Browse Drama. Period Piece

List Price: $19.94
Price: $17.99
You Save: $1.95 (10%)

The Natural (Director's Cut)

Actors: Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey
ASIN : B000MNOX94
Sales Rank : 4065
Director : Barry Levinson
Brand : Team Marketing
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396184084
UPC : 043396184084
Release Date : December 03, 2007
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 144

Product Description

Nothing was going to stop Roy Hobbs from fulfilling his boyhood dream of baseball superstardom. Robert Redford stars in this inspiring fable that begins when 14-year-old Hobbs (Redford) fashions a powerful bat from a fallen oak tree. He soon impresses major league scouts with his ability, fixing his extraordinary talent in the mind of sportswriter Max Mercy (Robert Duvall), who eventually becomesinstrumental in Hobb's career. But a meeting with a mysterious woman shatters his dream. Years passand an older Hobbs reappears as a rookie from The New York Knights. Overcoming physical pain and defying those who have a stake in seeing the Knights lose, Hobbs, with his boyhood bat, has his chanceto lead the Knights to the pennant and to finally fulfill his dream.

Amazon.com essential video

From the sun-dappled heartland, a young man (Robert Redford, in soft lighting) emerges as maybe the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. On his way to the majors, he is cut down by an enigmatic black widow (Barbara Hershey) and vanishes for many years. When he reemerges, a silent mystery, he lands a spot with the New York team and begins tearing up the league--he's still the natural. Fans of the Bernard Malamud novel will be dismayed at the pure mythical hokum of this film, but baseball fanatics have been known to watch and rewatch this one; after all, it's constructed as a kind of shrine to the national pastime. Barry Levinson (Rain Man) directs the movie with an unabashed devotion to the game, although the film could use more of the realities of chewing tobacco and pine tar. Redford is fine, and Kim Basinger and Oscar-nominated Glenn Close are effective as the women in his life. The crowning touch is the soaring, extraordinary music by Randy Newman, the singer-songwriter turned orchestral composer. --Robert Horton

Amazon.com

Director Barry Levinson mentions in his video introduction the 1984 movie was rushed to theaters and this 2007 DVD is more the film he originally intended. This "director's cut" adds about 15 minutes of footage and deletes 5. It tightens the first third of the film, yet any fan of the lyrical prologue set in perfect synchronization with Randy Newman's score will be disappointed. Now the beginning is told in flashback as the elder Hobbs returns home. (It's also confusing to keep track of which Hobbs story you are watching when they are both on a train.) The changes do not improve the story or character; it simply packs in more information before Hobbs enters the Knight's dugout. After that, there are a few new scenes and many extensions, most involving Memo (Kim Basinger) and Red (Richard Farnsworth). None of the additions are exceptional. One could hope there is an Easter egg with the remastered original edition. What is on the second disc are above-average featurettes with interviews from most of the major talent. The best little ditties includes Newman's playful "lyrics" to his theme music and Levinson's divulgence that he is the radio play-by-play man. There's a good discussion on adapting (and changing) the novel, the allegorical myths, and the real-life inspirations including a heart-felt segment on Eddie Waitkus, a baseball player who was shot by an obsessed fan. A 5.1 Dolby soundtrack is now available and compliments an excellent video upgrade. --Doug Thomas

List Price: $12.98
Price: $9.49
You Save: $3.49 (27%)

Munich (Widescreen Edition)

Actors: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz
ASIN : B000F1IQN2
Sales Rank : 4522
Director : Steven Spielberg
Brand : Universal
Studio : Universal Studios
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0025192182327
UPC : 025192182327
Release Date : December 09, 2006
Publisher : Universal Studios
Manufacturer : Universal Studios
Label : Universal Studios
Running Time : 164

Product Description

During the 1972 olympic games in munich 11 israeli athletes are taken hostage & murdered by a palestinian terrorist group known as black september. In retaliation the israeli government recruits a group of mossad agents to track down & execute those responsible for the attack. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 02/05/2008 Starring: Eric Bana Ciaran Hinds Run time: 164 minutes Rating: R

Amazon.com

At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it’s built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner (Eric Bana) to lead a team of paid-off-the-book agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one (in reality, there were several teams). It’s physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team’s handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), over information Avner doesn’t want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, and the deeper moral questions of right and wrong come into play, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family’s safety may be in jeopardy.

