Mahoney

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"When you love them they drive you crazy because they know they can." - Rose

Why watch this? There is genius in stories about the most unlikeliest of romances.

Plot Summary: Loretta Castorini, a widowed Italian-American bookkeeper, accepts a marriage proposal from her well-meaning but unremarkable boyfriend. However, before the wedding, her fiancé asks her to reconcile with his estranged younger brother. This task leads Loretta to a passionate and unexpected encounter that challenges her ideas about love and commitment, while also revealing the tangled romances within her family.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Star Partners II Ltd.;
MGM/UA Communications Co.

All his life, Ray Kinsella was searching for his dreams. Then one day, his dreams came looking for him.

Starring: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster, Gaby Hoffman, Timothy Busfield

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom." - Terence Mann

Why watch this? It's both so American... and so magical.

Plot Summary: Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he hears in his cornfield to build a baseball diamond. Despite skepticism and financial hardship, he pursues this vision with the support of his wife. His journey leads him to encounter figures from the past and present, all linked by their dreams and the game of baseball.

 Gordon Company; Universal Pictures

A celebration of youth, friendship, and the everlasting magic of the movies.

Starring: Phillippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano, Antonella Attili, Enzo Cannavale

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a young squirt." - Alfredo

Why watch this? This single film, more than any other, explains why I love movies.

Plot Summary: This story follows Salvatore, a celebrated film director, who returns to his Sicilian hometown for the funeral of his childhood mentor and friend, Alfredo. The film is told through a flashbacks, reflecting on Salvatore's youth and his bond with Alfredo, the projectionist at the local cinema. Through their shared love for movies and the lessons Alfredo imparts, Salvatore finds guidance and inspiration that shapes his path to becoming a filmmaker.

Les Films Ariane, RAI, TF1, Cristaldi Film,
Forum Picture; Titanus, Ariane Dist.

"I am not an animal! I am a human being! I...am...a man!"

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Freddie Jones, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"If only I could find her, so she could see me with such lovely friends here now; perhaps she could love me as I am. I've tried so hard to be good." John Merrick, speaking of his mother

Why watch this? ... to see that certain humans can be as good as others are cruel.

Plot Summary: This drama follows a severely deformed man, John Merrick, who lives as a sideshow attraction in Victorian London. A compassionate surgeon, Dr. Frederick Treves, takes Merrick under his care at a London Hospital. There, John slowly reveals his intelligence, sensitivity, and desire for acceptance as a human being. The film explores themes of dignity and societal attitudes towards disability through Merrick's journey to find a place in society beyond being a curiosity.

Brooksfilms; Paramount Pictures

The story of a woman fighting for her children, for her land, for the greatest dream there is... the future.

Starring: Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, John Malkovich, Danny Glover

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"You took a no-account piece of land and a bunch of people that didn't know what they were doin' and you farmed that land better than anybody could - colored or white. You're the one that brought in the first bale of cotton this year. Don't you ever forget that." - Edna Spalding

Why watch this? ... two reasons, 1) it's about Texas country folk, and 2) Mom loved it.

Plot Summary: In Depression-era Texas, a newly widowed woman, Edna Spalding, struggles to save her family's farm from foreclosure. Facing immense hardship, she takes the advice of a Black handyman, Moze, and decides to plant cotton, a crop she knows nothing about. To make ends meet and keep her children, Edna also reluctantly takes in a blind boarder, Mr. Will.

Delphi II Productions; Tri-Star Pictures

The Joads step right out of the pages of the novel that has shocked millions!

Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin, Dorris Bowdon, Russell Simpson, John Qualen, Grant Mitchell, Ward Bond

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #28 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Grapes of Wrath

"If I was to pray, I'd pray for folks that's alive and don't know which way to turn." - Jim "Preacher" Casy

Why watch this? The Great Depression left a deep scar on an entire American generation.

Plot Summary: This deeply American story follows the Joad family, Oklahoma sharecroppers who lose their farm to foreclosure during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Led by newly paroled son Tom, they embark on a difficult journey to California, lured by the promise of work and a better life. However, upon arrival, they face immense hardship, poverty, exploitation, and social injustice alongside thousands of other migrant workers seeking the same elusive dream.

Darryl F. Zanuck, Nunnally Johnson;
20th Century Fox

He was their inspiration. He made their lives extraordinary.

Starring: Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Josh Charles, Kurtwood Smith, George Martin

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world." – John Keating

Why watch this? It shows the wonder found in new, controversial ideas; and the lengths some people will go to suppress them.

Plot Summary: At a strict all-boys preparatory school in 1959, an unconventional English teacher uses poetry to inspire his students to embrace individuality and challenge societal expectations. He encourages them to "seize the day" and pursue their passions, leading to both inspiring self-discovery and direct confrontation with school officials used to doing things more conservatively.

