Cast : Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo Dicaprio Samuel L. Jackson

Django Unchained (2013)

Director : Quentin Tarantino

Cast : Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo Dicaprio Samuel L. Jackson

Synopsis

In 1858, several male slaves are chained and being transported after being purchased by the Speck Brothers, Ace and Dicky. Among the slaves is Django, who has been sold away from his wife, Broomhilda. The Speck brothers encounter Dr. King Schultz, a German dentist and, unbeknownst to them, a bounty hunter. Schultz kills Ace after he points a rifle at Schultz, and shoots Dicky's horse, crushing his leg under it. Schultz then asks Django if he knows the Brittle Brothers and when he finds out that he does and can identify them, Schultz offers Django his freedom and $75 in exchange for helping him track them down. After they hunt down and kill the Brittle brothers, Schultz partners with Django in bounty hunting until spring, at which time he will assist Django in tracking down and rescuing Broomhilda. Over the winter, Schultz trains Django in bounty hunting and mastering a sidearm.

After collecting a number of bounties over the winter, Schultz and Django confirm that Broomhilda's current owner is Calvin Candie, the charming but brutal owner of the Candyland plantation in Mississippi, who forces his slaves to fight to the death in "Mandingo fights". Schultz expects that Candie will demand an exorbitant price for Broomhilda if they are forthright with their intentions, so they devise a ruse whereby they will pretend to seek the purchase of one of Candie's prize fighters for a hefty sum, meanwhile purchase Broomhilda on-the-side for a more reasonable sum, then disappear before they finalize the bogus deal. Schultz and Django meet Candie at a club in Greenville and offer to buy one of his fighters for $12,000. His greed tickled, Candie invites them to his plantation. On the road, Schultz and Django witness Candie murder one of his Mandingo fighters, who fled due to not wanting to fight any more, by having him torn apart by dogs. At the plantation, Schultz secretly informs Broomhilda of the plot. At dinner, Schultz expresses an incidental interest in Broomhilda because she speaks German, and offers $300 for her.

Django raises the suspicions of Candie's staunchly loyal seniorhouse slave, Stephen, who correctly deduces that Django and Broomhilda know each other and that the sale of the Mandingo fighter is a ruse, and informs Candie in private. This enrages Candie, who, armed with this information, demands the $12,000 for Broomhilda instead, or he will kill her. Schultz agrees to buy her at this price in order to save her life. After the money is paid and the paperwork signed, Candie demands to shake hands with Schultz to finalize the deal, or Broomhilda will be shot. Schultz, in disgust, shoots and kills Candie point-blank with a concealed Derringer gun. Schultz is shot dead too, and a gun fight erupts.

As punishment, Stephen and Candie's sister Lara agree to send Django to a mine to be worked to death. Broomhilda, instead of being given her freedom, is locked in a cabin. En route to the mine, Django convinces the slave drivers that he is a bounty hunter, shows them the handbill from his first kill as evidence, and falsely informs them that there is a high-end bounty on some outlaws who have taken refuge back at Candie's plantation. He offers them a cut of the bounty if they free him and ride with him. The moment they free him, he kills the slave drivers, takes their dynamite, and rides back to Candyland.

Returning to the plantation, Django discovers Schultz's body. He takes the certificate of freedom that Candie signed for Broomhilda and reunites with her after freeing her from where she was being held. When Candie's mourners return to the Candyland mansion from his funeral, Django reveals himself. He sends off the remaining slaves and in a final shoot-out kills everyone inside except Stephen, whom he shoots in the knees. Having set the dynamite inside the house, he lights the fuse and leaves. Django and Broomhilda watch from a distance as the house explodes, killing Stephen, and ride away.

Tagline : The "D" is Silent. Payback Won't Be.

Far from Heaven

Director

Todd Haynes

Cast

Julianne Moore as Cathy Whitaker

Dennis Quaid as Frank Whitaker

Dennis Haysbert as Raymond Deagan

Patricia Clarkson as Eleanor Fine

Viola Davis as Sybil

Plot

In 1957 suburbanConnecticut, Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), appears to be the perfect wife, mother, and homemaker. Cathy is married to Frank (Dennis Quaid), a successful executive at Magnatech, a company selling television advertising. One evening Cathy receives a phone call from the local police who are holding her husband. He says it's all a mix up but they won't let him leave alone. Cathy is preparing for her annual party with her best friend, Eleanor Fine (Patricia Clarkson). One day Cathy spies an unknown black man walking through her yard. He turns out to be Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), the son of Cathy's late gardener.

