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Norman Z. MacLeod’s ‘Topper’

Ghosts. I guess we’re never very far from them. You can’t really see them, but they’re always there. They’re quiet. Every now and then, one pops up, moves the furniture and leaves. You turn around to see the drapes swish and your life has changed. What was that!? […]

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Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park’

If I had been asked 20 years ago whether a glass of rippling water would become one of the most iconic and recognizable images in cinematic history, I probably would’ve said, “No way.” But then again, I guess that’s not really a question you would ask an eight- year-old. […]

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Robert Redford’s ‘Ordinary People’

It was March 31, 1981. I was celebrating my second anniversary of becoming a union story analyst by watching the 53rd Academy Awards. The host was Johnny Carson and the field of films was perhaps the strongest it had been in decades. […]

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John Ford’s ‘My Darling Clementine’

I am a war baby who grew up in Texas before leaving for a larger world that included living in Manhattan for 22 years and moving to Los Angeles to work as a story analyst. So, if what I have to say now reads old to anyone, well good — because old has a way of becoming new again, especially when old is as unforgettable as My Darling Clementine. […]

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Sydney Pollack’s ‘The Way We Were’

The 1970s were years of change for me. I was pregnant with my first child and struggling with the decision to either give up a career that I had worked long and hard to achieve or subject my unborn child to a mother who could be gone more than not. […]