Harvey Keitel

Retired underworld kingpin Meyer Lansky recounts the story of his life to down-on-his-luck writer David Stone while being investigated one last time by the FBI.

Jacob, once famous but now retired seventy-year-old actor, is looking for a dog-walker for his adorable little black schnauzer, Mitzy, that he obsessively loves more than anything else in the world. Out of all the candidates he picks Daniel, seemingly the least suitable for the job, a young loser immersed in virtual games. Jacob teaches him 'the ancient art' of dog walking; the lessons are a funny, absurd mixture of memory, history, and fantasy. - Manhattan Odyssey is an unusual 'love story' between two men, a woman and a dog, if it is love story at all. It leads us from an everyday activity such as a dog walking to the liminal space of the human animal becoming either animal or human.

Agent Will Graham is on the trail of a serial killer called The Tooth Fairy but must ask his arch-nemesis Dr. Hannibal `The Cannibal` Lecter for help in bringing him to justice.

An F.B.I. Agent from America and his bride and young child travel to the Sicilian island of Ginostra, to solve the murder of a key witness. Matt Benson, an FBI investigator, has been posted to the island of Panarea in the Lipari archipelago within the framework of an agreement between the USA and Italy. He has been allocated a comfortable, well-protected house with vast grounds and a private cove facing the Ginostra volcano. This delights his wife Jessie and their 5-year-old daughter Tina. A few days after they arrive, a 11-year-old boy, Ettore Greco, a Mafia victim, is questioned by Matt about the death of his whole family in a car bombing. For security reasons, Matt decides to bring Ettore to the house where he is living. This artificial adoption gradually reveals the tragic secret binding Matt to the child, a secret Jessie knows nothing about. From secrets to lies, the atmosphere in the villa slowly leads the Benson family to the gates of hell. Outside is the danger, inside is the fear. In between is an orphan child... —Anonymous

The film begins with a summary on how the Allies are struggling to stop U-boats from sinking their freighters. The scene transfers to U-571, which torpedoes and sinks a freighter. The crew is happy with the kill but seconds later the sonar man reports to have detected high speed screws. The Captain turns the periscope to sight a destroyer moving in, forcing U-571 to dive. The destroyer drops depth charges; unfortunately for the submarine, the depth charging snaps a fuel line which ignites while the engineers attempt to patch it, setting them all on fire. Due to the amount of damage sustained, the Captain orders U-571 to resurface. The Captain learns from his Chief who extinguished the fire in the engine room that their batteries are practically flat, both diesel engines are inoperable and all of their engineering crew are dead. After passing word to conserve electricity, he has his radioman send an Enigma-encoded SOS to Berlin for aid. Meanwhile, the crew of the United States Navy submarine S-33 are celebrating the wedding of Crewman Larson and leave for 48 hours. During the party, Lt. Andrew Tyler enters looking solemn, having been denied his own command. After complaining to Lt. Commander Dahlgren, he is rebuffed and upset to learn that Dahlgren voted against him receiving the promotion. While talking to Chief Henry Klough, Military Police suddenly arrive to announce the end of their shore leave for a secret mission. All the men arrive at the base to find their boat, the S-33, being modified to resemble a German U-boat. The crewmen are given German uniforms to wear as well. Hirsch, a Naval Intelligence officer who is fluent in German, orders Tyler to locate Radioman Wentz, who is fluent in German due to his immigrant parents. At the same time, a Marine named Coonan arrives in a convoy loaded with high explosives. After the S-33 sails, Hirsch explains that the Allies intercepted the disabled U-571's SOS. They are going to masquerade as the resupply ship U-571 called for, board the ship, capture her Enigma coding device and then scuttle the U-571. Tyler is skeptical about the scheme working but goes along. Wentz privately asks Tyler to not tell the rest of the crew that his parents are German. Back on U-571, attempted repairs fail and the Captain is alerted that survivors from the merchant ship he sank have been spotted on a lifeboat asking for asylum. He orders his men to shoot them, as their orders are not to spare any survivors. His men reluctantly do so. During a storm, the S-33 comes across U-571 and sends the boarding party over, led by Coonan. Hirsch temporarily freezes and Wentz is forced to speak German in front of his friends in order for the group to retain their cover until their rafts are tied up. At first, the Germans openly welcome the S-33, but when a midshipman looks through his binoculars, he immediately identifies the weapons as American. He alerts the rest of the Germans and they exchange fire with the S-33 crewmen. The Americans are able to take the boat by force, capture the Enigma and begin rounding up the prisoners, including the Captain. As the prisoners are transferred between ships and the scuttling charges are laid, Dahlgren, standing on the upper deck of the S-33, notices the sound of a detonation. He turns around in horror to see a streak coming towards the S-33 underwater. The ship is torpedoed and sunk by the real German resupply sub. CO Dahlgren, wounded in the water, orders his men on the captured U-boat to submerge and save themselves. (This scene was based on an actual incident in World War II) Coonan, Larson and many others are lost, forcing Tyler to take command and dive the captured U-boat. There is a desperate scramble to disarm the charges they placed. With only Hirsch and Wentz able to read German, after struggling with interpreting the controls they fire a salvo of torpedoes, destroying the enemy U-Boat, draining the last of the sub's batteries and spending all but the last torpedo, loaded in the malfunctioning aft torpedo tube. Surfacing, Tyler and his men search for survivors and find two: Eddie the cook from the S-33 and a German sailor claiming to be an electrician, but who is actually the Captain of U-571. After repairing one of the diesel engines, thus restoring power and propulsion, Tyler decides to take the disabled submarine to England. Some of the men disagree with Tyler's decision and Tyler replies with "I don't know" to their questions. Chief Klough privately rebukes Tyler, saying "A Captain always knows what to do, whether he does or not." He also rebukes Mazzola in front of others for openly disagreeing with Tyler. They spot an aircraft and Mazzola tries to convince Rabbit to fire on the plane with the deck gun against Tyler's orders, which appears to be coming in for an attack, but is only scouting for a German destroyer named the Anschluss. Tyler punches Mazzola for ignoring the Chain of Command and his stupidity. The captured German Captain breaks free, attacks Tank and kills Mazzola before being subdued. Unaware that the U-571 has been commandeered by Americans, the Anschluss sends over a small contingent to meet and greet with their German comrades. Right before boarders arrive, Tyler has Rabbit fire a shot from the deck gun right into the ship's radio tower, preventing the destroyer from reporting that the enigma code has been compromised and dives underneath her. The destroyer begins to drop depth charges to try to sink U-571. Tyler plans to trick the destroyer into stopping by ejecting debris and Mazzola's corpse out of an empty torpedo tube, faking their own destruction. The younger men balk at using their crewman's body this way, but Tyler states that Mazzola is saving their lives. U-571 will then surface and hit the ship with their last torpedo. The German destroyer continues dropping depth charges. U-571, hiding at great depth of below 200 meters, is damaged by the high-water pressure. In preventing the submarine from sinking, control of the main ballast tank is lost, and the ship ascends uncontrollably. Tyler orders Trigger to submerse himself in the bilge underwater to re-pressurize the torpedo tubes. During the ascent the German prisoner tries to warn the destroyer in Morse Code that they're not dead yet. Wentz translates the message in German, "I am U-571. Destroy me!" Enraged, Hirsch grabs a large wrench and kills the prisoner. Trigger manages to close the air valve for the tubes, but a second leak and valve is unexpectedly revealed, both behind a wall of pipes; Trigger's arm can't reach, and his air hose is too short. When Tank reports this, Tyler rushes to the engine room himself. Tyler tells him that they need him to do this and orders him to get the job done. U-571 surfaces without a torpedo to fire. The destroyer fires on the ship, which runs using its diesel engine, but takes heavy damage from the destroyer's deck guns and starts to flood. Trigger leaves behind the air hose and closes the second valve, but the damage causes pipes to collapse, trapping his leg and he drowns. The second the pressure is available, Tyler orders Tank to fire the final torpedo. The German ship is destroyed; in front of everyone, Chief Klough tells Tyler that if he ever needs a Chief, he will gladly go to sea with him anytime. Tank reports Trigger's death while carrying out his order, but U-571 has taken severe damage and will not stay afloat for long. The crew abandons ship with the Enigma in tow and watches it sink, seemingly mourning both for their lost crew-mates and also for the German sub which ironically saved their lives. Floating aboard an inflatable lifeboat, they are eventually spotted by a US Navy seaplane.

The story revolves around a struggle to determine which of Satan's (Harvey Keitel) three sons will succeed their father as ruler of Hell. Adrian (Rhys Ifans) is the most devious, Cassius (Tom Lister Jr.) is the cruelest and Nicky (Adam Sandler) is their father's favorite. Adrian and Cassius claim that Nicky's mother is a goat and torment him by controlling his body with their minds. Nicky has had a speech impediment and a disfigured jaw since Cassius hit him in the face with a shovel when he was a child. Having been the "Prince of Darkness" for ten thousand years, Satan assembles his sons to decide which of them will succeed him, but instead he keeps the throne for himself because his sons are not yet ready to be his successor and tells them that they need to learn to keep the balance between good and evil. Angered by this decision, Adrian and Cassius go to Earth to create a new Hell by possessing religious and political leaders in New York City. As they leave, they freeze the entrance to Hell, preventing more souls from entering and causing Satan's body to begin decomposing. Stanley the Gatekeeper informs Satan of this and Satan punishes him by growing breasts on his head and giving him to his father Lucifer. To stop Adrian and Cassius, Satan sends Nicky to Earth with a silver flask that traps whoever drinks from it inside. At first, Nicky has trouble staying alive on Earth. He is killed several times, landing in Hell and returning to New York each time. While learning how to eat and sleep, he meets a talking bulldog named Mr. Beefy (Robert Smigel), rents an apartment with an actor named Todd (Allen Covert) and falls in love with a design student named Valerie (Patricia Arquette). Nicky's first encounter with his brothers occurs when Adrian sees him with Valerie, takes mental control of his body and makes him scare her away. Then Nicky sees Cassius on television, possessing the referee (Dana Carvey) of a Harlem Globetrotters game. When he goes to the court and tricks Cassius into the flask, Satanist metal-heads John (Jonathan Loughran) and Peter (Peter Dante) are so thrilled with his performance that they become his devoted fans. That evening, Nicky tries to apologize to Valerie. The meeting goes badly at first, but she accepts him after he explains who he is and why he is on Earth. The next day, Adrian possesses the Chief of the NYPD (Michael McKean) and accuses Nicky of mass murder using an edited scene from Scarface. Not knowing what to do, Nicky has Todd kill him so he can go back to Hell and ask his father for advice, but his father has trouble hearing because his ears have fallen off and his assistants are in a panic because the midnight deadline to capture Adrian and Cassius is only hours away. Back on Earth again, Nicky and his friends devise a plan to capture Adrian in a subway station, but Adrian discovers their trick. In the ensuing fight, Adrian grabs Valerie and dives onto the track as a train approaches, but Nicky throws her out of the way, leaving himself and Adrian to be killed by the train. Arriving in Hell just minutes before midnight, Adrian dethrones his weakened father and takes over, rising into Central Park and starting a riotous party while all of the demons except Satan's assistant Jimmy (Blake Clark) join Adrian on Earth. Meanwhile, Nicky wakes up in Heaven as a reward for sacrificing himself and meets his mother Holly (Reese Witherspoon), an angel who tells him he can defeat Adrian with the "Inner Light" he inherited from her. After she gives him a mysterious orb, he goes to Central Park. The demons discover Nicky and try to attack him, but Nicky creates gifts for them which makes them respect Nicky enough to join him and stop Adrian, but when Adrian kills one, they all run away. Nicky and Adrian then fight, which results in both of them sucked into the flask where they have a three-way battle with Cassius. Adrian appears to win a pitched battle by locking Nicky in the flask and turning himself into a bat, but Nicky escapes from the flask. When he shatters the orb, Ozzy Osbourne appears, bites Adrian's head off and spits it into the flask. With his brothers captured, Nicky prepares to save his father. He and Valerie express their love for each other and she kills him. In Hell, Satan regains his body and suggests Nicky stay with Valerie to maintain things in the middle while stating to Holly that he still loves her. In the presence of Nicky and Satan, Lucifer shoves the flask containing Adrian and Cassius up Adolf Hitler's rump. The film ends a year later, when Nicky and Valerie live in New York with their infant son Zachariah. It is mentioned that John and Peter have died in a plane crash and are now happily living in Hell in Nicky's old room. A postscript revealed what happened to everyone: . Valerie accidentally struck Nicky with a shovel which fixed his jaw disfigurement. "He's still no George Clooney" . Zachariah was suspended from nursery school after turning another kid's bottle of milk into moose urine. . Todd started his one-man show on Broadway which only a transvestite named Andrew/Nipples who attended Adrian's riotous party attended. . Mr. Beefy reunited with his rat girlfriend Heather where they got married last April and had kids. . Stanley the Gatekeeper and Gary the Monster also had kids of their own. . Satan and Holly have been unable to deal with their long-distance relationship after dating for a while. Satan has been romantically linked to both the Blair Witch and Cher. Holly immediately fell in love with her new aerobics' instructor Chris Farley. . Using their $25,000,000 reward money, John and Peter purchased Led Zeppelin's old touring airplane, stocked it with cake, beer and great tunes, died in a plane crash soon after takeoff due to a lack of a pilot, and ended up happily in Hell as honored residents who have been given Nicky's old bedroom to party in.

Ruth's been brainwashed by a guru in Delhi, India. Her parents in Sydney hire a specialist in reversing this. Ruth is tricked to return to Australia and is isolated in an outback cabin with the specialist. It gets messy. While on a journey of discovery in exotic India, beautiful young Ruth Barron falls under the influence of a charismatic religious guru. Her desperate parents then hire P.J. Waters, a macho cult de-programmer who confronts Ruth in a remote desert hideaway. But P.J. quickly learns that he's met his match in the sexy, intelligent, and iron-willed Ruth. Based in Sans Souci, Sydney, Australia, Ruth Barron and her friend go on a trip to Delhi, India, where Ruth attends a Hindu religious ceremony, and decides to stay put. Ruth's mother, Miriam, travels to Chandni Chowk, Delhi, where she meets with Ruth, and is appalled at the condition she is living in. She tells Ruth that her father has had a stroke and may not survive. A Saree-clad Ruth, who now calls herself Naznee, initially refuses, but relents and accompanies her mother back home. Once at home, she adorns her room with pictures of Bhagwan Shri Shiv, Bhagwan Shri Kishan and Devi Maa Lakshmi, and she will soon find out that the real reason for her return is to spend time alone in a half way hut in the desert in the company of an renowned 'Cult Exiter' PJ Waters - and it is after this encounter that everyone's lives will change forever. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

In the fictional town of Garrison, New Jersey, located across the Hudson River from New York City near the George Washington Bridge, a number of residents are NYPD officers. Local sheriff Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) is secretly in love with Liz Randone (Annabella Sciorra), whose life he once saved after a car accident. Her rescue cost him the hearing in one ear and made him ineligible to become a New York City cop, as so many of his peers did, including Liz's abusive and unfaithful husband Joey Randone (Peter Berg). One night, Murray "Superboy" Babitch (Michael Rapaport), nephew of Lt. Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel), leaves a bachelor party at Scores in Manhattan, driving over a discarded beer bottle. He's driving across the George Washington Bridge when his car is sideswiped by a couple of African-American teens. Babitch attempts to force them to pull over. The passenger points what Babitch thinks is a weapon and then the front tire of his car suddenly goes flat. Believing they have fired at him, Babitch shoots back. In an ensuing accident, Babitch collides with their car. Both of the teens are dead from the shots Babitch fired. During the ensuing investigation at the scene, Jack Rucker (Robert Patrick) is caught trying to plant a weapon in the teens' vehicle to justify the shooting. One of the paramedics seizes the gun from Rucker and tosses it over the side of the bridge. A brief fight breaks out but is quickly broken up. Worried about the repercussions on his career of having shot unarmed black teens, Babitch is persuaded by Donlan to fake his suicide. During the tussle over the planted gun, Ray pretends that Babitch has jumped off the bridge. Other corrupt police officers, including Detective Leo Crasky (John Spencer) and Frank Lagonda (Arthur Nascarella), fear that Babitch will resurface and testify about their corruption to Internal Affairs. While on radar patrol with his partner Cindy Betts (Janeane Garofalo), Ray zips by their position at about 70 mph. They pull him over, with Ray trying to muscle his way out of a speeding ticket with Betts, saying that he's above receiving a traffic citation. Heflin agrees to let him go but as Ray zooms off, Freddy sees Babitch stick his head up in the back seat. Internal Affairs investigator Lt. Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) asks if Heflin will provide information on the corrupt cops who live in his town. Heflin is intimidated by the New York City cops and is reluctant to betray them, derailing Tilden's case. Superiors in the department, related to the corrupt cops, order Tilden to shut down the investigation. Although the Babitch cover-up appears to be initially successful, Ray is told by Patrolmen's Defense Association President Vincent Lassaro (Frank Vincent) that without a body, the case will not stay cold. Ray reluctantly decides that his nephew must be killed. During a loud party held by Ray at his house, Babitch is tipped off by his aunt Rose (Cathy Moriarty). Ray, Jack and Frank try to drown Babitch in Ray's hot tub. Babitch, grabbing a pistol he'd hidden in his waistband, fires off several shots just as Joe Randone, arriving at the party late, hears them. Babitch flees in to the night and goes to Freddy's house looking for help, but when he sees Freddy's friend (and fellow NYPD cop) Gary "Figgsy" Figgis (Ray Liotta), he flees. Later at the bar the police all hang out at, Joey disagrees with Ray over his plans to find & eliminate his nephew. Later that evening while on patrol, Joey Randone gets into a fight with a violent suspect and is thrown off a rooftop. While he is clinging to an TV aerial and calling for help. Donlan sees him and, out of payback for Randone carrying on an affair with his wife, closes the door to the building's atrium and deliberately stalls, trying to pick the lock as the other officers arrive to help. By the time the squad gets to the roof, Randone has fallen to his death. When Freddy realizes his mistake, he visits Tilden and is angrily told that the case was blown by his failure to cooperate sooner. As he leaves, Freddy sees a number of NYPD case files on the corrupt cops and steals them. He studies the files and realizes the extent of his friends' corruption. Deputy Cindy Betts decides to leave Garrison, frustrated by the New York City cops having turned the town into their own personal fiefdom. Freddy returns home to find Figgsy packing to leave, not wanting to be further involved. Freddy finds out that Figgsy burned down his own house for the insurance money, accidentally killing his crack-addicted girlfriend Monica (Mel Gorham). Heflin manages to convince Rose to reveal where Babitch is hiding in the town's water tower, then takes him to Garrison's jail. Heflin generously permits Deputy Bill Geisler (Noah Emmerich), who is nervous about protecting Babitch, to go home and take care of his pregnant wife. Heflin attempts to bring Babitch to New York City to turn over to Tilden, but Lagonda, Donlan and Rucker ambush him. Rucker cruelly fires a gun next to Freddy's good ear, deafening and disabling him. Babitch is taken, presumably to be killed. On foot and almost totally deaf, Heflin follows them to Donlan's house, where he quickly gets into a gunfight with Ray's man. Heflin kills both Jack and Frank. Heflin is then shot in the shoulder by Leo Crasky, but is saved by the arrival of Figgsy, who kills Crasky. In the house, Babitch is trying to escape through a window. Donlan sneaks up behind Heflin, but before he can fire, Figgsy shoots. Barely hearing the shot, Heflin turns and shoots. As Donlan lies dying on the floor, he mutters obscenities, to which Heflin replies simply: "I can't hear you, Ray." Figgsy and Heflin personally take Babitch to New York City and to Internal Affairs, refusing to allow any other cop to assist them. Tilden takes their prisoner into custody. After the scandal has been investigated and indictments handed down, Heflin, who has recovered hearing in his good ear, ends up looking at the New York City skyline from across the Hudson River. Deputy Geisler notifies him about a jack-knifed truck and Freddy goes back to work.

After kidnapping a family, the Gecko brothers seek refuge in a Mexican bar, only to face its deadly vampire patrons.

Brooklyn Cigar Store is a neighborhood hangout in Brooklyn with Auggie Wren/H.Keitel as center. Some people are interviewed about Brooklyn, spiced up with statistics on Brooklyn. Wayne Wang's follow-up movie to Smoke (1995) presents a series of improvisational situations strung together to form a pastiche of Brooklyn's diverse ethnicity, offbeat humor, and essential humanity. Many of the same characters inhabiting Auggie Wren's Brooklyn Cigar Store in Smoke (1995) return here to expound on their philosophy of smoking, relationships, baseball, New York City, and Belgian Waffles. Most of all, this is a movie about living life, off-the-cuff.

In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of "clockers" - street-level drug dealers - sell drugs for Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams (Steve White), is stealing from him and "got to be got", implying that he wants Strike to kill Darryl. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington) and tries to persuade Victor to kill Darryl Adams. Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazilli (John Turturro), homicide detectives, ride to the scene of Darryl Adams' murder. Larry and Rocco receive a phone call from another detective who says a man has confessed at a local church that he killed Darryl. The police meet Strike's older brother Victor at the church and take him in for questioning. In the interrogation room, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Darryl Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and starts looking into Victor's background which includes two jobs, a wife, two children, no criminal record, and aspirations to move out of the projects; Rocco comes to the conclusion that Victor is covering for his younger brother. Rocco pressures Strike but Victor sticks to his story, so Rocco convinces Rodney that Strike has confessed and informed on Rodney's drug ring. Rocco arrests Rodney and then humiliates Strike in front of his crew. Strike gets together some money and decides to leave town, but a younger boy who admired Strike shoots Errol, Rodney's enforcer, with Strike's gun. Rocco lets Strike leave town.

