Rene Auberjonois

Set among outcasts on the edge of capitalisms grasp, First Cow is a rare tale of the blossoming of a heartfelt male friendship, and one told with sublime gentleness and touching compassion.

Three women striving to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest: a lawyer (Dern) who finds herself contending with both office sexism and a hostage situation; a wife and mother (Williams) whose determination to build her dream home puts her at odds with the men in her life; and a young law student (Stewart) who forms an ambiguous bond with a lonely ranch hand (radiant newcomer Lily Gladstone). As their stories intersect in subtle but powerful ways, a portrait emerges of flawed, but strong-willed individuals in the process of defining themselves.

Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a veteran of the 1754-1760 French and Indian War, is a widower raising his seven children (five sons and two daughters) on his farm in 1778 South Carolina. He manages his land with free servants and employs in carpentry, particularly fashioning rocking chairs, though he has little success with it. Revolutionary War has been waged in other colonies for some time, though Benjamin does not share his enthusiasm for war. In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, Benjamin Martin was called to Charlestown to vote in the South Carolina General Assembly on a levy supporting the Continental Army. Benjamin abstains, fearing war against Great Britain and not wanting to force others to fight when he himself would not. While there, it is voted that South Carolina join the war against the British despite Benjamin's advice against it. Still, the vote passes, and Benjamin's oldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), joins the Continental Army against his father's wishes. Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper), a friend and ally of Benjamin's, promises to watch out for him. The war wages on for two more years, and Gabriel writes letters to his family throughout, expressing the horrors of war he's witnessed. At home, Thomas is found by Benjamin, trying on a red coat stored away in his father's war chest, and expresses his desire to join the army. Though Benjamin refuses to let him join, he relents that Thomas may enlist when he's seventeen in two years. Four years later, in 1780, Charlestown falls to the British Army, and a wounded Gabriel returns home carrying rebel dispatches. The Martins care for wounded British and American soldiers. The porch is used as a makeshift ward, and Benjamin receives praise from a British lieutenant (Grahame Wood). British dragoons arrive, led by Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs). Tavington is given the discovered dispatches and orders the identity of the carrier. Gabriel turns himself in, hoping to spare his family any punishment, but Tavington orders the British lieutenant that the wounded Continental troops be killed and the house burned down for having harbored the enemy. Tavington press gangs the Martins' African-American former slaves into the army and arrests Gabriel as a spy. Gabriel's brother Thomas (Gregory Smith) tries to free him, but Tavington kills Thomas, then orders the Martins' house burned and all the wounded Americans executed. Gabriel is led away in a separate convoy, and the home servants, including housekeeper Abigail (Beatrice Bush) are forced into British service. After the British leave, Benjamin goes into the burning house and grabs his collection of muskets and ammo from his war chest, along with a tomahawk. He returns to his remaining children and instructs his daughters, Margaret (Mika Boorem) and Susan (Skye McCole Bartusiak) , and his youngest son William (Logan Lerman), to hide in the fields before making their way to their aunt's house come nightfall. He then gives rifles to his older sons, Nathan (Trevor Morgan) and Samuel (Bryan Chafin), and tells them to come with him. Benjamin and two of his older sons ambush the British convoy transporting Gabriel. Benjamin slaughters all but one of the soldiers in front of his children. Benjamin shows ferocious brutality when he takes his tomahawk vengefully to one of the British privates. Gabriel is freed, and they reunite with the rest of the family at Charlotte Shelton's (Joely Richardson) plantation, the sister of Benjamin's late wife. A solitary survivor of the convoy attack is brought to Tavington. The man gives his testimony and explains that it seemed that just one man was responsible for the attack, proclaiming him as a 'ghost' of some kind. Gabriel rejoins the Continentals, and Benjamin soon follows, leaving the younger children in the care of his sister-in-law, Charlotte. Benjamin meets his former commanding officer, Colonel Harry Burwell, who appoints him as colonel to raise a militia unit and places Gabriel under his father's command. Benjamin and