18 Movies Starring Beau Bridges

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Stark melodrama about two thrill seeking tough guys who terrorize late-night passengers on a New York City train. The random victims are more concerned with their own problems than helping each other and pray that they won't be next. But it's going to take a lot more than prayer to end this nightmare of fear and violence. Film debut of both Martin Sheen and Tony Musante as the hoodlums.

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At the age of twenty-nine, Elgar Enders "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert it into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind. He's grown fond of the black tenants and particularly of Fanny, the wife of a black radical; he's maybe fallen in love with Lanie, a mulatto girl; he's lost interest in redecorating his home. Joyce, his mother has not relinquished this interest and in one of the film's most hilarious sequences gives her Master Charge card to Marge, a black tenant and appoints her decorator.

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Paul Reis returns to the exclusive Catholic prep school he graduated from nine years earlier as a gym teacher. He is reunited with his former mentor and English teacher, the affable and gregarious Joseph Dobbs, the most popular member of the faculty and advisor to the junior class, and Jerome Malley, a strict disciplinarian and teacher of classical languages, whose old-fashioned methods make him heartily disliked by his pupils. Reis finds himself caught in between the two men in a struggle for the hearts, minds, and souls of the boys. Malley, nicknamed "Lash" by his students has ruled out retirement, and Dobbs, who feels that Malley has lost touch with the students, hopes to inherit the senior class. Even though Malley's mother is dying an agonizing death from cancer, the Latin and Greek teacher refuses to surrender his position as head of the senior class to a man whose motives he questions. The tensions on the faculty are mirrored in the student body, which has endured a rash of malicious hazing and ritualistic violence that no one on the staff seemingly understands.

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Based on the true story of Jill Kinmont. In 1955, eighteen-year-old Jill is a truly talented, gifted skier and a shoo-in for the 1956 Winter Olympics. But Jill comes close to losing everything when she takes a near fatal fall off a mountain during the last race of the season. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, Jill now has to climb another kind of mountain-working her way up from total helplessness to leading a fulfilling life. With the help of family, friends, and an extraordinary man, Jill begins the quest up that mountain.

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Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.

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Shirley Muldowney is determined to be a top-fuel drag racer, although no woman has ever raced them before. Despite the high risks of this kind of racing and the burden it places on her family life, she perseveres in her dream.

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Frank and Jack Baker are professional musicians who play small clubs. They play schmaltzy music and have never needed a day job. Times are changing and dates are becoming more difficult to get so they interview female singers. They finally decide on Susie Diamond, a former 'escort' who needs some refinement, but the act begins to take off again. While the act is now successful, both Frank and Jack have problems with their life on the road. Susie becomes the agent that makes them re-evaluate where they are going, and how honest they have been with each other.

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Err, the title is almost a summary itself. Based on the true story of a Texas mom who tries to hire a hitman (through her ex's brother) to kill either or both a cheerleader and her mother. With the intended victims out of the way, Wanda's daughter gets the chance to become a cheerleader. When the media get hold of the story, Wanda's trial turns into a media circus.

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Chase (Mirren), a lifetime resident of Martha's Vineyard, married Richard (Bridges), and like the area, grew into the Upper-Middle-Class. Her distaste for artificiality leads her to a wild breakdown, and Richard dutifully tries to restore their family unit as best he knows how by hiring a 'Mother's Helper', Elizabeth (Sedgwick). Chase is broken, and wickedly caustic towards Elizabeth, until they discover each other's similarities. A strong relationship develops, affecting their personal and familial salvation, and destruction.

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Sarny, a 12-year-old slave girl in the ante-bellum South, faces a relatively hopeless life. Her chief duties at the plantation of Clel Waller are serving at table, spitting tobacco juice on roses to prevent bugs, and secretly conveying intimate messages between Waller's wife, Callie, and Dr. Chamberlaine. Then Nightjohn arrives. A former runaway slave who bears telltale scars on his back, he takes Sarny under his wing and, in exchange for a pinch of tobacco, secretly begins to teach her to read and write, a crime punishable by death. "Words," he says, "are freedom. Slavery is made of words: laws, deeds and passes." He starts by drawing letters in the dirt and cautions her that no one must know. At her baptism, Sarny steals a Bible that belongs to Waller's son, Jeffrey, and practices reading by lantern-light in the slave quarters. The same Bible serves another purpose when, on a blank page taken from it, Nightjohn forges a pass for Outlaw, a young slave, to use in escaping to freedom in the North with his beloved Egypt, a slave on another plantation. Waller finds the Bible and demands to know who stole it. Delie, who cared for Sarny as a child, fears for her now and accepts the blame. But Nightjohn forestalls the lashing Delie is to receive, saying he's the one, for he can read. He tries to run away but is caught, and his hand is tied to a chopping block. With an ax, Waller delivers the severing blow, exacting the brutal penalty for Nightjohn's literacy. As he is dragged off to be sold, he tells Sarny, "When they cut off one hand, the other hand grows stronger." That night Sarny writes a pass for Egypt that will let her join Outlaw on the flight to freedom. Two days later their escape is discovered and the false passes found. Waller knows Nightjohn wrote Outlaw's pass. But who wrote the second? He interrupts a church service to demand the answer, threatening to kill all his slaves if no one tells. Sarny confesses, but declares he'll kill no one, for the slaves represent his wealth. As Waller raises his rifle, Sarny implores Callie to speak up for her, hinting that she has read the messages to Dr. Chamberlaine. Callie refuses, but the doctor, fearful Sarny will reveal the relationship, says he's at fault. He tells of teaching Egypt some reading and writing, but now declares it was a mistake. Callie orders that Sarny be sold, and as the girl is joined to a line of other slaves, she asks if any of them have tobacco to trade. What has she to give in return? they want to know. And Sarny draws an A in the dirt.

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An interesting story about a future United States where immigration has gone too far. Through a series of mishaps and mayhem several state 'militias' assist Idaho in order to protect them from the LONG ARM of the Federal government.

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A professor, grieving for his dead wife, and his two daughters unwillingly journey to a parallel universe of fairy court, marauding trolls, and a prophecy that they will save this nether world. They board the Unicorn, a magic ship manned by elves. In the search for a dragon who will help them fulfill the prophecy, they encounter the Minotaur, Medusa, the Sphinx, an ogre, and a unicorn whose tears they need to reverse one of Medusa's misguided stares. The trolls also seek the dragon. Capture and slavery awaits failure, while faith precedes the miracle. The spirit of their mother is close to the girls, who must find courage and imagination, while Dad must keep his wits.

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Katie, a teenage girl from Malibu, California, finds herself in the throes of growing up, facing her parents, her boyfriends, her sexuality and a very privileged life. Half a world away in rural, China, Lin, born on the same day as Katie, faces a much different reality. Because of a severe facial deformity, she lives a life of fear and shame. Her father, Daniel, has devoted his life to her, with hopes and dreams that her circumstances will change one day. The opportunity comes with the discovery of the worldwide "Doctor's Gift" program. Katie volunteers and comes to China. Once there, she is deeply touched by the work, which prompts her to take off on her own to find Lin. A "smile" is brought to Lin's face, Katie finds her soul and their extraordinary connection becomes a life-changing experience for both girls.

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Berlin, July, 1945. Journalist Jake Geismer arrives to cover the Potsdam conference, issued a captain's uniform for easier passage. He also wants to find Lena, an old flame who's now a prostitute desperate to get out of Berlin. He discovers that the driver he's assigned, a cheerful down-home sadist named Corporal Tully, is Lena's keeper. When the body of a murdered man washes up in Potsdam (within the Russian sector), Jake may be the only person who wants to solve the crime: U.S. personnel are busy finding Nazis to bring to trial, the Russians and the Americans are looking for German rocket scientists, and Lena has her own secrets.

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Three years ago, NYPD detective Max Payne's wife and baby were murdered. Max gets himself transferred to the cold case office where he can continue searching for the killer who got away. He's a loner, but two people reach out to him during a fateful week: Alex, his ex-partner who may have found a clue, and BB, the security chief at the pharmaceutical company where Max's wife worked. Meanwhile, bodies are piling up, some as a result of a drug on the street that is highly addictive and, for many who take it, brings hideous hallucinations. When one of the bodies is a woman Payne was the last to see alive, her sister comes looking for him armed to the teeth; Max must move fast.

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A unique documentary about troops' experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on writings by soldiers, Marines, and air men. Some writings were published in the New Yorker in summer 2006. A larger assortment was published as a book by Random House last September. The film drew upon the submissions by soldiers for the book. It's a remarkable portrait of troops at war - the complexities, doubts, and fears - written with honesty. The 81-minute version of the film (which will be in theatres) includes 11 pieces of writing, with different visual strategies, along with interviews with the writers, and with more established American writers who are also veterans. In the latter group are Tim O'Brien, Yusef Komunyakaa, Tobias Wolff, Joe Haldeman, James Salter, Anthony Swofford, Richard Currey, and Paul Fussell. The visual approaches range from poet Brian Turner reading directly to camera, to archival footage, to an animated "graphic novel," to a still photo sequence shot by photographer Antonin Kratochvil. It's rooted in a program by the NEA that created a series of writing workshops at military bases. After those workshops, the writers submitted pieces for consideration in the book, edited by Andy Carroll. From those writings were selected 11 for inclusion in the film. There is also a 53-minute version of this film which will be airing on PBS as part of the series "America at a Crossroads" in April, 2007. Both of these are different from the other film 'Operation Homecoming" from 2007, directed by Lawrence Bridges. That piece was produced by the NEA as a documentary about their writing workshops.

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A young Korean-American girl, abducted and forced into prostitution by domestic human traffickers, joins forces with her captors in a desperate plea to survive.