Barry Levinson, Movie Director, More Classic Movies

In Part One, the focus was on two of Barry Levinson's political satire movies, Man of the Year and Wag the Dog. Click here to see Part One. Dustin Hoffman received a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role as an eccentric Hollywood producer in Wag the Dog. But it's for 1988's Rain Man that Levinson and Hoffman both took home Academy Awards for their parts as director and actor in this tale of unlikely brothers. If that isn't enough, the movie won Academy Award for best writing and BEST PICTURE! Tom Cruise gives a solid, believable performance as an unlikable, selfish jerk in this powerful but, for Cruise at least, rather quiet drama, showing that his acting talents aren't dependent on the computer effects or action plots of Mission Impossible movies.

Trivia: Levinson has small role as psychologist in this movie. If you've got a narcissistic jerk among your relatives or pals, hand them a copy of this movie if you think there's a chance that their flaws are correctable. And keep a tissue or two handy as well.

For sheer volume of academy award nominations, Levinson's Bugsy (1991), starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening is tops. The movie had ten nominations...best picture, best director (Levinson), best actor (Beatty), two for best supporting actor (Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley), best screenplay, best music, best cinematography, best art direction and best costume design. It won the Oscar for both best art direction and best costume. So when you sit down to watch this one, you know it's going to be a feast for the eyes and ears way beyond "just" good acting! For hot acting "chemistry," Beatty and Bening are sizzling ... after three decades as Hollywood's most publicity-headlined sexually active bachelor via his leading ladies, Beatty and Bening, then 33, married shortly after filming and are still happily together more than 15 years later. She must be one incredible life partner! Based on the true story of the man, Benjamin Siegel, who created Las Vegas as the recreation Mecca the world knows today...it's a riveting look at a man who'll do anything, with no qualms keeping him awake at night, to accomplish his goal.

Levinson had turned his creative talent to another true story with The Natural (1984). The eerily touching account of 1930s baseball player Roy Hobbs is a testament to the straying paths that one life can take, despite one's goals or intentions. Adding to the real life drama here is an assortment of superstitions and a bit of mysticism that cast of shimmer of unreality over this bio-pic. Robert Redford stars as Hobbs, surrounded by a solid and picturesque cast that includes Glenn Close and Kim Basinger as the women in Hobbs' life. Robert Duvall, Wilford Brimley, Darren McGavin and Richard Farnsworth in great roles here as both supporters and detractors of Hobbs' career. Although the movie didn't garner academy award nominations for Levinson or Redford, it did for Close. The movie also earned nominations for music and cinematography, both of which dazzle and heighten the effect of the rather slowly paced approach to this fascinating baseball tale.

Click here to see Barry Levinson, Part One, with Wag the Dog and Man of the Year, two great political satires. These are my five favorite Barry Levinson movies. Looking forward to seeing comments about others' Levinson favorites.