Martin-Sheen Movie Reviews

After watching this great Columbo movie staring Vera Miles, now I fully understand why she was Alfred Hitchcock's first choice for the movie Vertigo, before Vera got pregnant and he choose Kim Novak. Need I say more.

In one word "STUNNING"! If you are a Vera Miles and Peter Falk fan this is a must, must, got-to-have movie. The story line of a stunningly beautiful head of a cosmetic corporation called "Beauty Mark, Inc., Vera Miles, is completely captivating in this role, YOU CANNOT TAKE YOU EYES OFF OF HER. Peter Falk's seeming busybody absentminded detective work coupled with Vera Miles cold, vain and greedy need the a anti-wrinkle creme for dollars and the 2 murders that surround the plot make for a extremely interesting night at home with your partner and popcorn. Buy it, you'll watch it over and over again. It's one of Columbo's very best.

Although many "Columbo" purists consider the Steven Spielberg-directed "Murder by the Book" to be the best of the shows, I find it hard not to place "Lovely But Lethal" about it.

This one shows the cut-throat world of women's cosmetics with a knock-out performance by Vera Miles as Viveca Scott, a reigning diva who will stop at nothing to maintain a dominant position in that industry. She is supported by a very young Martin Sheen as an employee whose greed - and his relationship with Miles's character - becomes his undoing. Sian Barbara Allen plays a secretary with bribery on her mind. And the late, great Vincent Price is on hand in a small part as David Lang, one of Scott's chief rival. The brief scenes between Price and Miles are show highlights because of their exchange of "pleasantries."

One cannot praise the others without mentioning the man who for over thirty years has brightened the small screen with his effective and entertaining portrayal as the rumpled detective: Peter Falk. He is the master of the befuddled look, the "Oh, by the way" questioning, and the resolution of the crime by some truly ingenious bit of deduction.

Yeah, Columbo is only as smart as the scriptwriters. But Falk is such a joy to watch! This episode really lets him shine!

Now, honestly, could anyone but Falk have played this character? I think not!

Yes, all the videos in this series are fantastic, but Ivan and his Magic Pony really stands out. I first owned this work of art on the now extinct CED video collection in the very early 80's. I was thrilled to finally find it on VHS.
The movie itself is just beautiful. The animation has a unique style that is very pleasing and calming. You can call Disney movies "classic" all you want, but these films from Russia truly deserve that title.
Ivan and his Magic Pony is about just that. Ivan and his two older brothers set out to the hay fields to catch whoever has been stealing their hay. The thief turns out to be a magic horse who grants 3 gifts to Ivan since the horse cannot shake him off. Ivan is granted 2 grand horses and 1 pony who can talk. Ivan sells the 2 horses to the Czar and is given the job of heading up the stables. Ivan then goes on a few fantastic adventures appointed by the Czar. I don't want to spoil the rest because you just have to see the film to truly appreciate it.
All the CGI and multi-million dollar animation in the world could never stand up to this movie or some other rare ones that have been lost through the passage of time, i.e. The Mouse and His Child.

Wow, this brings back memories. This movie is really remarkable, and has the feel of old folklore that Disney has yet to figure out. It is really different, and will thoroughly entertain anyone under the age of seven (maybe older). It's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't remember if the acting and script are cheesy, but I do remember that it was visually beautiful and fun to watch.

I am the mother of a 4yr. old and i am collecting the "Stories from my childhood" series, and each and every one is a work of art with wonderful, meaningful stories. A great option for parents who are tired of the average Disney fare and want truly wonderful classics for their children.

I am a seventh grade English teacher and every year my classes study a Veterans Day unit. This video teaches an aspect of the humanity of the American soldier that nothing else I can present teaches. This video is compellingly compassionate towards treatment of animals in general, and specifically towards each of the featured dogs and their handlers in Viet Nam. Many of my students weep during the viewing of the video and no matter how many times I show it, I am always moved to tears. This video is so well loved it "disappeared" this year and I am frantic to replace it. I simply cannot teach the Veterans Day unit again without the slant this video provides, demonstrating graphically the emotional toll the dog handlers paid and the homage they continue to pay, these many years later, to the dogs who accompanied them in the jungles of Viet Nam. This video is tremendously AWESOME.

After watching this program on the Discovery Channel I have to own a copy of this vidoe. Very moving video,I have watched many war documentaries but have never seen one that honored the War Dogs. I had no idea what an important roll Dogs played in saving many lives during the Vietnam War. Excellent, emotional piece of work.

