Novelist James Clavell wrote, produced, and directed this 1967 British film (based on a novel by E.R. Braithwaite) about a rookie teacher who throws out stock lesson plans and really takes command of his unruly, adolescent students in a London school. Poitier is very good as a man struggling with the extent of his commitment to the job, and even more as a teacher whose commitment is to proffering ...

Manufacturer: RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Lulu
Directed By: James Clavell

The most successful public-television miniseries in American history, the 11-hour Civil War didn't just captivate a nation, reteaching to us our history in narrative terms; it actually also invented a new film language taken from its creator. When people describe documentaries using the "Ken Burns approach," its style is understood: voice-over narrators reading letters and documents ...

Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video
Starring: Ken Burns

One of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the ...

Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy
Directed By: Edward Zwick

Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
Starring: Claudia McNeil, Janet MacLachlan, Robert Christian, Larry B. Scott, Roy Poole
Directed By: Jack Smight

Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, John Bromfield, Edna Skinner
Directed By: Charles Walters

The only one of August Wilson's plays to be filmed (and for television, at that), this 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winner is an amazing piece of work. Adapted by Wilson and directed by Lloyd Richards, who staged it on Broadway, the play deals not just with racism and its effects but with the ongoing legacy and curse of slavery on modern blacks. Set in 1920s Pittsburgh, the story deals with the arrival of ...

Manufacturer: Hallmark
Starring: Charles S. Dutton, Alfre Woodard, Carl Gordon, Tommy Hollis, Lou Myers
Directed By: Lloyd Richards (II)

This 1967 film took home lots of Oscars for its fascinating drama about a Philadelphia detective (Sidney Poitier) who assists a redneck Southern sheriff (Rod Steiger) in solving a murder. A study in racism that ebbs a bit through the collective and shared need between a black man and a white man who don't want to be working together, the film continues to strike a chord today. Steiger is a mass of ...

Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates
Directed By: Norman Jewison

Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Starring: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker, Roger Robinson
Directed By: Gilbert Moses

After he sang the praises of a certain black private dick named Shaft (but before he started slinging hash in the little town of South Park), mega-baritone crooner Isaac Hayes got a chance to personally bust some heads in this little known but ultra-cool blaxploitation classic. Hayes (who would later spoof his rock-solid performance in I'm Gonna Get You Sucka) is the titular ex-linebacker ...

Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks, Annazette Chase, Nichelle Nichols Isaac Hayes
Directed By: Jonathan Kaplan

When Jesse stumbles on a drug deal gone bad, he finds himself on the run with a suitcase full of money and its previous owners in hot pursuit. They'll kill anything and anybody that gets in their way-including Jesse's friends and lovers.

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Louis Gossett Jr., Beverly Todd, Cleavon Little, Ernie Barnes, Clifton Davis
Directed By: Richard A. Colla