Philip Glass

Famed mystery writer, Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is confronted by a mysterious stranger outside his house. This stranger calls himself John Shooter (John Turturro) and claims that Mort has stolen an idea for a story from him. Mort says he can prove he wrote his first, but whilst Mort waits for the evidence to appear, Shooter starts to become more and more violent. At first, Mort regards Shooter as mentally ill and throws away the book. But his housekeeper (Joan Heney) takes it out of the garbage believing it was his and instead of throwing it away again he cannot stop thinking about it, and finally reads it. It is almost exactly like his own novel, with different names and sentence arrangements. The movie follows Mort's struggles to prove conclusively to Shooter and to himself that he has not plagiarized the story. Shooter continually harasses Mort and later kills his dog, an Australian Cattle Dog named Chico. As the story progresses, Mort hires a private investigator (Charles S. Dutton) and asks the help of the local sheriff, Dave Newsome (Len Cariou), who doesn't believe him. The investigator asks if there are any witnesses, and Mort remembers a local man saw them together. But Shooter then murders both the investigator and the man and leaves them in a car. Mort then pushes the car into the river, since he thinks the murders will be pinned on him. Shooter also burns down the house of Mort's soon-to-be ex-wife. Mort is convinced that Ted is the culprit responsible for the burning. Mort eventually locates the magazine that proves he published "Secret Window" before Shooter wrote "Sowing Season." He goes to the post office, where he gets the magazine. But when he gets out of his car, the sheriff approaches him with a smirk asking him if he could ask a few questions. Mort then leaves. But when Mort gets the magazine, he finds that his story has been cut out. Mort's inner voice tells him that since the magazine was sent to him in a sealed UPS package, Shooter could not have tampered with it. Prompting from his own conscience leads Mort to the realization that Shooter is not real, only a figment of Mort's imagination brought so vividly to life through undetected dissociative identity disorder to personify the dark side of Mort's personality and to commit acts that Mort himself feels he could not commit (murder and arson). (This scene includes the moment where Mort sees his back, instead of his front, reflected in the mirror above the mantelpiece - much like Magritte's 1937 painting La reproduction interdite). During this revelation, his concerned wife drives up to his cabin, and at that instant he changes his persona from the well-meaning Mort to the murderous Shooter. When his wife walks in he is gone. She starts searching the house for Mort and finds an almost empty bottle of Jack Daniels on a table. We later learn that when influenced by Jack Daniels, Mort's second personality "Shooter" comes alive. All over the walls she sees inscriptions of the word "shooter". She realizes after Mort reveals himself that "shooter" actually means "shoot her". After she realizes this she tries to run away but Mort is too quick for her. He then kills his wife and her lover, Ted (Timothy Hutton), with a shovel and buries them in a garden where he later plants a crop of corn. Afterwards, Mort changes profoundly - his writer's block is finally over and his passion for life returns. The movie, however, ends on a rather sinister note. The local sheriff informs Mort that he knows what he did and as soon as they find the bodies, he'll go to prison. Mort dismisses the statement nonchalantly, and replies that "The ending is the most important part of the story. This one is very good. This one is perfect." It is then revealed to the audience that the bodies are buried under the corn field.