By all rights, Munich should be an unqualified success--it has gripping subject matter relevant to current events; it was co-written by one of America’s greatest living playwrights (Tony Kushner, Angels in America) and an accomplished screenwriter (Eric Roth); it stars an appealing and likeable actor in Eric Bana; and it was helmed by Steven Spielberg, of all people. While it certainly is a great movie, it falls just short of the immense heights such talent should propel it to. This is due more to some questionable plot devices than anything else (such as the contrived use of a family of French informants to locate the terrorists). But while certain aspects ring hollow, the movie as a whole is a profound accomplishment, despite being only "inspired by true events," and not factually based on them. From the ferocious beginning to the unforgettable closing shot, Munich works on a visceral level while making a poignant plea for peace, and issuing an unmistakable warning about the destructive cycle of terror and revenge. As one of the characters intones, "There is no peace at the end of this." --Daniel Vancini

Price: $6.99

Silent Night / Peace on Earth

Actors: Linda Hamilton, Cassian Bopp, Michael Elkin, Al Goulem, Matthew Harbour
ASIN : B000JBXHBO
Sales Rank : 8183
Studio : Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0096009484996
UPC : 096009484996
Release Date : December 03, 2006
Publisher : Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Manufacturer : Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Availability : Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks
Label : Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Running Time : 86

Product Description

On Christmas Eve 1944, three American soldiers and three German soldiers confront the realities of war and discover the true meaning of courage, as well as the true spirit of a blessed night. Based on real events.

List Price: $19.98
Price: $14.99
You Save: $4.99 (25%)

Jane Eyre

Actors: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine
ASIN : B000MGBLHS
Sales Rank : 4155
Brand : TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Full Screen
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543425748
UPC : 024543425748
Release Date : December 24, 2007
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 96

Description

Jane Eyre secures a job as governess to the child (Margaret O'Brien) of the troubled Edward Rochester, sire of Thornfield, a mysterious English manor. When she hears strange cries and noises from a distant wing, her inquiries are rebuffed. As time goes on, Jane and her master fall in love and decide to marry. But their halted when a visitor suddenly reveals the shocking secret that Rochester has kept for years.

Amazon.com

Made two years after Citizen Kane, this 1943 version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre sure looks like star Orson Welles muscled his way behind the camera much of the time. (In fact, costar Joan Fontaine--who plays the title character--has maintained that Welles methodically did just that every day on the set.) Not that the film's official director was a hack: Robert Stevenson, who later had a busy career at Disney making numerous live-action hits for the studio, such as Mary Poppins, gets the credit. But there's no mistaking Welles's masterful hand in the film's bold and creative look, and there's no getting away from his enigmatic charisma as Rochester, the widower who takes in Jane as a governess to his daughter. An engrossing, gorgeous film, there's even a small role for Elizabeth Taylor at the beginning as Jane's unlucky, doomed friend at a cruel boarding school. --Tom Keogh

List Price: $19.98
Price: $13.99
You Save: $5.99 (30%)

A Very Long Engagement

Actors: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jodie Foster, Dominique Pinon, Chantal Neuwirth
ASIN : B0007Z0NYQ
Sales Rank : 8245
Director : Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790795591
ISBN : 0790795590
UPC : 085393897222
Release Date : December 12, 2005
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 133

Description

The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisien halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless, moving and sometimes comic search for her fiancC)e, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an allied trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes:With Director audio commentary
Documentaries:Paris in the 20'sThe Zepplin Explosion
Featurette:The Making of A Very Long Engagement
Theatrical Trailer

Amazon.com

Both epic and intimate, A Very Long Engagement reunites Audrey Tautou and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the star and director of the hugely popular Amelie. A young woman named Mathilde (Tautou, Happenstance)separated from her lover by World War I refuses to believe he's been killed and launches an investigation into his fate--an investigation that spins in all directions, creating dozens of miniature stories (including that of an Italian prostitute avenging the death of her own lover by elaborate means) that shift to and fro in time. The dazzling curlicues of narrative put brutality and tenderness back to back, shifting between crushing inevitabilities and miraculous rescues with deft storytelling skill and the lush visual style of the director of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children. Through it all, Tautou--fierce and luminous--anchors the movie effortlessly. She's among the most emotionally engaging actresses in cinema, with the kind of expressive beauty that transcends language. A gorgeous, far-reaching film; the huge cast also includes Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs), Gaspard Ulliel (Strayed), and Dominique Pinon (Alien: Resurrection). --Bret Fetzer

List Price: $14.98
Price: $10.49
You Save: $4.49 (30%)

