The Italian neo-realist film movement only lasted for a brief ten-year period directly following World War II. Twenty years of fascist rule in Italy which strictly controlled what was permissible subject matter for the Italian film industry, as well as the other arts, stifled an entire generation of Italian artists.

At the end of World War II, when fascist control was finally broken, Italian filmmakers De Sica, Visconti, and Rossellini, along with writers like Cesare Zavattini and others, were eager to express themselves after years of repression. Italy found itself devastated by the war, as was the infrastructure of the Italian film industry. Perhaps these two elements combined to create a cinema movement immediately recognizable as something special and would be labeled neo-realism.

Elements of neo-realism characterized by the use of actual locations, nonprofessional actors, and a visual look that employed realistic, rough edged black and white cinematography were all dictated by the lack of resources to make studio films. Intellectually, many of the neo-realist filmmakers held political views that could be labeled as left leaning, even Marxist.

The stories they were interested in telling were influenced by these views. The poor, the social disadvantaged elements of post-war Italian society were the subjects of their screenplays and films, shedding light on the hardships of the working class and other social inequities, in hopes of bringing about change, were paramount in the mind of the these film makers.

Neo-realism in its purest form, only handed down a small pantheon of films. Still the movement’s influenced ranged far beyond its post-war Italian time and place. Many neo-realist elements would continue to evolve and influence filmmakers around the world. Limited resources throughout cinema history consistently plague filmmakers, and social ills always need to be exposed.

This list covers some of the American films over the last seventy years that have been influenced by Italian neo-realist cinema. Not all of these films give pure adherence to the strict constructs of what a neo-realist film is. There is debate if even Federico Fellini’s films are neo-realist, although he was one of founding fathers of the movement and had a hand in many of its masterpieces. Neo-realist themes are universal. The story for Luchino Visconti’s La Terra Trema is taken from a nineteenth century Italian novel and transposed to a poor Sicilian fishing village.

Contemporary American filmmakers like Kelly Reinhardt and Ramin Bahrani’s films in many ways are effectively neo-realist films. To one degree or another, these films, as well as others made around the world since the end of World War II, owe a debt of gratitude to Italian filmmakers who created the movement.

1. Body and Soul (1947)

At the same time the Italian neo-realist movement was dealing with social ills in post-war Italy, American films were dealing with the same themes. Body and Soul starring John Garfield and written by blacklisted writer Abraham Polanski, explores the quest for money by a working class boxer and its eventual corrupting influence.

The film is a sly allegorical indictment of an economic system while ironically remaining well within the same system. A sometimes overlooked and underrated director Robert Rossen directed Body and Soul. Exploring some of the same territory of his latter hit The Hustler, Rossen directs a well-paced, entertaining film that sends home his anti-capitalist message without beating you over the head with it.

Body and Soul is rearguard is one of the best sport films ever made. A major influence on Raging Bull and famous for cinematographer James Wong Howe’s use of roller skates and hand held camera cinematography in the boxing scenes, Body and Soul is worth seeing.

2. Thieves’ Highway (1949)

Jules Dassin was another Hollywood director who ran afoul of the McCarthy era blacklisting. It was probably his work in films like Thieves’ Highway about economic racketeering and the inequities of the California trucking industry that got him labeled as Red. Thieves Highway’ stars Richard Conte as a war veteran seeking revenge from a ruthless produce boss played by Lee J. Cobb.

The film’s slant on how ruthless the powerful become once they get a lock on things, and how powerless the oppressed are, is in full display here. The produce boss has the power to decide which trucker brings produce to the market and under what terms. The system is clearly stacked against the common man and cheats those who actually produce the goods.

The film’s neo-realist influence is clear from Dassin opting to shoot in actual locations at the Oakland produce warehouse market, instead of a soundstage back in Hollywood, as well as using many non-actors. Like other neo-realist influenced films for this era, Thieves’ Highway veers into film noir in some of its stylistic structure, but retains enough neo-realism to keep it on a higher, politically aware plane. Dassin left Hollywood and escaped to Europe. Luckily, unlike other blacklisted filmmakers, Dassin had long and productive career overseas directing many noteworthy films, but never returned to work in his home country.