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

Joe Cabot, a crime leader, plans a diamond heist and hires a group of six experienced criminals, who are oblivious to each other's real identity.

A charismatic gangster and his starlet mistress join forces to create his vision of what we now know as Las Vegas.

Two detectives interrogate a hairdresser on two homicides she may or may not have been involved in. The hairdresser, wife and mother Cynthia Kellogg is in a police department being interrogated by the experienced detective John Woods and his partner, Detective Linda Nealon. Through flashbacks, she reveals how her best friend and colleague Joyce Urbanski married the scum of the earth, nasty type, James Urbanski; how hard Joyce's life with James was; and is why Joyce became a criminal. The smart detective finds some contradictions in her statement and presses Cynthia, trying to disclose the truth of the two murders. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Cynthia comes forward to talk to detective John about the murder of her best friend's husband. The story is told as a series of flashbacks... James was a bullying, verbally and physically abusive husband. His wife Joyce has, on a number of occasions, expressed her intention to kill him. One night when all three are at the fair, Joyce has a row with James, and Cynthia helps James back to the van. But later he was found dead... —Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com>

The sequel to Chinatown (1974) finds J.J. "Jake" Gittes investigating adultery and murder, and the money that comes from oil. Private detective Jake Gittes has a new client. Jake Berman believes his wife is cheating on him and wants Gittes and his associates to catch her in the act. Everything appears to be going according to plan until Berman shoots the man dead. It should be an open-and-shut case but now Gittes is drawn into a complex web that involves far more than infidelity. —grantss After the war, L.A. private eye Jake Gittes is hired by realtor Jake Berman. He proves the infidelity of Berman's wife Kitty and sets up a way for her to be caught in the act. At the rendezvous, Berman shoots the co-respondent who turns out to be his business partner. Gittes finds himself in the middle of a complicated web, under pressure from all sides for a wire recording of the fatal encounter. He then realises that the land the partners were developing was once an orange grove connected with a case that he has never quite gotten over. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Two years after being forced out of the NYPD, quirky Nick Starkey is rehired by the mayor to help catch a serial killer after 11 women are murdered in the city. Nick and Frank Starkey were both policemen. A scandal forced Nick to leave the force, now a serial killer has driven the police to take him back. A web that includes Frank's wife, bribery, and corruption all are in the background as Nick tries to uncover the secret of where the killer will strike next, and finally must lay a trap without the police. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

On Christmas Eve, commercial artist Molly Gilmore and architectural engineer Frank Raftis are last-minute Christmas shopping in Manhattan. Frank meets his colleague Ed for drinks; Ed tells Frank he is getting divorced. Molly sees her friend Isabelle, who is married, but plans to spend Christmas with another man; Molly also visits her sick father. Later that day, at the counter in a hectic bookstore, Frank and Molly get their packages mixed up, and on Christmas Day, Molly's husband, Brian, and Frank's wife, Ann, each opens the book that was meant for the other. Three months later, Frank and Molly, who commute into Manhattan from adjacent stops on the Metro-North Hudson Line, run into each other on the morning train. They struggle to place each other, but eventually Frank remembers, and reminds her of the confusion over the books. Later that day, Frank's boss asks him to take a post in Houston. Molly visits her father in hospital. Molly tells Isabelle about Frank; Frank tells Ed about Molly. That evening, Frank waits for Molly at Grand Central Terminal. They talk, and agree to meet on the morning train later that week. Against their better judgement, Frank and Molly grow closer. They see more and more of each other until, one afternoon, Frank takes Molly to Ed's apartment. They begin to make love, but Molly cannot go through with it. They agree that they must stop seeing each other. When Molly returns home that day, Brian gives her the news that her father has died. At the funeral, she has a panic attack. Convalescing, she tells Isabelle that it isn't grief for her father that she is suffering, but the loss of Frank. Meanwhile, Frank agrees to take the job in Houston. He tells Ann about Molly, throwing the future of their marriage into question. On the night he is due to leave, Frank calls Molly at home. Frank asks to see her before he goes, but as Brian stands listening, she ends the call. Unable to resist, she tells Brian she must see Frank one more time, and rushes to her car. Driving fast in the pouring rain, she nearly collides with a train at a crossing, and misses her chance. Meanwhile Frank tries to call her again but her husband answers the phone and says she doesn't want to talk to Frank. Some time later, once more in the run up to Christmas, Frank meets Ed and tells him that he and Ann are now separated. Molly meets Isabelle, and it is clear from their conversation that her marriage to Brian has failed too. Frank makes a stop at the bookstore where he and Molly first met. Molly is there at the same time. They talk but, uncertain how things now stand between them, go their separate ways. Walking away from the store, Frank stops, turns, and runs after her. A short time later on a crowded train out of Grand Central, he finds her again. They embrace.