Gabriel split up. Gabriel travels to a quaint town and is reunited with a childhood flame, Anne Howard (Lisa Brenner). Before leaving, he asks permission of Anne's father, Peter Howard (Joey D. Vieira), to write to her. Benjamin is tasked with weakening Lord Cornwallis's (Tom Wilkinson) regiments by guerrilla warfare to keep him at bay in the south before French navy reinforcements arrive. French Major Jean Villeneuve (Tchéky Karyo) helps train the militia and promises more French aid. Among the enlistees is John Billings (Leon Rippy), an old friend of Ben's whose young son shares his contempt for 'redcoats.' John jokes with Ben, saying that rumors have spread of a tomahawk-wielding ghost wreaking havoc on British soldiers. Gabriel asks his father why Villeneuve and other militia often mention Fort Wilderness, and Benjamin tells him that while fighting in the British Army, Benjamin and his men discovered atrocities against British colonists by French soldiers in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Enraged, they caught up with the retreating French at Fort Wilderness and killed all but two of them. The survivors had to present the severed heads of their comrades to the Cherokee, which convinced the tribe to betray the French. Though regarded as a hero, Benjamin never forgave himself. Benjamin's militia ambushes many British patrols and supplies caravans, including some of Cornwallis's personal effects (including a personal diary) and his two Great Danes, and burns bridges and ferries that Cornwallis needs. As Cornwallis attends a lavish party, a supply ship in the bay outside his plantation explodes in a brilliant display while Benjamin and his men row away disguised as redcoats, having stolen all the luxuries on board. Benjamin and Gabriel visit Anne's hometown, where Gabriel calls on her and spends the night, sewn by Anne's mother (Mary Jo Deschanel) into a traditional bundling bag, meant to allow courtship but deter intimacy. Benjamin and his men set up a roadblock and prepare to ambush an approaching supply wagon train. He calls out his militia hiding in the fields to intimidate the British soldiers from retaliating, but the wagon covers are pulled back, and more soldiers emerge. When Benjamin notices Tavington's cavalry approaching, he fires at the convoy and orders his men to retreat. Benjamin and Gabriel barely escape into the forest as the rest of the surviving militia are either killed or captured upon surrender. The captured militia are to be hanged for treason, and Benjamin comes up with a plan. He requests parlay to meet with Cornwallis at the fort where the militia is being held and rides out with his Great Danes. Benjamin pretends that even he has some of Cornwallis' men under his custody, their red uniforms barely visible on a distant hill, and offers a straight swap. Cornwallis agrees, and Benjamin's men walk out. But when Cornwallis' forces go to collect their men, they turn out to be scarecrows. After Benjamin uses a dishonorable and embarrassing ploy to free his captured men, Cornwallis allows Tavington to do everything possible to arrest him. With the aid of Wilkins (Adam Baldwin), a local Loyalist, Tavington has several militiamen's homes burned and their families executed. Benjamin's family flees Charlotte's plantation to live in a Gullah settlement with formerly enslaved residents. There, Gabriel marries his betrothed, Anne. Benjamin gives Anne his late wife's necklace, which has a talisman of Polaris, the north star. He explains that the star is a symbol of unwavering strength and serves as a constant guide. Benjamin begins to bond with Charlotte, having grown feelings for her, and, when he and Gabriel prepare to leave, shares a tender moment with his youngest child, Susan, who speaks to him for the first time since her mother's death. Anne and her family return to their hometown after the wedding, while Gabriel moves on with his father and the rest of the militia. Tavington's brigade raids Anne's town and assembles everyone in the church, including Anne. Knowing that they are secretly aiding the militia, he demands the location of their camp. Despite one towns-person giving it away, Tavington burns the church, killing everyone inside. Upon discovering the tragedy, Gabriel and several other soldiers attack Tavington's encampment, where Tavington kills Gabriel before fleeing. Benjamin contemplates desertion, but after seeing the American flag Gabriel repaired, he is reminded of his son's patriotic dedication and decides to rejoin the others. Villeneuve berates Benjamin's resignation and tells him of how he watched as his wife and two daughters were strung up on a ship overrun by British soldiers and burned alive. Benjamin devises a battlefield tactic that uses Cornwallis's pride against him. Benjamin's militia joins the Continental Army regiment and confronts Cornwallis's troops at Cowpens. Watching