79%  Winner:   Driving Miss Daisy  99 min,  PG,  [Drama]  [Bruce Beresford]  [26 Jan 1990]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 74%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 82%,   Metacritic: 81%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 4 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 24 nominations.
Actors:  Dan Aykroyd, Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Patti LuPone
Writer:  Alfred Uhry (screenplay), Alfred Uhry (play)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Hebrew    Country:  USA
Plot:  An elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta can no longer drive. Her son insists she allow him to hire a driver, which in the 1950s meant a black man. She resists any change in her life but, Hoke, the driver is hired by her son. She refuses to allow him to drive her anywhere at first, but Hoke slowly wins her over with his native good graces. The movie is directly taken from a stage play and does show it. It covers over twenty years of the pair's life together as they slowly build a relationship that transcends their differences.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Alfred Uhry, Driving Miss Daisy affectionately covers the 25-year relationship between a wealthy, strong-willed Southern matron (Jessica Tandy) and her equally indomitable Black chauffeur, Hoke (Morgan Freeman). Both employer and employee are outsiders, Hoke because of the color of his skin, Miss Daisy because she is Jewish in a WASP-dominated society. At the same time, Hoke cannot fathom Miss Daisy's cloistered inability to grasp the social changes that are sweeping the South in the 1960s. Nor can Miss Daisy understand why Hoke's "people" are so indignant. It is only when Hoke is retired and Miss Daisy is confined to a home for the elderly that the two fully realize that they've been friends and kindred spirits all along. The supporting cast includes Esther Rolle as Miss Daisy's housekeeper and Dan Aykroyd as Miss Daisy's son, Boolie (reportedly, playwright Uhry based the character upon himself). Driving Miss Daisy won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Tandy), Best Screenplay (Uhry), and Best Makeup (Manlio Rochetti). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

78%  Nominee:   Born on the Fourth of July  145 min,  R,  [Biography, Drama, War]  [Oliver Stone]  [05 Jan 1990]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 72%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 88%,   Metacritic: 75%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 2 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 25 nominations.
Actors:  Caroline Kava, Josh Evans, Raymond J. Barry, Tom Cruise
Writer:  Ron Kovic (book), Oliver Stone (screenplay), Ron Kovic (screenplay)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, Spanish    Country:  USA
Plot:  The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
Rotten Tomatoes:   The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by enlisting with the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. Once he is overseas, however, Kovic's gung-ho enthusiasm turns to horror and confusion when he accidentally kills one of his own men in a firefight. His downfall is furthered by a bullet wound that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns home, spends an appalling, nightmarish stint in a veterans' hospital, and follows an increasingly disillusioned and fragmented path that ultimately leaves him drunk and dissolute in Mexico. However, Kovic somehow turns himself around and pulls his life together, becoming an outspoken anti-war activist in the process. The film is long but emotionally powerful; many consider it Stone's best work and Cruise's best performance. Both were nominated for Oscars, as was the film itself, but only Stone, who co-wrote the film with Kovic from the latter's book, won for Best Director. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

81%  Nominee:   Dead Poets Society  128 min,  PG,  [Comedy, Drama]  [Peter Weir]  [09 Jun 1989]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 81%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 84%,   Metacritic: 79%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 1 Oscar. Another 18 wins & 18 nominations.
Actors:  Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Robert Sean Leonard, Robin Williams
Writer:  Tom Schulman
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, Latin    Country:  USA
Plot:  Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His roommate, Neil Perry, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each does so in his own way, and is changed for life.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Robin Williams toned down his usually manic comic approach in this successful period drama. In 1959, the Welton Academy is a staid but well-respected prep school where education is a pragmatic and rather dull affair. Several of the students, however, have their thoughts on the learning process (and life itself) changed when a new teacher comes to the school. John Keating (Williams) is an unconventional educator who tears chapters of his textbooks and asks his students to stand on their desks to see the world from a new angle. Keating introduces his students to poetry, and his free-thinking attitude and the liberating philosophies of the authors he introduces to his class have a profound effect on his students, especially Todd (Ethan Hawke), who would like to be a writer; Neil (Robert Sean Leonard), who dreams of being an actor, despite the objections of his father; Knox (Josh Charles), a hopeless romantic; Steven (Allelon Ruggiero), an intellectual who learns to use his heart as well as his head; Charlie (Gale Hansen), who begins to lose his blasé attitude; unconventional Gerard (James Waterston); and practical Richard (Dylan Kussman). Keating urges his students to seize the day and live their lives boldly; but when this philosophy leads to an unexpected tragedy, headmaster Mr. Nolan (Norman Lloyd) fires Keating, and his students leap to his defense. Dead Poets Society was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Williams; it won one, for Tom Schulman's original screenplay.

66%  Nominee:   Field of Dreams  107 min,  PG,  [Drama, Family, Fantasy, Sport]  [Phil Alden Robinson]  [05 May 1989]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 75%,   Metacritic: 57%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 10 nominations.
Actors:  Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, James Earl Jones, Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta
Writer:  W.P. Kinsella (book), Phil Alden Robinson (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field.
Rotten Tomatoes:   "If you build it, he will come." That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on the ballfield and plays a few games with the awestruck Ray. But as the weeks go by, Ray receives several other messages from a disembodied voice, one of which is "Ease his pain." He realizes that his ballfield has been divinely ordained to give a second chance to people who have sacrificed certain valuable aspects of their lives. One of these folks is Salingeresque writer Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), whom Ray kidnaps and takes to a ball game and then to his farm. Another is Doc Graham (Burt Lancaster), a beloved general practitioner who gave up a burgeoning baseball career in favor of medicine. The final "second-chancer" turns out to be much closer to Ray. That "magical" field in Dyersville, Iowa still draws thousands of baseball-happy tourists each year. ~Rovi

91%  Nominee:   My Left Foot  103 min,  R,  [Biography, Drama]  [Jim Sheridan]  [30 Mar 1990]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 79%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 97%,   Metacritic: 97%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 2 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 20 nominations.
Actors:  Alison Whelan, Brenda Fricker, Daniel Day-Lewis, Kirsten Sheridan
Writer:  Shane Connaughton (screenplay), Jim Sheridan (screenplay), Christy Brown (novel)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  Ireland, UK
Plot:  Christy Brown is a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. His mother, Mrs Brown, recognizes the intelligence and humanity in the lad everyone else regards as a vegetable. Eventually, Christy matures into a cantankerous writer who uses his only functional limb, his left foot, to write with.
Rotten Tomatoes:   An alternative to the general run of "triumph over the odds" biopics, My Left Foot is the true story of Irish cerebral palsy victim Christy Brown. Paralyzed from birth, Brown (played by Hugh O'Conor as child and Daniel Day-Lewis as an adult) is written off as retarded and helpless. But Christy's indomitable mother (Brenda Fricker) never gives up on the boy. Using his left foot, the only part of his body not afflicted, Brown learns to write. He grows up to become a well-known author, painter, and fundraiser, and along the way falls in love with nurse Mary Carr (Ruth McCabe). There's no sugarcoating in My Left Foot: Brown, a heavy drinker, was by no means lovable. Day-Lewis and Fricker both won Academy Awards for their performances, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Also notable are the late Ray McAnally in his next-to-last film role as Christy's father, and venerable Cyril Cusack as Lord Castlewelland. Director Jim Sheridan co-scripted with Shane Connaughton from Christy Brown's autobiography. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi