Entertainment  
   
 

1999: American Beauty (dir. Sam Mendes, with Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening)
American Beauty tells the story of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a suburban father who snaps when he becomes disgusted with his stale, repetitive existence. Burnham lets us know in voice-over from the film's opening that this is the day he dies, a technique that adds an inevitable tension to the proceedings and keeps the story moving forward at all times. On a whim, Lester quits his job and begins a regression into young adulthood, lifting weights, smoking pot, doing nothing, and discovering the overflowing sexuality of his 16-year-old daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), has her own midlife crisis of sorts...
     
  1998: Shakespeare in Love (dir. John Madden, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes)
In this well-conceived Elizabethan comedy, writers Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman ask the question: who was William Shakespeare's muse? The answer: Viola de Lesseps, a young noblewoman who dreams of acting on a man's stage. The screenwriters deliver a cleverly crafted scenario which beautifully illustrates both the early aspirations of the playwright, and a glimpse into the culture of Elizabethan theater.
     
  1997: Titanic (dir. James Cameron, with Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet)
An undersea expedition searching for a valuable diamond aboard the wreckage of the Titanic instead finds a drawing of seventeen-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater, on the way to her wedding to a wealthy tycoon. While Rose falls in love with Jack Dawson, a free-spirited artist and third-class passenger who ignites the unquenchable fires of passion inside her, the hubris of the ship's crew tempts them to test the cross-Atlantic speed record--smack into an iceberg. A rightfully celebrated, no-holds-barred, boffo blockbuster, with enough heart and soul to balance its extravagant special effects and record-breaking budget.
     
  1996: The English Patient (dir. Anthony Minghella, with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche)
Set during World War II, this film adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel concerns a horribly scarred, amnesiac mapmaker (Ralph Fiennes) who is found by Bedouins in the desert and then transported to Italy. When Allied nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) devotes herself to caring for the mysterious patient in an abandoned monastery, his story of a intense love affair with a colleague's wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) begins to unfold in a series of flashbacks...
     
  1995: Braveheart (dir. Mel Gibson, with Mel Gibson and Sophie Marceau)
Mel Gibson directs and stars in this Academy Award-winning epic based on the life of legendary thirteenth century Scottish hero William Wallace. Returning to his homeland following the death of a heirless king, Wallace (Mel Gibson) finds the political landscape precarious. Edward the Longshanks, King of England (Patrick McGoohan), has captured Scotland's throne and threatens the freedom of all Scottish people, as tyrannical policies instituted by the English plague the Scots. Initially, Wallace is content to stand by the wayside, yearning for the simple life of building a home and raising a family. However, when the woman he loves suffers a cruel fate at the hands of English soldiers, Wallace takes a stand against the new rule. With his fierce patriotism and determination, he gathers an amateur but passionately rebellious army...
     
  1994: Forrest Gump (dir. Robert Zemeckis, with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright)
The magical story of Forrest Gump, a sweet-natured idiot savant from rural Alabama. As he goes down the road of life, mouthing pithy and quotable homilies, he encounters luminaries such as John Lennon, Elvis Presley and JFK. But all the while he can't forget one special girl from his childhood...
     
  1993: Schindler's List (dir. Steven Spielberg, with Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes)
Steven Spielberg's black-and-white monumental film based on the true story of Oskar Schindler. Schindler is a businessman in World War II Poland who uses Jews as cheap labor in his factory. After his workers are sent to a concentration camp run by a demonic Nazi soldier (Ralph Fiennes), Schindler and his accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), devise a plan to save 1,100 Jews by sending them to his factory in Czechoslovakia.
     
  1992: Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, with Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman)
Clint Eastwood's tenth western and sixteenth directorial effort explores the darker side of the myths of the old west. When retired gunslinger Bill Munny accepts a $500 offer to shoot two men who viciously knifed a prostitute, he discovers just how difficult it is to escape his past as a notorious outlaw.
     
  1991: The Silence of the Lambs (dir. Jonathan Demme, with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins)
Jonathan Demme directs this intense thriller about a young FBI agent named Clarice Starling (Jody Foster), who has been enlisted to tap into the psyche of Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant serial killer. Starling exchanges access to her deepest thoughts in exchange for information to track down another serial killer named Buffalo Bill, who is about to kill again.
     
  1990: Dances with Wolves (dir. Kevin Costner, with Kevin Costner and Mary McDonnell)
In 1865, Civil War hero Lt. John Dunbar asks to be reassigned to the western frontier before it disappears. At his isolated post he develops a relationship with the peaceful Lakota Sioux and a white woman who lives among them, finding greater kinship with them than with his own people.
   

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