the battle from afar, Tavington is impatient and decides, against Cornwallis' express order, to charge forth with his Dragoons. Benjamin and Tavington engage in personal combat. Benjamin rallies the militia to push forward and soon faces off with Tavington, dueling fiercely until Tavington manages to wound Benjamin, forcing him to the ground. As he is about to behead Benjamin, Tavington berates him for wanting to kill him before war's end. Benjamin ducks, grabs hold of a bayonet-fitted musket at the last moment, and stabs Tavington through the gut. General Cornwallis sounds the retreat of his forces, and the rebels celebrate. The British were defeated later that year at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. The French navy finally arrived to blockade the British, and Cornwallis was bombarded by both the Continentals and the French, holed up in his mansion. He finally acknowledges defeat and surrenders. Afterwards, Benjamin returns to his family and discovers that his former militia has rebuilt his homestead in honor of Gabriel's dream of building a new world.

Fresh off the bus from Kokomo, Indiana, a cat named Danny has one dream: to become a movie star in the glamorous world of Hollywood. However, unknown to Danny, is that animals have no leverage in show business, and fulfill minor and often thankless roles. Wandering into a talent agency, Danny is signed onto a role in child star Darla Dimple's next film, "Little Ark-Angel." At the filming, he meets a number of other animals, who try to temper his enthusiasm. One of them is Sawyer, a white cat whom Danny is paired with for the film's big production number. However, Danny is not content with his one-worded script ("Meow"), and tries to add some panache to his role. This ends up infuriating Darla Dimples, who calls on her Frankenstein-like butler named Max, who ends up frightening Danny into submission. After the filming has wrapped, a little penguin named Pudge, who was also in the big production number, tells Danny that he enjoyed his added song-and-dance. As the two head off the studio, the sound of a piano reaches their ears, and they follow it to a small trailer, where they are introduced to Woolie Mammoth. Woolie has a musical talent, but is only kept at Mammoth Studios for the purposes of appearing in their opening title sequence. While in the trailer, Danny notices a picture of Sawyer, whom Woolie explains also has musical talent, but hides it from most people behind a tough exterior. The next day, Danny and some other animals create a small song-and-dance routine while waiting for the film production to get underway. As Sawyer arrives, she begins to get with the beat, and the rhythm even reaches the ears of Darla, who is getting made-up nearby. Darla listens in, and hears Danny mention that he could maybe tell the studio head, L.B. Mammoth, about the talent they (as animals) have. Darla then decides to invite Danny to her mansion for tea. At her mansion, Darla 'tricks' Danny into believing that she wants to help him and the other animals. Promising use of the "Little Ark-Angel" movie set. The next day, as the animals are on the movie set, Darla and Max sabotage the stage, causing the water system to overflow, causing the animals to damage the set, just as L.B. Mammoth is holding a press conference for the new Darla Dimples picture. Infuriated by what has happened, the entire animal staff are kicked off the lot. With no jobs, many of the animal actors are now on the streets, and with his dream seemingly dashed, Danny gets on a bus to return to Kokomo, Indiana. However, several blocks into the trip, Danny has a second thought, and gets off. Finding Pudge the Penguin, they sneak into the studio's mailroom, and send invites to all the animal actors for the premiere of Darla's new film. During the production, Danny again plans to show the human public that animals are talented, and intends to take the stage once the film premiere is over. However, Darla's butler Max senses something, and finds Danny, chasing him to the roof of the theater. Things turn in Danny's favor, when Max gets entangled in a giant inflatable balloon resembling Darla, and is sent aloft. Danny races back to the theater, where several of the animals have appeared onstage. They then begin to sing and dance for the audience. During the production, Darla sneaks backstage, attempting to sabotage the performance, but in the end, all her tricks end up improving it, til' at the very end, the audience gives the animals a standing ovation! Once the musical number ends, Darla angrily rushes onto the stage, proclaiming that she is the star, and offhandedly admits that it was she who flooded the stage at the studios. Darla realizes she's in error, but it's too late. The film ends with L.B. Mammoth signing the animals back to the studio, and placing them in high-profile pictures as the lead actors.

