Director: Joel Schumacher

Main Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Anthony Heald, and Chris Bauer 

Release Date: 19 February 1999

Main Plot: Tom Welles, a private investigator, is hired by a wealthy widow whose well-known husband recently died. She discovered a reel of S8 film in a safe. The film depicts a brutal slaughter of a young girl who does not pretend or act: a snuff movie. Welles begins an investigation that leads him to the girl’s mother and, from there, to Hollywood and the office of a pornographic film producer. Welles’ growing obsession with solving the case pulls him away from his wife and newborn daughter. When the names are finally revealed, Welles finds himself on much thinner ice than he had anticipated.

Director: Robert Benton

Main Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Loren Dean, Bruce Willis, Steven Hill, Steve Buscemi, and Billy Jaye 

Release Date: 1 November 1991

Main Plot: A teenage, fatherless street kid named Billy Bathgate comes to the attention of his idol, master gangster Dutch Schultz, in the poorest part of the Bronx during the depths of the Depression. The resourceful, brash, daring, and brave narrator understands that morality will not lift him out of poverty. By hitching his wagon to the mobster’s star, he can wish to provide his gentle, insane mother and himself with a way out of their lonely existence. Billy will learn about human nature, extortion, and policy rackets during his journey. He will go to the upstate rural community of Onandaga, where special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey will bring Schultz to trial. 

Director: John D. Hancock

Main Cast: Nick Nolte, Rita Taggart, Ernie Hudson, Mark Rolston, Lane Smith, John Toles-Bey, and Joe Mantegna

Release Date: 16 October 1987

Main Plot: Lee Umstetter is a lifer at San Quentin Prison and has attempted suicide several times. Another prisoner eventually suggests reading as a better way to spend his time. Lee follows that advice and is inspired by what he reads to write a play about prison life. He holds auditions and selects a cast from among his fellow inmates. The play is well-received, and it catches the attention of a female reporter, who writes about it, resulting in publicity that allows him to be released on parole. He later reassembles his cast when they return to perform the play professionally. However, they discover that the demands of life outside are difficult for the newly released, and their play must be drastically altered. At the same time, they struggle to make it succeed.

Director: Jake Rademacher

Main Cast: Jake Rademacher, Isaac Rademacher, Joe Rademacher, Mahmoud Hamid Ali, Edward Allier, and Ryan Baker

Release Date: 13 March 2009

Main Plot: A deeply personal portrait of a troubled American family. Jake Rademacher sets out to comprehend his two brothers’ experiences, sacrifices, and motivations while serving in Iraq. The film follows Jake as he risks everything, including his life, to tell the story of his brothers. It is a remarkable journey in which Jake is embedded with four combat units in Iraq, which is often hilarious but sometimes downright lethal. Unprecedented access to US and Iraqi combat units takes him behind the camouflage curtain on the Syrian border with secret observation troops, into sniper “hide sites” in the Sunni Triangle, including raging machine gun battles with the Iraqi Army. Finally, the film follows his brothers back home, where separations and dangerous work affect their parents, siblings, wives, and children. 

Director: Patricia Foulkrod

Main Cast: Herold Noel Jr., Robert Acosta, Sean Huze, Kelly Dougherty, Patricia Foulkrod, Nicole Huze, Denver Jones, and Joyce Lucey

Release Date: 19 January 2006

Main Plot: The film’s subjects are patriotic young Americans – ordinary men and women who answered the call to military service in Iraq. As they go through recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with their families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq is a warm-up for the even more difficult battles. When returning home, soldiers will face personal demons, an unknowing public, and an indifferent government. As these battles unfold, each soldier transforms into a new kind of hero, bearing witness and supporting other veterans while learning to grip the most effective weapon of all – the truth.