APUSH Movie List The movie descriptions below are from netflix.com. The descriptions and ratings are believed to be accurate. Make sure that you have your parents permission for view the movie that you have selected for your movie report. www.moviemistakes.com www.filmsite.org All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Teenage German soldiers pass from idealism to despair in this deeply-felt movie version of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel. This Academy Award-winning film (including for Best Picture) was banned in countries going to war years after its release, and unlike most "message" films that date themselves almost immediately, director Lewis Milestone's film has lost little of its original impact. Unrated. All the President’s Men (1976) The film that launched a thousand journalism school students, All the President's Men chronicles how reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) brought down Richard M. Nixon. The duo connected a Washington, D.C., hotel break-in with a Nixon "dirty tricks" team assigned to discredit Democratic rivals. Director Alan J. Pakula ratchets up the tension (no small feat, as the outcome is assured). Rated PG. Amistad (1997) Steven Spielberg directed this story about the 1839 revolt aboard Spanish slave ship La Amistad and the uprising's tragic aftermath. An African-born slave (Djimon Hounsou) leads a mutiny against his brutal captors. Because the ship is in American waters, a U.S. court must decide the slaves' fate. In an eloquent courtroom speech, ex-president John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) argues for the Africans' freedom. Rated R. The Atomic Cafe (1982) The Atomic Cafe recounts a defining period of 20th century history and serves as a chilling and often hilarious reminder of cold-war era paranoia in the United States, artfully presented through a collage of newsreel footage, government archives, military training films and fifties music. Not Rated. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Winning seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture), this classic drama follows three World War II veterans as they return to small-town America. Homer (Harold Russell), Al (Fredric March) and Fred (Dana Andrews) are desolate as they try to come to terms with their experiences. Best Supporting Actor Russell, a real veteran who lost his hands in the war, also won an Honorary Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." Unrated. The Big Red One (1980) One of the great, unsung war films follows four comrades -- members of the 1st Infantry Division, aka the Big Red One -- from the invasion of North Africa onto Sicily, Normandy and to the liberation of the Nazi death camps. This autobiographical film from B-movie master (and 1st Infantry veteran) Samuel Fuller is alternately funny, absurd and deeply moving. Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Kelly Ward and Lee Marvin star. Rated R. Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Marine Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise in an Oscar-nominated performance) returns from Vietnam a quadraplegic. After months of hellish rehabilitation, he finds renewed purpose protesting the war he once proudly fought. Born on the Fourth of July stands as the middle chapter in director Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy (preceded by Platoon and followed by Heaven & Earth). Rated R. Casablanca (1942) As time goes by, this 1942 classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (as Rick and Ilsa, star-crossed lovers who just aren't meant to be) only gets better. Of all the "gin joints" in Morocco, Ilsa, with husband Victor (Paul Henreid) in tow, had to walk into the one owned by Rick, a former beau she abandoned in Paris. War looms over them all, and in a much-discussed ending, Rick and Ilsa make heroic but heartbreaking choices. Rated PG. Cinderella Man (2005) Russell Crowe stars as pugilist Jim Braddock in this riveting biopic created by the Academy Award-winning team of producer Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. and searches for a soul mate. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Hanks). Rated PG-13. The Crucible (1996) Playwright Arthur Miller's parable of the 1950s anti-communist crusade (thinly veiled here as the Salem, Mass., witch trials of 1692) receives lush treatment in this 1996 film adaptation. After being spurned by her married lover (Daniel Day-Lewis), young Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) stirs up a frenzy of hysteria and fear with accusations of witchcraft. Paul Scofield (who won a BAFTA Award) and Joan Allen turn in strong supporting performances. Rated PG-13. Dr. Strangelove (1964) In director Stanley Kubrick's blackly comedic send-up of the nuclear age, deranged American general Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) leads an attack against the