Touchstone Pics, Silver Screen Partners IV;
Buena Vista Pictures Distributing

They had a date with fate in Casablanca!

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust." - Ugarte

Why watch this? This is film noir's holy grail. It has all the classic elements.

Plot Summary: Rick Blaine is an expatriate running a seedy bar in Casablanca. In walks Ilsa Lund, an old love, who is now married to Victor Laszlo, a secret Czech resistance leader trying to escape the city. The love triangle heats up as Ilsa clearly still has feelings for Rick. However, World War II is also heating up, and although Rick claims to be neutral, he certainly has no love for the Germans.

Hal B. Wallis; Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.

The Most Honored Picture In History!

Starring: Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #23 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Best Years of our Lives

"I was burned. When I came to, I was on a cruiser. My hands were off. After that, I had it easy..." - Petty Officer 2C Homer Parish

Why watch this? Civilians need to see this to better understand our armed service veterans.

Plot Summary: Set in the aftermath of World War II, this story follows three servicemen returning to their small Midwestern town. Each man faces unique challenges readjusting to civilian life, including joblessness, changing family dynamics, and physical disability. The ex-servicemen must face the emotional and practical difficulties of transitioning back into society and navigate their new realities.

Samuel Goldwyn Prod.; RKO Radio Pictures

It's his most nerve-stretching thriller!

Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Joan Chandler, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Kenneth Lawrence, Edith Evanson

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 100 #94 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of Rope

"I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create." - Brandon Shaw

Why watch this? This is my favorite Hitchcock film. It's lean and twisted.

Plot Summary: Two intellectual young men, Brandon and Phillip, murder a former classmate as an act to prove their supposed superiority. They then host a dinner party, with the victim's body hidden in a chest within the same room, serving as a macabre challenge to mental acuity. As the evening unfolds, their former professor, Rupert, becomes increasingly suspicious at their odd behavior.

Transatlantic Pictures; Warner Bros.

Who will survive - in one of the greatest escape adventures ever!

Starring: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Jack Albertson, Pamela Sue Martin, Arthur O'Connell, Eric Shea, Leslie Nielsen, Fred Sadoff

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 100 #97 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Poseidon Adventure

"We're cut off from the rest of the world. They can't get to us. Maybe we can get to them. You've said enough, now get out of the way." -  Rev. Frank Scott

Why watch this? This is the great disaster film by which all others should be compared.

Plot Summary: A cruise ship is hit by a huge rogue wave and capsizes, still afloat, yet upside down. A small group of cruise passengers, led by a determined, plain-spoken preacher, work their way through the badly damaged ship, en route to the inverted hull, where (thanks to a very informed ten-year-old boy) the hull is only one inch thick. The dead and burnt litter their path, and we sense that not everyone will survive their perilous journey.

Irwin Allen, Kent Productions, Ltd.;
20th Century Fox

Two Great Stars Appear Together For the First Time!

Starring: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, Woody Strode, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact...print the legend." – Maxwell Scott

Why watch this? ... finally! Two classic film titans, Wayne and Stewart, together on screen!

Plot Summary: Senator Ransom Stoddard returns to the small frontier town of Shinbone for the funeral of an old friend Tom Doniphon. When asked by a newspaper reporter about his presence, Stoddard recounts the story of his arrival in the lawless territory as a young lawyer and his fateful confrontation with the notorious outlaw, Liberty Valance. Stoddard's tale delves into the complex relationship between himself, Tom, and the pursuit of law and order in the developing West.

John Ford Prod.; Paramount Pictures

Love Is A Force Of Nature

Starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid, Linda Cardellini

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"The bottom line is...we're around each other and...this thing grabs hold of us again...in the wrong place...in the wrong time...we're dead." - Ennis Del Mar

Why watch this? This is a love story, set in a place where folks don't tolerate anybody "different".

Plot Summary: In 1963, two out-of-work cowboys, Jack and Ennis, hire on working sheep in the Wyoming wilderness. Unexpectedly, the two become intimate, something they agree was a "one time deal". They return to their lives, both marrying and having kids. Over the next ten years, however, their forbidden relationship grows as they meet for annual fishing trips.

River Road Entertainment; Focus Features

The world will never be the same once you've seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump.

Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, Mykelti Williamson, Haley Joel Osment

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #14 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of Forrest Gump

"Stupid is as stupid does." - Forrest Gump

Why watch this? There is something to be said for seeing a story through the eyes of the unsophisticated.

Plot Summary: This epic story follows the incredible and often serendipitous life of a kind-hearted but slow-witted man from Alabama. He recounts his experiences, which intertwine with significant historical events and figures of the 20th century, to strangers at a bus stop. Throughout his extraordinary journey, his only constant desire is to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Jenny.

The Tisch Company; Paramount Pictures

Everything is in its proper place... Except the past.