Frank finds himself forced to stay late at the office, swamped with work. One evening, however, he enters an underground bar filled with single men. One night when Frank is working late, Cathy decides to bring his dinner to him at the office. She walks in on him passionately kissing another man. Frank confesses having had "problems" as a young man, and agrees to sign up for conversion therapy. His relationship with Cathy is irreparably strained, however; and he turns to alcohol. Meanwhile, Cathy starts becoming better acquainted with Raymond.

One night, after a party, Frank attempts to make love to Cathy. He is unable to become aroused and strikes Cathy when she tries to console him. Cathy finds herself completely unable to comprehend the destruction of her marriage. As she sees her once-idyllic world begin to fall apart, she turns to Raymond for comfort. He takes her on a ride to his part of the town where she meets other black people. At a gas station, they are sighted together by one of Cathy's neighbors, who immediately tells everyone. The town is soon ablaze with gossip about the two of them. After her husband comes home furious, Cathy unwillingly breaks off her blossoming friendship with Raymond.

Over Christmas, Cathy takes her family on a vacation to Miami to take their minds off of things. At the hotel, Frank has another sexual encounter with a young man. Unable to suppress his desires, he seeks a divorce from Cathy. Cathy is later informed by their maid Sybil (Viola Davis) that Raymond's daughter was attacked by three white boys. Cathy comes to their home to find them packing up and moving to Baltimore. Now that Cathy is to be single, she presents the opportunity for them to be together. Raymond declines. "I've learned my lesson about mixing the two worlds," he says. In the last scene, Cathy goes to the train station to see Raymond off and say her silent goodbye to him.

Movie Facts

Other considered titles for this film were "This Splendid Life", "Circles In The Sun", "The Surface Of Things", and "Fall From Splendor".

Tagline: What imprisons desires of the heart?

Guess who’s coming to dinner

Stanley Kramer : Director

Cast :

Spencer Tracy : Matt Drayton

Sidney Poitier : John Prentice

Katharine Hepburn: Christina Drayton

Katharine Houghton: Joey Drayton

Plot

The movie concerns Joanna Drayton, a young white American woman (Houghton) and a man with whom she's had a whirlwind romance, Dr. Prentice (Poitier), an African American she met while on a holiday in Hawaii. As the movie opens, they're at the San Francisco Airport preparing to tell her parents, Matthew (Tracy) and Christine (Hepburn) Dayton their plans: to marry and live in Switzerland.

Kramer and Rose intentionally debunked ethnic stereotypes; the young doctor was purposely created idealistically perfect so that the only possible objection to his marrying Joanna would be his race, or the fact she only met him nine days earlier. He has graduated from a top school, begun innovative medical initiatives in Africa, refused to have premarital sex with his fiancée despite her request, and leaves money on his future father-in-law's desk in payment for a long distance phone call he has made.

The plot is centered on Joanna's return to her liberal upper class home overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Her mother, while surprised, is supportive from the beginning, but her father isn't buying the marriage. He is joined in his concerns by the family retainer Tillie (Sanford) and the young Doctor's father (Glenn), a retired postal worker who flies up to Los Angeles for dinner.

The action builds to a stirring speech by the father (the last by Tracy on film) in which Matthew Drayton comes to grips with the differences between his daughter and his future son-in-law and makes clear that what others think of the marriage of Joanna and Prentice means nothing, all that matters is that the two young people love each other and that the real crime would be if they allowed outside criticism to deny them their mutual love.

His words move his wife to tears, and after allowing the weight of his words to sink in, Matthew breaks the ice by demanding to know when dinner will be served.

Movie facts:

When the movie was conceived and launched by producer-director Stanley Cramer, one of Hollywood's greatest liberal movie-makers, intermarriage between African Americans and Caucasians was still illegal in 14 states. Towards the end of production, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loving v. Virginia. The Loving decision was made on June 12, 1967, two days after the death of star Spencer Tracy, who had played a "phony" white liberal who grudgingly accepts his daughter's marriage to a black man. In Loving, the High Court unanimously ruled that anti-miscegenation marriage laws were unconstitutional.

Poitier was the first male black actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award (for The Defiant Ones, 1958).