3. Salt of the Earth (1954)

This film made in New Mexico in 1954 tells the true story of a Mexican-American miner striking for better working conditions and parity with Anglo miners. The left-leaning film, shot in black and white, with many non-professional actors, on actual locations, depicting social problems, owes much to the Italian neo-realist. Salt of the Earth was directed by blacklisted filmmaker Michael Biberman, who was one of the Hollywood Ten, is fearless in its examination of racial inequality and corporate exploitation. Even today, Salt Of The Earth is stunningly progressive and ahead of its time as it examines some of America stickiest economic and social issues.

Ironically, The Salt of the Earth was released the same year as another film about organized laborers’ struggle, On the Water Front. The two films could have not had more divergent receptions. One film won an Academy Award and the director would go on to become successful and honored. The other would find that the anti-communist projection union would refuse to run is film in theaters and it would go unseen and largely forgotten.

Sometimes however, history does not forget. Years later, many of Elias Kazan’s peers would refuse to rise and applaud for the director of On the Waterfront when he received the lifetime achievement award, remembering that his success came at the price of ratting out his friends at the House Un-American Activities witch-hunt. Mr. Biberman refused to testify, chose to remain silent, and went to jail. Michael Biberman would not be honored by the Academy but would leave behind Salt of the Earth and be remembered as a right thinking, ballsy optimist who never sold out.

4. Dusty and Sweets McGee (1971)

In the alternative world of 1970s, Hollywood director Floyd Matrix got the green light for a film about young drug addicts. Eager to tap into the youth market, and without a clue of how to do it, studio head honchos signed off on this hip film despite it having no viable script. It was instead based on some interviews with actual drug addicts.

It would be a mix of professional actors, as well as the actual drug addicts playing themselves, and if all this were not enough, it would be Matrix’s first film. Dusty and Sweets McGee follows the two young addicts of the title as they idly spend their days in early 1970s Los Angeles. The camera rolls as the addicts roam the streets of LA from downtown to the beach. Car radios play the hits of the day as they aimlessly go about their drug-addicted lives. Eating hot dogs at Pink’s, committing petty crime, scoring drugs, and cruising the sunset strip are lovingly documented by Matrix.

There is no plot, but what evolves is a portrait of lost, young souls adrift in failed consumer society. Affluent America is all around them, shiny and sun-drenched like a beautiful California orange, but there is something rotten at the core of this fruit. Vietnam rages on, the Watts riots were still smoldering in people’s minds to the South as the big, shiny convertibles rolled majestically down the endless freeways.

Many neo-realist films indict society for failing to provide for its citizens economically; Dusty and Sweets McGee seems to point a finger at spiritual deficit. Cinematographer Billy Fraker’s documentary style camera captures a languid Los Angeles, muted and sun washed. Life might be a waste, but it is a pleasant drive down to the beach to meet your dealer.

5. Killer of Sheep (1981)

Roberto Rossellini was desperate to make a film. After twenty years of fascist control of which films he could make and a devastating war that left his great city in ruins, he could wait no longer. Nothing would stand in his way, not the war, not the lack of studios and fancy equipment. Lack of actors and good film stock didn’t matter; he would make his film. Overcoming each problem helped give birth to the Italian neo-realist movement.

Thirty years later, another director would be desperate to make his film, and he also would face obstacles. Charles Burnett, in 1977, wanted to make a film about his black neighborhood in South Central LA for his master thesis at UCLA. The film was made with only a 10,000 dollar budget, The Killer of Sheep was shot on 16mm film using the streets as sets and non-professional actors to capture the struggles of one black family.

As true to is subject as any film about poverty and the breakdown of the human spirit, Killer of Sheep overcame it to become what is considered a masterpiece of independent filmmaking. Not widely seen until 2007, because of music copyright issues, Burnett’s film is a poetic document depicting the life of an African-American slaughterhouse worker and his family.

Loosely structured as a series of episodic vignettes, the film’s grainy black and white images capture truth at what Godard called “twenty four frames a second”. Of the many films on this list, the Killer of Sheep encompasses neo-realism in its most complete and truest form. It is a neo-realist film in both its style, subject matter, and the obstacles it took to create it.

