The Best 40 Films of Jason Robards
The great character actor, Jason Robards, created many memorable, indelible screen characterizations over his long acting career, spanning from the late 50's through the end of the century. Mr. Robards played many historical characters, including President Lincoln (three times!), FDR, U.S. Grant, as well as literary giants Mark Twain, Dashiell Hamett and Ben Bradlee, and legendary characters from Shakespeare to Eugene O'Neill plays and, of course, Doc Holiday, Al Capone and Howard Hughes. To say it's an impressive list of credits is understatement. It is a pleasure to suggest 40 of the very best films of the wonderful Jason Robards.
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- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsDustin HoffmanRobert RedfordJack Warden"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsJane FondaVanessa RedgraveJason RobardsAt the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsTom HanksDenzel WashingtonRoberta MaxwellWhen a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic-small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
- DirectorFred CoeStarsJason RobardsBarbara HarrisMartin BalsamA middle-aged iconoclast, doggedly avoiding the tedium of employment and conventional life, faces the prospect of losing custody of his young ward.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsPaul Le MatJason RobardsElizabeth CheshireThe story of hard-luck Melvin E. Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsKatharine HepburnRalph RichardsonJason RobardsAt the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsTom CruiseJason RobardsJulianne MooreAn epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsSteve MartinMary SteenburgenDianne WiestFour Buckman siblings attempt to raise their children - each in their own different style - and deal with the joys and sorrows that the process brings.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- DirectorRichard FleischerKinji FukasakuToshio MasudaStarsMartin BalsamSô YamamuraJason RobardsThe story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
- DirectorHerbert RossStarsJason RobardsMarsha MasonDonald SutherlandAn English teacher and struggling single mother's life is disrupted when her long-lost father, who abandoned her as a child, returns with some shady money in the hope of spending some time with her and the grandson he's never met.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsMichael KeatonGlenn CloseRobert DuvallNew York City tabloid editor Henry's faced with tough decisions while he faces several serious life challenges, and a tempting job offer.
- DirectorLeonard NimoyStarsDiane KeatonLiam NeesonJason RobardsA divorced mother may lose custody of her young daughter to her ex-husband after he learns that the little girl crawled into bed with the mother and her boyfriend.
- DirectorAndrew ScheinmanStarsLuke EdwardsTimothy BusfieldJohn AshtonA young boy is bequeathed the ownership of a professional baseball team.
- DirectorPeter W. KunhardtJames A. EdgarStarsJason RobardsJames Earl JonesGlenn CloseFamous actors and actresses read testimonies from people close to Lincoln about him and his actions during the Civil War.
- DirectorStephen SommersStarsElijah WoodCourtney B. VanceRobbie ColtraneIn Missouri, during the 1840s, young Huck Finn fearful of his drunkard father and yearning for adventure, leaves his foster family and joins with runaway slave Jim in a voyage down the Mississippi River toward slavery free states.
- DirectorDavid Hugh JonesStarsKyle MacLachlanAnthony HopkinsJason RobardsJoseph K. (Kyle MacLachlan) awakens one morning to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told with what he is charged, and despite being "arrested" is allowed to remain free and go to work. But, despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and he tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement.
- DirectorFielder CookStarsHenry FondaJoanne WoodwardJason RobardsComedy western in which a traveler bets more money than he can afford in a poker game, and unusual events follow.
- DirectorDalton TrumboStarsTimothy BottomsKathy FieldsMarsha HuntDuring World War I, a patriotic young American is rendered blind, deaf, limbless, and mute by a horrific artillery shell attack. Trapped in what's left of his body, he desperately looks for a way to end his life.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsJennifer JonesJason RobardsJoan FontaineA Psychiatrist and his life with a patient he helped to recover.
- DirectorGordon HesslerStarsJason RobardsHerbert LomChristine KaufmannParis...at the turn of the century. Inspector Vidocq investigates a series of unexplained murders at a Grand Guignol-type theatre...where the players have suddenly become real-life victims. Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe.
