rocky road to dublin is a 1967 documentary film by irish-born journalist peter lennon and french cinematographer raoul coutard , examining the contemporary state of the republic of ireland , posing the question , " what do you do with your revolution once you 've got it ? " it argues that ireland was dominated by cultural isolationism , gaelic and clerical traditionalism at the time of its making .

rocky road to dublin ( film )

· rocky road to dublin and the making of rocky road to dublin screen at the cork film festival on saturday . details : 00 353 21 427 2263
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing rocky road to dublin near you .
commissioned by fire station artists studios and dublin docklands development authority . supported by dublin city council and dublin port company .
rocky road to dublin the last film screened at the cannes film festival in 1968 . a provocative , biting portrayal of 1960s ireland : the stultifying educational system , the repressive , reactionary clergy , and the myopic cultural nationalism .
peter lennon used to say of his documentary rocky road to dublin that
the french saw it as a film , the irish as an insult .
lennon was one of those absentee irishmen obsessed by their native country . the stylish wit , film - maker ahead of his time , observant and iconoclastic journalist , started out on a rocky road of his own .
then , in 2004 , with a dublin production company , loopline films , i got financial assistance from the irish film board to restore rocky road and to tell its story in a new documentary , the making of rocky road . the great raoul coutard came out of retirement to share his experience of working on an evolutionary film , a category no film dictionary records . this time we had no trouble getting it into the cork film festival .
the making of ' rocky road to dublin ' reunites peter lennon and cinematographer raoul coutard , who recount the making of their then controversial , now classic , documentary on ireland in the sixties .
rocky road to dublin was selected for the prestigious critics ' week at the 1968 cannes film festival , where it was the last film publicly screened before the festival was stopped in solidarity with the then - erupting may ' 68 events in paris . during that tumultuous period , rocky road to dublin was screened numerous times throughout paris by student groups , with whom the film ' s theme of
what do you do with your revolution once you ' ve got it
obviously struck a responsive chord .
rocky road and the making of was launched at the cambridge international film festival , and then , following a screening at the ica in september , will go on general uk release . ireland will come later . since october 2004 rocky road has been at festivals in belfast , amiens , chicago , memphis and moscow and soon , the korean international film festival .
made as companion piece for rocky road to dublin during its revival in the 2000s , the making of rocky road to dublin describes the journey of lennon’s iconoclastic documentary from its creation and initial life on the screen to its resurgence in popularity more than thirty years after production . present - day interviews with lennon and raoul coutard trace how the film grew from an idea into a fully - fledged feature . the film’s turbulent distribution experience , including its de facto banning in ireland and its role in paris riots of 1968 are also recounted , before the focus comes to film’s rebirth in the contemporary era and the recognition of it as a record of 1960s ireland . a companion piece to rocky road to dublin , this documentary should only be screened in conjunction with lennon’s original .
but there was something they could do : they could stop it being screened in cinemas or on the television channel rte . on saturday , when we screen a new documentary , the making of rocky road , at the cork film festival , ireland is going to discover for the first time how it smothered rocky road for three decades .
the animated the road to el dorado , on the other hand succeeded admirably .
with the renowned french nouvelle vague cameraman , raoul coutard , as a kind of exocet missile , we got child , priest and patriot to reveal themselves on camera ( years before michael moore ) . the result was rocky road to dublin .
if you really want to go from wales to dublin in a short time , you basically want to to avoid going to cork . ( dublin’s a straight shot from wales . duh . )
rocky road to dublin is a provocative and revealing portrait of ireland in the sixties , a society characterized by a stultifying educational system , a morally repressive and politically reactionary clergy , a myopic cultural nationalism , and a government which seemingly knew no boundary between church and state . now available in a newly - restored version prepared by the irish film institute , this controversial film can at last be reassessed after a nearly forty - year period of neglect . ( the making of rocky road to dublin is also available , as a separate title , or purchase both for one price . see below . )
the long and sometimes rocky road to hollywood began in simple schoolboy settings for actor michael fassbender , 36 , nominated for an oscar tomorrow night for his role in 12 years a slave .
though there was little chance rocky road would be distributed in ireland , in 1968 i entered it for that years cannes film festival , and it was selected to represent the country that had rejected it  much to the bewilderment of the irish establishment .
the indie film meek ' s cutoff is an accidental film adaptation of the oregon trail series .
this project was the culmination of a process in which jesse jones has been working with 28 participants over a 6 month period in the fire station artists’ studios in dublin . these participants were contacted through trade unions and activist and community networks and the workshops involved film screenings and discussions as well as scripting , storyboarding and film - making tutorials . guest speakers to the workshops included film maker peter lennon who directed ‘the rocky road to dublin’ , rossport five member vincent mcgrath and socialist td joe higgins .
dublin used to have 56 different cinemas . here are some of the lost ones .
as you know , there is no shortage of rock walls in ireland ! but as to which wee little road between rock walls they used in the film – well , there is just such a road on inishmore , on the way to bothar .
the successful suffocation of rocky road for nearly four decades is an illustration of the fact that in a brainwashed community you dont need formal censorship laws to smother a film . with no experience of film being used in this way , the press wrote as if it wasnt a proper film at all . why should any film manager be expected to show this insulting stuff in a proper cinema ?  they asked .
peter lennon was born in dublin and reported from paris for the guardian throughout the sixties . during the seventies he worked in london on the sunday times and the listener before rejoining the guardian in 1989 . he has had short stories published in the new yorker and atlantic monthly . his film rocky road to dublin , which he wrote and directed , was selected for the cannes film festival of 1968 . he is married with two grown children .
the film moves on to its credit sequence , over the titular song ,
the rocky road to dublin
by the dubliners . ( the dubliners , in fact , supply the whole soundtrack . ) the camera tracks through scenes of a beach , a country road , two priests on bicycles , and the skyline of dublin . everything looks cleaner and prettier than it does now - - no traffic - clogged roads , no fast food joints , no jeans or tracksuits , and next to no litter anywhere .
although the stereotypical image of ireland as a cultural backwater seems to bear little relation to the country ' s reputation today , a culturally vibrant and economically vigorous
celtic tiger ,
it is in such moments that rocky road to dublin , as a historical film , illustrates not only how far ireland has come but also how little it has changed .
driving the dingle peninsula is very very scary . take a tour bus if you choose to see it . it is beautiful but the road is a two way road the size of a one way road . i drove all over ireland and that was the only time i was scared .
describes the film’s plot ) . the film concludes with a ridiculous speech by rocky balboa ( a prizefighter from philly ) preaching about change as the politburo give him a standing ovation . given how much the new film creed references apollo’s death in this film ( again , in the trailer ) , it’s hilarious to think of the amount of new fans who are going to leave the new film thinking “gee , i must check out the movie where apollo creed dies in the ring ! ” only to sit down to rocky iv .
dublin used to have 56 different cinemas . here are some of the lost ones . comments
to the earlier film , although they are in no way connected to each other .
well , it doesn ' t matter . lennon , that superb writer and journalist , made a glorious film , the rocky road to dublin , which was worth a dozen movies in the cv of a less distinguished man . it was such an energetic , punchy , daring film , not least in its challenge to the cronyist political establishment which infuriated the younger generation in ireland – then as now . his film has something to say in ireland in 2011 , reeling from the celtic tiger comedown and badly let down by the same self - satisfied sort of politician whose back - slapping smugness was exposed in rocky road . it is available on dvd . now is the time to watch peter lennon ' s masterpiece again .
i ' ve lived in dublin all my life and i work in the james joyce library , university college dublin . in june 2013 i married my wife michelle .
in addition to scenes of the may ' 68 protests in paris , the making of rocky road to dublin features rare cannes footage of jean - luc godard and françois truffaut demanding that the festival be shut down and the argumentative responses from peter lennon and others in the audience . the documentary also reprises key scenes from the original film , contrasted with a return to some of its locations nearly forty years later .
email “dublin used to have 56 different cinemas . here are some of the lost ones . ” .
in 2004 , paul duane ' s short documentary , the making of the rocky road to dublin , revived interest in the original , which had been restored by the irish film board , no less . lennon chuckled at the revelation that the priest offered to him by the bishop of dublin as an example of the model modern clergy had all the time enjoyed the favours of a lady friend on the side . it wasn ' t schadenfreude ; he was too generous for that .
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also : amy adams is stuck in wales . i’m told she has to get to dublin in a very , very short time . then , we hear once she lands in dingle , that it’s really the 27th , and she has two days to get to dublin . i’m sure she could have caught a flight over two days from cardiff to dublin – so what is it , amy – do we have two days or only one , to get to dublin ?
feedback on “dublin used to have 56 different cinemas . here are some of the lost ones . ” .
the press got a first glimpse of rocky road when i held a screening in dublin . sensing scandal , i was invited on to rte ' s late late show . the show had a hatchet - man - someone i knew . two minutes before i was to go on air , he said to me :
oh , hello , peter . i just got back from america . i didn ' t know you ' d made a film .
two minutes later he was on air informing the country that the film had been made with communist money . ( rocky road was , in fact , fully financed by an american businessman friend , victor herbert , who notably backed the english production of endgame in paris . )
though it is a spiritual successor to linklater ' s 1990 film , slacker .
do you know if any filming was done on the doo lough pass ( near famine memorial ) - connemara ? the road where the blue van steals her suitcase reminded us an awful lot of that road as well .