After watching War Dogs, I snuggled with my 3 dogs and cried for hours for the brave K9's and their handlers. This was a very informative video, but it also captured the essence of why a handler and dog bond so well. Excellent work!

This obscure DVD, although not well know is one of the best movies made. It captures your attention, and then uses that to help you see what life is all about. For anyone who has ever had a dream, or has ever wanted more from his or her life, this movie will move you inside and give you hope. Martin Sheen does a terrific job at telling this captivating story. With little violence and no language it comes to you as an experience the whole family can enjoy.

Whether you're Christian or not, this is a really decent story. Low-budget movie, yes, but the stong stirring story is quite nice. A great movie to view at Christmas-time to help you get things back into perspective. I was thrilled that this was finally on DVD!

If you need to have a reality check about your bad attitude..watch this movie. Martin Sheen is fantastic!

Subtitled, "A Filmmaker's Apocalypse", this 1991 film is a documentary about the making of "Apocalypse Now", the 1979 film based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Set in Vietnam, it is the story of a captain, Martin Sheen, and his crew's mission to find and kill an insane colonel, Marlon Brando, who had created his own kingdom deep in the Jungle. On the way, everyone is touched with the evil around them. This summer I saw the re-edited version of the film and have been intrigued by it ever since. When I heard about this "Hearts of Darkness" I just HAD to see it.

The filming of Apocalypse Now was supposed to take just sixteen weeks at a budget of $13 million. It wound up costing more than $30 million, much of it put up by Francis Coppola himself, and took almost three years to get to the public. Coppola' wife Eleanor and their three children went along on location in the Philippines. She was interested in making a documentary and shot a lot of behind-the-scenes footage, even secretly recording private conversations she had with her husband about the film. The authenticity of the experience really comes through, as everyone involved with the production seemed to go a little bit insane.

Coppola had serious doubts throughout and we hear his words of despair as he thinks he's making a bad movie. We see the terrible typhoon that destroyed all the sets and realized that the helicopters that were being used for the shooting were actually property of the Philippine government who kept calling them away to fight a real disturbance that was going on just ten miles away. We see shots and scenes that never made it into the original film (although much of it eventually made it into the 2001 "Redux" version). We see and overweight Marlon Brando who insisted on being filmed in shadows. And we are right there to watch the filming of the scene in which Martin Sheehan has a mental breakdown. In order to do this he became bleary-eyed drunk, cut his thumb on a mirror and used the blood as part of the scene. The intensity is chilling and when, a short time afterward, he has a life-threatening heart attack at the age of 36, we're all there to see him as he is given first aid.

Now, years later, some of the actors are interviewed about their experiences. We learn that they did a lot of drugs during many of the scenes - acid, speed, marijuana, alcohol, which certainly added to the authenticity as well as the craziness of the whole production. Robert Duval talks about how his famous line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning was improvised. And the whole cast talks about how they improvised a massacre scene. Laurence Fishburne was only 14 when the film was made, a real coming-of-age experience for him. But this very stirring film portrait belongs to Francis Coppola. We get to meet him as a very imperfect human being doing his best to create an art form out of the script, changing it constantly as he went along, and eventually turning out a small masterpiece which went on to be nominated for eight academy awards.

I give this video my highest recommendation. It is a "must" for movie buffs. And an essential education for anyone involved in filmmaking itself. Don't miss it!

Shot by Francis Ford Coppolla's wife, Hearts of Darkness is an incredible, one hour fifty minute documentary that reveals the horrors of making the very popular Apocalypse Now. The film took forever to make, driving many of its participants to the brink of insanity, not just Coppolla, who was emotionally-unstable for much of the film. Viewers of this fascinating documentary will be amazed to learn that Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Willard, but was dropped after only two weeks of shooting. Though only 36 years-old, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming, an event that further postponed its debuts in theaters. There is some really great footage included here, especially the shooting of the opening sequence of the film which involves a very drunk Sheen lashing out as both his character and himself (at that point, Sheen was experiencing a lot of hostility towards Coppolla and had it out with him right then and there, an episode that would appear in the finished movie). Even if you didn't particularly care for Apocalypse Now, you will most likely find Hearts of Darkness interesting, nonetheless. It is a magnificent look at the troubles and triumphs of a film crew headed by a somewhat mad, but brilliant director. This shouldn't be missed.

