"Director: Robert Benton"

• Kramer vs Kramer | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £5.70   |  Saving you £0.29 (5.09%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, Kramer vs. Kramer remains as powerfully moving today as it was when released in 1979, simply because its drama will remain relevant for couples of any generation. Adapted by director Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, this is perhaps the finest, most evenly balanced film ever made about the failure of marriage and the tumultuous shift of parental roles. It begins when Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) bluntly informs her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) that she's leaving him, just as his advertising career is advancing and demanding most of his waking hours. Self-involvement is just one of the film's underlying themes, along with the search for identity that prompts Joanna to leave Ted with their first-grade son (Justin Henry), who now finds himself living with a workaholic parent he barely knows. Juggling his domestic challenge with professional deadlines, Ted is further pressured when his wife files for custody of their son. This legal battle forms the dramatic spine of the film, but its power is derived from Benton's flawlessly observant script and the superlative performances of his entire cast. Because Benton refuses to assign blame and deals fairly with both sides of a devastating dilemma, the film arrives at equal levels of pain, growth, and integrity under emotionally stressful circumstances. That gives virtually every scene the unmistakable ring of truth--a quality of dramatic honestly that makes Kramer vs. Kramer not merely a classic tearjerker, but one of the finest American dramas of its decade. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Twilight | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Some people can buy their way out of anything. Except the past. Paul Newman plays Harry Ross a burned-out private eye who's plunged into a murder mystery tied to a long-unsolved case of Hollywood dreams schemes and cover-ups. Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman are among the locals who inhabit a Tinseltown world of privilege and sleaze sexuality and desperation trust and double-cross.

• Kramer vs Kramer / Lorenzo's Oil / Born Free - A New Adventure | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Kramer vs. Kramer: Kramer vs Kramer is the box office smash that gathered 5 Oscars including Best Picture Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman and Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep. Returning home late from work one night a career-obsessed Ted Kramer is told by his wife that she is leaving him. After a life of being 'somebody's daughter' or 'somebody's wife ' she's going off to find herself - leaving Ted to care for their 6 year-old son. Ted while trying to hold down his job gets to really know his son: cooking his meals taking him to the park understanding every need and fear. For the first time in his life he feels like a fulfilled parent. But then Joanna returns. And she wants her son back... Born Free: A New Adventure: Set in the heart of Africa Elsa the Lioness tranforms the lives of two American teenagers struggling to come to terms with a family move from downtown Chicago. Lorenzo's Oil: A five-year-old boy Lorenzo Odone is diagnosed as having a brain disease known as ALD a condition so rare that no medical body has undertaken to research the ailment and develop a cure. Desperate Lorenzo's parents (Nolte and Sarandon) embark on a desperate search for a cure and must battle the medical establishment when they make astounding progress using humble olive oil...

• Kramer vs Kramer | DVD | (02/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It might have started out as a small, rather arty divorce drama but Kramer vs Kramer was the biggest cinema hit of 1979. It confirmed Dustin Hoffman's status as a major star in a performance that combined his trademark twitchy intensity with deep sensitivity. And it provided Meryl Streep with a pivotal role in her rise to big-screen greatness. Both won Oscars, as did director Robert Benton and the film itself scooped the Best Picture award. Kramer vs Kramer has worn well into the 21st century. Although clearly of its time--by the late 1970s, microscopic relationship analysis had become the theme of commercial cinema--it stands on the strength of its central performances. Hoffman's Ted Kramer is a vision of the Graduate grown up: serious, focused and thrown by anything that threatens his upwardly mobile professional trajectory. The news that his wife, who he has failed to notice teetering on the edge of a breakdown, is leaving him and their son sends him into a tailspin. The film is as much about his resilience and fulfilment as it is the story of a divorce and custody battle. Justin Henry is extraordinary as Billy, the boy caught in the middle, and turns in a remarkably complex, thoughtful performance, which is light years from the archetypal all-American kid you might anticipate. And in just a handful of scenes, Streep is mesmerising as Joanna, the deserting wife and mother who you just can't bring yourself to hate. Yes, this is soap opera. But it belongs up there with all the finest cinematic human dramas. On the DVD: The widescreen presentation ensures a theatrically authentic experience, with some fantastic shots of New York city coming into their own. The mono sound is adequate for the relative intimacy of most of the dialogue. But the real bonus is the retrospective documentary in which director and writer Benton, producer Stanley Jaffe and the cast look back with touching satisfaction at a piece which clearly meant a great deal to them all. Hoffman's initial reluctance (he was going through a real-life divorce) to get involved, the process of working with a gifted child actor and Streep's desire to make Joanna understood are all recalled in fascinating detail. --Piers Ford