The film opens in the mountain cabin of one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Bill Murray), gonzo journalist extraordinaire. He is holed up with his dog Bronco and a plethora of alcohol and drugs, struggling with a looming deadline to produce a magazine article about his eccentric former attorney, Carl Lazlo, Esq. (Peter Boyle). When his fax machine begins beeping with a call from his publisher, he angrily shoots it with one of his many guns (in this case, a .45 revolver); he then "get[s] a grip" and sits down to his typewriter. His voice-over narration reflects what he writes, as it does throughout the film. Fade to 1968, early in Thompson's career. He is holed up on an upper-story hospital room with a loud stereo, a pack of drugs and alcohol, and a nubile student nurse (Sunny Johnson). A nurse explains to a doctor that he arrived there claiming to have been chased by Richard Nixon and attacked by a swarm of bats. At this point, Lazlo, a wild-haired, mustachioed liberal attorney, arrives. Finding Thompson's room barricaded from the inside, he calmly walks through the neighboring (and occupied) room and, after helping himself to some of the patients' pills, climbs out onto the balcony and bursts into Thompson's room from the window. This sends Thompson's drugged-out companion into a nearly-catatonic state (she believes Lazlo to be a giant bat), but Lazlo remains calm as he offers his legal advice to Thompson and eats some food. (Lazlo eating some of Thompson's food is a running theme of the film and suggests that he [Lazlo] is not above sponging off those around him.) As the hospital staff begins to break down the door, Thompson and Lazlo unhurriedly escape and miraculously get down to Lazlo's car and escape just as the doctors and nurses break in. On the road, Thompson simultaneously drives and types Lazlo's running commentary about the sorry state of America's legal system, vis-a-vis their treatment of teenagers on drug charges. They arrive at the courthouse where Lazlo is about to go before a judge to defend a large group of kids who, in various combinations, have all been arrested for possession of marijuana. He insists on taking all the cases to bench trial, which serves only to irritate the judge and district attorney; all the defendants receive very harsh penalties. After one such outrage, when a teenager is given five years for possession of a joint, Lazlo reacts violently and ends up throwing the district attorney over the judge's bench. As the court is hurriedly cleared and Thompson struggles to snap pictures, Lazlo screams at him to "tell the world" what happened. Back at BLAST Magazine headquarters, Thompson's beleagured publisher Marty (Bruno Kirby) paces back and forth waiting for Thompson to deliver his story. Presently Thompson arrives, but teases Marty for a while before finally giving up the story in exchange for the cheque. Thompson's voice-over comes back in as we see Lazlo languishing in a jail cell with one of his defendants. Los Angeles, 1972; in voice-over, Thompson explains that Lazlo quit the legal system and dropped out of sight, and as the 60s ended many counterculturalists, in Thompson's words, "got off the boat," but not everyone did, including Lazlo, Nixon, and himself. Now a successful and popular writer, Thompson is in town covering Super Bowl VI (this is an error, as the 1972 Super Bowl was actually held in New Orleans). He arrives at his hotel in a hallucinogenic state, mildly assaulting his driver before remembering where he is and what he is doing. At the front desk, he terrorizes the clerk by ordering large amounts of electronic equipment and food (including 16 grapefruit), and proceeds to turn his room into a slightly grotesque piece of modern art, complete with toilet paper and variously-placed fruit. When the hotel staff comes to quiet him down (as requested by a professional gambler [Leonard Gaines] who "needs a super rest" for the game), they are sucked into his world and willingly take the marijuana and alcohol he provides. The next morning, Thompson is sitting in the hotel restaurant, eating a huge breakfast and listening to his tape recorder. His recording from when he awoke says that he did so to find that the hotel employees had broken in, drank all his liquor, did all his drugs, and stole his dinner. At the entrance, the aforementioned gambler is speaking on the phone with an associate, bemoaning his sleepless night; just then Lazlo appears wearing a Nixon mask, which prompts the gambler to give up on the game and go home to escape the "nuthouse." Lazlo sits down at Thompson's table, gives him the mask as a present, and then persuades him to give up on the Super Bowl story