Michael Murphy

Recounts the assassination and excruciating final months of President James Garfield's life. A brilliant scholar, courageous general, and fervent abolitionist, Garfield never wanted the job of president. But once in office, he worked tirelessly to reunite a nation still divided 15 years after the Civil War. As he lay dying, the North and South came together to pray for his recovery.

A cornerstone of 1970s American filmmaking from Robert Altman. It is a view of the country's political and entertainment landscapes set in the nation's music capital. It weaves the stories of 24 characters--from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress--into a cinematic tapestry that is equal parts comedy, tragedy, and musical. It showcases Altman's ability to get to the heart of American life via its eccentric byways, and barrels forward to...

On an August morning in 1960, Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger stepped out of a helium balloon twenty miles above Earth, hurtling down at over 400 miles per hour. The little-known story of the men whose scientific experiments laid critical groundwork for NASA's manned space program, a decade before President Kennedy committed the nation to sending a man to the moon.

At the beginning of the 20th century, coal was the engine of American industrial progress. Nearly three quarters of a million men across the country spent ten or twelve hours a day underground in coal mines. The Mine Wars brings to life the struggle that turned the coalfields of southern West Virginia into a blood-soaked war zone where basic constitutional rights and freedoms were violently contested.

Profiles the life and career of engineer and inventor Nikolai Tesla, whose work would be eclipsed in the public eye by Edison and Marconi, best known during his lifetime from the flamboyant displays of his prototypes and fertile but undisciplined scientific imagination.

During the 1988 presidential campaign, Democratic hopefuls spiritedly canvass the country, jostle for their party's nomination and the honor of opposing Republican Vice President George Bush. Then Senator Jack Tanner suddenly emerges from the shadows of a lengthy political hiatus to challenge candidates such as Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, and Michael Dukakis. Tanner is a fictitious presidential candidate who goes out on the campaign trail to...

Condemned unrepentant murderer Horace Pinker (Pileggi) refuses to die, survives the electric chair, and goes on a rampage of high-voltage serial killings. Athlete Jonathan Parker (Berg) tries to stop him.

Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. Shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to help McCabe run his business and the whorehouse thrives. McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation,...

Howard Price, a restaurant cashier, poses as a writer so that blacklisted authors can submit their work through him, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand when he is forced to testify at an investigative congressional committee hearing.

Four red plaid traveling cases-- one of each belonging to a befuddled Iowa musicologist, a strange but bright young woman, a rich matron and a suspicious fellow-- are mixed up at a San Francisco hotel, with hilarious results.