A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and is a satirical science fiction film adaptation of the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, about Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic, psychopathic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and ultra-violence. He is the leader of a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian друг, “friend”, “buddy”). Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat, a fractured, contemporary adolescent argot comprising Slavic (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang.

This cinematic adaptation was co-written and produced by director Kubrick, it features disturbing, violent images, to facilitate social commentary about psychiatry, youth gangs, and other contemporary social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain. A Clockwork Orange features a soundtrack comprising mostly classical music selections and Moog synthesizer compositions by Wendy (then Walter) Carlos. A notable exception is “Singin’ in the Rain”, chosen because it was a song whose lyrics actor Malcolm McDowell knew.^[1] The now-iconic poster of A Clockwork Orange, and its images, was created by designer Bill Gold. It also holds the record in the Guinness World Records for being the first movie in media history for using the Dolby Sound system.

Awards and honours

• Academy Awards
  • nominated Best Director – Stanley Kubrick
  • nominated Best Film Editing – Bill Butler
  • nominated Best Picture
  • nominated Best Adapted Screenplay – Stanley Kubrick

• BAFTA Awards
  • BAFTA Film Award Best Art Direction – John Barry
  • Best Cinematography – John Alcott
  • Best Direction – Stanley Kubrick
  • Best Film
  • Best Film Editing – William Butler
  • Best Screenplay – Stanley Kubrick
  • Best Sound Track – Brian Blamey, John Jordan, Bill Rowe

• Directors Guild of America
  • 1972 Nominated DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures – Stanley Kubrick

• Golden Globes
  • 1972 Nominated Golden Globe Best Director: Motion Picture – Stanley Kubrick
  • Best Motion Picture – Drama
  • Best Motion Picture Actor: Drama – Malcolm McDowell

• Hugo Awards
  • 1972 Won Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation

• New York Film Critics Circle Awards
  • 1971 Won NYFCC Award Best Director – Stanley Kubrick
  • Best Film

• Writers Guild of America, USA
  • 1972 Nominated WGA Award (Screen) Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium – Stanley Kubrick

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies #46
• 2001 AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Thrills #21
• 2003 AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Alex DeLarge, villain #12
• 2007 AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #70
• 2008 AFI’s 10 Top 10 #4 Sci-Fi film

Resources

Complete Movie Script

IMDB Page

Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

Fight Club

Fight Club is a 1999 American feature film adaptation of the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk.

The film was directed by David Fincher and follows a nameless protagonist (Edward Norton), an everyman and an unreliable narrator who feels trapped with his white-collar position in society. The narrator gets involved in a fight club with soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and becomes tangled up in a relationship triangle with Durden and a destitute woman, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter).

Fight Club was considered one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. The film was perceived as the forerunner of a new mood in American political life. Like other 1999 films Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, and Three Kings, Fight Club was recognized as an innovator in cinematic form and style due to its exploitation of new developments in filmmaking technology.Following its initial release, Fight Club grew in popularity via word of mouth, and the positive reception of the DVD established it as a cult film that Newsweek conjectured would enjoy “perennial” fame.The success of the film also propelled the novel’s author Chuck Palahniuk to global renown.

Resources

Complete Movie Script

IMDB Page

Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men is a 1957 American drama film adapted from a play.

Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or innocence of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. The film is notable for its almost exclusive use of one set: with the exception of two short scenes at the beginning and the end of the film set on the steps of the court building and two short scenes in an adjoining washroom, the entire movie takes place in the jury room.

Apart from two of the jurors swapping names while leaving the courthouse, no names are used in the film: the defendant is referred to as “the boy” and the witnesses as the “old man” and “the lady across the street”.

In 2007, 12 Angry Men was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Resources

Complete Movie Script

IMDB Page

Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

Chinatown

Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir film, directed by Roman Polanski.

The film features many elements of the film noir genre, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama. It stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston.

The story, set in Los Angeles in the 1930s, was inspired by the historical disputes over land and water rights that had raged in southern California during the 1910s and 20s, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley.

In 1991, Chinatown was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

A sequel, called The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, starring Jack Nicholson, who also directed it, with a screenplay by Robert Towne.

Awards & Nominations

Academy Awards – 1974

The film won one Academy Award and was nominated in a further ten categories:^[5]

Wins

• Best Original Screenplay – Robert Towne

Nominations

• Best Picture – Robert Evans
• Best Director – Roman Polanski
• Best Actor – Jack Nicholson
• Best Actress – Faye Dunaway
• Best Film Editing – Sam O’Steen
• Best Art Direction – Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell, Ruby Levitt
• Best Costume Design – Anthea Sylbert
• Best Cinematography – John A. Alonzo
• Best Sound Mixing – Bud Grenzbach, Larry Jost
• Best Music Score – Jerry Goldsmith

Golden Globes – 1974

Wins:

• Best Motion Picture – Drama – Robert Evans
• Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama – Jack Nicholson
• Best Director – Roman Polanski
• Best Screenplay – Robert Towne

Nominations

• Best Actor In A Supporting Role – John Huston
• Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama – Faye Dunaway
• Best Original Score – Jerry Goldsmith

Other awards

• 1975 BAFTA, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Direction, Best Screenplay (male)
• 1975 Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay – Robert Towne
• 1991 National Film Registry

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies – #19
• 2001 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Thrills – #16
• 2003 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Noah Cross – Villain #16
• 2005 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes:
  • “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” – #74
• 2005 – AFI’s 100 Years of Film Scores – #9
• 2007 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #21
• 2008 – AFI’s 10 Top 10 – #2 mystery film

Resources

Complete Movie Script

IMDB Page

Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

Raging Bull

Raging Bull is an American 1980 biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story.