6. American Me (1992)

American Me, directed by Hispanic actor Edward James Olmos, takes us into the world of the Los Angeles Barrio. Filmed mostly on location in East LA and a California state prison, the film traces the lives of Mexican gang members as they make the transition from children to hardened leaders of gangs. The film also serves an indictment of the American prison system showing that it does nothing to deter crime, but serves as a place for young men to learn to be criminals.

The film opens with a history lesson comparing the roots of gang life in LA with the Zoot Suit riots of the forties, and then goes on to expose us to what life is like in Hispanic gang subculture, as well as the East LA itself. Olmos, as director and star, moves the film along at a deliberate and contemplative pace, not wanting to glamorize the crime and violence associated with the film. The neo-realist elements of this pacing, location shooting, and sense of history help raise this film-form gang drama to a more meaningful examination of the Mexican-American experience.

7. Friday (1995)

If Federico Fellini’s early films seem to run along a thin line between neo-realism and something else, then the same can be said for F. Gary Gray’s Friday. The story takes place during one day on a street in South Central Los Angles. Two unemployed young men sit on a porch with not much to do, not unlike the young men in Fellini I Vitelloni. It is a confusing and difficult time for young men especially if they are black and live in the hood or a small backward village in post war Italy.

The possibilities are not endless, and the way ahead is not marked. Craig and Smokey played by Ice Cube and Chris Tucker have trouble getting a job and spend day dealing with life’s problems in their community. There is no examination of the roots of the socio-economic disenfranchisement that landed them in the hood. The reality is that they are black, that they have never had positive male role models, are probably poorly educated, and live in a crime and drug infested ghetto. This exclusion from American economic success lies just below the surface. No wonder they sit on the porch and get high.

Friday is not a Marxist tome. Friday is a comedy. Life in the ghetto is not portrayed as hell. It’s just a place where people live and deal with their lot in life. The problems may not be familiar to mainstream America life, owing drug dealers, crack heads, murderous Chicano gangs, but they deal with it all the same. In the end, it turns out to be not such a bad day, debts are paid, no one is killed, and there are girls with whom to hook-up. As the sun sets on South Central, the boys find themselves still unemployed, though.

Jeffrey Leon Bridges has been in the acting business since the age of 5. Coming from an acting family, he first appeared before the camera is in an episode of his father Lloyd Bridges’ TV show Sea Hunt. Since that time he has appeared in perhaps 150 films and TV shows. Along the way he has turned in a long list of memorable and award-winning performances.

He is now considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and a national treasure. It was not always that way. His acting ability for much of his career has sometimes gone unnoticed or at best given a grudging nod of recognition. He is a natural, charming, expressive actor that makes it all look easy, maybe too easy.

Not every film he has appeared in has been a masterpiece, but all of the films he has appeared in have benefited from his presence. Even when he appears in career killing films like Heaven’s Gate or utter duds like King Kong, the audience is more than ready to forgive him. Here is a list of some of Jeff Bridges’ most memorable films.

14. Bad Company

In Bad Company, Jeff Bridges is part of an ensemble of hot young male actors. His acting gives no doubt as to his superior emerging talents in contrast to his now forgotten fellow cast members. The film, written by Benton and Newman of Bonnie and Clyde fame and directed by Benton, is a revisionist western that debunks American myth of the promise of the western frontier.

A group of young Civil War draft dodgers end up abandoned to fend for themselves in the West of 1863. Bridges’ characters Jake Rumsey plays the leader of a makeshift gang of once naive boys trying to survive in a hostile world. Although just a boy himself, Bridges makes us believe that he has shed his own soft youth to become a tough, ruthless leader. The film is worth seeing for Bridges’ performance, intelligent writing, good directing and Gordon Willis’ photography.

13. The Last American Hero

In The Last American Hero, Jeff Bridges makes the transition from supporting actor to leading man.

The film recounts the true story of NASCAR racer Junior Johnson. Bridges plays the NASCAR legend from his early days as moonshine runner and dirt track racer in rural North Carolina to a championship driver.

Directed by Lamont Johnson, the film has a great supporting cast, authentic locations and a good script, but it is Bridges who carries the film. Bridges portrays Johnson as the hero of the title. He is totally exuberant and captivating in his performance with heroic displays confidence, courage, and skill. NASCAR is a purely esoteric American spectacle and this film with Jeff Bridges does a nice job of depicting the larger than life personalities instrumental in its gritty early days.

12. Heaven’s Gate

Jeff Bridges was cast in one of the smaller rolls in Michael Cimino’s sprawling, doomed and now reappraised epic Heaven’s Gate. Bridges manages to turn in a nice performance as a Saloon owner and friend of lead character James Averill, played by Kris Kristofferson. It is a small cameo, but Bridges does a lot by way of filling his allotted space in this huge canvas of the ill-fated film.

When asked about the film, Bridges places much of the blame for the film’s epic failure at the feet of New York Times critic Vincent Canby. Bridges relates in an interview: “A movie like Heaven’s Gate was doomed, because of the initial hysterical review that ruined other people’s experiences of seeing the movie. Everyone saw it through the filter of the critic’s eyes. He was supposed to know what a good movie was and he missed it.”

The film’s reappraisal comes too late for the careers of many of the principal actors who appeared in the film. Heaven’s Gate proved to be a career killer for many connected with it, but Jeff Bridges and Christopher Walken luckily escaped unscathed.

11. Starman

This film shows how Jeff Bridges can elevate even the most silly and mundane material into an interesting cinematic experience. Starman is a project from Sci-fi director John Carpenter, who has plenty of uneven action turkeys under his belt.

Bridges plays an alien lured to earth by a message of peace inserted into the Voyager II space probe. When the alien arrives, he is immediately shot down and crashes in rural Wisconsin. Bridges plays the alien as he takes the human form of a young widow’s dead husband. The still grieving widow is played by ‘80s heartbreaker Karen Allen. The film then takes us to what all good science fiction does: examine our world and experiences in relation to something bigger out there.

Bridges turns what could have been a dumb comic book premise into a touching and highly romantic love story while still being true its Sci-fi roots. The film is entertaining and sometimes profound. As the alien, Bridges is not afraid of tackling this difficult acting concept. In an early scene Bridges makes the transition from pure alien energy to human form. Bridges as the alien slowly grows accustomed to his new body.

Bridges’ craft expresses itself, depicting the alien’s fascination with the new body’s appendages and movements, almost as an infant would. It is perceptive acting. His maturity as an actor was beginning to emerge with this film and for his effort he was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe as a lead actor.

10. Cutter’s Way

Cutter’s Way could be the poster child for mishandled films. Lost in a regime change during studio shakeups early in its development, when it finally finished, skittish executives decided at first not to release it after some initial negative reviews (New York Times again).

Luckily, a few good reviews came in and studio cowards finally released it, but the damage was done. It’s the ‘80s and now the cool ‘60s are over, and the adults are back in charge at the studio and America. Czech director Ivan Passer crafted an interesting film that explores that changeover in the guise of a nicely done noir thriller.

Cutter, played by John Heard, and Bone, played by Jeff Bridges, are two burned out ‘60s friends who realize that the Utopian promise of their youth is over. Things are back the way they were, maybe even a little worse. Bridges plays a pathetic country club gigolo and Hurt is a disabled (mentally and physically) Vietnam veteran.

Together they rally against conspiracies and injustices in their small California beach town. Hurt has the meatier roll in this film, but Jeff Bridges does a good job here as the morally bankrupt and cowardly Bone making his last stand.

9. The Contender

Made 14 years ago, The Contender was ahead of its time. The film depicts the inner working and human motivations that prevail in the highest levels of our political institutions. Overly explored today in the television medium, this film takes a look at hardball politics.

The story concerns a contentious vice-presidential nomination process. Jeff Bridges plays the president, who wants to nominate the first woman vice-president. Joan Allen plays the nominee and Gary Goldman plays the senator opposing her nomination.

The opposition engages in an underhanded campaigner to discredit the nomination, using innuendo and character assassination without regard to honesty, fairness or the truth.

Here, Jeff Bridges is the president we would all vote for. He’s honest, handsome and smart. It’s a good performance and in the wisdom of the Academy, he was nominated for a supporting Oscar. The logic being, perhaps, if Jeff Bridges was really the “Dude,” then this wonderful portrayal of a smart, brave president of the United States is really good acting. Whatever.

8. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

First-time director Michael Cimino cast Jeff Bridges to play opposite Clint Eastwood in this buddy movie that rises above the genera. It proved to be a good decision, with Bridges turning in a nuanced and heartfelt depiction of a young criminal. He takes Cimino’ well-written Lightfoot character from a brash callow youth to, in the end, a doomed and sympathetic young man. He steals the film with his performance and gives a perfect counterpoint to Eastwood’s usual one-dimensional persona.

This film work put to rest any doubt as to Jeff Bridges’ future ascent into the ranks of great American actors of his generation. Jeff Bridges’ peers honored him with a second Academy Award nomination for Supporting Male Actor.

Many film scholars have commented on how the decade of the 1970s has shaped up as a golden age of American film making. A lot of things did seem come into alignment during that period in order to produce a long list of important films. The list of factors can be speculated about, but among them would be social, political and cultural upheavals, the demise of the studio system, and the emergence of an educated generation of filmmakers who understood the history of cinema, both foreign and domestic.

It all percolated together to produce many films destined to become classics. In an embarrassment of riches, the bar of the American cinema would be raised to new heights. The decade would produce so many good films that for one reason or another some of them got lost in the shuffle. Here is a list of some films from that decade that deserve a second look and a higher place in the pantheon of 1970s film history.

16. Stay Hungry (1976)

Bob Rafelson‘s Stay Hungry finds its way to this list by way of being overshadowed by his other 1970s hits, Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens. Not as polished as these films, Stay Hungry makes up for it with raucous action, good performances all around and enthusiasm for its unlikely subject matter, body building.

The film was taken from the irreverent and quirky novel of the same name by Charles Gaines, who also scripted the movie. Gaines, a Renaissance man, would later in life invent the sport of paintball and pen a wonderful, much-revered book on fly fishing.

Rafelson was just having fun with this movie, which he described as “exhilarating” to work on. The director’s knack for presenting interesting, off-center, rough-edged characters and their relationships with the conventional world is in evidence. The film takes place in Birmingham, Alabama and concerns a body building gym in danger of being eliminated for a real estate project.

Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields turn in likable performances as lovers from both ends of the social-economic spectrum of the then “New South.” Great character performances by R. G. Armstrong, Scatman Crothers and Woodrow Parfrey add to the southern grittiness of the proceedings. And let’s not forget Arnold Schwarzenegger seen here in all his Mr. Olympus splendor.

It is his least self-conscious performance on screen. In his review, Vincent Canby describes Arnold’s character as a “nice, honorable young man who appears to be trapped inside a huge, grotesquely muscled body that has no relation to the conventional head on top of it.”

15. Rancho Deluxe (1975)

Frank Perry probably has three or four films that could belong on any list of forgotten classics of the 1970s. Director Perry, along with his wife Eleanor as screenwriter, practically represented the entire American independent cinema. Perry was responsible for some interesting films, starting with the Academy-Award-winning David and Lisa in 1962.

His main strength as a filmmaker proved to be his excellent taste in choosing literary works on which to base his films. He was masterful at bringing someone else’s artistic expression to the film medium. Ultimately, it would tarnish his reputation as a director because his films had no stamp of personal vision. This criticism aside, there is a good list of engaging and entertaining films that have his name on them.

Rancho Deluxe is no exception. This time the artistic expression is that of young literary bad boy Tom McGuane. McGuane was barely out of college when his first novels were published. Already he was being hailed as the new “Hemingway” in literary circles. McGuane’s wonderful Rancho Deluxe script has all the quirky characters, snappy insightful dialogue and off-the-wall adventures that were hallmarks of his early novels.

Jeff Bridges and Sam Wasterston (as a philosophical Native American) are two anarchic cattle rustlers plying their trade in modern day Livingston, Montana. They plunder the ranch of a bored east coast businessman turned cattle baron until they are caught after a clever battle of wits with a wily stock detective.

Elisabeth Ashley, Slim Pickens and Harry Dean Stanton fill out the cast of odd ball characters who populate this corner of Montana. Stunningly photographed in the Rockies’ “Big Sky” country by William Fraker, it is a perfect example of what an exceptional cinematographer can bring to a film.