Russians that sets the stage for Armageddon. In a series of virtuoso comic performances, Peter Sellers plays an impotent U.S. president, a harried British captain and an ex-Nazi bomb maker. George C. Scott and Slim Pickens also appear in this classic Oscar-nominated satire. Unrated. Eight Men Out (1988) Adaptation of the 1919 major league baseball scandal involving the Chicago White Sox. A great sports drama that captures the disappointment of all associated with one of the worst occurrences in sports history. Rated PG. El Norte (1983) Mayan Indian peasants, tired of being thought of as nothing more than "brazos fuertes" ("strong arms", i.e., manual laborers) and organizing in an effort to improve their lot in life, are discovered by the Guatemalan army. After the army destroys their village and family, a brother and sister, teenagers who just barely escaped the massacre, decide they must flee to "El Norte" ("the North", i.e., the USA). After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, uneducated, and illegal immigrants. Rating Unknown. Failsafe (1964) Director Sidney Lumet transforms the doomsday scenario played for laughs in Dr. Strangelove into a taut thriller. When a computer glitch sends a bomber crew on a suicide mission to Moscow, the U.S. president (Henry Fonda) agonizes over how to stop it. Will Fonda tell the Russians to shoot down the plane? Global thermonuclear war may hinge on his decision. Unrated. Far and Away (1992) In Ron Howard's epic drama, two 19th century Irish immigrants make the journey to the United States together, but for very different reasons. Joseph Donelly (Tom Cruise) is a poor farmer who's lost everything, while Shannon Christie (Nicole Kidman) is chafing against her privileged but stifling upbringing. Looking for land as they make their way west, they also find love as they endure a series of hardships that strengthens their relationship. Rated PG-13. Freedom Song (2000) In this made-for-cable drama about the Civil Rights movement, unsung citizens risk their lives to bring change at the grassroots level. Set in a fictional Mississippi hamlet, the movie is based on eyewitness accounts of veteran activists who stood on history's frontlines and responded with passion and commitment to the challenge of equal rights for all Americans. The sterling cast includes Danny Glover, Glynn Turman and David Strathairn. Not Rated. Forest Gump (1994) You'll never view the world the same way after seeing it through the eyes of Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), a simpleminded man who finds himself in the middle of nearly every major event of the 1960s and '70s. Along the way, he makes friends, changes lives and searches for a soul mate. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Hanks). Rated PG-13. Gangs of New York (2002) Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated epic focuses on the rise of Irish and Italian gangs in New York in the mid-1800s. When the leader of the Dead Rabbits is assassinated, his son Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) seeks out the perpetrator, Bill "The Butcher" Poole (a magnificent Daniel Day-Lewis). Along the way he finds love with a street-smart thief (Cameron Diaz). Rated R. Gettysburg (1993) The fiercest battle fought on American soil comes to the screen in a stunning production that painstakingly re-creates the events of three fateful days in July 1863. Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen and Richard Jordan play key roles in this magnificent epic (based on Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Killer Angels), which was filmed at actual battle locations and rigorously authenticated -- right down to the boots.. Rated PG. Glory (1989) Loosely based on the letters of Col. Robert G. Shaw (Matthew Broderick), this Academy Award- winning war film follows the first group of African-Americans to serve in combat during the Civil War. The heroics of Shaw's Union Army regiment of black volunteers -- including fugitive slave Pvt. Trip (Denzel Washington, in an Oscar-winning performance) and grave digger Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) -- helps turn the tide of the war. Rated R. Gods and Generals (2003) Director-producer Ron Maxwell mines America's history in this epic movie chronicling the Civil War's beginnings in 1861 to the tragic Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 and the heroes who defended their honor on both fronts. Robert Duvall is Gen. Robert E. Lee, who leads the Confederates; Jeff Daniels is Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a Bowdoin College professor who fights for the Union army. Rated PG-13. Good Night and Good Luck (2005) George Clooney's Oscar-nominated docudrama pits TV newsman Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) against Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his single-minded crusade to quell the red threat at home.