© irish examiner ltd , linn dubh , assumption road , blackpool , cork . registered in ireland : 523712 .
and , of course , the
road to . . .
episodes of family guy take this to the level of straight - up homage .
and then ? well , nothing happened . peter lennon did not make another film . when the rocky road to dublin was re - released six years ago , i wrote that he had been
cold - shouldered
by the irish establishment , which was partly true . irish cinemas wouldn ' t screen it , rte didn ' t broadcast it , and it didn ' t actually get a full release until 2006 .
from dingle , we have options : it takes at least an hour and a bit to drive / take a bus to tralee , and then ya catch a train from tralee to mallow ( in cork ) , change over to another train from mallow to dublin heuston… then on another train to dublin city centre ( five hours , all told , from tralee to dublin c . c . ) … . or you can drive from dingle to the kerry regional airport in farranfore , and catch a prop plane to dublin airport , and then ya catch a bus from the airport to o’connell street .
over the two evenings , four feature films were shown in a series of two double - bills , including peter lennon’s seminal ‘the rocky road to dublin’ and naomi klein’s recent documentary ‘the take’ . the drive - in also showed a number of collaborative short films made during the course of workshops facilitated by the artist jesse jones , at fire station artists’ studios over the last year .
peter gerard lennon , film - maker and journalist : born dublin 28 february 1930 ; married 1962 eeva karikoski ( one daughter , one son ) ; died london 18 march 2011 .
i have been to ireland only twice , but the setting inconsistencies are rediculous . aside from that , i do enjoy the film . the film maker on the other hand…
the 2004 film crash to the 1991 film grand canyon . both movies feature the interconnected lives of and then tensions between people of different races and classes in los angeles .
the may student revolt closed down the festival after a few days , but rocky road , with its theme of what do you do with your revolution once youve got it ?  was adopted by the french students , brought to paris and shown in the sorbonne amphitheatres , under siege by riot police .
i entered what was the first irish feature - length film of any significance for the cork film festival in 1967 . how could they reject it ? by disqualifying it on the grounds that it had had showings in dublin - one screening for about 18 people . but , to the amazement of the irish authorities , the film was selected to represent ireland at the cannes festival of 1968 . the idea that an irish feature film that was good enough for cannes could not be screened at ireland ' s only film festival was just too much .
after that , we received a very different sort of press coverage : from le monde , cahiers du cinema , positif , paris match ; massive coverage in life , a feature in the herald tribune (
irish revolt stirs sorbonne circuit
) ; and , from the new york times , this judgment :
rocky road to dublin makes it outrageous , if not impossible , for outsiders to ever again see ireland only in comforting cliches .
tommy boy , a disastrous road trip starring a mismatched odd couple and the gradual destruction of a car , owes a lot to planes , trains and automobiles .
lennon took on the catholic clergy and the educational system it controlled , the anti - cricket - football - rugby gaelic sporting establishment and , of course , the censor – who admitted , sadly , he couldn ' t ban rocky road as there was no sex in it . no need ; after a brief run in an obscure dublin cinema , the establishment made sure it waited another 35 years to be seen again in ireland .
amidst scenes of everyday irish life - - on the streets , in the classroom , at pubs , sporting events , dance halls , and a lively discussion amongst trinity college students - - rocky road to dublin blends interviews with writers sean o ' faolain and conor cruise o ' brien , a spokesman for the gaelic athletic association , theater producer jim fitzgerald , a member of the censorship board , an editor of the irish times , film director john huston , and a young catholic priest , father michael cleary .
we celebrated ; ireland persisted in sulking for decades . but the irish film archive finally gave it a home . and last year , rod stoneman and the irish film board agreed to finance the restoration of the old film and the making of this new documentary .
on the aran islands . the exteriors , anyway . the interiors were shot on sets in a warehouse in dublin .
1 . boston isn’t boston . except for generic b - roll of boston , the film - makers never shot in boston . the scenes supposedly in boston were shot in and around dublin castle in ireland .
walking through cong , i feel like at any moment the scene will change to black and white , and john wayne will coming striding down the road looking for victor mclaglen .
one has to be wary of being fair to regimes whose apparatus for being unfair permanently exceeds ones own by 10 , 000 times . but in fairness  or out of sympathy with my repressed countrymen  i have to say that rocky road was a pretty indigestible item . instead of the model of freedom and decency the republic took itself to be , it is described in one scene by irish writer sean ofaolain as :
for the next three decades rocky road wasn ' t shown , except for some late - night screenings at small festivals in the 1990s . no cinema manager in ireland wanted to offend the parish priest - or indeed himself - by showing it . it was out of the question that rte , a tool of church and state , would ever transmit it .
but cork still had a problem and the film censor could not help them . i had been careful not to have any sex in the film and the censor himself delivered his verdict to me in an endearing phrase : since there is no sex in the film peter , there is nothing i can do against you .
disney ' s frozen to tangled , from title to character design to setting . this led many to believe it was just going to be ' ' tangled ' ' in snow before the film proved them very wrong .
though
phantom
came first - just barely - its scene of a muscular , gay frankenstein monster with a blond pudding - bowl haircut being born inside a tank is so similar to
rocky horror
that some screenings of the latter have edited this sequence into the film as a joke .
in the commitments , outspan ended up as a busker on the streets of dublin . twenty years later the same actor , glen hansard , starred in once which opened with his character . . . busking on the streets of dublin . bonus points due to his character in once being unnamed .
the 2015 disaster film san andreas is essentially the first act of 2012 stretched out into a feature film , even containing many of the tropes that roland emmerich used in his disaster flicks .
while the film was not officially banned , the irish government did try to prevent it from being screened . apart from a seven - week run at a dublin cinema , it was shown only sporadically until it was restored and eventually released on dvd in 2004 .
if the film ' s cultural work is finished , its historical place will always be secure .
fire station artists ' studios , 9 - 11 lower buckingham street , dublin 1 , ireland t : + 353 . 1 . 855 6735
thanks jerry . yes i believe it is dublin , just had wondered where . not to worry ; i might just stumble upon it whilst travelling around . thanks again .
a time to kill is a spiritual follow - up to the preceding joel schumacher directed film based off of a john grisham legal thriller novel the client .
going to ireland in july 2016 . traveling to dublin and the south of ireland . don’t have too many days to spend there but i do want to go to either the ring of kerry or the dingle peninsula . can’t decide between the two . any help would be appreciated .
ironically , it was shown at the 1968 cannes film critics ' week , as the official irish entry , after which truffaut and jean - luc godard suspended the festival in solidarity with the striking paris students . footage of the event shows a furious lennon standing up in the audience to berate this arbitrary behaviour . first , thwarted by the right , now by the left . at least rocky road was seen by the paris students , who sympathised with its strident take on the revolution that went wrong .
thank you so much for all the information which you folks have posted here , and to jerry garrett for having the blog online in the first place . after seeing the movie “leap year” i was really curious as to where all of these scenic places in the film really are . i visited dublin in 2009 for arthur’s day , but never made it to the western shore of ireland . i did get out of dublin to howth and rathfarnum but my trip wasn’t long enough to do as much as i wanted to , so now i have to go back ! i’m planning a trip to galway with my sister and am very excited to put some of these locations on my list of places to see . thank you so very much ! melissa ( from the “real” boston , not the “fake” dublin - boston ! )
thanks for posting this awesome read . i had no idea about these myths , great film though !
in that brainwashed society , anyone who stepped outside the pale was assumed , in the most natural way , to have no rights . when i protested , the response was :
jaysus , what did you expect ?
apart from the irish times , whose critic fergus linehan championed rocky road over and over , and later sean kearney in the old sunday independent , the press coverage was mostly atrocious .
well almost no way . it was rejected as an official entry on the farcical grounds that it had already been screened in dublin  to a grand total of 18 people .
goodfellas is itself a spiritual successor to scorsese ' s earlier film mean streets . according to the director , each film represents a step up in the mob hierarchy , starting with neighborhood punks and ending with the true power brokers at the top as in casino .
wastelands 2
is an existential film set in a post - apocalyptic , graffiti - based world . the plot revolves around three characters who cross paths on a journey to find the meaning of a trail of artwork left behind from a nomadic artist . the film features several prominent new york graffiti artist and uses guerilla film making practices .
john wick is a spiritual successor to point blank . although the former features some plot points similar to the road to perdition , it is more about a stoic badass criminal who goes after a powerful crime family in search of a macguffin , with hyperstylized direction and action .
but that “shortcut to dublin , ” that – in the movie she thought was cork – probably explains getting blown out – via a nasty storm – to a dingle that i don’t feckin’ recognize as being dingle .
