CINEMANIA:

12 Angry Men (USA, 1957, Sidney Lumet)

Dan Jardine:

Twelve Angry Men is a tightly wound top of a movie. 

Each scene ratchets up the tension another notch as Henry Fonda's character tries desperately to open the minds of his fellow jurors. The setting -- a claustrophobic jury room in the dog days of summer -- superbly augments the suspense. Operating within the constraints of a small budget, first-time director Sidney Lumet tightens the noose by accentuating the throbbing pulse of the ceiling fan and slowly narrowing his shots on his characters as the film approaches its climax.

Oliver Twist (UK, 1951, David Lean)

Dan Jardine:

David Lean's ambitious interpretation of this Charles Dickens classic is a powerful but flawed film. 

Guy Green's hyaline cinematography dominates the picture from its opening shots of a terrified young woman stumbling around in a stormy heath to its closing scenes of mob violence. His camera is perched above the characters, implying moral superiority to the many flawed characters, while making the ever-vulnerable Oliver look cowed and beaten.

Great Expectations (UK, 1947, David Lean)

Director David Lean's treatment of the classic Charles Dickens novel eliminates the subplots but does an excellent job of establishing the story's gloomy marsh setting, whether it be in the brutishly macabre graveyard or Miss Havisham's musty and oppressive living tomb. 

The crystalline cinematography helps establish a starkly ironic contrast between the sterile upper class frivolity in London and the rustic rural honesty of Pip's childhood.

A Soldier’s Story (USA, 1984, Norman Jewison)

Dan Jardine:

This occasionally preachy but mostly intense, intelligent and captivating racially provocative drama was adapted for the screen by Charles Fuller from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play. 

The turbulent setting -- a Southern military base during World War II -- and the murder mystery at the center of the plot allow the film to explore the issue of racism in unexpectedly complex manner.

Babette’s Feast (Denmark, 1987, Gabriel Axel)

Dan Jardine:

The sophisticated and subtle screenplay for Babette's Feast, adapted by director Gabriel Axel, is based on a story written by Isak Dinesen, the writer memorably played by Meryl Streep in the biopic Out of Africa. 

In the film's first half, the emotional detachment of the pious characters is mirrored in the directorial approach, which allows the narrator to explain the matters before us, keeping us at a distance.

Once Upon a Time in America (USA, 1984, Sergio Leone)

Dan Jardine:

Once Upon a Time in America was initially released in the US as a 2 1/4-hour, brutally studio-edited version of Sergio Leone's 3 3/4-hour masterpiece. The attempt to organize Leone's epic chronologically was devastating, losing the functions of memory and history that were key to the original film's epic structure. 

The film ranges from nostalgic to tragic, with healthy amounts of comedy, drama, and romance.

Philadelphia Story (USA, 1940, George Cukor)

Dan Jardine:

Playwright Philip Barry reportedly based the central character of The Philadelphia Story on Katharine Hepburn's brittle public persona, so it should be little surprise that she plays the part so well. 

The film is a quick-witted translation of the play, essentially a parlor drama with witty, Oscar Wilde-like banter and glib repartee from nearly every actor.

Judgment at Nuremberg (USA, 1961, Stanley Kramer)

Dan Jardine:

Judgment at Nuremberg, which reenacts the third of 13 infamous 1948 war-crime trials, is most powerful for its subtle and shaded characterizations of both victim and victimizer. 

There are no easily identifiable evil enemies: the bad guys seem an awful lot like you or me, which is one of the film's central points about the rise of the Nazis.