Bovie Movie

Vatel director Roland Joff? teams with screenwriters Larry Cohen and Joselh Tura to adapt an original story by Cohen concerning a fashion model (Elisha Cuthbert) and her chauffer who are kidnapped and held captive by a sadistic serial killer. Jennifer Tree (Cuthbert) is America’s Sweetheart; a top fashion model and ubiquitous cover girl who is adored by millions, Jennifer possesses all of the wealth and power that comes with being a natural, world class beauty. Every girl wants to be Jennifer, and every man wants to have her - one more than all others combined. That man has been lying in wait for precisely the right moment to strike, and when Jennifer makes the fateful mistake of stepping out on her own at a Soho charity event he finally sees the opportunity to take possession of his most prized object. Drugged, taken, and placed in a cell where she is forced to endure unspeakable mental and physical torture, Jennifer struggles against her twisted tormentor with every ounce of courage and fight that she has - but will it be enough for her to endure should her captor continue to maintain the upper hand? A controversial film long before it ever went into wide release, Captivity caused quite a stir when graphic, unapproved ads for the film appeared on billboards and taxi cabs in New York and Los Angeles. Though representatives from Captivity’s releasing company After Dark Films claimed that the wrong materials were shipped to the printers and put up before they realized what had happened, public outcry was such that the MPAA saw fit to suspend the ratings process for the film. As a result, it quickly became apparent that Captivity would fail to procure an MPAA rating before its original target release date.

The Killing Fields is a romanticized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine story by New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg. Covering the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975, Schanberg (Sam Waterston) relies on his Cambodian friend and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) for inside information. Schanberg has an opportunity to rescue Dith Pran when the U.S. army evacuates all Cambodian citizens; instead, the reporter coerces his friend to remain behind to continue sending him news flashes. Although his family is helicoptered out of Saigon (a recreation of the famous TV news clip), Dith Pran stays with Schanberg on the ground. Racked with guilt, Schanberg does his best to arrange for Dith Pran’s escape, but the Cambodian is captured by the dreaded Khmer Rouge. Accepting his Pulitzer Prize on behalf of Dith Pran, Schanberg vows to do right by his friend and extricate him from Cambodia. The rest of the film details Dith Pran’s harrowing experiences at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and his attempt to escape on his own. The Killing Fields won Academy Awards for Hang S. Ngor (a Cambodian doctor who lived through many of the horrific events depicted herein), cinematographer Chris Menges, and editor Jim Clark; an Oscar nomination went to Roland Joffe, who made his directorial debut with this film. Spalding Gray, who played a small role in the film, later elaborated on this experiences in his one-man stage presentation Swimming to Cambodia.

Featuring a majestic score by Ennio Morricone and lush Oscar-winning cinematography by Chris Menges, Roland Joff?’s The Mission examines the events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, when Spain ceded part of South America to Portugal, and turns this episode into an allegory for the mid-’80s struggles of Latin America. Two European forces are on hand to win the South American natives over to imperialist ways. The plunderers want to extract riches and slaves from the New World. The missionaries, on the other hand, want to convert the Indians to Christianity and win over their souls. Mendoza (Robert De Niro) is an exploiter dabbling in the slave trade. But after he kills his brother Felipe (Aidan Quinn) in a fit of rage, he seeks redemption and calls upon the missionaries to assist him. After repeatedly climbing a cliff with a heavy weight as penance, Mendoza finds redemption and becomes a devout missionary at a settlement run by Gabriel (Jeremy Irons). The missionaries want to promote a new society in which the natives will live together in peace with the Spanish and the Portuguese. But this concept frightens the royal governors, who would rather enslave the natives than encourage peaceful coexistence between the Europeans and the Indians. They order the mission to be burned to the ground. But this event causes a rift between Gabriel, who wants to pray and pursue peaceful resistance, and Mendoza, who wants to take up arms and fight the Europeans.