At a christening ceremony in a Mexican church, the walls shake and the building collapses when a sudden earthquake strikes. While men clear the rubble, one of the survivors, a 19-year-old Mexican girl named Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), carries her baby and follows her younger brother, Juan (Manuel Viescars), through the wreckage. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, California, immigration Officer Charlie Smith (Jack Nicholson) arbitrarily arrests two Mexican workers from a factory. Later, Charlie returns to his run-down trailer home where his wife, Marcy (Valerie Perrine), tells him that she wishes to buy a duplex in El Paso, Texas, next door to her friend, Savannah (Shannon Wilcox). Charlie muses over the idea of changing careers and working with park services, but Marcy believes it would be a mistake. As Charlie and Marcy move to El Paso, Maria, Juan, and the baby reach the U.S.-Mexico border. Charlie and Marcy meet Savannah, her husband, Cat (Harvey Keitel), and their young son Timmy (Jay Thurman) at the house. Inside, Savannah and Marcy laugh remembering their days as high school cheerleaders. After Cat has Charlie outfitted for his uniform as a border patrolman, Charlie's new partner, Hawker (Alan Fudge), drives him around the three-mile-long "Tortilla Curtain" border fence, where they encounter a group of young Mexicans sneaking across. Because Hawker identifies them as day workers sneaking into the U.S. for the workday before returning to Mexico at night, he lets them get away. That night, Hawker and Charlie respond to an urgent call, and Hawker is shot and killed by an armed illegal immigrant. The next day at border patrol headquarters, Charlie meets Red (Warren Oates), the patrol supervisor, and attends Hawker's funeral. Later, Charlie walks along the Rio Grande River and becomes transfixed when he spots Maria holding her baby. Charlie returns home to find that, to his annoyance, Marcy purchased a waterbed and opened a charge account at the local mall. In the desert, Cat and Charlie arrest a Mexican man smuggling cocaine and load a group of immigrants into a van to drive them back across the border. Among them, Charlie recognizes Maria, but when he approaches her, she spits in his face. After Charlie locks the drug smuggler in a cell at patrol headquarters, Cat sends the patrol's Mexican contact, Manuel (Mike Gomez), to speak with the criminal. Later, Cat suggests that Charlie participate in his and Red's scheme; smuggling immigrants for extra money, but Charlie refuses. At home, Marcy tells her husband that she wants to work on television and he discovers that she installed a swimming pool. At the Rio Grande river border, Charlie calls out to a woman he believes to be Maria, but is mistaken. He crosses the water into Mexico and walks through a poor village, where he finds the drug smuggling boy with his throat slit. Back in Texas at Red's birthday party, Charlie tells Cat and Red about the body, suspecting Manuel of suspicious dealings. Cat dismisses the idea and Red banishes Charlie from crossing the border again. One night, Charlie and Cat attempt to stop a group of Mexicans, including Maria and her brother, from hopping onto a freight train. When Juan falls under the train, Charlie jumps under the train to protect him. While detained in an outdoor holding cell, a woman offers to hold Maria's child and scuttles off to hand the baby to Manuel. Maria realizes the baby is gone and begins to cry, prompting an uprising from the other detainees, who break out of their cage. The patrolmen use tear gas to control the crowd and load the detainees on a bus to drive them back to Mexico. That night, Cat confronts Manuel about the stolen baby and Manuel reveals that he sold the child to a wealthy Caucasian family. As they talk, they see El Scorcho, a man with a burned face who traffics Mexicans in competition with their own arrangement. Charlie wakes up the next morning to the sounds of Marcy moving more furniture into the house. Fed up with her excessive spending to build him the perfect "dream house," he slaps her. Charlie and Cat visit J. J. (Jeff Morris), whose house acts as a delivery station for smuggled immigrants. As Charlie waits outside, J. J. hands Cat a stack of money. During a pool party at the Smiths' house, Savannah drunkenly starts a food fight, prompting Marcy to scream. Amidst the chaos, Charlie dumps a grill full of burning meat into the pool. One afternoon, Charlie catches El Scorcho with a truckload of Mexicans. Cat suddenly arrives and takes El Scorcho back toward the station, but Jack hears two gunshots from the direction in which Cat drove away. At the station, Charlie yells at Cat that he does not want to get involved with murder. Marcy gets her hair done at the salon and worriedly tells Savannah that she does not know how to make Charlie happy. Outside a bar another night later, Charlie pays Juan $5 to take him to Maria and finds her in a strip club, where she works as a dancer for Manuel. When he tries to lead her away, two men beat Charlie up and throw him outside. The next day, Manuel warns Cat that Charlie will get them into trouble. As Charlie chases a driver through the desert, he fails to notice two Mexicans who are being transported. Cat watches the incident from a distance. When the driver confesses to transporting two men, Charlie returns to the site to check again. Inside the driver's vehicle, he finds their bloody bodies, which he swears had not been there before. Cat insists he will cover for Charlie and they sink the car in a nearby pond. Charlie again asks Juan to take him to see Maria and informs them that he will help smuggle them across the border the next day. He insists that she does not owe him anything, and that helping them would allow him to feel good about something in his life. The next night, Charlie watches as Maria, Juan, and a group of others safely cross the Rio Grande. Outside J. J.'s house, Maria's group boards a truck and Charlie and Cat take their payment for the delivery. However, Juan is shot for attempting to smuggle drugs, and he runs away. Two patrolmen notice the truck on the highway and follow in pursuit. Charlie hears the call on his patrol radio and, concerned about Maria, drives to catch up with them. Gaining speed, the truck loses control and crashes on a hillside. Charlie takes Maria home and asks Marcy to tend to the girl while he returns to J. J.'s house to look for Juan. Once there, he overhears Red talking with J. J., explaining how the heist went wrong. Charlie returns home to take Maria back to Mexico, but Marcy believes he is leaving her. Although he and Maria find Juan, bloody and feverish, he dies shortly after. As Maria prays over her brother's body, Manuel and J. J. prowl outside and Charlie shoots J. J. in the face. Charlie finds Manuel at a bar and demands he return the baby, who has not yet been sold, to Maria. At the house where the baby is hidden, Charlie finds the infant buried in a laundry basket, and Manuel calls the patrolmen. On the road, Cat and a few other officers shoot at Charlie as he drives by. Charlie gets out of his vehicle and fires at the officers, exploding their car, and Cat hides under a bulldozer. Charlie shoots the tire, which deflates and causes the oversize vehicle to crush Cat to death. Charlie returns to the Rio Grande crossing and delivers the baby to Maria, who thanks him through her tears.