12 angry films was a temporary drive in cinema that showed films examining class , migration and social justice in dublin’s docklands over two nights in nov 2006 .
leaving the driving to others frees you to ogle the scenery . the road does keep the person behind the wheel a bit busy . i recommend , if you drive it yourself , to stop often , get out and walk about a little , and take lots of pictures .
rocky ii is a utilitarian ‘very good sequel’ , no where near as genuine or necessary as the first film , but still reasonably heartfelt and plausible enough as a conclusion to the plot of the first film . in typical 1970s style , the film opens mere minutes after the first , creating a strong continuity strand between the two ( for better or worse ) . the pacing is a little bit clunkier , the dramatic moments are a little bit more forced and while the fighting is more polished , the dialogue and the atmosphere feel far less natural . nevertheless , it’s still quite a nice film and arguably among the better of the sequels . the ending is a lot of fun and people forget how many of the iconic series moments actually come from this film rather than the first .
the now - 80 - year - old coutard relates his memorable experiences of making the film and his impressions of ireland at the time , while peter lennon details the film ' s largely negative critical reception in ireland and the neglect into which it had fallen before it was finally restored by the irish film institute in 2004 .
if rocky iii was a silly cartoon , then rocky iv is an outright superheroic farce . it not only jumps the shark , it squats , deadlifts and bench - presses it atop a snowy mountain surrounded by 80s synth - metal . there’s a reason it has its own unique ‘so - bad - it’s - good’ cult following that exists completely independent of the rest of the series . the whole thing is just ridiculous , from paulie getting a robot wife ( ? ! ) to the soviet empire entering the world of professional boxing , to ivan drago having enough super - steroid - strength to shatter a volkswagen , to apollo dying in the ring ( i’m not spoiling anything , it’s in the film’s trailer ) to rocky shouting ‘draaaagggooo ! ’ at the top of a russian mountain ( probably in vancouver ) to the film’s full 25 minutes of montages . once again it’s hard to deny the entertainment value , once again stallone ups the ante in terms of his own physicality ( his full - body sit - ups are a sight to behold ) and the baller 80s soundtrack is awesome ( the song ‘burning heart’
the film was entered at the cannes film festival in 1968 and was shown just before the the festival was abandoned in support of student protests of that year . it managed to have a brief run of two weeks in dublin to sold - out audiences . it has never been shown on irish television and despite the ( not surprising ) snub that it received in ireland it became a huge success with those very students who brought the cannes film festival to close . the film provided a cautionary answer to the old question of “what do you do with your revolution now that you have it ? ’ in ireland that answer , sadly , was “give it to the church and the bourgeoisie . ” the full film is actually now available for viewing on youtube . the quality of the file conversion was not terribly good so the resolution is poor compared to the dvd . it ' s still quite watchable though . urltoken
ireland is beautiful and after watching this film and “p . s . i love you” , i can’t wait to explore such a gorgeous place .
encouraged by the controversy he had stirred with a series of newspaper articles and inspired by french ' new wave ' filmmakers of the era , dublin - born peter lennon , who had lived and worked in paris as a journalist for a decade , decided to revisit his native country in 1967 to make a film assessing the state of the nation .
even though ireland had practically no film industry , it did have an international film festival , to be held in cork that october . there seemed no way it could wriggle out of accepting an irish film which had been selected for cannes and had picked up excellent reviews from cahiers du cinéma , positif , paris match , the new york times , and the international herald tribune .
( 2001 ) , a re - assessment of casements life , won gilsenan an irish film and television academy award and best feature documentary at the celtic film festival . prior to that , gilsenan was one of three directors behind the ambitious history of the irish diaspora ,
best known as a documentary film - maker , gilsenan has also made feature films , short fiction films and has directed for theatre . he is chairperson of the irish film institute and a member of the irish film board . most of his later documentaries have been made for rt by his production company , yellow asylum films . gilsenan made his name with
my own experience with the franchise is almost accidental . having remembered the essential bits and bobs of the films from catching pieces of them on various saturday evening rté ‘big , big movie’ broadcasts , i happened upon the complete ( at the time ) dvd boxset of rockys 1 - 5 for the bargain price of 30 quid . i had a few vouchers i was looking to use up , a few holidays left and stallone’s pseudo - comeback rocky balboa ( rocky vi for those of us who kept count ) was soon to be released . why not ? this resulted in a great love for an emotional rollercoaster , a drama - soaked , action - packed , schmaltz - stained , redemptive road paved by five films varying from epic to mundane in literal and metaphorical terms .
just watched the film this weekend on verizon fios’ on demand . my wife and i vacation in ireland regularly with our last trip being this past christmas to dublin ( which by the way i share declan’s initial opinion of ! ! ! ) and county clare . we enjoyed the scenery but had numerous chuckles over the geographical gaffs .
was screened for only a few weeks at a single dublin theater and was critically condemned and accused of being communist - funded . but as lennon explains , while the irish saw
peter lennon ' s film about ireland was feted at cannes and adopted by the revolutionaries of 1968 . but in his home country , cinemas refused to screen it
really , just about every movie made in the decade or so after blade runner combining science fiction and city noir sensibilities has been invariably compared to that film .
the irish establishment took one , brief look at rocky road , and suffocated it for 37 years . no irish cinema would screen it and there was never any question that rte ( irish public service television ) would either . rte was totally submissive to the church ( as were most irish politicians ) . indeed , at the point where only about 18 people had seen it at a private screening , rte , on its late late show , dealt the hammer blow by warning the nation that this unseen film was backed by communist money .  in fact , it was entirely funded by an american businessman friend of mine .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
( 1968 ) . produced for channel 4 , it was the subject of local criticism by the industrial development authority , but it won a special jury prize at the 1989 european film awards . in the same year , gilsenan made the short film ,
ring of kerry is a little longer , and farther away from dublin ( but not by much ) . either is sublimely beautiful . you can’t miss , whichever one you pick .
c’mon folks , it’s a movie , not a travel documentary . americans watching this could care less about whether dingle is accurately depicted , or any road , pub , or castle . the main point is that they will fall in love with not only the story , but also with the landscape , culture , aura , and people of ireland itself , from dublin to the sea in all directions . which county , town , cliff , road , castle , hotel , or pub any of it happens in doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things . that’s called hollywood , so you might as well get used to it . does it matter what city citizen kane was shot in ?
n the 1960s , i was a freelance journalist living in paris and working for the guardian , which sent me home to ireland to cover the dublin theatre festival . soon after my arrival , my drinking friends began trying to convince me that ireland had shed all its shackles .
nobody pays any attention to the clergy ,
they said .
censorship is a thing of the past .
i didn ' t really care one way or another , living in paris , but finally i asked the newspaper to let me stay on in dublin for a few weeks . the result was a series of articles with headlines like climate of repression , students in blinkers , and grey eminence ( about the archbishop of dublin ) .
thanks jerry for the information . now , i can find the many beautiful locations in the film and the real dingle too .
spies like us was , during production , described as a road movie , and even features bob hope in a cameo . . . hitting a golf ball into the same tent as the characters in the middle of afghanistan .
hi all – the scene near the lakes where amy had her bag stolen was not doo lough – lovely as it is . it’s in mayo , the road between leenane and louisburgh and is heaven on earth . link to street view in google maps : urltoken
peter lennon ' s film about ireland was feted at cannes and adopted by the revolutionaries of 1968 . but in his home country , cinemas refused to screen it .
the patriot is also one to saving private ryan from the perspective of being an american - themed war film by robert rodat and was also scored by john williams .
day of the animals to its director william girdler ' s previous film grizzly , since it has a similar location , plot , and shares some of the cast .
thanks paul . having lived in dublin and dun laoghaire for a time , i know the area’s pluses and minuses , for sure ! during our last visit , we rented a car as soon as we landed and did a “reverse trip” out of dublin to the west coast of ireland . i highly recommend this route ! heading west , no matter how far or fast you travel in ireland , you know the best is always yet to come .
at this point , ireland , along with the soviet union , had probably the most repressive ideological apparatus of book and film censorship in the world . clerical remote controlled censorship filleted foreign influence mercilessly  even dementedly . there was virtually no film or publishing industry .
i just saw leap year & enjoyed it — fantasy yes , but fun . since we were in ireland this past dec . , it brought back memories . i knew some scenes weren’t consistent but you can’t hide ireland’s beauty . we travelled by car from shannon to dingle to dublin & back ; a wonderful sight seeing trip in many areas most tourists don’t get to see . enjoy the film and don’t take it so seriously .
as they share many similar themes ( apart from the title involving
road
that can easily be confused ) . both center around the relationship between a father and son who have nothing left but each other ( in both cases he had a wife but she ' s dead ) who through events beyond their control are forced to travel down a
road
both literally and metaphorically trying to survive whilst bringing up questions about morality - the father trying to be a good man doing what ' s best for his son , trying to find a place for themselves and running into problems on the way , including people who want to kill them .