Tristan and Isolde (Widescreen Edition)

Actors: James Franco, Sophia Myles, Rufus Sewell, David O'Hara, Mark Strong (II)
ASIN : B000EPFCPE
Sales Rank : 6378
Director : Kevin Reynolds
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543237297
UPC : 024543237297
Release Date : December 25, 2006
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 125

Description

From executive producer Ridley Scott (Gladiator) comes a sweeping, action-packed saga of epic battles, political intrigue and forbidden passion, set in a time when the lines between heroism and savagery were etched in fire and carved out with broadswords. After the fall of Rome, visionary warlord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite the squabbling English tribes to form one strong nationand defeat brutal Irish King Donnchadh. But when Lord Marke?s greatest and most loyal knight, Tristan (James Franco), falls in love with Isolde (Sophia Myles), a beautiful Irish woman, it threatens to destroy the fragile truce and ignite a war. In the spirit of Braveheart and A Knight?s Tale, TRISTAN+ ISOLDE is a rousing tale of trust and treachery that will leave you breathless!

Amazon.com

Luscious cinematography and even more luscious stars make Tristan & Isolde a feast for the eyes. Adapted from the medieval love story, the movie begins with with young Tristan (played as a child by Thomas Sangster, Love Actually) as he sees his parents killed by the tyrannical Irish, who ruled over a fractured Britain after the Roman occupation. Taken in by Marke (Rufus Sewell, Dark City), who rules one of the British tribes, Tristan (James Franco, Spider-Man) grows up to be a young prince and a mighty warrior--and when he's believed slain in battle, he's given a royal funeral, which sends him out sea in a burning boat. But the fire goes out and Tristan washes ashore on Ireland, where Isolde (Sophia Myles, Art School Confidential), the daughter of the Irish king, nurses him back to health. Being a lovely pair of young folk bursting with hormones, they fall madly in love... and set in motion a tragic tale that's lasted for centuries in many variations. Some reviewers have criticized Tristan & Isolde for deviating from the most common classical version, but the movie's storyline--though certainly altered to appeal to modern audiences--is fairly strong. Myles and especially Sewell turn in strong performances; Franco, however, though surprisingly persuasive as a warrior, never burns as a lover. Nonetheless, the loving shots of Franco's muscular physique will make this a must-have for his fans. --Bret Fetzer

List Price: $9.98
Price: $6.99
You Save: $2.99 (30%)

The Virgin Suicides

Actors: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Michael Paré
ASIN : B00003CXH1
Sales Rank : 3095
Director : Sofia Coppola
Brand : Paramount
Studio : Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780792166825
ISBN : 0792166825
UPC : 097363381747
Release Date : December 19, 2000
Publisher : Paramount
Manufacturer : Paramount
Label : Paramount
Running Time : 97

Product Description

The lives of an eclectic group of men who live in an affluent american suburb in the 70s are forever changed by their obsession with five doomed sisters. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/23/2005 Starring: Kirsten Dunst Hayden Christensen Run time: 97 minutes Rating: R Director: Sofia Coppola

Amazon.com

Previously criticized for her marginal acting skills, Sofia Coppola made her directorial debut with The Virgin Suicides and silenced her detractors. No amount of coaching from her director father (Francis Coppola) or husband (Spike Jonze) could have guaranteed a film this assured, and in adapting Jeffrey Eugenides's novel, Coppola demonstrates the sensitivity and emotional depth that this material demands. Surely the pain of youth and public criticism found its way into her directorial voice; in the story of four sisters who self-destruct under the steady erosion of their youthful ideals, one can clearly sense Coppola's intimate connection to the inner lives of her characters.

Played in a delicate minor key, the film is heartbreaking, mysterious, and soulfully funny, set in a Michigan suburb of the mid-1970s but timeless and universal to anyone who's been a teenager. The four surviving Lisbon sisters lost a sibling to suicide, and as its title suggests, the film will chart their mutual course to oblivion under the vigilance of repressive parents (Kathleen Turner and James Woods, perfectly cast). But The Virgin Suicides is more concerned with life in that precious interlude of adolescence, when the Lisbon girls are worshipped by the neighborhood boys, their notion of perfection epitomized by Lux (Kirsten Dunst) and her storybook love for high-school stud Trip (Josh Hartnett). Unfolding at the cusp of innocence and sexual awakening, and recalled as a memory, The Virgin Suicides is, ultimately, about the preservation of the Lisbon sisters by their own deaths--suspended in time, polished to perfection, and forever untainted by adulthood. --Jeff Shannon