When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail. Three workers, Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel), and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto), are working at a car plant and drinking their beers together. One night, when they steal away from their wives to have some fun, they get the idea to rob the local union's bureau safe. First they think it is a flop, because they get only six hundred dollars out of it, but then Zeke realizes that they also have gotten some "hot" material. They decide to blackmail their union. The best reason for that is the union itself. All three are provoked by the fact that the union claims to have lost ten thousand dollars by their robbery. —Oliver Heidelbach Three auto workers at a car factory in Detroit rail against the injustice they see and their lot in life. They are barely getting by and factory management are always hounding them and generally making their life a misery. Their union should be looking out for them but does nothing. They then decide to rob the union's head office but find something much more valuable: evidence of shady dealings by the union. However, what should have been their ticket to a reasonable amount of money turns into a life-threatening situation. —grantss

"The Duellists" is based on a story written by Joseph Conrad, which, according to the author, was itself based on a true story whose origins sprang from a ten-line paragraph in a small Southern France local newspaper. That brief paragraph reported the fatal ending of a duel between two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army. The two officers had fought a series of duels in the midst of great wars on some futile pretext. As the pretext was never disclosed, Conrad invented one. We are in 1800, in the garrison town of Strasbourg, on the Rhine. There is a lull in the Napoleonic wars, and the French soldiers are enjoying a moment of peace before resuming the slaughters. As the film opens, a young girl driving a gaggle of geese happens upon two men dueling in a meadow. Lieutenant Gabriel Féraud (Harvey Keitel), from the 7th Hussar Regiment, is in the process of settling a score with an unknown man who soon ends up skewered on the Lieutenant's épée. We learn that this man is the nephew of the Mayor of Strasbourg, and is seriously wounded, when General Treillard (Robert Stephens), Commandant of the garrison, enters his officers quarters and makes inquiries about this Lieutenant Féraud. Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine), from the 4th Hussar Regiment, admits to vaguely knowing the gentleman, and he is immediately "volunteered" by his Commandant to find him and bring him back to the barracks, where he will be put under house arrest. General Treillard, who must see that his soldiers obey the Emperors rules prohibiting combat with civilians, needs to investigate what happened in the meadow. It is somewhat ironical that Bonaparte, who spent a large part of his life dueling with the rest of Europe on a rather grand scale, involving tens of thousand of participants on both sides (but was somewhat of a dilettante when judged by present day's standards), had little respect for the same tradition on an individual level. D'Hubert, after looking all over town, ends up at Féraud's private quarters, where he learns that the Lieutenant is attending a soirée at the salon of Madame de Lionne (Jenny Runacre). At the salon, d'Hubert meets with Féraud and informs him of his mission. Féraud, having judged himself the insulted party in his morning duel, cannot comprehend the reason for his arrest. Further, he determines that d'Hubert has in turn insulted him by bursting into the salon of Madame de Lionne, disturbing him with the General's orders as he was talking to the lady. Féraud immediately challenges d'Hubert to a duel with sabers, which ends when Féraud is wounded. Now, not only has Féraud's forearm been injured, but his wounded pride demands satisfaction. From then on, for the next fifteen years, Féraud will be obsessed with the idea of settling his dispute with d'Hubert, holding him captive by Férauds tragic, ironic concept of honor. D'Hubert goes to meet his friend, an army surgeon (Tom Conti), asking his advice on how to get out of this messy situation. The surgeon tells him first, to keep away from Féraud, second, to always stay ahead of Féraud in military rank, since only duels between soldiers of equal ranks are tolerated and third, to rely on Napoleon for keeping the wars going, as there is no dueling during a state of war. Augsburg, one year later. Lieutenant d'Hubert meets an old girl friend, Laura (Diana Quick), one of the camp followers. She tells him she has an offer of marriage from a one-armed veteran, but they nevertheless resume their relationship. It happens that Lieutenant Féraud is in the same town, and of course they will duel again. Epées, this time. This encounter is not so lucky for d'Hubert, who ends up gravely wounded. Their seconds propose that now the honor of both parties has been saved, but The Duellists both refuse the opportunity for reconciliation. Laura nurses d'Hubert back to health, but after a face-to-face with Féraud and a subsequent consultation with a fortuneteller, she realizes that these duelists will go on until one of them is killed. If it is d'Hubert who is to die, she cannot see any future in their relationship. She decides to leave him and go and marry the disabled ex-soldier. Captain Féraud (he caught up in rank with d'Hubert, who was promoted earlier) and Captain d'Hubert meet in a third duel, again with sabers, in a cellar. The two combatants fight to total exhaustion in an inconclusive duel, and eventually, dirty and bleeding, must be separated by their seconds. Lubeck, 1806. Captain d'Hubert and Captain Féraud duel a fourth time, on horseback. It is Féraud's turn to be wounded, seriously enough to not be able to continue the fight to its conclusion. Laura reappears on the scene. She is now a widow, and had hoped to settle with her ex-lover, Captain d'Hubert, but she sees that this is just wishful thinking. D'Hubert, too involved in this dueling matter, remains deaf to her subtle suggestion that they resume their affair. Russia, 1812. The Emperor's Grand Army, defeated by the terrible Russian winter and the Russian battle tactics, is in retreat. Colonels Féraud and d'Hubert are now like grunts in the "sacred battalion," consisting of officers of all arms who had no longer any troops to commend. One night, around a campfire, they find themselves again face to face. They silently recognize each other. The next day, Féraud requests a volunteer to go investigate some Cossack activities in the nearby woods. The soldiers are so exhausted and despondent that Féraud had guessed rightly that d'Hubert would be the only one to follow him, with the ulterior motive of finishing their endless confrontation. Far from the camp they come face to face, each with a pair of pistols, but at that moment, a group of Cossacks appears and the two adversaries present a common front to fight them off. Following this, in a gesture of reconciliation, d'Hubert offers Féraud a drink from his hip flask, but the latter disdainfully walks away: "Pistols, next time," he says. Tour, 1814. Napoleon is in exile on the Island of Elba and the Bourbons are back in power with Louis XVIII. General d'Hubert is convalescing at his sister Leoni's home from a bad leg wound sustained during the campaign in France, fighting the Prussians. She suggests to her brother he ought to get married, and offers to introduce him to Adele (Cristina Raines), the niece of her neighbor, the old aristocrat Chevalier de Riverol (Alan Webb). After a short courtship, the two marry. D'Hubert is visited by a Bonapartist gentleman (Edward Fox), a friend of General Féraud, who tries to recruit him to aid in the planned return of the Emperor, but d'Hubert refuses. Following the "Hundred Days," the return of Napoleon to French soil, the Emperor is defeated at Waterloo, and definitively exiled to the Island of St. Helena. Louis XVIII is returned to the throne. Many known Bonapartists are arrested, including General Féraud, and these will be executed as examples. Upon hearing the news, d'Hubert meets with the Police Minister of the Second Empire, Fouché, now Duke of Otranto (Albert Finney), and requests Férauds pardon, a request that is granted. D'Hubert asks only that his intervention on Férauds behalf be kept secret. Having discovered d'Hubert's whereabouts, Féraud sends two of his ex-companions in arms to set up yet another, and hopefully, final duel. The Duellists meet at dawn, on d'Hubert's property, with pistols. Two shots each, fire at will. D'Hubert gets to fire the last shot, but instead of killing Féraud, he fires a bullet into the ground, and with this gesture becomes the rightful owner's of Féraud's life: "I shall simply declare you dead," says d'Hubert. The final scene shows Féraud, from the back, standing on a bluff overlooking the Dordogne River winding through the beautiful valley below. He stands wearing a two-pointed cocked hat and a long black, straight military capote, reminiscent of his Emperor's portraits on the Island of St. Helena - could it be "le petit caporal" (the little corporal), the Emperor himself, humiliated and defeated? It is the "end of the road" for Féraud: finally at peace, as he meditates on what has been his life.