hi jerry , sorry for my little english . i’m italian and i’m looking for location of leap year movies because i love this film and this summer i’ll go in ireland . today i read your site ! thanks for the information : it’s time i try to discover the castle in the movie and the place of the final scene . i’ll go in ireland by plane to cork and then i’ll go to dublin with a car . bye
to propose to her finance on feb . 29 , the traditional day upon which women may propose to men .
i loved living in dingle for 19 months , from 2003 - 2004 . it’s hard enough to find the town from land , driving west – with the name changes on the road signs from irish and back to english , starting in 2005 . this film makes it really difficult for the town to be found… to make any gains from losses the name changes may or may not have occurred . ( there are those in the town who see the tourism as a blessing and a curse at the same time . )
the park at the end is st . stephen’s green . the sunny day may be a bit of movie magic , as i hardly ever remember it being that nice when i lived in dublin .
so cork gave us a screening . it was at lunchtime , on the day they had invited all the media out of town to a free oyster - and - guinness lunch in kenmore , 70 miles away . so we hired a hall the next day , causing more scandal . with the financial potential a scandal offers , one dublin cinema took the film and ran it for seven weeks to gleeful audiences .
hola susie ! you are a lady with “true grit” ! good for you to visit ireland . some people only dream about such adventures . you are making it a reality . buses and trains are very good from dublin to all parts of ireland . they are also very inexpensive . taxis and rental cars are expensive , however . i think you should be safe traveling alone . be careful in parts of some big cities , like dublin , limerick & cork . this is true in any large city , i am sure . the pub in the movie is on the aran islands , but the inside of it was a movie set that was built in dublin . there are pleasant places to stay on the aran islands . galway is also very nice , and it is a good place to take the ferry to galway , for take a bus tour of connemara , where the scenes with the red renault were shot . i hope you have a wonderful time . please write to us here at garrett on the road with your experiences . my very best wishes !
the film revolutionary road is an interesting subversion of spiritual successor status . it ' s set in america , it starred leonardo di caprio and kate winslet ( as husband in wife ) in their first film together after they ' d co - starred in titanic 1997 . some people initially thought it therefore as titanic ' s spiritual successor . the storyline , however , is , if anything , entirely the opposite of titanic and only gets worse from there . plus , it ' s based on a completely unrelated novel .
[ … ] the road trip in “due date” is the most whacked - out cinematic misadventure since 2009’s “leap year” , which turned the map of ireland inside out .
i don ' t think this is kansas , toto
[ … ]
i agree , it is a magical place and everywhere you go there is a remembrance of the quiet man film . it seems to not have changed much over the many years .
looper is a remake of the 1994 sci - fi film timecop , but with the camp replaced with being as ultra - stylish as possible .
the filmmakers had to film in ireland so that the film’s backers could claim a tax break ( allowed under recent revisions of section 481 of the irish tax code ) for their investment in the production . the choice of locations within ireland was up to the filmmakers , and they took many liberties , to make dublin look like boston , and make locations work with the idea of a journey across ireland in the script . why they did what they did , who knows ? but they had to scrimp to make their irish budget of €13 million last for the 5 - month shoot , and to pay a crew of 150 . the filmmakers also promised to hire 1 , 500 extras throughout the course of the shoot . did you see that many extras ? i sure didn’t .
with the release of creed , i decided it would be just splendid to blitz my way through the ‘rocky’ franchise in more or less one sitting . this actually isn’t as strenuous as one might think – leaving aside the fact that every one of the films is at least quite entertaining , rockys ii - vi are never longer than 110 economic minutes . only the first film is two hours long . so really it wasn’t any worse than a netflix binge - watch .
zootopia is one to robin hood . in fact , zootopia director byron howard ' s love for robin hood was the reason why the idea for zootopia was pitched in the first place , since he wanted to do a film similar to one of his favorite toons .
whatever , wherever , it was all lovely . i’m addicted to the scenery in this film , and that includes matthew good’s face , so i watch it every time it’s on cable .
if your looking for a small town on the sea look at greystones in wicklow ( not rustic like the ones in the film but is a smaller family town with little cafe’s and a long coast line to walk along ) about a 10 min drive in to the mountains to be up to all that scenery .
and inverted again with riddick , which pretty much throws out the previous film in the first few minutes and then rehashes the plot of pitch black .
, shot on a mixture of super - 8 , vhs and super - 16 and blown up to 35mm . while the film won many critical plaudits , it was also criticised for its regressive gender politics . gilsenan returned to documentary with
the 1980 musical film xanadu is a spiritual successor to the 1944 movie cover girl . in xanadu , gene kelly plays an older version of danny mcguire ( his character in cover girl ) . his character doesn ' t make any direct references to the story or characters in the older movie except for the mention of once owning a nightclub . danny also remembers meeting kira before somehow . rita hayworth ' s role in the older film doesn ' t really suggest any connections to kira or the muses . but in the 1947 film down to earth ( the direct inspiration for xanadu ) , hayworth actually does play the muse
terpsichore
. and down to earth does make references to cover girl , however .
it’s faster than walking from dingle to… wherever – heck – it’s tough enough to walk from dingle to camp ( uphill from annascaul ) , which is halfway to tralee .
adventures of don juan is once again another swashbuckler starring flynn . he here is once again playing a classic european hero who fights against a corrupt man of power in his nation who is trying to take over and woos a woman of royalty . even the title seems to be deliberately trying to harken back to that film .
highwaymen is one to director robert harmon ' s earlier film the hitcher . both heavily feature car chases , pursuit along the highways , and a serial killer with a fixation on the male protagonist .
the sea hawk is again a swashbuckling adventure film starring flynn as a charismatic pirate captain . and once again curtiz is in the director ' s chair .
thanks cindy , the bed - and - breakfast “inn” in “leap year” was actually a set , built inside an industrial warehouse located on dublin’s north side . exterior shots cut into that scene were shot mostly in county wicklow .
the death of peter lennon , guardian journalist and documentary film - maker , causes a complicated kind of sadness . i met him first on joining the guardian in 1999 ; he was at the paper on a freelance writing contract . peter was funny , charming , and self - deprecating . he would occasionally participate in office discussions about how we should cover the cannes film festival , without ever attempting to pull rank — as he was arguably entitled to do , given that he was a real live film - maker who had had something selected at cannes .
a christmas carol 2009 directed by robert zemeckis serves as this to his preceding cgi - animated christmas film the polar express . both films are based on a classic book centered around the holiday and are about a person whose perspective on life and attitude towards the holiday are changed as he goes through a supernatural journey started by beings who want to help them
open their eyes
so to speak . . each also has a leading actor who plays several roles in the film . ironically enough a marionette puppet of ebenezer scrooge appears in the film during the scene where they are in a car filled with abandoned / misfit toys being used by the hobo ghost . the scrooge played by jim carrey in the subsequent film has a strikingly similar appearance / design .


the cruise is a 76-minute documentary released in 1998 .

it was the debut film of bennett miller , who became prominent after directing capote ( 2005 ) .

the film records the worldview and personality of timothy " speed " levitch , who was then a guide for bus tours of new york city .

levitch had become popular for his unconventional narrative about the city that he delivered at a frenetic pace .

the cruise ( 1998 film )

the cruise
was initially rejected by many film festivals . it premiered at the los angeles independent film festival in 1998 and was later screened at new york ' s docfest . on october 14 , 1998
the cruise
was released in new york city at the angelika film center . after being picked up by distributor , artisan entertainment ,
the cruise
was released nationwide on november 6 , 1998 .
the cruise
was also nominated for the daring digital award at the jenjou film festival . among the film ' s wins are the wolfgang statuote award and the don quixote award at the berlin international film festival , demonstrating the film ' s international diffusion .
the cruise
also won the best documentary audience award and the feature competition special jury award at the newport international film festival .
the disney team saw the spec , by lauren hynek and elizabeth martin , as a jumping - off point for a more nuanced and elaborate adaptation , combining the legendary chinese ballad and the 1998 animated film .
after their first major animated film antz ( 1998 ) , they also turned out the prince of egypt ( 1998 ) , the claymation chicken run ( 2000 ) , joseph : king of dreams ( 2000 ) ( direct - to - video ) , the road to eldorado ( 2000 ) , and best animated feature - winning shrek ( 2001 ) .
it was significant that the first new hollywood studio in many decades , dreamworks ( skg ) , was formed in october 1994 as the brainchild of director - producer steven spielberg , ex - disney executive producer jeffrey katzenberg , and film producer / music industry giant david geffen . the studio ' s first theatrical release was first - time feature director mimi leder ' s the peacemaker ( 1997 ) starring george clooney and nicole kidman . this was followed by amistad ( 1997 ) , mouse hunt ( 1997 ) , paulie ( 1998 ) , deep impact ( 1998 ) , and small soldiers ( 1998 ) . their first real hit was also their first film to be nominated for best picture - saving private ryan ( 1998 ) .
