TV Guide: Peter Weir

Listing: Witness

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:30:00 -0400

Tue Oct 21 06:30 AM AMC

Video: Peter Weir - How to make it in Hollywood

Hollywood.tv — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:37:05 -0400

Peter Weir - How to make it in Hollywood - Peter Weir

Video: Gallipoli

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:03:20 -0400

The first of two consecutive films to see director Peter Weir team with Mel Gibson (the other being The Year of Living Dangerously), Gallipoli follows two idealistic young friends, Frank (Gibson) and Archy (Mark Lee), who join the Australian army during World War I and fight the doomed Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. The first half of the film documents the lives of the young men in Australia, detailing their personalities and beliefs. The second half of the movie chronicles the ill-fated and ill-planned battle, where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps is hopelessly outmatched by the enemy forces. Gallipoli was the recipient of eight prizes at the 1981 Australian Film Institute Awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide.

Video: Mosquito Coast, The

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:59:36 -0400

Harrison Ford delivers one of his most-acclaimed performances in Peter Weir's adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel (scripted by Paul Schrader). Ford plays Allie Fox, an inventor embittered by the blighted landscape of the contemporary United States. As he tells his oldest son, Charlie (River Phoenix), Look around you. It's a toilet. He moves his wife (Helen Mirren) and kids -- Charlie, Jerry (Jadrien Steele), April (Hilary Gordon), and Clover (Rebecca Gordon) -- to the rain forests of Central America, where he plans to create a new civilization starting with his own nuclear family. Allie's family compliantly goes along with his scheme to build a free society, but slowly notices that his obsession has turned him into a tyrannical fascist. Rather than create a utopia, Allie's driving egomania demands total subservience from his downtrodden brood. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide.

Video: Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:19:13 -0400

Director Peter Weir's first turn behind the camera since 1998's critically acclaimed The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on two Napoleanic War-era adventure novels in author Patrick O'Brian's {-Aubrey/Maturin} series, {-Master and Commander} and {-The Far Side of the World}. Russell Crowe stars as Captain Jack Aubrey, a high-seas adventurer who maintains a strong bond with ship-surgeon Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany). After conquering much of Europe already, Napoleon's forces have set their sights on taking Britain, so Aubrey and the crew of his ship, the HMS Surprise, take to the Pacific to intercept any attacking ships from the French fleet. When Aubrey eyes a renegade French super-frigate, the Surprise pursues, leading to an adrenaline-charged chase through the distant reaches of the sea. Edward Woodall, James D'Arcy, and Lee Ingleby also star as members of the Surprise's crew. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide.

Video: Witness

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:19:48 -0400

In Peter Weir's thriller Witness, Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy, witnesses a murder in the restroom of a Philadelphia bus station. Harrison Ford stars as John Book, the police detective investigating the murder. When Book discovers that the crime was part of a conspiracy involving several officials in his department, he flees Philadelphia to the Amish community where Samuel lives with his widowed mother, Rachel (Kelly McGillis). Slowly assimilating himself into the Amish community, Book eventually finds himself falling in love with Rachel in the midst of his investigation. Eventually, the corrupt police track Book down, and he is forced to confront them, while also trying to protect Rachel and Samuel. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide.

Video: Truman Show, The

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:20:35 -0400

Peter Weir directed this comedy-drama, a commentary on all-pervasive media manipulation. Scripted by Andrew M. Niccol (Gattaca), the film plays like a combination of the British TV series The Prisoner and Paul Bartel's The Secret Cinema. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is unaware that his entire life is a hugely popular 24-hour-a-day TV series. In this real-time documentary, every moment of Truman's existence is captured by concealed cameras and telecast to a giant global audience. His friends and family are actors who smile pleasantly at Truman's familiar catchphrase greeting, In case I don't see you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! Employed at an insurance company, Truman is married to merry Meryl (Laura Linney), and they live in the cheerful community of Seahaven, an island paradise where the weather is always mild and no unpleasantness intrudes. This is the basic situation of the series, which has grown over the years into a billion-dollar franchise for the TV network. As an unwanted pregn

Video: Blood Salvage

Video Detective — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:45:25 -0400

An oddball trip to Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory by way of Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris, this presents an inbred family of redneck psychopaths who orchestrate highway accidents, disassemble the vehicles for parts, then do the same to the drivers. The patriarch of this cabal of religious wackos, Mad Jake (Danny Nelson), then sells the pilfered human organs to a sleazy black-marketeer (Ray Walston). When traveler John Saxon and his wheelchair-bound daughter (Lori Birdsong) are ensnared by Jake's seedy gang, they manage to outwit the dimwits, slip past the jaws of the cuddly pet alligator and put paid to their hillbilly tormentors in appropriately gory fashion. Despite some clever moments of morbid humor, this opus comes off more grim than its makers probably intended, and there's not a sympathetic character in the bunch. And yes, the character of the boxer is played by Evander Holyfield. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide.

Video: Gallipoli

iTunes — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:22:48 -0400

Gallipoli is Australian director Peter Weir's (The Truman Show, Witness) story of how the irresistible lure of adventure and the unknown, combined with national pride, bring two young men (Mel Gibson and Mark Lee) together in the Australian army in 1915. They cross continents and great oceans, climb pyramids and walk through the ancient sands of Egypt to join their regiment at the fateful battle of Gallipoli. The echoes of history blend with the friends' compelling destiny as they become part of a legendary World War 1 confrontation between Australia and the German allied Turks- a battle that is to Australians what the Alamo is to Americans.

Video: "Extra Effort"

Yahoo Movies — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:06:34 -0400

Director Peter Weir and stars Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany and James D'Arcy explain the incredible detail involved in filming 'Master and Commander' as well as methods used to invoke comaraderie amongst actors on the set.