Martin Ritt
1) Sounder
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Set in rural Louisiana during the Depression, this heartfelt story tells of a sharecropper family struggling to overcome adversity. After stealing to feed his family, Nathan is sent to a prison camp. In their fight for survival, his determined wife and their eldest son hold the family together. Once the boy becomes an adult, he searches for his father but instead discovers manhood.
2) Back roads
Language
English
Description
Two Southern misfits, in trouble with the law, take off on a rambunctious cross country romp.
3) Norma Rae
Language
English
Formats
Description
Norma Rae, the Southern millworker who revolutionizes a small town and discovers a power in herself she never knew she had. Under the guidance of a New York unionizer and with increasing courage and determination, Norma Rae organizes her fellow factory workers to fight for better conditions and wages. Based on a true story.
4) Cross Creek
Language
English
Description
In 1928, frustrated newspaper reporter Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings leaves her husband and career and moves to an isolated orange grove in the Florida bayou to concentrate on writing fiction.
5) The front
Language
English
Description
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.
Series
Criterion collection volume 452
Language
English
Formats
Description
The acclaimed, best-selling novel by John le Carre, about a Cold War spy on one final dangerous mission in East Germany, is transmuted by director Martin Ritt into a film every bit as precise and ruthless as the book. Richard Burton plays Alec Leamas, whose relationship with a beautiful librarian, puts his assignment in jeopardy.
7) Hombre
Language
English
Description
"John Russell, a white man raised by an Arizona Apache tribe, is forced to confront the society he despises when he sells the boarding house he inherits. While leaving town by stagecoach, several bigoted passengers insist he ride with the driver. But when outlaws leave them all stranded in the desert, Russell may be their only hope for survival"--Container.
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Based on the life of boxer Jack Johnson, this fictional account of his rise to fame chronicles the battles that the flamboyant champion fought in and out of the ring. Refusing to live within the boundaries deemed acceptable by society, this renowned hero and the woman he loved chose to live their lives the way they wanted-- something which evoked great fury from a narrow-minded world"--Container.
9) Paris blues
Language
English
Description
Two American jazz musicians living in Paris fall in love with two girls on vacation from America. They must decide whether to stay in Paris for their music careers, or move back to America for love.
Language
English
Description
James McParlan is an operative working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who is hired by a major coal company to infiltrate and expose an underground terrorist organization, the "Molly Maguires". The Mollies operate within the improverished mining communities of Pennsylvania and are mostly Irish emigrants. McParlan is selected to infiltrate the organization to pose as a new member, but it quickly becomes apparent that the working conditions are...
11) Edge of the city
Language
English
Description
If you need a job Charlie Malik can find a spot for you in the dockside railyards. All he needs in return is that you show up on time, work hard, and kick back part of your pay. Two New York City longshoremen, Axel Nordmann, an Army deserter, and Tommy Tyler, an easy-going freight car loader, join forces against a corrupt New York waterfront union official. The two share a bond that cuts across society's black/white divide.
13) Stanley & Iris
Language
English
Description
An illiterate short-order cook & a widow become friends, then fall in love.
14) The front
Language
English
Description
A blacklisted writer has a friend act as a front for his TV scripts. The front becomes famous and falls in love with a script editor. He has to face the truth when he is called before an investigative committee to testify.
17) The black orchid
Series
Language
English
Description
After mobsters murder her husband, Rose Bianco works long hours making artificial flowers, to support herself and her son. Some suspect that Rose's demand for a lavish lifestyle pushed her husband to a life of crime, and they blame her for his death. Widower Frank Valente is attracted to Rose, and must convince her that real love exists. He must also deal with his own daughter, who has her own reasons for opposing his marriage to Rose.
18) Norma Rae
Language
English
Description
Grinding out her life in a small Southern town as a worker in a non-union textile shop, Norma Rae (Sally Field) joins forces with a New York labor organizer to unionize the mill.
20) Awake and sing
Language
English
Description
A portrait of a Jewish family in a Bronx tenement perfectly captures the spirit of the Depression years.