the film debuted on united lands television ( the family film channel ) on october 4 , 1999 , and had 5 . 43 million viewers .
the cruise was nominated for a number of filmmaking awards . these included best documentary from the online film critics society and the satellite awards . michael levine , the film ' s editor , was nominated for the best edited documentary film award (
eddie
) of the american cinema editors .
similarly , likeable girl - next - door star sandra bullock made uneven appearances in speed ( 1994 ) , while you were sleeping ( 1995 ) , the net ( 1995 ) , in love and war ( 1996 ) , speed 2 : cruise control ( 1997 ) , hope floats ( 1998 ) , practical magic ( 1998 ) and forces of nature ( 1999 ) .
as this film is a remake of the 1961 the parent trap , it features a number of references to the film it is based on . among them are :
cruise and kidman spent much of 1997 and 1998 in england shooting eyes wide shut , an erotic thriller that would be director stanley kubrick & apos ; s final film . the movie came out in the summer of 1999 to mixed reviews , but that year cruise enjoyed greater success with the release of magnolia . his performance as a self - confident sex guru in the ensemble film earned him another golden globe award and an academy award nomination for best supporting actor .
sir tom stoppard is a czech - born british playwright whose famous works include rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead ( 1964 ) and every good boy deserves favour ( 1978 ) . he co - wrote the screenplay for the 1998 academy award winning film shakespeare in love .
many film productions have been shot in galveston over the years . below is a list of some of the more prominent film , television and commercial productions filmed here .
tom cruise , who had arrived with his wife katie holmes , wasn’t on the guest list . even the film’s john cusack expressed surprise at their presence . rob corddry , who also stars in the film , said later that cruise was constantly texting him during the movie saying how funny he thought it was .
upon release , the film received generally positive reviews from film critics . the website rotten tomatoes states that 86 % of critics gave the film a
fresh
rating . on metacritic , the film has a score of 64 / 100 , indicating
generally favorable
. it also received
two thumbs up
from siskel and ebert .
others reckon cruise is getting a raw deal . ‘the fault is not with tom cruise , but with the material he is being offered , ’ says heywood gould , who wrote both the book and film of cocktail , the 1988 movie that showed cruise had attained a stellar level of public stardom . cruise is now understood to be looking for future projects that combine ‘humour with humility’ .
the success of the film
titanic
has cruise industry executives , like so many celine dions , warbling the praises of the iceberg epic and its baby - faced star , leonardo dicaprio .
the use of the sugar and water mosquito repellent which the twins give meredith was also given to vicki in the original film .
the film was met with generally positive reviews , holding an 86 % approval rating on rotten tomatoes . it entered the box office charts at number 2 on july 31 , 1998 . it ended up with a gross of over $ 66 million in the u . s . and $ 92 , 108 , 518 worldwide .
meredith talks to a
reverend mosby
, named after a character in the original film .
actress joanna barnes , who played vicky robinson ( a character like meredith blake ) in the original film , plays meredith ' s mother ( also named vicki ) in this film .
4 . when nicole kidman and tom cruise arrived in london in the fall of 1996 to shoot the movie , they expected to be wrapped and back in los angeles by the following spring . instead , the production didn ' t conclude until january 1998 , making it the guinness world record ' s longest - running film shoot in history . ( kidman and cruise reportedly signed open - ended contracts that stated they ' d stick with the project no matter how long it took to complete . )
in december 2008 , cruise released his second project through united artists . the film , entitled valkyrie , was a world war ii drama about a plot to assassinate german leader adolf hitler . cruise starred as a german army officer who became involved in the conspiracy .
like the 1998 animated film , mulan is based on the chinese legend of hua mulan , the daughter of an aged warrior who disguises herself as a man in order to take her father ' s place in the army and go to war . aided by her trusted dragon , mushu , she becomes a skilled warrior and one of the country ' s greatest heroines .
another deleted scene appears in the trailer that debuted in 1998 . the scene shows hallie standing out on the deck of her vineyard - estate house . she sees a shooting star and sings the rhyme
starlight , starbright .
annie appears standing outside her window , too .
cruise ship damages pristine coral reef . how big an impact do cruises have on the environment ?
but while spielberg agreed to the installation of a scientology tent on the set of war of the worlds , he became disenchanted at how cruise’s aggressive promotion of scientology overshadowed the film’s release . marvin levy , spielberg’s spokesman , admitted at the time that cruise’s rants against prescription drugs ‘certainly took some of the emphasis away from where we would have liked it’ .
cruise quickly rebounded and on november 2 , 2006 , he announced his new partnership with film executive paula wagner and the united artists film studio . their first production as a team , the political drama lions for lambs ( 2007 ) , proved a commercial disappointment despite a strong cast that included meryl streep and robert redford .
there are no featured audience reviews yet . click the link below to see what others say about the cruise !
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
: the anti - cruise is an attempt to imprison us . at every level of living it exists . younger cruisers have asked me ,
why ?
why is the anti - cruise so avaricious and constant in its attempt to stop the cruise ? and i have no answer . there is no answer . i mean , it ' s gravitational , it ' s a relationship that ' s made up of reciprocals and pulling gravities . it simply exists . where there is cruise there is an escort of anti - cruise . but even in a bastion of anti - cruise fodder . . . there is cruise . somewhere . . .
timothy
speed
levitch is mind blowing . this is another example of how a low - budget documentary film can be a foot in the door for aspiring film directors like bennett miller ( capote , moneyball , foxcatcher ) .
the camp counselors , marva kulp sr . and jr . , are named after nancy kulp , who played the younger camp counselor in the original film .
the presence of high - profile actors is no longer guaranteed to make a film successful ; the movie has become the star . cruise can’t control the cult of the a - list celebrity being on the wane in hollywood box office terms , but the same can’t be said for his devotion to the cult of scientology .
cruise also devised much of the film’s content . a motorcycle obsessive , he dreamt up the climactic chase on a speeding bike . and although the script is credited to first - time scribe patrick o’neill , many writers doctored the dialogue , foremost among them cruise . he conceived much of the verbal repartee with diaz including an exchange that revolves around his character proclaiming : ‘i’m the guy’ .
it is highly unusual – almost unprecedented – for cruise to attend a premiere that he has no connection with . but then these are unusual times for tom cruise . he could have been forgiven , while watching the film’s flashbacks , for wishing that he himself could travel back in time to the summer of 2005 and modify his public behaviour . for it was then that cruise’s image as hollywood’s most consistently commercial star was shattered .
his next film , risky business ( 1983 ) , grossed $ 65 million . it also made cruise a highly recognizable actor — thanks in no small part to a memorable scene of the young star dancing in his underwear .
as scientologists move up within the hierarchy , they are encouraged to more vigorously promote its virtues to the outside world . but pat kingsley , cruise’s notoriously fearsome publicist for the first two decades of his career , discouraged cruise from talking about the subject .
the news that the studio is turning its 1998 animated hit into a live - action title comes after such successes as maleficent , the jungle book and cinderella , among other titles . and disney is currently gearing up for the release of the live - action beauty and the beast , which opens march 17 and is expected to be one of the top - grossing titles of 2017 .
this list collects every film from the starting list that became they shoot pictures don ' t they ' s 1000 greatest films . this…
the anti - cruise is an attempt to imprison us . at every level of living it exists .
officially , he is soon set to begin work on mission : impossible 4 for paramount but rumours are rife that the film’s fate depends on the international performance of knight and day ( cruise’s films now do best outside the us , and for proof of how well cruise wants this one to do watch this week’s top gear , in which he is the star in the reasonably priced car ) .
a fantastic chatacter portrait that gets sadder the longer it goes on . only complaint is that its really more of the same for the whole film . fortunately the same is pretty entertaining .
thomas cruise mapother iv , better known as tom cruise , was born on july 3 , 1962 , in syracuse , new york , to mary and thomas mapother . cruise & apos ; s mother was an amateur actress and schoolteacher , and his father was an electrical engineer . his family moved around a great deal when cruise was a child in order to accommodate his father & apos ; s career .
cruise sales have been spurred by hit movie . world ' s largest ship set sail may 27 .
from his breakthrough performance in 1983’s risky business onwards , cruise certainly was ‘the guy’ . his achievements were all the more impressive given his turbulent upbringing . he was born thomas cruise mapother in 1962 ; his mother raised him and his three sisters with little income after divorcing his father . always on the move , cruise attended 15 schools and battled dyslexia .
sella issued a public mea culpa to the los angeles times . ‘blame me , don’t blame tom cruise , ’ he said . ‘we did lots of focus groups for this film and no one ever said there was a star problem . never . tom cruise was not the issue . i take full responsibility . ’ sella’s confession was greeted with scepticism . ‘i find it a little convenient for everybody who isn’t the marketing chief , ’ says kim masters of the hollywood reporter and a veteran cruise chronicler .
as a result , the wake of the top - grossing film of all time is sloshing even more money into the coffers of europe ' s lucrative cruise industry .