• Kramer Vs Kramer | Blu Ray | (22/02/2016) from £18.01   |  Saving you £1.24 (7.40%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, Kramer vs. Kramer remains as powerfully moving today as it was when released in 1979, simply because its drama will remain relevant for couples of any generation. Adapted by director Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, this is perhaps the finest, most evenly balanced film ever made about the failure of marriage and the tumultuous shift of parental roles. It begins when Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) bluntly informs her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) that she's leaving him, just as his advertising career is advancing and demanding most of his waking hours. Self-involvement is just one of the film's underlying themes, along with the search for identity that prompts Joanna to leave Ted with their first-grade son (Justin Henry), who now finds himself living with a workaholic parent he barely knows. Juggling his domestic challenge with professional deadlines, Ted is further pressured when his wife files for custody of their son. This legal battle forms the dramatic spine of the film, but its power is derived from Benton's flawlessly observant script and the superlative performances of his entire cast. Because Benton refuses to assign blame and deals fairly with both sides of a devastating dilemma, the film arrives at equal levels of pain, growth, and integrity under emotionally stressful circumstances. That gives virtually every scene the unmistakable ring of truth--a quality of dramatic honestly that makes Kramer vs. Kramer not merely a classic tearjerker, but one of the finest American dramas of its decade. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Billy Bathgate | DVD | (11/01/2005) from £9.16   |  Saving you £5.83 (63.65%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Available for the first time on DVD. New York 1935: Billy Bathgate a naive Bronx-born teenager wangles his way into the gang of his hero crime boss Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). Although the boy doesn't know it Schultz is approaching the end of his storied career and the Feds are closing in hoping to put him behind bars for income-tax evasion. The youth quickly learns about the endless violence treachery and double-crossing that characterize mob life such as Schultz's cold-

• Feast Of Love | DVD | (12/05/2008) from £5.89   |  Saving you £14.10 (239.39%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Academy Award winning director Robert Benton brings us a star-studded and thoroughly modern version of a Midsummer Night's Dream.

• Human Stain | DVD | (25/04/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  How far would you go to escape the past? Coleman Silk (Hopkins) is a respectable college professor whose life is thrown into turmoil when his affair with a janitor (Kidman) is discovered...

• Places In The Heart | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Acclaimed by critics all over the country and boasting an Academy Award - winning performance by Sally Field 'Places In The Heart' is a landmark film. Its emotionally gripping story centers around Edna Spalding (Field) and her unending struggle against extraordinary hardships. But as recalled from director-writer Robert Benton's own childhood it's also a portrait of a time and a place and a people. It is the 1930s in Waxahachie Texas. Against this Depression-torn background unfo

• Bad Company | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1972's Bad Company a genteel Northerner during the American Civil War (Barry Brown) is robbed by scallywag Jeff Bridges--and winds up teaming up with him. Together they become a criminal duo (although with one member more reluctant than the other) in this entertaining, realistic tale of what the West was really like. Bridges has a gangly, easy-going demeanour, as well as a sense of playfulness that even extends to moments of extreme jeopardy. He makes an interesting team with the stiff, proper Brown, creating comedy seemingly out of thin air. This was the directing debut of Robert Benton, who had co-written Bonnie and Clyde and who would go on to win an Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer. --Marshall Fine

• Kramer vs Kramer | Blu Ray | (02/02/2009) from £13.48   |  Saving you £6.51 (48.29%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kramer vs Kramer is the box office smash that gathered 5 Oscars including Best Picture Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman and Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep. Returning home late from work one night a career-obsessed Ted Kramer is told by his wife that she is leaving him. After a life of being 'somebody's daughter' or 'somebody's wife ' she's going off to find herself - leaving Ted to care for their 6 year-old son. Ted while trying to hold down his job gets to really know his son: cooking his meals taking him to the park understanding every need and fear. For the first time in his life he feels like a fulfilled parent. But then Joanna returns. And she wants her son back...

• The Human Stain | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  After his career and reputation is ruined, a distinguished professor at a prestigious New England college embarks on a remarkable personal resurrection.