Tagline : A love story of today

Invictus

Director : Cint Eastwood

Cast : Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon

On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison after 27 years spent in jail. Four years later, Mandela is elected the first black President of South Africa. His presidency faces enormous challenges in the post-Apartheid era, including rampant poverty and crime. Mandela is particularly concerned about racial divisions between black and white South Africans, which could lead to violence. The ill will which both groups hold towards each other is seen even in his own security detail where relations between the established white officers, who had guarded Mandela's predecessors, and the black ANC additions to the security detail, are frosty and marked by mutual distrust.

While attending a game of the Springboks, the country's rugby union team, Mandela recognizes that the blacks in the stadium cheer against their 'home' squad, as the mostly-white Springboks represent prejudice and apartheid in their minds. He remarks that he did the same while imprisoned on Robben Island. Knowing that South Africa is set to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup in one year's time, Mandela convinces a meeting of the newly black-dominated South African Sports Committee to support the Springboks. He then meets with the captain of the Springboks rugby team, François Pienaar (Matt Damon), and implies that a Springboks victory in the World Cup will unite and inspire the nation. Mandela also shares with François a British poem, "Invictus", that had inspired him during his time in prison.

François and his teammates train. Many South Africans, both black and white, doubt that rugby will unite a nation torn apart by some 50 years of racial tensions. For many blacks, especially the radicals, the Springboks symbolise white supremacy. Both Mandela and Pienaar, however, stand firmly behind their theory that the game can successfully unite the South African country.

Things begin to change as the players interact with the fans and begin a friendship with them. During the opening games, support for the Springboks begins to grow among the black population. By the second game, the whole country comes together to support the Springboks and Mandela's efforts. Mandela's security team also grows closer as the various officers come to respect their comrades' professionalism and dedication.

The Springboks surpass all expectations and qualify for the final against The All Blacks—South Africa's arch-rivals. New Zealand and South Africa were universally regarded as the two greatest rugby nations, with the Springboks being the only side to have a winning record against the All Blacks up to this point; however the All Blacks overtook the Springboks in head-to-head wins later in the decade, and also won a test series for the first time in South Africa the following year.The first test series between the two countries in 1921 was the beginning of an intense rivalry, with emotions running high whenever the two nations met on the rugby field.

Before the game, the Springbok team visits Robben Island, where Mandela spent 27 years in jail. There Pienaar is inspired by Mandela's will and his idea of self-mastery in the poem Invictus. François mentions his amazement that Mandela "could spend thirty years in a tiny cell, and come out ready to forgive the people who put [him] there".

Supported by a large home crowd of both races, Pienaar motivates his team. Mandela's security detail receives a scare when, just before the match, a jumbo jet buzzes the stadium. It is not an assassination attempt though, but a demonstration of patriotism. The Springboks win the match on an added time long drop-kick from fly-half Joel Stransky, with a score of 15–12. Mandela and Pienaar meet on the field together to celebrate the improbable and unexpected victory. Mandela's car then drives away in the traffic-jammed streets leaving the stadium. As Mandela watches the South Africans celebrating together in the car, his voice is heard reciting the poem "Invictus".

Tagline : He was a prisoner who became a president. To unite his country, he asked one man to do the impossible.

TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD

Directed by: Robert Mulligan

Cast :Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford

The film's young protagonists, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham) and her brother Jem (Phillip Alford), live in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s. The story covers three years, during which Scout and Jem undergo changes in their lives. They begin as innocent children, who spend their days happily playing games with each other and spying on Arthur "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall), who has not been seen for many years by anybody as a result of never leaving his house and about whom many wicked rumors circulate. Their father, Atticus (Gregory Peck), is a town lawyer and has a strong belief that all people are to be treated fairly, to turn the other cheek, and to stand for what you believe. He also allows his children to call him by his first name. Through their father's work as a lawyer, Scout and Jem begin to learn of the racism and evil prevalent in their town, and mature painfully and quickly as they are exposed to it.

The kids follow Atticus to watch a rape trial, in which an innocent black man, Tom Robinson, is wrongfully found guilty of raping Mayella Ewell, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Among Atticus' chief arguments, he points out that Tom is crippled in his left arm, and that the supposed rapist would have had to make extensive use of his left hand to have carried out the crime as it was being described by the teenage "victim" and her father. Atticus also brings to light the alarmingly unusual and suspicious fact that the girl had not even been examined by a doctor to check for signs of rape after the supposed assault. Atticus earnestly pleas to the jury for them to cast aside their prejudices against blacks and instead to focus on the evidence of Tom's obvious innocence. Tom is doomed, however, when he takes the stand in his own defense and reveals that he felt pity for the victim due to her circumstances.