It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxer whose sadomasochistic rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite exceeded the boundaries of the prizefight ring, and destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta’s well intentioned brother and manager who tries to help Jake battle his inner demons, and Cathy Moriarty as his abused teen-aged wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent, who has starred in many films directed by Martin Scorsese.

After receiving mixed initial reviews, (and criticism due to its disturbing level of violence, and upsetting material) it went on to garner a high critical reputation and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, along with Scorsese and De Niro’s other famed collaboration from that era, Taxi Driver (1976). It is one of five films that has been named to the National Film Registry in its first year of eligibility, (along with Do the Right Thing, GoodFellas, Toy Story, and Fargo.)

Awards & Nominations
Academy Awards

• Nominated: Best Picture
• Nominated: Director
• Won: Actor (Robert De Niro)
• Nominated: Supporting Actress
• Nominated: Supporting Actor
• Nominated: Cinematography
• Nominated: Sound
• Won: Editing (Schoonmaker)

Resources
Complete Movie script

IMDB Page

Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

City of God

City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003.

It was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins which are both based on a true story. It depicts the growth of the organized crime in this Rio de Janeiro’s suburb, between the end of the ’60s and the beginning of the ’80s, with the closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Li’l Zé and criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is “Fight and you’ll never survive….. Run and you’ll never escape.”

The cast includes Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Jonathan Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Alice Braga and Seu Jorge. Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself.

Awards and nominations

According to the Internet Movie Database, City of God won forty-eight awards and received other twenty-one nominations. Among those:

Academy Awards

• Nominated: Best Director (Fernando Meirelles)
• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay (Braulio Mantovani)
• Nominated: Best Cinematography (César Charlone)
• Nominated: Best Film Editing (Daniel Rezende)

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

• Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film

BAFTA Film Awards

• Won: Best Editing (Daniel Rezende)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film

Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

Golden Globe Awards

• Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film

Independent Spirit Awards

• Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film

Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

Satellite Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

Toronto Film Critics Association Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

Toronto International Film Festival

• Won: Visions Award – Special Citation

Resources

Complete Movie Script

IMDB Page

Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film by director Quentin Tarantino, who cowrote the film with Roger Avary.

A crime drama with a nonlinear storyline, the film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, its ironic mix of humor and violence, and its host of cinematic and pop culture references. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture; Tarantino and Avary won for Best Original Screenplay. It was also awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. A major commercial success, it revitalized the career of its leading man, John Travolta, who received an Academy Award nomination, as did costars Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman.
The movie is fun to watch. There is no great storyline but still you will be hooked to the movie because of its non-linear structure. If you deviate your attention from the movie, you will be wondering whats happening on screen

Awards and nominations

Quentin Tarantino – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (Motion Picture), National Society of Film Critics-Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Academy Awards Nomination – Best Director, BAFTA Award Nomination – Best Film, Achievement in Direction, Golden Globe Awards Nomination – Best Director (Motion Picture)
Roger Avary – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, National Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay
Samuel L. Jackson – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Awards Nomination – Best Supporting Actor (Motion Picture)
John Travolta – Academy Award Nomination – Best Actor, BAFTA Award Nomination -Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award Nomination – Best Actor (Motion Picture—Drama)
Uma Thurman – Academy Award Nomination – Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globe Awards Nomination – Best Supporting Actress (Motion Picture)
Sally Menke – Academy Award Nomination – Best Film Editing, BAFTA Award Nomination- Best Film Editing
Andrzej Sekula – BAFTA Award Nomination – Best Cinematography
Stephen Hunter Flick/Ken King/Rick Ash/David Zupancic -BAFTA Award Nomination – Best Sound
Lawrence Bender – Golden Globe Awards Nomination – Best Motion Picture (Drama)

Resources

Read the complete movie script
IMDB page
Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer.

The film tells the story of Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey), a small-time con man who is the subject of a police interrogation. He tells his interrogator, U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri), a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Verbal’s story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat.

Its a brilliant piece of work by Bryan Singer.
You may feel bored at times, but the climax is really stunning that it will definitely kick you out of the stupor…!

Awards and nominations

Christopher McQuarrie – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, 1996 British Academy Film Award for Best Original Screenplay, Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
Kevin Spacey – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor,1995 Seattle International Film Festival Best Actor
Benicio Del Toro – Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor
Newton Thomas Sigel – Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography
Bryan Singer – 1995 Seattle International Film Festival Best Director

Acknowledged as the tenth best mystery film by American Film Institute on June 17, 2008
Verbal Kint was voted the #48 Villain in the AFI’s AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains in June 2003
Entertainment Weekly cited the film as one of the “13 must-see heist movies”
Empire magazine ranked Keyzer Soze #69 in their “The 100 Greatest Movie Characters” poll

Resources

Read the complete movie script
IMDB page
Rotten Tomatoes Review Collection