and go with him to some unknown destination. Outside, Thompson gives his tickets, press pass, and room key to two random guys, and they set off. On the road, Lazlo talks about where he has been the past four years; namely, becoming enlightened. He now is actively trying to promote world revolution, and he does this with a small band of weirdos by smuggling weapons to revolutionaries in impoverished countries. At the ranch, Thompson quickly sees the futility of what Lazlo is doing but comes with him anyway to a rendezvous at a isolated airfield, where Lazlo's group will load up a plane with guns and fly it away. At the airstrip, however, a police helicopter arrives and begins to descend; Lazlo and his group escape in the loaded plane, but Thompson refuses to follow, and the police follow the copter. Later in 1972, Thompson is covering the presidential campaign, but takes some time to appear at a university for a Q&A with the students. The hall is packed and he is very late, and needs to be coaxed quite a bit by the event coordinator to even go on at all, but eventually goes out and wows the crowd with his eccentric views and answers. One student asks about Lazlo and puts forth the idea that he never really existed; Thompson responds that he was real, but he was now believed dead. Back on the campaign trail, he gets on the press plane that follows Richard Nixon (referred to only as "the candidate") around. He stands out starkly from the rest of the buttoned-down reporters, dressed in Bermuda shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and a maroon sports jacket. Onboard, he frightens the young reporter next to him (Michael Cornelison) by producing an enormous hunting knife to slice his grapefruit ("They never search me"), then by speaking into his tape recorder about being divebombed by poisonous ravens on his way to catch the plane. Just then, the candidate's aide Dooley (Mark Metcalf) comes in and throws Thompson off the plane, demanding that he fly on the "zoo" plane with the technicians. The zoo plane is considerably different than the straight-laced reporter plane; the people are all hippies and drugs and alcohol flow freely (even amongst the crew). Also onboard this flight, though, is another reporter, Harris from the Post (Rene Auberjonois), due to overcrowding on the other plane. He sits down next to Thompson and tries to settle down to work, but the loud noise and constant physical distress drive him to distraction. That is, until Thompson produces some "headache pills," his blue ones; Harris takes two, and within an hour he is in the grip of Thompson's powerful hallucinogens. By the time the plane lands, Thompson has switched their clothes and infiltrates the reporter entourage by posing as Harris. As he washes up in the bathroom, Thompson gets a surprise visitor: Nixon himself (Richard M. Dixon, but voiced by Brian Cummings) comes in to relieve himself. Thompson launches into a tirade that the country is divided into the "Screwheads" and the "Doomed," who live in fear of the Screwheads. He asks Nixon what the country is doing for the Doomed, to which Nixon replies, "Fuck the doomed!" Back aboard the reporter plane, on which Thompson has reappeared disguised as Harris, he suddenly spots none other than Lazlo walking across the tarmac, wearing a three-piece white suit. Realizing that the appearance of Lazlo will destroy his chance of continuing on the campaign trail, he hurriedly invites the same young reporter that he terrorized before (who does not recognize him in his disguise) to sit in his row and tell Lazlo that the seat between them is taken. He does so when Lazlo boards, but Lazlo ignores him and sits down next to Thompson. He begins telling him, in an increasingly excited and loud voice, about his new plan: to buy land in the middle of the desert and build a socialist paradise. At this point Dooley arrives and, fed up with Thompson, promptly throws him off the plane for good; when he insults Lazlo, Thompson punches him in the face and the two escape while Thompson holds the reporters and Secret Service at bay with a fire extinguisher (he gets a good shot in on Nixon when the candidate pokes his head out of his door for a moment). On the runway, Thompson watches as the plane takes off and tells Lazlo that he won't help him with his project, because Lazlo is "insane, a raving maniac." Back in the present at his ranch, Thompson finishes the story and sits down next to his dog to read him the end. Reading, he speaks of how Lazlo and Nixon were both gone (the latter being eaten by white cannibals on an island near Tijuana), and that he, Thompson, got out because, through it all, it never got weird enough for him.

