A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The Package  (1989) Directed by: Andrew Davis Written by: John Bishop Starring: Gene Hackman, Tommy Lee Jones, Joanna Cassidy, John Heard, Pam Grier, Dennis Franz Sgt. Johnny Gallagher: Who the hell knows what is the truth and what is a lie? On August 25, 1989, Orion Pictures (now a fully-owned subsidiary of Metro Goldwyn Mayer) released The Package, a suspenseful action/political thriller set during the twilight years of the Cold War. Written by John Bishop ( Drop Zone ) and directed by Andrew Davis ( Under Siege, The Fugitive ), The Package pits Sgt. Johnny Gallagher (Gene Hackman) against powerful forces who are opposed to a nuclear disarmament treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Package begins in what to 1989 audiences would have been the near future. Europe is still divided by an Iron Curtain, with Soviet forces still occupying East Germany and a huge American force providing the backbone of NATO's forces in West Germany. After an establi

Lincoln (2012)       Abraham Lincoln:  All we've done is show the world that democracy isn't chaos. That there is a great, invisible strength in a people's union. Say we've shown that a people can endure awful sacrifice and yet cohere. Mightn't that save at least the idea of democracy to aspire to? Eventually to become worthy of? -  Lincoln       Steven Spielberg’s  Lincoln  is a movie that is far removed from  Jaws ,  Close Encounters of the Third Kind,    Raiders of the Lost Ark,   E.T.: The Extraterrestrial  and other crowd-pleasers that made him well-known and successful. It is not a rollicking globe-trotting action-adventure, nor is it a sweet fantasy for kids of all ages.  Instead, the 66-year-old director’s  Lincoln  is closer in tone and genre to his historical dramas  Amistad, Schindler’s List,  and  Munich,  which deal with slavery, the Holocaust, terrorism and characters driven to make moral choices.  Written by playwright/screenwriter To