in europe , ' titanic ' guaranteed a 20 percent increase in the sales of cruises ,
says vincenzo zaccagnino , editor of the italian magazine cruises .
the independent film channel was launched by the bravo cable network in 1994 as an outlet for independent films . in similar fashion , in 1995 , the sundance channel was created by the showtime cable tv network ( in partnership with robert redford ) . robert redford’s sundance institute ( established in 1980 ) took over the utah / us film festival . in 1991 , it was renamed the sundance film festival ( the film festival was held annually since 1981 in january in park city , utah and expanded in length ) -
dedicated to the support and development of emerging screenwriters and directors of vision , and to the national and international exhibition of new , independent dramatic and documentary films .
cruise’s allegiance to the church of scientology prompted another embarrassing mishap . on morning television’s the today show , he clashed with host matt lauer over the history of psychiatric medicine , which scientology is opposed to . cruise exclaimed : ‘matt , you’re glib… you should be a little more responsible’ and – the phrase that became cruise’s unofficial catchphrase for a while – ‘you don’t know the history of psychiatry . i do . ’
his role in taps was upgraded after director harold becker saw cruise & apos ; s potential , and his performance caught the attention of a number of critics and filmmakers . in 1983 , cruise appeared in francis ford coppola & apos ; s the outsiders , which also starred emilio estevez , matt dillon and rob lowe —all prominent members of a group of young actors the entertainment press dubbed the
brat pack .
the film was not well received , but it allowed cruise to work with an acclaimed director in a high - profile project .
michelle trachtenberg was considered the role ( s ) of the twins . coincidentally , her birthday falls on the same day ( october 11th ) as annie and hallie ' s birthday does in the film .
in 1986 , after a two - year hiatus , the budding actor released the big - budget fantasy film legend , which did poorly at the box office . that same year , however , cruise & apos ; s a - list status was confirmed with the release of top gun , which co - starred kelly mcgillis , anthony edwards and meg ryan . the testoterone - fueled action - romance , set against the backdrop of an elite naval flight school , became the highest grossing film of 1986 .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
anyone who thinks cruise won’t be concerned about losing his audience has never seen a tom cruise movie . he is fond of telling the story that when his mother left his abusive father , when he was 12 years old , he thought : ‘i gotta figure this out . ’ thirty - five years later tom cruise once more has to figure it out .
tom cruise was born on july 3 , 1962 , in syracuse , new york . after developing an interest in acting during high school , he rocketed to fame with his star turns in risky business and top gun . cruise later earned acclaim for his work in the hit film jerry maguire and the mission : impossible franchise . he also was targeted by the tabloids for his marriages to actresses nicole kidman and katie holmes .
6 . cruise was so anxious about giving the legendary director what he wanted that he developed an ulcer . he never told kubrick .
cruise exuded the magical aura that any a - list movie star must possess . actress thandie newton , who starred with cruise in mission : impossible 2 and interview with the vampire , said recently : ‘you could practically feel tom’s glow before he arrived on set . ’
in the 1990s for the most part , cinema attendance was up - mostly at multi - screen cineplex complexes throughout the country . although the average film budget was almost $ 53 million by 1998 , many films cost over $ 100 million to produce , and some of the most expensive blockbusters were even more . in the early 1990s , box - office revenues had dipped considerably , due in part to the american economic recession of 1991 , but then picked up again by 1993 and continued to increase . the average ticket price for a film varied from about $ 4 . 25 at the start of the decade to around $ 5 by the close of the decade . as indoor multiplexes multiplied from almost 23 , 000 in 1990 to 35 , 600 in the year 2000 , the number of drive - ins continued to decline ( from 910 in 1990 to 667 in 2000 ) .
by the end of the decade , however , independent film - making had become more mainstream and institutionalized - sharing some of the same concerns and corporate worries that traditional hollywood studios had always confronted .
the production of the film has also drawn critical commentary . james berardinelli wrote ,
' the cruise ' is a typical example of low - budget documentary film making . it ' s in grainy black - and - white ( a blowup from the video it was shot on ) with a flat audio . oddly , however , this approach gives levitch ' s new york a timeless quality . the gershwin song
but not for me
plays as the camera captures the modern skyline , creating a sense of the past and present blurring together .
next , cruise hit the big screen with two huge hits—the $ 64 million blockbuster mission : impossible ( 1996 ) , which the star also produced , and the highly acclaimed jerry mcguire ( 1996 ) , directed by cameron crowe . for the latter , cruise earned a second academy award nomination and golden globe for best actor .
in numerous scenes , the girls refer to meredith as cruella de vil , a reference to the 1996 film version of 101 dalmatians which feature richardson ' s sister , joely richardson .
attempting to woo a younger crowd , fox switched the film’s us release date to avoid clashing with twilight : eclipse . what the studio did not foresee was that grown ups , an adam sandler comedy that opened the same weekend as knight and day and which received some of the worst reviews of the year , would make twice as much as the cruise / diaz movie .
5 . to say kubrick is a perfectionist is an understatement : his intent was to film scenes so many times that it would wear down his actors and they ' d forget the cameras existed . during the course of shooting
eyes wide shut ,
the director filmed 95 takes of cruise walking through a door .
at the march premiere of the crude , unashamedly silly , eighties - set time travel comedy hot tub time machine , in los angeles , an unlikely guest quietly entered the auditorium just before the film started , having bypassed the red carpet .
actor tom arnold was married to actress roseanne barr for four years and wrote for the sitcom roseanne . he starred in the film true lies ( 1994 ) and hosted the best damn sports show period .
joanna barnes , the actress who played meredith blake ' s mother , vicki blake , had also played the twins ' father ' s fiancée , vicky robinson , in the original film . both characters ' names are vicki , but the main antagonist ' s last name in the original film was robinson , but due to being married , there is still a chance that she could be the same character .
nevertheless , cruise was a tireless promoter of scientology behind the scenes . sources say that when promoting a film in paris , he would spend the morning at the us embassy lobbying diplomats to persuade the french government to relax its hardline stance towards scientology . when he split from kingsley in 2004 , replacing her with his sister lee anne devette , cruise increasingly brought scientology into the public domain and woe betide anyone who fell foul of its philosophies , as brooke shields and matt lauer discovered .
consumers modified their movie - watching practices again when the online dvd movie rental service netflix began offering its website subscribers postal shipping of rented dvds in 1998 . inevitably , netflix experienced market - share competition from blockbuster , hollywood video , and wal - mart ( and more recently from cheap $ 1 dvd - rental kiosks or automated vending machines in grocery and discount stores ) .
1996 : time / warner acquired ted turner ' s turner broadcasting system ( tbs ) , including its cable tv stations and its extensive film library .
many think cruise’s smartest bet lies in reminding people that he can act . ‘unless cruise can find the role of a vampire’s father , he’s now best off becoming a character actor , ’ says his biographer wensley clarkson , author of cruise control . veteran director james toback believes cruise should embrace his eccentric persona : ‘the more off - centre he is , the better he is , like in magnolia or tropic thunder . he’s obviously a complicated guy so he’s got to play complicated roles – anything that lets him play his humorous or psychotic side . ’
before the film ' s release , the industry was concerned the story of a disaster at sea would send the market plummeting to the bottom of the ocean . but
the romantic character of the story prevailed and had a positive effect on the public ,
says francesco di cesare , a venice - based industry analyst .
in 1992 , cruise proved once more that he could hold his own opposite a screen legend when he co - starred with jack nicholson in the military courtroom drama a few good men . the film grossed more than $ 15 million its first weekend , and earned cruise a golden globe nomination . he continued to demonstrate his chops as a leading man with the firm ( 1993 ) and interview with a vampire ( 1994 ) , which co - starred brad pitt .
his next effort , mission : impossible 3 ( 2006 ) , also scored well with audiences . however , cruise was faced with a professional setback in august when paramount pictures ended its 14 - year relationship with the actor . the company & apos ; s chairman cited cruise & apos ; s erratic behavior and controversial views as the reason for the split , though industry experts noted that paramount more likely ended the partnership over cruise & apos ; s high earnings from the mission : impossible franchise .
cruise returned to one of his most popular franchises in 2011 with mission : impossible—ghost protocol . breaking into new territory , he then starred in the 2012 musical rock of ages . although cruise received some positive reviews for his performance as a rock star , the movie failed to attract much of an audience .
cruise married actress mimi rogers in 1987 . it was through rogers that the actor became a student of scientology , the religion founded by writer l . ron hubbard . cruise credited the church with curing his dyslexia , and he soon became one of its leading proponents . however , while his spiritual life flourished , his marriage to rogers ended in 1990 . that same year , cruise made the racecar drama days of thunder with australian actress nicole kidman . though the movie was unpopular among critics and fans alike , the two lead actors had real chemistry . on christmas eve 1990 , after a brief courtship , cruise and kidman married in telluride , colorado .
some think cruise , who has a net worth of around $ 320 million , should scale down his salary demands when looking for the right comeback movie . he received over $ 20 million for knight and day but not every studio is willing to give him his asking price and that’s slowed down his film schedule .
a - list actor and scientologist tom cruise is the star of several box - office hits , including risky business , a few good men , the firm and jerry maguire .
this was spelt out to cruise when columbia pictures opted to recast salt , a spy thriller he had long been hoping to make . angelina jolie replaced him and the eponymous cia spy operative’s name was changed from edwin salt to evelyn salt . plans for cruise to play the us president in a thriller entitled the 28th amendment also fell by the wayside .
holmes , 31 , appeared in simon mcburney’s 2008 version of arthur miller’s all my sons on broadway and has aspirations to perform on stage rather than in film . so a repeat of an experience along the lines of eyes wide shut – the 1999 stanley kubrick erotic thriller that cruise co - starred in with kidman and which is widely thought to have harmed their marriage - seems highly unlikely . cruise and holmes have also confounded initial suspicions that their union was a publicity stunt .
when asked by hallie ,
you talkin ' to me ?
meredith replies ,
what are you , robert de niro ?
