Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman. The film, starring Robin Williams, is set in 1959 at the fictional elite boarding school, Welton Academy, and tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was a British-American actor, whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his native England, before moving to the United States at the outbreak of World War II. He achieved prominence for his starring roles in How Green Was My Valley (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943), and Lassie Come Home (1943). Unlike many of his contemporaries, McDowall managed to transition his child stardom into adulthood, and began to appear on Broadway as well in films, winning a Tony Award for his performance in Jean Anouilh's The Fighting Cock. For portraying Octavian in the historical epic Cleopatra (1963), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Class is a 1983 American comedy-drama film directed by Lewis John Carlino, starring Rob Lowe, Jacqueline Bisset, Andrew McCarthy, and Cliff Robertson. In addition to being Lowe's second film, it marked the film debuts of McCarthy, John Cusack, Virginia Madsen, Casey Siemaszko, and Lolita Davidovich.
The Up series of documentary films follows the lives of ten males and four females in England beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old. The first film was titled Seven Up!, with later films adjusting the number in the title to match the age of the subjects at the time of filming. The documentary has had nine episodes—one every seven years—thus spanning 56 years. The series has been produced by Granada Television for ITV, which has broadcast all of them except 42 Up (1998), which was broadcast on BBC One. Individual films and the series as a whole have received numerous accolades; in 1991, the then-latest installment, 28 Up, was chosen for Roger Ebert's list of the ten greatest films of all time.
High School High is a 1996 American comedy film about an inner city high school in the Los Angeles, California area, starring Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Mekhi Phifer, Louise Fletcher, Malinda Williams, and Brian Hooks. It is a spoof of films concerning idealistic teachers being confronted with a class of cynical teenagers, disengaged by conventional schooling, and loosely parodies Blackboard Jungle, High School Confidential, The Principal, Dangerous Minds, Lean on Me, The Substitute, Stand and Deliver, and Grease.
Fright Night is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland, in his directorial debut. The film follows teenager Charley Brewster, who discovers that his next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire. When no one believes him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent, a TV show host who acted in films as a vampire hunter, to stop Jerry's killing spree.
School Ties is a 1992 American drama film directed by Robert Mandel and starring Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell, Randall Batinkoff, Andrew Lowery, Cole Hauser, Ben Affleck, and Anthony Rapp. Fraser plays the lead role as David Greene, a Jewish high school student who is awarded an athletic scholarship to an elite preparatory school in his senior year.
Dangerous Minds is a 1995 American drama film directed by John N. Smith and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It is based on the autobiography My Posse Don't Do Homework by retired U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, who in 1989 took up a teaching position at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where most of her students were African-American and Latino teenagers from East Palo Alto, a racially segregated and economically deprived city. Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Johnson. Critical reviews were mixed, with some critics praising Pfeiffer's performance but criticizing the screenplay as contrived and full of stereotypes. The film grossed $179.5 million and spawned a short-lived television series.
Timothy Van Patten is an American director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He has received numerous accolades including two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and two Directors Guild of America Awards as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards.
Recess: School's Out is a 2001 American animated comedy adventure film based on the Disney television series Recess, and features the voices of Andrew Lawrence, Rickey D'Shon Collins, Jason Davis, Ashley Johnson, Courtland Mead, Pamela Adlon, Dabney Coleman, Melissa Joan Hart, April Winchell, and James Woods.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is a 1989 crime drama art film written and directed by Peter Greenaway, starring Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren and Alan Howard in the title roles. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and France, the film's graphic violence and nude scenes, as well as its lavish cinematography and formalism, were noted at the time of its release.
Teachers is a 1984 American satirical black comedy-drama film written by W. R. McKinney, directed by Arthur Hiller, and starring Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams, Ralph Macchio, and Judd Hirsch. It was shot in Columbus, Ohio, mostly at the former Central High School.
Andrew Davis is an American film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer who is known for directing a number of successful action thrillers including Code of Silence, Above the Law, Under Siege, and The Fugitive.
Death Wish 3 is a 1985 American vigilante action-thriller film directed and edited by Michael Winner. It is the third film and the last to be directed by Winner in the Death Wish film series. It stars Charles Bronson as the vigilante killer Paul Kersey and sees him battling with New York street punk gangs while receiving tactical support from a local NYPD lieutenant. Despite being set in New York City, some of the filming was shot in London to reduce production costs. It was succeeded by Death Wish 4: The Crackdown.
Code of Silence is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Dennis Farina and Molly Hagan. It was released in the United States on May 3, 1985.
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning is a 1985 American action adventure film, and a prequel to Missing in Action, both of which star Chuck Norris. It was directed by Lance Hool, and written by Steve Bing, Larry Levinson and Arthur Silver. It is the second installment in the Missing in Action film series.
Another Country is a 1984 British romantic historical drama written by Julian Mitchell, adapted from his play of the same name. Directed by Marek Kanievska, the film stars Rupert Everett and Colin Firth in his feature film debut.
P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang, also released as Kipperbang, is a British television film first shown on Channel 4 on its second night, 3 November 1982.
Young Warriors, also known as The Graduates of Malibu High, is a low budget American crime-drama film starring James Van Patten, Anne Lockhart, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Roundtree, and Lynda Day George. It was released theatrically by Cannon Films on August 26, 1983. It has only been released on VHS and on Laserdisc in the United Kingdom.
Making It is a 1971 comedy-drama film directed by John Erman and written by Peter Bart and James Leigh. It stars Kristoffer Tabori, Bob Balaban, Lawrence Pressman, Joyce Van Patten, Marlyn Mason, and a number of character actors familiar to TV audiences of the 1970s. Adapted from Leigh's 1965 novel What Can You Do?, the film follows several months in the life of an intelligent, precocious 17-year-old high school student who fancies himself a smooth Lothario.