- DirectorTony ScottStarsGene HackmanDenzel WashingtonMatt CravenOn a U.S. nuclear missile sub, a young First Officer stages a mutiny to prevent his trigger happy Captain from launching his missiles before confirming his orders to do so.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsJames GarnerJason RobardsRobert RyanMarshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton gang in a fight. In revenge, Clanton's thugs kill the Marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsJason RobardsGeorge SegalRalph MeekerAl Capone's Valentine's Day surprise for the rival Bugs Moran gang in 1929 Chicago.
- DirectorGeorge SchaeferStarsJason RobardsKate ReidJack BittnerThe life of Abraham Lincoln is traced from the 1830s when he was a struggling backwoods lawyer to winning the Presidency in 1860.
- DirectorRobert Ellis MillerStarsJane FondaJason RobardsDean JonesEllen Gordon, a New York executive's mistress, falls for the executive's young business associate when he is accidentally sent to use the apartment where the executive and Ellen meet every Wednesday.
- DirectorReza BadiyiUri MassadStarsHardy KrügerJason RobardsGila AlmagorA diabolical tale of romance, murder, and mistaken identity as a treacherous terrorist organization hunts an enemy agent with the intention of killing him, but instead they set their sights on the wrong man. Left in the wake of their mistaken pursuit is a trail of broken lives and brutal murders.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsJason RobardsMyron McCormickTom PediTheodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. But on this visit he has decided to try to save the bar's patrons from their "lying pipe dreams."
- DirectorTony ScottStarsWill SmithGene HackmanJon VoightA lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsOprah WinfreyDanny GloverYada BeenerA slave is visited by the spirit of a mysterious young woman.
- DirectorJerry JamesonStarsJason RobardsRichard JordanDavid SelbyOnce they said God himself couldn't sink her. Then they said no man on Earth could reach her. But an underwater research agency, headed by Admiral James Sandecker, is assigned the job of finding the doomed ship in her North Atlantic grave.
- DirectorDaniel PetrieStarsJason RobardsTalia ShireR.H. ThomsonDorothy Quick, a young girl, befriends the famous writer, Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens, during the final years of his life.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsJason RobardsBritt EklandNorman WisdomA naive young Amish woman runs away from her home in Pennsylvania to New York City, where she hopes to act in religious stage plays but ends up performing in Burlesque theatre.
- DirectorStuart BurgeStarsCharlton HestonJason RobardsJohn GielgudThe growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar, but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsJames CoburnKris KristoffersonRichard JaeckelPat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.
- DirectorWilliam A. FrakerStarsKlinton SpilsburyMichael HorseChristopher LloydThe sole surviving Texas Ranger (Klinton Spilsbury) of an ambush arranged by outlaw leader Major Bartholomew "Butch" Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) returns to fight back as a great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger.
- DirectorJerry SchatzbergStarsJason RobardsChristien AnholtSamuel WestTwo young boys from very different backgrounds become friends in 1933 Stuttgart. However, they don't realize how different they are until much later as one is the son of a well-to-do Jewish doctor and the other the son of a German aristocrat. After that summer and the election of Hitler, things change as anti-semitism gains fervor. After the core of the film deals with that era, the film flashes to the present and the Jewish man now returns to his boyhood home and seeks his old friend with some surprises.
- DirectorAnthony PageStarsJason RobardsLaurinda BarrettEdward BinnsBiopic about the final year of FDR's Presidency, and life.
- DirectorDavid GreeneStarsKirk DouglasJason RobardsDarren McGavinA biblical orator opposes a liberal lawyer defending a man for teaching Darwinism in the 1920s South.
- DirectorBud YorkinStarsDick Van DykeDebbie ReynoldsJason RobardsDick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds star as a suburban couple who learn that not even divorce can solve all their problems.