In New York City's Little Italy, a devoutly Catholic mobster must reconcile his desire for power, his feelings for his epileptic girlfriend, and his devotion to his troublesome friend. The future is set for Tony and Michael -- owning a neighborhood bar and making deals in the mean streets of New York City's Little Italy. For Charlie, the future is less clearly defined. A small-time hood, he works for his uncle, making collections and reclaiming bad debts. In love with a woman of whom his uncle disapproves (due to her epilepsy) and a friend of her disturbed cousin, Johnny Boy, a near psychotic whose trouble-making threatens them all -- Charlie just cannot reconcile opposing values. A failed attempt to escape (to Brooklyn) moves them all a step closer to a bitter, almost preordained future. —Dave Cook <cookd@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca> In a series of character-led incidents set against the background of New York City's Little Italy, we follow the life of Charlie, a small-time member of the wiseguy community who collects protection money. His friends Tony and Michael are part of the community, but his other friend Johnny Boy is unreliable and therefore must be shunned. Charlie's secret girlfriend Teresa has epilepsy, and so must also be shunned. When Charlie's uncle Giovanni offers him a restaurant - the first step up the ladder - Charlie is forced to choose between his desire for power, his love for Teresa and his duty to protect his friend Johnny Boy. —alfiehitchie Italian-American Charlie, who lives in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City, leads a conflicted life. He identifies as Catholic, but feels he has to deal with sins in his own way for absolution than say Hail Marys. He works as a collector for his gangster uncle, Giovanni, but has empathy for those who cannot pay. Another who cannot pay is his best friend, Johnny Boy, a self-destructive and disturbed individual who owes money to their loan shark friend, Michael, but makes no effort either to repay that loan or to stay clear of Michael while he still lavishly spends whatever money he has on having a good time. Charlie tries to keep the peace between Johnny and Michael, while realizing Johnny is shirking his responsibilities. Meanwhile, Charlie has been in a clandestine relationship with Johnny's cousin, Teresa, an epileptic who is in love with him. Charlie, on the other hand, doesn't want to encourage Teresa largely because the tribalistic and intolerant Giovanni doesn't approve of her as he sees her epilepsy as a major character flaw. Charlie tries to reconcile all these disparate aspects of his life. —Huggo (updated by R.M. Sieger) A look at a group of small-time hoods and hustlers trying to make a living on the streets of New York. The story centers around Charlie, a loan collector for a mobster named Giovanni. He can be pretty tough when he needs to but gets into trouble for cutting his friend Johnny Boy - also his girlfriend's cousin - a bit too much slack. His girlfriend is also a problem as she is epileptic and Giovanni, who genuinely cares about Charlie, wants him to dump her. As pressures mount, Charlie faces some difficult decisions with none of the possible outcomes to his liking. —garykmcd