Hoffa (film)

Hoffa is a 1992 biographical film based on the life and mysterious death of Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Although it chronicles Hoffa's early years in Michigan to his leadership in New York City and Washington, D.C. and his death in a Detroit suburb, almost all of the film was shot in and around Pittsburgh with the city's landmarks (such as Gateway Center in the "Idlewild Airport" police pullover scene, and the Mellon Institute depicting government buildings) serving as backdrops for the various locales in the film.

Jack Nicholson plays James R. "Jimmy" Hoffa, and Danny DeVito, who directed the movie, plays Hoffa's longtime friend Robert "Bobby" Ciaro. The Ciaro character is actually an amalgamation of several Hoffa associates over the years. The film also stars John C. Reilly, Robert Prosky, Kevin Anderson, Armand Assante, and J. T. Walsh. The screenplay is written by David Mamet. The original music score is composed by David Newman. The film is marketed with the tagline "The man who was willing to pay the price for power."

The movie has an R rating, due to violence and strong language (the expletive "fuck" is used exactly 153 times).

Plot summary

Conspiracy Theory (film)

Conspiracy Theory is a 1997 American action/paranoid thriller film directed by Richard Donner. The original screenplay by Brian Helgeland centers on an eccentric taxi driver who believes many world events are triggered by government conspiracies.

Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is a mentally unstable New York City taxi driver who lectures his passengers on various conspiracy theories. Jerry loves a girl but hasn't told her - he says "I have some problems..." One night as he is driving, the strobing lights of warning signals and a worker's arc welder trigger mysterious memories in Jerry's head (involving a mysterious doctor, a long needle, lights flashing on and off very fast, and "Chow Hound" clips) - Jerry goes crazy and almost crashes the cab. Jerry parks near the girl's apartment and watches her running on her treadmill while singing, finds the same radio station, and sings along. When he leaves, he stops to buy a stack of newspapers from Flip, a crippled Vietnam veteran. Jerry then parks by using his cab to shove another car away from a parking space and enters his apartment via a devious route. Jerry goes to work clipping and filing news articles and publishing a newsletter titled "Conspiracy Theory." The next morning he mails out the newsletter one copy at a time via letter boxes.

Jerry goes to the Justice Department, to visit the girl, Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts) who works for the DA. She is also trying to solve her father's murder, which had taken place some years earlier. Jerry tells her that NASA is trying to kill the President using a secret weapon on the Space Shuttle that can trigger earthquakes. Alice is patient with him but throws him out when he asks her out for a date.

A new challenge...

I've just agreed to 'ghost write' the David Wilson blog for my old school mate, Dave 'Snooks' Wilson. The URL is http://thedavidwilson.blogspot.com/ and although I have a free hand in what I report, I have been given strict boundaries including a must inclusion of Aston Villa at least once a week. As we, along with Phil Finney and Richard (1099) Phillips were the only Villa fans in our year at school, then that shouldn't be too hard.

in reference to: Bob De Bilde (view on Google Sidewiki)

John F. Kennedy assassination

The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) in Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a Presidential motorcade.

The ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976–1979, and other government investigations concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was murdered before he could stand trial. This conclusion was initially met with support among the American public, but polls conducted from 1966 on show as many as 80% of the American public have held beliefs contrary to these findings. The assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) found both the original FBI investigation and the Warren Commission Report to be seriously flawed. The HSCA also concluded that there were at least four shots fired and that it was probable that a conspiracy existed. Later studies, including one by the National Academy of Sciences, have called into question the accuracy of the evidence used by the HSCA to support its finding of four shots.

JFK (film)

JFK is a 1991 American film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged subsequent cover-up, through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner). Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) for his alleged participation in a conspiracy to assassinate the President, for which Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) was found responsible by two Government investigations: the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (which concluded that there was another assassin shooting with Oswald). The film was adapted by Stone and Zachary Sklar from the books On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs. Stone described his fictionalized film as a "counter-myth" to the "fictional myth" of the Warren Commission.

The film became embroiled in controversy even before it was finished filming, after The Washington Post national security correspondent George Lardner showed up on the set. Based on the first draft of the screenplay, he wrote a scathing article attacking the film. Upon JFK's theatrical release, many major American newspapers ran editorials accusing Stone of taking liberties with historical facts, including the film's implication that President Lyndon B. Johnson was part of a coup d'etat to kill Kennedy. After a slow start at the box office, Stone's film gradually picked up momentum, earning over $205 million in worldwide gross. JFK went on to win two Academy Awards and was nominated for eight in total, including Best Picture.