A nuclear-powered bus driving cross-country from New York City to Colorado is destined for disaster because of the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. The ultimate disaster movie parody: A nuclear-powered bus is going non-stop from New York City, New York to Denver, Colorado, and is plagued by disasters because of the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. When the driver is injured, a washed-up, down-on-his-luck-but-used-to-be-great type who used to be engaged to the inventor's daughter is brought in to drive the giant bus, which includes a one-lane swimming pool and a one-lane bowling alley. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

May, 1937. Kathie Rauch from Milwaukee, Wisconsin sends a letter to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. claiming the Hindenburg zeppelin will explode after flying over New York. In the meantime, Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) boards with the intention of protecting the Hindenburg as various threats have been made to down the airship, which some see as a symbol of Nazi Germany. Ritter is assisted by a Nazi government official, SS/Gestapo Hauptsturmführer Martin Vogel (Roy Thinnes), who poses as official photographer. However, both operate independently in investigating the background of all passengers and crew on the voyage. Ritter has reason to suspect everyone, even his old friend and former mistress, Countess Ursula von Reugen (Anne Bancroft), who vehemently opposes the Nazi regime. Other prime suspects include card sharks Emilio Pajetta (Burgess Meredith) and Major Napier (Rene Auberjonois), Edward Douglas (Gig Young), a suspicious German-American ad executive, as well as several crew members and even the Hindenburg captains Pruss (Charles Durning) and Lehmann (Richard A. Dysart). As the Hindenburg makes its way to Lakehurst Air Field, events conspire against Ritter and Vogel. They soon suspect the rigger Karl Boerth (William Atherton), a former Hitler Youth leader who has become disillusioned with the Nazis. Ritter attempts to arrest him. Boerth resists. He requests help from Ritter, whose son was killed a year before. Boerth's girlfriend, Freda Halle, was killed while trying to escape arrest as the Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic. Boerth, upon hearing the news of Halle's death, plans to commit suicide by staying aboard the airship as the bomb goes off. Ritter eventually agrees with Boerth to set the bomb to detonate at 7:30 p.m., when the airship should have landed and passengers disembarked. While setting up the bomb (a small C-4 plastic explosive), Boerth drops a knife, which was later revealed to have been stolen from Rigger Ludwig Knorr. Vogel starts to work behind Ritter's back, arresting Boerth and confiscating the Countess's passport. As the airship approaches Lakehurst Naval Air Station at 7:00, Ritter now realizes the landing has been delayed and searches for Boerth to ask where the bomb is. Vogel is caught by Ritter torturing Boerth and gets into a fight with Ritter and is knocked unconscious. An injured Boerth tells Ritter the bomb is in the repair patch of gas cell 4. Ritter attempts to defuse the bomb, but is unable to do so in time and is spotted at the last few seconds by a now awakened Vogel. The bomb explodes, killing Ritter instantly and sending Vogel flying down the walkway. Vogel survives, being carried by ground crewmen, while Boerth dies of his burns. At this point the film changes to monochrome in order to match up with the actual newsreel footage of the disaster. Passengers and crew struggle to survive the fire. The disaster scene ends when the camera pans over wreckage, towards a strip of burning fabric that says "Hindenburg" on it. The following day, with the fire cleared, a list of passengers who died or survived is described briefly, while the wreckage is examined for the inquiry before being cleaned up. The film ends with a tribute to Herbert Morrison's radio commentary, with the memorable quotation, "Oh the humanity," as the Hindenburg flies once again, only to disappear again in the clouds.