List Price: $14.98
Price: $10.99
You Save: $3.99 (27%)

Dangerous Liaisons

Actors: Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, Keanu Reeves
ASIN : 6304696515
Sales Rank : 2856
Director : Stephen Frears
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9786304696514
ISBN : 6304696515
UPC : 085391187226
Release Date : December 29, 1997
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 119

Product Description

The biting satire about love and lust passion and deception includes directors commentary. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/03/2001 Starring: Glenn Close John Malkovich Run time: 120 minutes Rating: R Director: Stephen Frears

Amazon.com essential video

A sumptuously mounted and photographed celebration of artful wickedness, betrayal, and sexual intrigue among depraved 18th-century French aristocrats, Dangerous Liaisons (based on Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses) is seductively decadent fun. The villainous heroes are the Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich), who have cultivated their mutual cynicism into a highly developed and exquisitely mannered form of (in-)human expression. Former lovers, they now fancy themselves rather like demigods whose mutual desires have evolved beyond the crudeness of sex or emotion. They ritualistically act out their twisted affections by engaging in elaborate conspiracies to destroy the lives of their less calculating acquaintances, daring each other to ever-more-dastardly acts of manipulation and betrayal. Why? Just because they can; it's their perverted way of getting get their kicks in a dead-end, pre-Revolutionary culture. Among their voluptuous and virtuous prey are fair-haired angels played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman, who have never looked more ripe for ravishing. When the Vicomte finds himself beset by bewilderingly genuine emotions for one of his victims, the Marquise considers it the ultimate betrayal and plots her heartless revenge. Dangerous Liaisons is a high-mannered revel for the actors, who also include Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, and Keanu Reeves. --Jim Emerson

List Price: $19.98
Price: $13.99
You Save: $5.99 (30%)

Barry Lyndon

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff
ASIN : B000UJ48SQ
Sales Rank : 5536
Director : Stanley Kubrick
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0085391200178
UPC : 085391200178
Release Date : December 23, 2007
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 184

Description

Thackeray's tale of a roguishly charming 18th century Englishman, card shark and con-man whose good fortune and luck finally run out.

Amazon.com

In 1975 the world was at Stanley Kubrick's feet. His films Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, released in the previous dozen years, had provoked rapture and consternation--not merely in the film community, but in the culture at large. On the basis of that smashing hat trick, Kubrick was almost certainly the most famous film director of his generation, and absolutely the one most likely to rewire the collective mind of the movie audience. And what did this radical, at-least-20-years-ahead-of-his-time filmmaker give the world in 1975? A stately, three-hour costume drama based on an obscure Thackeray novel from 1844. A picaresque story about an Irish lad (Ryan O'Neal, then a major star) who climbs his way into high society, Barry Lyndon bewildered some critics (Pauline Kael called it "an ice-pack of a movie") and did only middling business with patient audiences. The film was clearly a technical advance, with its unique camerawork (incorporating the use of prototype Zeiss lenses capable of filming by actual candlelight) and sumptuous production design. But its hero is a distinctly underwhelming, even unsympathetic fellow, and Kubrick does not try to engage the audience's emotions in anything like the usual way.

Why, then, is Barry Lyndon a masterpiece? Because it uncannily captures the shape and rhythm of a human life in a way few other films have; because Kubrick's command of design and landscape is never decorative but always apiece with his hero's journey; and because every last detail counts. Even the film's chilly style is thawed by the warm narration of the great English actor Michael Hordern and the Irish songs of the Chieftains. Poor Barry's life doesn't matter much in the end, yet the care Kubrick brings to the telling of it is perhaps the director's most compassionate gesture toward that most peculiar species of animal called man. And the final, wry title card provides the perfect Kubrickian sendoff--a sentiment that is even more poignant since Kubrick's premature death. --Robert Horton

Browse Period Piece Online

The Natural (Director's Cut)

Product Description

Amazon.com essential video

Amazon.com

Munich (Widescreen Edition)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Silent Night / Peace on Earth

Product Description

Jane Eyre

Description

Amazon.com

A Very Long Engagement

Description

Amazon.com

Tristan and Isolde (Widescreen Edition)

Description

Amazon.com

The Virgin Suicides

Product Description

Amazon.com

Dangerous Liaisons

Product Description

Amazon.com essential video

My Family

Description

Barry Lyndon

Description

Amazon.com