John Ashley

2001: A Space Odyssey -- The sci-fi masterpiece from acclaimed producer/director Stanley Kubrick about a space voyage to Jupiter that turns chaotic when a computer enhanced with artificial intelligence takes over.

Suburban scientist Oliver Frank creates a she-monster of the night.

Before the Lonestar Rollergirls, before the Texas Rollergirls, before the emergence of 300+ rollergirl leagues across the globe... before all of this, there were the pioneers. In 2001 a rowdy group of Austin women were determined to ressurect an old sport, but with a new spin. This is the beginning of a revolution: Hell On Wheels is the ass-kicking documentary film telling the story of a group of Texas women who band together to resurrect roller derby for the 21st century. Emerging from the Austin music and arts scene, these women create a rock and roll fueled version of all-girl roller derby that has spawned the derby craze that's sweeping the nation. Currently there are two leagues packing houses and holding bouts in Austin, Texas. The success of these Texas leagues has inspired hundreds of women across the country to get on their skates and organize derbies in their own hometowns and cities. Hell On Wheels is the birth of the rollergirl revolution, chronicling the creation of the first modern-era women's roller derby league, the Lonestar Rollergirls and the breakaway league, the Texas Rollergirls. Filmed from the trenches, Hell On Wheels delivers the struggles and eventual success of the rollergirls as they construct a new sport and set forth to conquer the globe.

Having been burned by compromises to censors on his earlier films Cat On a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth, Paul Newman decided to star in as uncompromising a property as he could find. That property was Hud, inspired by a portion of Larry McMurtry's novel, Horseman Pass By. Hud Bannon (Newman) is a young Texas rancher who lives with his cattleman father Homer (Melvyn Douglas) and his hero-worshipping nephew Lon (Brandon DeWilde). Hud is an amoral, cold-hearted creature; his father, who holds Hud responsible for the death of his other son, tries to imbue Lon with a sense of decency and responsibility to others, but Lon is devoted to Hud and isn't inclined to listen. When hoof-and-mouth disease shows up in one of the elder Bannon's cows, Hud is all for selling the herd before the government inspectors find out. But Homer orders the cattle destroyed (the film's most harrowing sequence), driving an even deeper wedge between himself and Hud. Finally, Hud steps over the line by attempting to rape Alma (Patricia Neal), the earthy but warm-hearted housekeeper. Paul Newman was so repellantly brilliant as an unregenerate heel that his Oscar nomination for Hud was a foregone conclusion. Although Newman lost the Oscar to Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field, Oscars did go to Neal for Best Actress, Douglas for Best Supporting Actor, and cinematographer James Wong Howe.