The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 4, 2011

When recent naval graduate Keith is assigned to serve on the USS Caine, he’s greatly disappointed.  The Caine is the laughing stock of the fleet.  Rusty, dirty with laid back sailors, the Captain runs a sloppy, but functional ship.  When he retires, new Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) vows to get...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 3, 2011

Set during the Civil War, Dances with Wolves tells the story of a Union soldier, John Dunbar (Kevin Costner), who through his own suicide attempt aided the army to win a battle, and upon promotion, requested to be stationed at a post on the edge of the frontier.  Utterly alone...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 2, 2011

“As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” The way Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) tells it, being a gangster was the best life he could imagine.  Better than being president.  Like being a movie star with muscle.  It meant he was somebody in a...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 1, 2011

To call Francis Ford Coppola’s final installment of The Godfather trilogy a disappointment is a bit harsh, but it does not live up to the great expectations the previous two had exceeded.  It is still done better than most films of its time and deserves the numerous Oscar nominations. In...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 30, 2011

Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is a new doctor working in a ward full of comatose patients.  In his last job, he was content working alone with earthworms, here he seems uneasy and out of his element.  The ward is referred to as The Garden, meaning the vegetable like patients...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 29, 2011

Chances are, even if you have not seen Ghost, you know a few facts of the film just by the way it is presented in pop culture.  1. Patrick Swayze dies.  2. Demi Moore cries.  3. They get frisky with the clay.  Extra points if you can recognize Whoopi Goldberg’s...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 28, 2011

After requesting a transfer, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is stationed at an army base in Hawaii 1941.   There, Officer Dana Holmes (Philip Ober) hears of his boxing reputation and wants him to represent his unit.  Robert refuses and tries to hide his haunting past about his time   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 27, 2011

When Shane (Alan Ladd) rides onto the peaceful Starrett family’s ranch, he sees that the Rykers, the local ruffian cattlemen, are trying to push them off the land they have settled on and built up.  He stays to help the family around the ranch, grateful and respectful of their hospitality....   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 26, 2011

The Robe in an epic set in ancientRomein the time of Christ.  Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) is a Roman military tribune who is in charge of the men crucifying Jesus.  While he and other Romans are gambling and drinking behind the cross, a red robe worn by Jesus is wagered...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 25, 2011

Princess Anne (Audrey Hepburn) is on a tour of the European capitals, with the public reading about her every step.  Her days are fully scheduled with proper meetings and wholesome activities where she is always sheltered by her servants.  One night in Rome, after a slight emotional breakdown, a doc   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 25, 2011

I’m not the kind that takes to self promotion too much, but it has been a long year here at The Best Picture Project.  The Lammys are quickly approaching and I even made a little poster, like visual candy, in hopes of luring fellow LAMB members to vote for me....   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 24, 2011

Based on Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar tells the story of a group of Roman conspirators who plot to murder Caesar (Louis Calhern) before his ambition for power turns to tyranny.  Brutus (James Mason) unites them under this cause for the greater good ofRome, but truthfully, Cassius (John Gielgud)   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 23, 2011

C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) has found the quickest way to rise from a nobody-clerk to an executive in hisNew Yorkinsurance company.  He lets the other executives use his apartment as a safe place to take their mistresses.  Though Baxter is often waiting outside in the cold when a date is...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 22, 2011

In a small British mining town, Mrs. Morel (Wendy Hiller) has raised three sons with hopes of them finding a better lifestyle than a coal miner.  The middle son, Arthur (Sean Barrett) has followed his father to work in the mines.  Thee eldest son, William (William Lucas) has moved to...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 21, 2011

In John Wayne’s directorial debut, The Alamo showcases the historic pivotal battle in 1836 against Santa Anna’s troops in the war for Texas independence fromMexico.  As General Sam Houston (Richard Boone) is in need of as much time as possible to muster enough troops to defeat the Mexican army, he...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 20, 2011

Based from Jon Cleary’s novel, The Sundowners tells the story of a nomadic sheep droving family in the Australian outback.  Paddy (Robert Mitchum) enjoys this lifestyle of always being on the move and only needing enough money to get drunk and gamble.  His wife, Ida (Deborah Kerr) and teenage son,...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 19, 2011

Based on the 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry tells the story of a fast talking, womanizing traveling salesman who becomes the main preacher in a traveling revivalist church.  Both the novel and film were very controversial in their time.  In the twenties, the novel was banned in many...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 18, 2011

When you graduate college, it can feel people are expecting you to have the rest of your life figured out.  For Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), he’s dismayed and worried that he has no idea what to do with his life.  He comes from a well-to-do family, who throw him a...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 17, 2011

On a hot, sticky night inSpartaMississippi, a businessman from the North who planned to open a factory that will employ the black community is found dead in an alley.  The first thing the local police do is look for any suspicious characters at the pool hall and train station.  Officer...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on April 16, 2011

Sometimes I look at the tale of Bonnie andClydein an odd way.  It was the depression and they were in the middle of the boring, flat mid-west.  They were young, crazy and faced with the choices of sit around and rot in the dust or run off, have fun and...   read more