14. Bad Company (1972)

Bad Company is a revisionist Western that perfectly mirrors the political and social upheavals of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Myths were being debunked and old notions challenged. In time, that turbulent and rebel rousing era passed into history and with it this worthwhile film.

Directed by Robert Benton from an excellent script by both he and writing partner David Newman, Bad Company takes the advice of Horatio Alger and turns it on its ear. A group of young men go west, but only to escape conscription into the meat grinder that was the American Civil War.

In a series of episodic adventures, the boys find that the golden American West is not the land of unlimited opportunity painted by the myth makers. Jeff Bridges heads a cast of young actors who finds that life on the frontier is hardly romantic. It is instead a mean, nasty and unforgiving world populated by men with the same traits. They find that the only way to survive is to become petty, backstabbing and remorseless criminals themselves.

Benton and Newman’s script is awash with the kind of naturalistic expressive dialogue and multidimensional characters they had become famous for since their groundbreaking work on Bonnie and Clyde. The script deftly points out that establishment is always righteously ready to extract justice from these lost boys, although society created the circumstances that forced them into being outlaws.

Benton’s direction is smooth and he knows how to bring out the best of his great script. Jeff Bridges outshines the other players here, as usual. The great Gordon Willis was behind the camera on this film and his muted photography depicts the West as it probably was: dusty, dirty and tattered.

13. The Wanderers (1979)

Phillip Kaufman is another director who could have two or three films on this list by producing some notable, overlooked work in the ‘70s. Kaufman’s The Wanderers is a memorable nod to a nostalgic coming of age story.

The film takes us back to Bronx of 1963 just as the naive, unsophisticated ‘50s are giving way to the new era that is coming. This film is adapted from Richard Price’s tale of teen life as told though the eyes of a teenage, Italian-American street gang called the Wanders and their interaction with girlfriends, parents and other rival neighborhood gangs. These are not the mean streets of other gang movies. There are no drive-bys, guns, drugs, or turf to be protected.

Kaufman’s The Wanders settle differences mostly with their fists. The film pays special attention to the fact that it is a period piece. Colorful satin gang jackets and hoop skirts to its time and place.

The soundtrack plays an important part in setting up the period. It is lovingly laced with the spinning wax 45 doo-wop tunes that define this simpler time. In the streets, the big American boats passing as automobiles cruse a Bronx where urban decay has not yet set in. It is a youth world where the influence of Elvis is in its last flowering and the Beatles have not yet spread their wings.

The young cast is unknown, with a few exceptions then, as well as today. It does not stop them from doing a good job of telling the story. Kaufman’s style is not groundbreaking, but the films keeps us interested as the teenagers naively live out what will become, looking back, the happiest times of their lives.

The change for them and America has already announced itself. In one scene the Kennedy assassination plays out on display TVs in store widows as people cry in the streets. There are references to the Vietnam War and a new counter culture which lies just over the horizon.

The Wanders makes an entertaining statement about change and the bittersweet passing of one time in our lives, even as another begins to shape our futures.

12. Smile (1975)

Director Michael Ritchie and actor Robert Redford envisioned Smile as part of a trilogy which would examine the theme of competition and winning in American life. Along with Down Hill Racer and The Candidate, this little film gives a satirical and wry look at the American drive for success and to what length people go to win.

The first two films starred Redford and were handled as fairly straightforward dramas. Smile takes a different stance. Ritchie turns Smile into a no-holds-barred satire lampooning beauty pageants, small town boosterism, politics, fraternal organizations and anything else that gets in front of his camera. Bruce Dern plays the small town promoter trying to turn hosting the “Miss Young America Pageant” into a big deal for his town.

The young contestants come to the pageant with different attitudes and goals. The film follows them as they vie for the big prize. The usual lame beauty pageant clichés provide Ritchie with plenty of material to have fun with. Meanwhile, the adult role models in the film do a better job of acting like children than adults as they go about handling the stress of the pageant.

Smile was probably the best of the trilogy. With these first three films, director Ritchie seemed to be destined for an impressive and important Hollywood career. It was not to be.

Most of his latter films never seemed to measure up to these first three fine examples of 1970s cinema.