The only known versions of this "essential" documentary are V-taped from the "Pay-Per-View" broadcast. ALL officially packaged VHS versions have long since disappeared from the video store shelves once it was discovered that this title was pulled "out" of release. Now my 1st reaction was that they were preparing to "bundle" "Hearts of Darkness" with a Special Edition release of "Apocalypse Now:Redux" and was thoroughly dumbfounded to find out otherwise.

That said I will take this oppurtunity to advocate that the ONLY other RIGHT way to release this "essential" documentary left would be as part of a 25th Anniversary ( "Apoc..Now" was 1979 release ) Special Edition Collector's Boxed Set of "Apocalypse Now".I say this because ALL afficianadoes of masterworks of filmcraft will agree that you just CAN NOT apprreciate "Apocalyspe Now" ( or Redux version for that matter ) WITHOUT the inclusion of "Hearts of Darkness" .

In essense, "Apocalypse Now" and "Hearts of Darkness" are ONE FILM and are to be experienced as such. I would also stress that suched a special Edition Boxed Set would be found slakcing "with extreme predjudice" if it didn't also include a "commentary" version from none other than AND inclusion of the ORIGINAL ending.
That amazingly surreal soundtrack intensifying the mysterious destruction of Kurtz's temple compound makes the full ending credits far more dramtically displayed by being displayed "in context" with the obliteration of the world of "Apocalypse Now"; an ending also portraying a rather telling , if subconcious, expression of Copolla's psyche at the time of "that" final cut.
The eerie set of events and the surreal convergences of professional lives on the line surrounding the making of "Apocalypse Now" is one of the great , even historic , filmmaking stories of the 20th century and I effortlessly rank it right up there with the story of the making of "Citizen Kane". Orson Wells' wunderkind stature in pulling off the "Citizen kane" masterwork humbles even Francis Ford Copolla ( which I'm quite sure HE would readily admit ). Copolla was cetainly in awe of that Wellsian masterpiece, as well as of Wells himself, when making his artistic masterpiece, but the parallels of BOTH of their artistic daring and "risking it all" to get their vision on film are striking and awesome nonetheless.
( Perhaps one day we'll see someone equally surreal, like some future Terry Gillaim, attempt making an even more Wagnerian-proportioned dramatization about the making of "Apocalypse Now" the way they made "RKO 281: The Battle Over Citizen Kane" ).
Anyway, the absolute importance that "Hearts of Darkness" serves toward understanding just what planet "Apocalypse Now' came from is inarguably cast in stone as "essential"!
I just wanted to bring in some salient points not yet presented here in making the case for DVD release of "Hearts of Darkness".
My job is done here.

One and a half million men were rejected for psychological reasons during WWII. Hundreds of thousands suffered combat fatigue during combat.(Depends whose counting.) A confused General slaps soldiers in a field hospital for breaking under the stress of war. (We all learn that it is only a matter of time before all would break.) The medical men say breaking is normal and Generals say it is an act of cowardice. All this sound and fury boils down to this...Private Slovick the only man to be killed by his country for being human and too honest.
Not one man in the firing squad that was made up of his buddies missed when they fired. Think you would have?

i'm an entusiast colector of world war II movies and i never see nothing like that before,i was a military at another country and another war{nicaragua}almost 25,000 of many young people die over there,there where many desertion too,but we never put nobody on front of fithing squad,i admire this private,because he prefer to die by his believe,than kill or be killed in action,in honor to the truth i think he was executed no by his desertion,but like he say by his criminal record,i do think ,the sistem was the one guilty because he recruit the man knowing his record.The problem is "the history don't make honor to desertors".

A must see (and read) for anyone interested in WWII or the conflict each dogface must have experienced on the front lines. It is amazing to me how out of 40,000 deserters, 49 of which were sentenced to death, only ONE was executed. Indeed, the only one since the Civil War. What was so "special" about Eddie Slovik? The movie follows true to the excellent book by William Bradford Huie and Martin Sheen's performance is a study in reserved pain. He doesn't shout with indignation when sentence is conferred upon him. Rather, he takes it "in stride" as just another bit of dumb luck he has experienced his whole life. Snatched from the only good thing his short life ever provided, his wife Antoinette, after being reassured he would not be drafted was a cruel joke played upon a guy who was made to suffer cruelties all his life. I am not going to sit in judgment on his decision to confess to desertion. Hey, my dad faught in that war, you just can't have everyone deciding they are not going to fight. My argument is with the system that drafted this guy in the first place and the system that made him unique in the execution of sentence. Was Eddie Slovik the worst case of desertion in the entire war? I highly recommend this film and book. The book is out of print but Amazon found me a copy and I just finished reading it. I wish the film was available on tape but it isn't. I saw the movie on the "Encore" channel about a month ago after first seeing it on TV in 1974. It hasn't lost a thing. If you get a chance to see it, please do so, you won't believe how moving this story is.