, a reference to the film taxi driver .
in its opening weekend , the film grossed $ 11 , 148 , 497 in 2 , 247 theaters in the united states and canada , ranking # 2 at the box office , behind saving private ryan , was the best debut for a disney film that week . by the end of its run , the parent trap grossed $ 66 , 308 , 518 domestically and $ 25 , 800 , 000 internationally , totaling $ 92 , 108 , 518 worldwide .
cruise proved he remained a top draw by starring in the steven spielberg - directed remake of the science - fiction classic war of the worlds ( 2005 ) , which grossed more than $ 230 million at the box office .
following close behind was arnold schwarzenegger , who starred in some of the biggest hits of the decade , including total recall ( 1990 ) , terminator 2 : judgment day ( 1991 ) , and true lies ( 1994 ) . will smith ( in independence day ( 1996 ) , men in black ( 1997 ) , enemy of the state ( 1998 ) and the wild wild west ( 1999 ) ) , whoopi goldberg , eddie murphy , and denzel washington were the best box - office draws among african - american stars of the decade .
jesse prince , a former high - level scientologist , outlined in a 1998 interview how when cruise married second wife nicole kidman in 1990 , he had ‘a fantasy of just running through a field of tall grass’ with his new wife at gold base , scientology’s international headquarters located in california . according to prince , gold base workers were ‘staying up overnight , just extended schedules , de - rocking , ploughing a field , planting tall wheat grass , and when nicole kidman came – here’s a field . now they’re running through the damn field of grass . it took weeks . ’
11 . cruise isn ' t the only actor who filmed dozens of takes . vinessa shaw , who played the prostitute domino , recalled having shot about 90 takes for a single scene .
at the film’s brazilian premiere in july , cruise tried to capitalise on world cup fever when he wore a brazilian football shirt emblazoned with the name ‘tomzinho’ – ‘little tom’ . it’s a reference to his diminutive height ( he is reputed to be 5ft 7in ) but for someone whose films have made over $ 2 . 6 billion worldwide , the grosses are getting significantly smaller , too .
according to the latest official figures , in 1996 , 6 million people went on cruises , a 40 percent increase from 1990 . cruise ship production is mainly european .
while promoting war of the worlds , steven spielberg’s sci - fi blockbuster , cruise made an appearance on oprah winfrey’s couch that has become famous for all the wrong reasons . proclaiming his love for new girlfriend katie holmes , cruise jumped on the sofa in such an odd fashion that oprah exclaimed : ‘we’ve never seen you behave this way before… you’re gone ! ’
the cruise is a compelling documentary which chronicles the humorously irreverent and painful reflections of timothy
speed
levitch , an eccentric new york city tour bus guide with an archive of beautifully distorted information about the city .
despite its tragic plot ,
the film really brought to people ' s attention just how grand cruising can be , just how splendid a sea cruise is ,
says gill haynes , marketing manager of britain ' s p & amp ; o princess cruises , which commissioned the grand princess .
titanic re - aroused this hidden desire . certainly among the young , who are now asking their parents to take them on a cruise ,
agrees mario martini , marketing manager of genoa - based costa crociere , italy ' s market leader in the sector .
taking a break from weighty material , cruise delighted audiences with his performance in the comedy tropic thunder ( 2008 ) . despite his relatively small role in a movie that featured robert downey jr . and ben stiller , cruise stood out by obscuring his trademark good looks to play a balding , obese movie studio executive .
in knight and day , a slick action comedy , cruise plays roy miller , a secret agent . oozing adrenalin , intensity and charm , miller doesn’t seem a million miles away from cruise himself . ‘i’m pretty good at what i do , ’ he reminds june havens , an everywoman he’s taken under his wing , played by cameron diaz ; later on she accuses miller of freaking her out . it’s hard not to equate the high - wire protagonist with the cruise that unravelled in the summer of 2005 .
existing alongside mainstream hollywood film production is that of the independents . by the end of the decade , most studios had formed independent film divisions ( such as fox ' s searchlight division ) that would make films with artistic , edgy , or ' serious ' social issues or themes , and without major hollywood stars . unlike the glitzy academy awards oscars , the ifp independent spirit awards - founded in 1984 - honored visionary , innovative film - makers , and unsung actors and actresses in independent films who
embody independence and who dare to challenge the status quo .
indicative of the times , in the 1996 academy awards race , four of the five best picture - nominated films ( all but jerry maguire ( 1996 ) ) were from independent studios .
miramax ' s biggest cult hit of the 90s was quentin tarantino ' s pulp fiction ( 1994 ) , made with a budget of $ 8 million , and went on to win the palme d ' or at cannes and seven oscar nominations , miramax studios then gathered together a stable of hip , young actors including gwyneth paltrow , ben affleck , and matt damon . during the decade , hollywood was disturbed that miramax did so well , with the releases of kevin smith ' s low - budget black and white debut film clerks ( 1994 ) , woody allen ' s bullets over broadway ( 1994 ) , sirens ( 1994 ) , larry clark ' s kids ( 1995 ) , sling blade ( 1996 ) and swingers ( 1996 ) , the best original screenplay - winning good will hunting ( 1997 ) , the best picture - nominated italian film life is beautiful ( 1998 ) , the talented mr . ripley ( 1999 ) , and the cider house rules ( 1999 ) .
it’s hard not to see how cruise himself isn’t heavily culpable . there’s the perception problem that knight and day director james mangold ( walk the line , 3 : 10 to yuma ) seemingly alludes to in the film’s press notes : ‘one of the things i’ve missed about tom’s movies in the last several years and what i really wanted to see again in knight and day was tom in a role that is both human and funny . ’ quite .
really enjoyed taking a cruise with speed . was well in tune with everything he had to say and he has joined my pantheon of underground heroes .
in june 2005 , after a two - month courtship , cruise proposed to holmes in a restaurant at the top of the eiffel tower . in october , they announced that they were expecting their first child together . the hasty proposal and surprise pregnancy quickly became tabloid gossip . but cruise made even bigger headlines that year as an outspoken advocate for scientology . he openly criticized former co - star brooke shields for using anti - depressants during her recovery from postpartum depression . he also denounced psychiatry and modern medicine , claiming scientology held the key to true healing . cruise & apos ; s statements led to a heated argument with news anchor matt lauer on the today show in june 2005 , for which cruise later apologized .
at age 14 , cruise enrolled in a franciscan seminary with thoughts of becoming a priest , but he left after a year . when he was 16 , a teacher encouraged him to participate in the school & apos ; s production of the musical guys and dolls . after cruise won the lead of nathan detroit , he found himself surprisingly at home on the stage , and a career was born .
on february 5 , 2001 , cruise and kidman announced their separation after 11 years of marriage . the couple cited the difficulties involved with two acting careers , and the amount of time spent apart while working . following the divorce , cruise briefly dated his vanilla sky co - star penelope cruz , followed by a much - publicized relationship with actress katie holmes . a month after his ties to holmes became public , cruise professed his love for the actress in a now - famous appearance on the oprah winfrey show , during which he jumped on winfrey & apos ; s sofa , shouting
yes !
an excerpt from amy nicholson ' s book ,
tom cruise : anatomy of an actor ,
printed in vanity fair , offers details about the project ' s goings - on . coupled with a 1999 entertainment weekly article pegged to the film ' s release and a los angeles times report about its box - office expectations , the passage reveals some things you may not know about
eyes wide shut .
cruise toyed with going into business with working title , britain’s most successful film company . one comedy he considered making with them was lost for words , originally written for hugh grant , about a shallow actor in a love triangle . another was food fight in which he would have played a superstar chef reduced to cooking school dinners . both never got off the ground .
watched this film for the first day of my summer class :
nyc on film
. it ' s a fast - paced , comedic , and honest idea / fantasy / reality of what nyc is . timothy
speed
levitch , the new york city bus tour guide is an enthralling and enthusiastic person to say the least . this documentary was beautiful and captured , in only an hour or so , the philosophies and everyday life of tim . he ' s a funny guy and the final scene with the twin towers was both fulfilling and sad ( watching it now ) . i wonder what tim is doing today , and if he still spins . the cruise is a must watch .
