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Movie Summaries
"THE APOSTLE" (1997)
When a Texas Pentecostal preacher (Robert Duvall) becomes distraught over losing his congregation and wife (Farrah Fawcett) to a younger minister, he bashes his rival's head with a baseball bat, then flees to a rural Louisiana community where he revitalizes an old church and starts a radio ministry whose growing popularity leads to his arrest. Also written and directed by Duvall, this portrait of an evangelical preacher explores his religious zeal and personal failings as seen within the human context of a Southern community, all of which is played out with sincerity and conviction in an often compelling story. A strong scene of violence, menacing situations and marital infidelity. A-III (PG-13)
"SOPHIE'S CHOICE" (1982)
Screen version of William Styron's novel about a Polish Auschwitz survivor (Meryl Streep) who has found refuge in a 1947 Brooklyn boarding house with her lover (Kevin Kline), a volatile American Jew. A young, inexperienced Southern writer (Peter MacNichol) gets caught up in their lives, their lies and their secrets (including one that gives the story its title). Director Alan J. Pakula's harrowing film is overlong but Streep's Oscar-winning performance conveys the anguish of survivor guilt and the frailty of the human psyche. Suicide, some brief nudity and rough language. A-III (R)
"THE OX BOW INCIDENT" (1943)
Affecting tale set in an 1885 Nevada town where word of a rancher's murder by cattle thieves leads to a posse finding three suspects (including Anthony Quinn and Dana Andrews) whom the mob wants to hang on the spot despite the pleas of some (led by Henry Fonda) for a proper trial. Director William Wellman probes issues of mob mentality, justice and capital punishment in a stark drama of courage and human frailties. Stylized violence, a suicide and an improperly made confession. A-II (nr)
"CHILDREN OF HEAVEN" (1999)
Charming story set in Tehran where a 9-year-old Iranian boy loses his little sister's only shoes, forcing the two to share wearing his sneakers to school until he hears of a footrace in which the third prize is a pair of new shoes. Director Majid Majidi spins a slender but sweetly evocative tale of genuine childhood stress made bareable by bonds of love and their generosity to an even less fortunate child. Subtitles. Depictions of poverty and brief menace. A-II (PG)
"CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS" (1989)
Writer-director Woody Allen once again examines the limits of our moral universe by focusing on an influential ophthalmologist (Martin Landau) who has his mistress Angelica Huston) murdered when she threatens to spill the beans to his wife (Claire Bloom) and reveal his embezzlement of philanthropic funds. Allen uses humor, pathos and melodrama to depict the man's struggles with feelings of guilt and accountability ingrained in him by his devout Jewish father while interweaving a tapestry of other Manhattanites who have moral choices to make as well. Some rough language, explicit sexual innuendoes and a ruthless, off-camera murder. A-III (PG-13)
The classifications are as follows:
• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV -- adults, with reservations (an A-IV classification designates problematic films that, while not morally offensive in themselves, require caution and some analysis and explanation as a safeguard against wrong interpretations and false conclusions);
• O -- morally offensive.
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