On 10th May 1969, troops of the 101st Airborne division engaged the enemy at the base of hill 937 in the Ashau Valley. 10 days and 11 bloody assaults later, the surviving troops called it Hamburger Hill. In 1969, a platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, receives five new recruits as replacements: Beletsky (Tim Quill) who constantly frets that he won't be able to remember everything he is taught; Languilli (Anthony Barrile), soon called Alphabet and who gets annoyed when people Mis-pronounce his name; Washburn (Don Cheadle), the only African-American of the replacements; Bienstock (Tommy Swerdlow); and Galvan (M.A. Nickles) the quietest but most promising of the new intake. At the same time, platoon Sergeant First Class Worcester (Steven Weber) is breaking in a new commander, Lieutenant Eden (Tegan West). The five privates are assigned to 3rd Squad, under battle-weary squad leader, Sgt Frantz (Dylan McDermott). The recruits are taken through a crash-course in battlefield skills, everything from oral hygiene to a demonstration from a captured NVA soldier as to how skillfully enemy troops can penetrate perimeter defenses (by having a Viet Cong deserter silently penetrate a barbed wire barrier and aim a rocket launcher at them). There are many unique things about combat in Vietnam. The soldiers put plastic covers on their rifle Firehole to protect it from water damage, the enemy is well entrenched in tunnels dug under the ground and no amount of aerial bombardment can dislodge it, most of the country is covered by a tropical jungle and there are no roads for easy transportation, soldiers fraternize with the local prostitutes for sex but this is dangerous as prostitutes don't use any protection, infection due to worms and bacteria is rampant and soldiers are specifically given induction training on personal hygiene. Even in the middle of the war, an army General flies in his camper trailer from the US and lugs it all over Vietnam for his personal comfort. The platoon has a new commander, Lieutenant Eden who is going to need the skills and experience of both Frantz and platoon-Sgt Worcester. The platoon's specialist MG-team is composed of the burly Pvt Duffy (Harry O'Reilly) and his Mis-matched, bespectacled buddy Pvt Gaigan (Daniel O'Shea). The three African-American veterans of the unit- Motown (Michael Patrick Boatman), 'Doc' Johnson (Courtney B. Vance) and Sgt McDaniel (Don James) (who has less than a month left on his tour)- all have first-hand knowledge of the racial discrimination still practiced in the army. McDaniel begs Frantz for a desk job at HQ for the remainder for his tour duration, but he knows that African American soldiers are not considered for such assignments. The FNGs (The term "F**king new guy" (FNG) is a derogatory term, made popular within combatants, military chaplains, and combat medics of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps deployed to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, usually to refer to newcomers. Da Nang, Vietnam) get their first sudden taste of war when a quiet spell beside a river is interrupted by an enemy artillery barrage and Galvan is killed. The base comes under intermittent NVA fire to test their defenses. The stress on the troops is unimaginable. The platoon enters the Ashau Valley and runs into an enemy patrol, sparking a firefight in which Sgt McDaniel is killed. This loss provokes considerable bitterness and tension as McDaniel was near the end of his tour and being African American, was denied any chance to score rear-line duties at headquarters. Doc blames Frantz for not getting the short-timer McDaniel a less dangerous assignment. The platoon is part of the battalion's assault on Hill 937, which soon grows into the Battle of Hamburger Hill when unexpectedly determined resistance is encountered. With the NVA defending well-entrenched positions, the platoon attacks the hill repeatedly against stubborn opposition. Between assaults, US air-strikes steadily strip away all vegetation, leaving the hill a barren, scorched wasteland. In one assault, a battle-crazed and wounded Duffy, wielding an M60 machine gun, seems on the verge of carrying the day as enemy resistance begins to crumble. However, botched air support by helicopter gunships causes several friendly casualties, including Duffy. In between attacks, the shrinking platoon tries to rest, chattering about social upheaval and unrest back home. Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain with a soldier. Beletsky gets a cassette tape from his girlfriend, and Frantz is moved that she mentions his name. Worcester describes to his comrades the alienation and hostility from anti-war college students, and the breakdown of his marriage, on his return from a previous tour of duty. He tells of a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, who receives cruel phone calls gloating over his son's death. On day seven, returning downhill from their ninth assault, Frantz has a confrontation with a TV reporter, telling him that he has more respect for the NVA on the hill than for the reporter. The exhausted platoon continues the attempt to capture Hill 937. During the tenth assault, in torrential rain, Gaigin is killed while Beletsky and Doc are wounded. Doc tells Frantz and Motown to capture the hill so that they will at least have something to be proud of, then succumbs to his wounds moments before a Medevac helicopter lands. Beletsky, despite having received a "million dollar wound," decides to return to his unit. The eleventh and final assault is mounted by the remaining troops, whose bitterness and exhaustion is overcome by desperation and unit pride. The final enemy positions are overrun but the cost is heavy. Lieutenant Eden loses his right arm, while Murphy, Worcester, Motown, Bienstock and Languilli are killed. Frantz, stunned by the loss of so many friends, is dazed and wounded by an enemy bayonet. Beletsky, also wounded but enraged, leads the final push to the summit. At the summit, the bleeding and exhausted Frantz, Washburn and Beletsky sit together in the dirt, as the battlefield finally goes silent.