the instrumental music featured prominently in the hotel scene where the girls and their parents cross paths serendipitously is
in the mood
, which was previously made famous by the glenn miller band . later in the hotel , hallie sings a few bars of
let ' s get together
, a tune from the first version of the film that was a hit for its star , hayley mills .
the film was in production for 3 . 5 years and miller worked as a one - man camera crew , solely operating a handheld video camera , a wireless microphone on levitch , and a sennheiser shotgun microphone which was collapsible and thus easily transportable . miller discarded the first 80 hours of footage he captured of levitch only to start from scratch . levitch reportedly chose not to sit in on the majority of the editing process , choosing instead to stick to his core principles : to succumb to the chaos of the universe . the production team , including editor michael levine , spent 8 months editing the film .
cruise then starred in the long - awaited smash hit mission : impossible 2 in 2000 , alongside anthony hopkins , thandie newton and ving rhames . in 2002 , he starred in vanilla sky , his second collaboration with crowe , as well as steven spielberg & apos ; s minority report . the following year , cruise traveled to australia to shoot the $ 100 million war epic the last samurai , which earned him another golden globe nomination .
at the time of the film ' s release , stephen holden wrote ,
filmed in high - contrast black and white that makes the city look harshly magnificent , at once irresistible and forbidding , the cruise could be described as a whirlwind tour both of new york and of levitch ' s feverish mind .
following the film ' s release to dvd in 2006 , brett cullum wrote ,
although we do get to see some familiar sites , including winsome glimpses of the world trade center towers , the camera hardly ever leaves the face of our tour guide . this is all one extended character study , and is not concerned with narrative or sight seeing . no , this is a dadaist manifesto delivered off the pavement leading to the brooklyn bridge . it runs like an hour of poetic jazz — verbal scats and flourishes aplenty .
scientology remains integral to cruise’s life but , on the advice of his handlers , he has once again stopped discussing scientology in the public eye . one fixture from 2005 that has remained constant in his life is the doe - eyed actress katie holmes .
when you ' re up there , it ' s almost like hovering in a helicopter over the back of the ship ,
says haynes .
that ' s when you really know you are on the world ' s largest cruise ship .
in 2016 , cruise reprised the role of jack reacher for never go back . he then headlined a reboot of the mummy ( 2017 ) , which performed respectably at the box office but was savaged by critics , before earning better reviews later that year for the crime thriller american made .
knight and day represented something of a gamble in the 21st - century summer blockbuster stakes since it’s an old - fashioned star - driven vehicle , not a remake or sequel . but the inquest over its underwhelming performance has resulted in the uncommon spectacle of an individual publicly claiming responsibility for its commercial failure – in this case fox’s marketing supremo tony sella . ( the poster featured two silhouette cut - outs of cruise and diaz instead of a photo of the pair , which unkind observers suggested was deliberately created so as not to deter punters from seeing the film . )
1 . kubrick always intended to cast an actual married couple as the movie ' s leads , but cruise and kidman weren ' t who he had in mind . the initial pair he thought of was alec baldwin and kim basinger .
the mission : impossible franchise has been highly lucrative for cruise . he made $ 162 million from the first two movies as actor - producer – more than paramount . when i talked to mission : impossible director brian de palma during the release of his last movie , he mentioned the reported conflicts with paramount while making the blockbuster .
it was for this reason that just before knight and day’s release , cruise performed a skit at the mtv movie awards as les grossman , the foul - mouthed studio boss he played in ben stiller’s 2008 comedy tropic thunder . his dirty dancing act with jennifer lopez was warmly received and led to an official announcement from paramount that a grossman feature - length film was in the works . ( it’s unlikely to happen . the announcement was good publicity for paramount and mtv and an even better story for viacom which owns both companies . )
bennett miller’s documentary is both an ode to new york city and to one of its eccentric citizens who cruises around the streets delivering idiosyncratic tour guides in an open top bus . the film follows the fast - talking , effeminate and nasal - toned timothy ‘speed’ levitch as he philosophises about life and the city whilst delivering a dizzying guide about the big apple to his dumbstruck passengers .
shot in grainy black and white and opening with a gershwin number , this is a film that romanticises the city of new york much like the work of woody allen . although remaining focused on levitch’s tours and his own personal life , miller’s documentary also explores the past and present of a living and constantly evolving city . …
foretelling new methods of internet - based marketing , eduardo sanchez and daniel myrick ' s roughly - made , offbeat independent film the blair witch project ( 1999 ) ( from small - time distributor artisan films ) was a quasi - documentary about an october 1994 horrifying camping trip and investigation of a local legend that was experienced by no - name actors : three vanished montgomery college student film - makers ( heather , josh , and mike ) in maryland ' s black hill forest ( near burkittsville ) .
cruise followed the tremendous success of top gun with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films . he first starred in the color of money ( 1986 ) , with co - star paul newman , and then went on to work with dustin hoffman on rain man ( 1988 ) . cruise & apos ; s next role , as vietnam veteran ron kovic in the biopic born on the fourth of july ( 1989 ) , earned him an academy award nomination and a golden globe for best actor .
according to sources at cruise’s pr representatives , 42 west , the actor is determined to lighten his act . he showed astute comic timing as repressed teenager joel goodsen in risky business ( 1983 ) and in cameron crowe’s jerry maguire ( 1996 ) . cruise has become intrigued by the faux - nostalgic flipness that has marked pop culture’s recent forays into the eighties , hence his impromptu trip to hot tub time machine . ‘tom knows some people are laughing at him , ’ says the source . ‘so he’s now intent on having the last laugh . ’
8 . director todd field (
little children ,
in the bedroom
) , who starred in the movie as piano player nick nightingale , said of kidman and cruise : “you’ve never seen two actors more completely subservient and prostrate themselves at the feet of a director . ”
and with the digital revolution , some pioneering film - makers were experimenting with making digital - video ( dv ) films , pushing digital imagery and special effects , or projecting films digitally . a number of films also used special - effects cgi in more subtle , innovative ways :
cruise & apos ; s parents divorced when he was 11 , and the children moved with their mother to louisville , kentucky , and then to glen ridge , new jersey , after her remarriage . like his mother and three sisters , cruise suffered from dyslexia , which made academic success difficult for him . he excelled in athletics , however , and considered pursuing a career in professional wrestling until a knee injury sidelined him during high school .
1995 : seagram bought mca / universal from matsushita for $ 5 . 7 billion and renamed it universal studios . disney bought the abc network . two members of the creative artists agency , one of the world ' s leading talent and literary agencies , moved to head hollywood film studios : ron meyers to mca , and michael ovitz to the disney company ( until 1996 ) .
jeffrey wells , who writes the blog hollywood elsewhere , says that cruise has ‘in effect become the new william shatner , albeit in a higher pay bracket – he’s the guy whose routine is slightly crazy . whether people think it’s the most glorious thing they’ve ever seen or not , that’s what he is doing . nobody gets to be the superhero all their life . ’
for much of the 1990s , cruise and kidman found themselves fiercely defending the happiness and legitimacy of their marriage . they filed two different lawsuits against tabloid publications for stories they considered libelous . in each case the couple received a published retraction and apology , along with a large monetary settlement which they donated to charity .
the background song heard in the campfire scene is
how bizarre
by the music group omc .
cruise was introduced to scientology , the controversial movement founded by l ron hubbard , by his first wife mimi rogers in the late eighties . scientology supplied the direction he was seeking as a young actor navigating hollywood’s perilous waters and he credited it for helping him cure his dyslexia . and the church frequently bent over backwards to please its most prominent member .
the issue had arisen because cruise had become embroiled in a war of words with the actress brooke shields over her use of antidepressants to combat postnatal depression . he said that the drugs shields had taken were dangerous and added : ‘i care about brooke shields because she is an incredibly talented woman – where has her career gone ? ’
just minutes south of houston , galveston island is a film - friendly city that is rich in unique locations . expansive beaches , authentic victorian neighborhoods , historic ships , classic urban alleys , world - class architecture and much more make galveston island a wealth of diverse filming locations .
‘the studio wasn’t so much of a problem as convincing tom of certain things , ’ he said , then added : ‘when they asked me to do the next one i said : “are you kidding ? why would you ever want to do this again ? ”’ cruise’s status as a mogul has suffered from a recent ill - fated stint running troubled studio united artists along with his producing partner paula wagner . despite securing $ 500 million in financing through merrill lynch , their reign produced little else other than cruise’s hitler drama valkyrie .
on top of this , his new action comedy , knight and day , has performed disappointingly at the us box office , opening in only third place . twentieth century fox , who bankrolled the $ 117 million film , has discovered to its cost that if the actor , who memorably exclaimed : ‘i feel the need , the need for speed’ in top gun , is ever to reclaim his pre - 2005 audience , then he’s taking his time doing it .