11. Charley Varrick (1973)

Director Don Siegel was at his best making B-movies. In the ‘70s when he found himself working at big studios with big movie stars and budgets he wisely stayed true to his B-movie sensibilities honed back in the days of his classics like Baby Face Nelson and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Charley Varick was one of those films.

Siegel spins out this movie with the energetic pace and style of a cheap paperback novel. Colorful underworld characters, ambiguous morality, clever plot twists, sex, and violence all come into play. Add an inventive and exciting climax and you have one of Siegel’s most satisfying films.

The plot centers around what is supposed to be a small time back robbery by an aging crop duster played by Walter Matthau. The trailer-dwelling Matthau, along with wife and a fellow trailer park denizen, run into trouble with the botched robbery. It turns bloody and they barely escape with the money, although Matthau’s wife is killed.

Despite losing his wife, Charley Varrick’s troubles are just beginning. The small desert town bank proves to be an organized crime money laundering way station. Instead of the few thousand dollars they were expecting, their haul is more like $700,000. Charley’s dim accomplices are thrilled, not realizing that now they have the outfit after them along with the law.

Joe Don Baker turns in a nice performance as a seemingly even tempered, though ruthless pipe smoking mafia operative who relentlessly goes after the pair.

10. Islands In The Stream (1977)

Ernest Hemingway was famously unhappy with the way Hollywood adapted his novels to the screen. Too bad he never got a chance to see Franklin J. Schaffner’s film version of his posthumously published, unfinished novel Islands in the Stream.

George C. Scott plays an autobiographical Hemingway-like character named Thomas Hudson in this sad examination of loss and redemption. Islands in the Stream is a wonderful film that never got the acclaim of Shaftner and Scott’s earlier collaboration, Patton.

Scott plays an artist who has isolated himself on Bimini in the Bahamas. He has abandoned his family, his fame and the world, becoming a recluse. The adaption splits the story of the novel into four segments, each covering a different time in the novel’s progression. The artist spends his days working and boozing with fellow castaways and cronies.

David Hemmings is excellent as a rummy ex-Brit, as is authentic veteran Latin character actor Gilbert Roland. Roland in particular is so well suited to his role that he looks as if he might have hung out with Hemingway at Joe’s Bar in real life. Jerry Goldsmith’s music is particularly effective in underscoring the mood and nuance of the film.

The Scott character’s isolation ends with the arrival of his three young sons and, later, World War Two, which is finding its way to his part of the world. His relationship with his sons depicts an awkwardness and love that Scott’s skill as an actor carries off with heartbreaking intensity.

The film is full of classic Hemingway scenes, such as an epic fishing battle between one of his young sons and a Marlin, and acts of self-sacrificing bravery in the face of difficult circumstances. Schaffner’s direction is restrained and does not let superfluous material get in the way of telling his and Hemingway’s story.

9. The Sugarland Express (1974)

If you don’t count the made for TV Duel, this was Steven Spielberg’s first theatrical film. Only a few Hollywood insiders had ever heard of this kid director when The Sugarland Express came out. Spielberg’s next film, Jaws, would change all that and in turn leave The Sugarland Express a mere footnote of a mega directorial career. That’s too bad. It deserves better.

Professional and flawless in its execution, the film is basically a road movie about a woman, played by Goldie Hawn, trying to retrieve her baby, who was taken from her by Texas Social Service authorities. Lou Jean breaks her husband Clovis, played by William Atherton, out of jail to help her and the two head for Sugarland, Texas.

Hawn is convincing as Texas trailer trash with spunk and determination, but things quickly spin out of control when they kidnap a Texas Highway patrolman. Everyone connected realizes that they are in way over their heads and that this will end very badly.

Spielberg’s skill at shameless manipulating of his audience is evident as he makes us really like these characters and fear for them as they get involved in a low speed police chase across Texas. The chase involves about 100 police cars and gives Spielberg a chance to show off his legendary ability to film and edit action sequences.

Veteran American character Ben Johnson plays what should be a redneck law enforcement honcho as a wise father figure who realizes that these dangerous criminals are in reality just dumb kids.

The film marks Spielberg’s first collaboration with both cameraman Vilmos Zsigmond and composer John Williams. Their talents, along with Spielberg’s, help elevate a fairly low budget road film into worthwhile cinema.