This film depicts substance abuse, domestic violence, co-dependancy in the family. Very powerful, very accurate.

"Shattered Spirits" is the best movie I've ever seen in a High School Health Class.

Martin Sheen stars as an alcholic father, while M.I.F. Hall-of-Famer Melinda Dillon desperately tries to hold the family together in the wake of dad's inebriated rampages.

The film is pretty good (if vaguely TV-movie-ish), particularly when Martin Sheen tells his son that he's going into a bar to meet a buddy, and comes out six hours later! Was the "buddy" named Jack Daniels?

However, I did resent watching the movie a bit--I sat next to the class cutie, and we'd struck up a nice little in-class friendship. So for three days, the lights were off and we weren't allowed to talk. Thanks a lot!

Even so, it definitely opened up an important discussion about alcoholism. I have a weakness for Newcastle Brown Ale, but I try to remember the lesson in moderation that Martin Sheen taught me.

This film was first shown on TV at the boomtime of recovery when Betty Ford was pushing for recovery for families affected by addiction. The story portrays a middleclass family hiding dad's (Sheen's) alcoholism and sliding down the slope of denial. The reactions of the family to crises and the roles they each fall into are so accurately done that the viewer can get way into his/her own alcoholic upbringing and pain before they are aware of it.
I have shown this at several gatherings and it never fails to shake some people up seriously. Kids are especially vulnerable in their teen years. But entire families can get very agitated during the viewing.
So I would recommend that anyone showing or viewing this film be prepared to deal with some extreme reactioons for several days afterwards. Don't just show this and send your guests home. Instead have a discussion and a followup trip to a meeting of Alateen, Al-Anon or AA.
BUT SHOW IT!

This film depicts substance abuse, domestic violence, co-dependancy in the family. Very powerful, very accurate.

"Shattered Spirits" is the best movie I've ever seen in a High School Health Class.

Martin Sheen stars as an alcholic father, while M.I.F. Hall-of-Famer Melinda Dillon desperately tries to hold the family together in the wake of dad's inebriated rampages.

The film is pretty good (if vaguely TV-movie-ish), particularly when Martin Sheen tells his son that he's going into a bar to meet a buddy, and comes out six hours later! Was the "buddy" named Jack Daniels?

However, I did resent watching the movie a bit--I sat next to the class cutie, and we'd struck up a nice little in-class friendship. So for three days, the lights were off and we weren't allowed to talk. Thanks a lot!

Even so, it definitely opened up an important discussion about alcoholism. I have a weakness for Newcastle Brown Ale, but I try to remember the lesson in moderation that Martin Sheen taught me.

This film was first shown on TV at the boomtime of recovery when Betty Ford was pushing for recovery for families affected by addiction. The story portrays a middleclass family hiding dad's (Sheen's) alcoholism and sliding down the slope of denial. The reactions of the family to crises and the roles they each fall into are so accurately done that the viewer can get way into his/her own alcoholic upbringing and pain before they are aware of it.
I have shown this at several gatherings and it never fails to shake some people up seriously. Kids are especially vulnerable in their teen years. But entire families can get very agitated during the viewing.
So I would recommend that anyone showing or viewing this film be prepared to deal with some extreme reactioons for several days afterwards. Don't just show this and send your guests home. Instead have a discussion and a followup trip to a meeting of Alateen, Al-Anon or AA.
BUT SHOW IT!

This film depicts substance abuse, domestic violence, co-dependancy in the family. Very powerful, very accurate.

"Shattered Spirits" is the best movie I've ever seen in a High School Health Class.

Martin Sheen stars as an alcholic father, while M.I.F. Hall-of-Famer Melinda Dillon desperately tries to hold the family together in the wake of dad's inebriated rampages.

The film is pretty good (if vaguely TV-movie-ish), particularly when Martin Sheen tells his son that he's going into a bar to meet a buddy, and comes out six hours later! Was the "buddy" named Jack Daniels?

However, I did resent watching the movie a bit--I sat next to the class cutie, and we'd struck up a nice little in-class friendship. So for three days, the lights were off and we weren't allowed to talk. Thanks a lot!

Even so, it definitely opened up an important discussion about alcoholism. I have a weakness for Newcastle Brown Ale, but I try to remember the lesson in moderation that Martin Sheen taught me.

This film was first shown on TV at the boomtime of recovery when Betty Ford was pushing for recovery for families affected by addiction. The story portrays a middleclass family hiding dad's (Sheen's) alcoholism and sliding down the slope of denial. The reactions of the family to crises and the roles they each fall into are so accurately done that the viewer can get way into his/her own alcoholic upbringing and pain before they are aware of it.
I have shown this at several gatherings and it never fails to shake some people up seriously. Kids are especially vulnerable in their teen years. But entire families can get very agitated during the viewing.
So I would recommend that anyone showing or viewing this film be prepared to deal with some extreme reactioons for several days afterwards. Don't just show this and send your guests home. Instead have a discussion and a followup trip to a meeting of Alateen, Al-Anon or AA.
BUT SHOW IT!

I was a teenager when this program originally aired on television, and I thought that William Shatner was merely playing the same old wildly emoting Captain Kirk that has made him the butt of so many jokes. After a recent second screening, I see that I was probably wrong. Shatner's prosecutor is a little over the top, but it's because his justifiable moral outrage at the defendant has caught him in a terrible trap, and forces him to ask questions that were almost unthinkable in 1865; namely, is it ever justifiable for an officer to refuse to follow orders which he judges are immoral?
The defendant, Wirz, as excellently played by Richard Basehart, is an immigrant from the European school of miltary theory, and he is by turns hateful, confused at the sudden shift in the meaning of his duty, and pathetic (Wirz is still considered something of a hero in the local area outside the present-day National Cemetery near Andersonville). Jack Cassidy, as the defending attorney, is fully aware of the prosecutor's dilemma, and seems to be taking great pleasure in pointing up the US Army's hypocracy in trying a man for following malicious orders, yet refusing to allow that he would have been militarily justified in refusing them. Cameron Mitchell is the presiding officer, Gen. Lew Wallace (of "Ben-Hur" fame), and portrays a man who is about to lose control of the proceedings through the unsettling forays of the Army's own prosecutor. I gave the film four stars because it is a little too long and drags a bit in some places. However, the depth of the story, and the exploration of the ethical problems dealt with in the courtroom, make it superior to a very similar movie, "Judgment at Nuremburg."

Basehart, like many other television stars, was unfortunate to be associated with a long-running program (four years on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"). A prolific and skilled actor, Basehart is a sympathetic figure as the commandant of the infamous Georgia prison. He is allowed to show depth that the 60's Irwin Allen show of which he is associated never allowed him.

The production also features two other actors playing against type in pivotal and revealing roles, Buddy Ebsen and the late Jack Cassidy. The two match Basehart in the acting department and do justice to the George C. Scott-directed presentation.

"The Andersonville Trial" ranks as one of the best productions ever shown on PBS.

"Andersonville Trial" is special in more ways than one.

First and foremost, it is a damn fine production, and a very powerful stage play captured on video. Second, the play has many famous names among the cast, some of whom appear in early roles (Martin Sheen, for one). William Shatner, of course, is oddly Kirk-like, but does very well as Lt. Colonel Chipman. Richard Basehart? Wonderful, and the ultimate professional, as always. Buddy Ebsen plays a doctor. Even Alan Hale Sr., who blazed a trail of adventure in many of Errol Flynn's films, is on hand (though in a non-speaking role). None other than George C. Scott directed the enterprise, and introduces the feature in a short segment.

Another thing that makes this production unique is that it harkens back to the best of PBS, before they started worrying about ratings, hype, and marketing. Shows like "I, Claudius" and "Masterpiece Theater", among others, made their way to the network about the same time, and "Sesame Street" had yet to become the moneygrubbing exercise it is now (Elmo, this means YOU!). This was back when PBS really lived up to the ideals of being a Public Broadcaster, and shows like "Andersonville Trial" were an offshoot of those ideals. Like other PBS shows, it was the BEST the arts offered at the time; a famous cast in a dramatic play, coming right into our living rooms.

On the tape, we even get to see the old PBS logo, with "PBS" spelled out in that funky 60's-70's type they used to use (with the orange letter "P"). That alone is worth the purchase price.

Hopefully a DVD will someday be released. Until then, if you can latch on to a copy of the tape, you should by all means do so. It is a dramatic telling of a famous war crimes trial, with superb acting and a moral message about war that will stay with you for some time to come.