Tag: 90s
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10 Details Behind Elizabeth’s Stunning Coronation Scene
Elizabeth (1998) treats the coronation as more than a lavish costume sequence. Shekhar Kapur moves from Elizabeth’s accession through ritual, music and the crowning itself, then almost immediately confronts the new queen with the political problems waiting outside the ceremony. Some details draw closely from Elizabeth I’s actual coronation, while others use portraits, costume and…
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10 Ways Being John Malkovich Makes the Impossible Feel Normal
Being John Malkovich (1999) gives its characters an impossible discovery: a hidden doorway lets anyone spend 15 minutes inside actor John Malkovich’s consciousness. Spike Jonze rarely treats that premise like conventional fantasy, though. The portal sits behind an office cabinet, requires crawling through a cramped tunnel, and eventually deposits visitors beside a highway. Charlie Kaufman’s…
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10 Ways Robin Williams Made Patch Adams So Memorable
Robin Williams had an obvious advantage playing Patch Adams: a doctor who uses humor to connect with people sounds almost tailor-made for him. But Patch Adams (1998) works hard to show more than Williams performing comedy in hospital corridors. Patch begins the movie withdrawn, gradually discovers how much he enjoys reaching other people, and eventually…
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10 Ways Al Pacino Builds His Oscar-Winning Scent of a Woman Speech
Frank Slade does not arrive at Charlie Simms’ disciplinary hearing, planning to give a grand speech. For most of the proceedings in Scent of a Woman (1992), he sits beside Charlie and listens as Headmaster Trask questions the students, accepts George Willis Jr.’s carefully limited testimony, and finally recommends Charlie’s expulsion for refusing to identify…
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10 Tricks Behind Babe: Pig in the City’s Wildest Scenes
Babe: Pig in the City (1998) takes the gentle hero of the first movie and surrounds him with a much more complicated filmmaking challenge. George Miller’s sequel fills its strange metropolis with dogs, cats, primates, birds, and pigs, then sends them through pursuits, crowded interiors, and elaborate physical comedy. Much of what looks chaotic on…
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10 Tricks Behind Apollo 13’s Most Realistic Space Scenes
Ron Howard wanted Apollo 13 (1995) to feel less like a Hollywood version of the space program and more like something audiences might have watched unfold in 1970. That meant recreating everything from the crowded spacecraft interiors to Mission Control with unusual attention to detail, often with help from the people who had actually worked…
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10 Secrets Behind Jurassic Park’s First Dinosaur Reveal
The first dinosaur reveal in Jurassic Park (1993) lasts only a few minutes, but Steven Spielberg makes the audience wait for it. Alan Grant notices something outside the Jeep, removes his glasses, and turns Ellie Sattler toward it before we are finally allowed to see the Brachiosaurus towering over the landscape. Behind that reaction was…
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7 Ways Bride of Chucky Turns a Proposal Into a Nightmare
Bride of Chucky (1998) wastes little time establishing that Tiffany and Chucky are going to be very different from the usual horror couple. Tiffany knows Chucky wants to marry her, so she sets up what looks like a romantic surprise and lets him believe she has finally changed her mind. His excitement lasts only until…
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10 Secrets Behind Costner’s Perfect Game in For Love of the Game
The final game in For Love of the Game (1999) has to do something difficult: make Kevin Costner look like a veteran pitcher capable of pulling off one extraordinary afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Sam Raimi could not hide behind quick cuts and distant angles, either. Billy Chapel spends much of the sequence alone on the…
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10 Secrets Behind De Niro and Pesci’s Tense Casino Desert Showdown
In Casino (1995), by the time Ace and Nicky meet in the desert, their friendship is already in bad shape. Ace thinks Nicky is drawing too much attention to the casino. Nicky thinks Ace has forgotten who helped make his position possible. Neither man arrives interested in hearing the other one out. That tension feels…