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"A little advice about feelings kiddo; don't expect it always to tickle."-  Dr. Berger

Why watch this? It's an engrossing film about tragedy and its long-lasting affects.

Plot Summary: Set in an affluent Chicago suburb, we see a family grappling with the aftermath of a tragic boating accident that killed their eldest son. The surviving younger son, wracked with guilt and depression, attempts suicide and is subsequently hospitalized. The film explores the family's attempts to navigate their grief and strained relationships, particularly highlighting the mother's emotional distance.

Wildwood Enterprises, Inc; Paramount Pics

The list is life. The man was real. The story is true.

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagallie, Embeth Davidtz, Mark Ivanir, Beatrice Macola

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #25 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of Schindler's List

"They came with nothing. Nothing. And they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. Think about that. By this evening those six centuries are a rumor. They never happened. Today is history." – SS 2nd LT Amon Göth

Why watch this? ... to remember, and not let it happen again - EVER on this Earth.

Plot Summary: During World War II in German-occupied Poland, a German industrialist named Oskar Schindler arrives in Kraków seeking to make his fortune amidst the war's chaos. Initially driven by profit, he establishes a factory employing Jewish workers, seeing them as a source of cheap labor. As the Nazi regime intensifies its persecution of Jews, Schindler is confronted with the atrocities of the Holocaust and undergoes a profound moral transformation.

Amblin Entertainment; Universal Pictures

She was heralded as unsinkable...

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, David Warner

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"The press knows the size of Titanic, now I want them to marvel at her speed, too. We must give them something new to print. And the maiden voyage of Titanic must make headlines!" – I. Bruce Ismay

Why watch this? A truly epic telling of the greatest maritime disaster.

Plot Summary: A young, upper-class lady, Rose DeWitt Bukater, feels trapped by her engagement to a wealthy but controlling man, Cal. Aboard the luxurious RMS Titanic, she meets Jack Dawson, a free-spirited artist traveling in third class. Despite their stark class differences and Rose's engagement, they fall deeply in love. However, their romance unfolds against the backdrop of the ship's fateful maiden voyage and the impending disaster that will forever change their lives.

20th Century Fox, Lightstorm Ent.;
Paramount Pictures

A Tale of the Christ

Starring: Charlton Heston, Haya Harareet, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #15 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of Ben-Hur

"We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well, and live." - Quintus Arrius

Why watch this? It's epic scale is hard to comprehend in this CGI digital age.

Plot Summary: Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jewish prince in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, is falsely accused of an assassination attempt by his childhood friend, the ambitious Roman tribune Messala. After being sentenced to the galleys as a slave, Ben-Hur vows to seek vengeance for his family's destruction and his own unjust suffering. His quest for justice eventually leads him to a dramatic confrontation with Messala in a high-stakes chariot race.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Loew's Inc.

The most magnificent picture ever!

Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, Hattie McDaniel, Ona Munson

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill, as God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." - Scarlett O'Hara

Why watch this? ... the burning of Atlanta, which is a spectacle on screen to behold.

Plot Summary: It follows the life of Scarlett O'Hara, a spoiled, rich plantation debutante. Then the Civil War begins... As the South's eventual loss becomes evident, Atlanta is burned. In the aftermath, Scarlett finally returns to her devastated plantation home. With her father dead, she has a fight on her hands to keep it. Luckily, the noble scoundrel, Rhett Butler, gives her aid.
 

Dad's Preview: This is the great American story of the Old South.  As I have watched this film through the years, my affection for Scarlett has evolved. The film is about her and the many conflicts she endures. My Mom, though, only saw the handsome Clark Gable and all his confident charm. Many have called this a "racist" film - I disagree. Sure, it portrays a racist South, yet also gave us an admirable black character in Hattie McDaniel as the strong-willed servant Mammy. She was the first African American to win and Academy Award (for Best Supporting Actress).

Selznick International Pictures,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Loew's Inc.

An epic adventure and passionate romance unfold against the panorama of a frontier wilderness ravaged by war.

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig, Jodhi May, Steven Waddington, Wes Studi, Maurice Roëves

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #21 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Last of the Mohicans

"When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. Before he dies, Magua will put his children under the knife, so the Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever." - Magua

Why watch this? This classic American frontier story is a flawless work of art.

Plot Summary: During the French and Indian War in 1757, three trappers must escort a British colonel's daughters through the dangerous American wilderness to the safety of Fort William Henry. Their journey is complicated by the betrayal of a treacherous Huron guide, leading to an intense struggle for survival against hostile enemy forces. As the group battles through the rugged frontier landscape, the eldest daughter, Cora, and the Mohican scout, Hawkeye, form a profound connection amidst the escalating conflict.

Michael Mann, Hunt Lowry; 20th Century Fox