• Meryl Streep - It's Complicated/Out Of Africa/Julie & Julia/Kramer Vs Kramer/Postcards From The Edge/Adaptation | DVD | (20/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Titles Comprise: It's Complicated: Two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia! The Devil Wears Prada) Steve Martin (The Pink Panther Cheaper By The Dozen) and Alec Baldwin (My Sister's Keeper 30 Rock) star in this hilarious look at marriage divorce and everything in between. With a thriving bakery a new romance and her divorce finally behind her Jane Adler (Streep) has her life all figured out... until her ex-husband Jake (Baldwin) decides he'll stop at nothing to win her back. Out Of Africa: Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen the restless wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen (Brandauer). When Bror departs to hunt big game and chase women the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-spirited British hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford). While enduring her husband's infidelities and the eventual destruction of their beloved land she entertains Denys and befriends the workers. Hatton shares Karen's profound love for the African landscape but is unwilling to sacrifice his independence for their relationship... Julie & Julia: Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is Julie Powell in writer-director Nora Ephron's adaptation of two bestselling memoirs: Powell's Julie & Julia and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. Based on two true stories Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who though separated by time and space are both at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion fearlessness and butter anything is possible. Kramer Vs Kramer: Returning home late from work one night a career-obsessed Ted Kramer is told by his wife that she is leaving him. After a life of being 'somebody's daughter' or 'somebody's wife ' she's going off to find herself - leaving Ted to care for their 6 year-old son. Ted while trying to hold down his job gets to really know his son: cooking his meals taking him to the park understanding every need and fear. For the first time in his life he feels like a fulfilled parent. But then Joanna returns. And she wants her son back... Postcards From The Edge: Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine star as daughter and mother in this wickedly witty expos'' of life in the Hollywood fast lane based on the autobiographical book by Carrie Fisher. Adaptation: Lovelorn screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Cage) turns to his less talented twin brother Donald (also Cage) for help when his efforts to adapt a non-fiction book go nowhere...

• Kramer vs Kramer | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.90

  Kramer vs Kramer is the box office smash that gathered 5 Oscars including Best Picture Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman and Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep. Returning home late from work one night a career-obsessed Ted Kramer is told by his wife that she is leaving him. After a life of being 'somebody's daughter' or 'somebody's wife ' she's going off to find herself - leaving Ted to care for their 6 year-old son. Ted while trying to hold down his job gets to really know his son: cooking his meals taking him to the park understanding every need and fear. For the first time in his life he feels like a fulfilled parent. But then Joanna returns. And she wants her son back...

• Paul Newman Collection - Hud/Shadow Makers/Twighlight | DVD | (27/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Titles Comprise: Hud: Paul Newman is Hud a man at odds with his father tradition and himself. Hud's only interests are fighting drinking hot-rodding his Cadillac and womanising. Melvyn Douglas is the father an old-line cattle rancher and Patricia Neal is the understanding and appealing housekeeper. Academy Awards went to Patricia Neal Melvyn Douglas and James Wong Howe's brilliant cinematography. Shadow Makers: Based on the true events surrounding the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built Shadow Makers is the story of brilliant scientist Robert Oppenheimer who supervised the work on the now infamous Manhattan Project. Directed by Oscar-nominated Roland Joffe the film focuses on the link between the progress of science at all costs deep moral ambiguities and the effects of the project on the individuals involved. Paul Newman plays the military general overseeing the Manhattan Project. His deeply cynical and uncompromising portrayal of a man determined to succeed no matter what is the catalyst for the dramatic tensions in the film. Shadow Makers delicately captures the internal struggles of the individual's experience set-against the dominance of a greater power that manipulates them to its needs and that is eternally present like a sinister shadow in the background of their lives. John Cusack and Laura Dern are excellent in supporting roles and play out the devastating affects of atomic warfare in a sensitive and provoking manner. The authenticity and attention to detail consolidate a gripping and thoughtful view on the true events surrounding the invention of the atom bomb. Twilight Some people can buy their way out of anything. Except the past. Paul Newman plays Harry Ross a burned-out private eye who's plunged into a murder mystery tied to a long-unsolved case of Hollywood dreams schemes and cover-ups. Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman are among the locals who inhabit a Tinseltown world of privilege and sleaze sexuality and desperation trust and double-cross.

• Dustin Hoffman - In The Frame Collection | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This box set features the following films: Kramer Vs Kramer (Dir. Robert Benton) (1979): Returning home late from work one night a career-obsessed Ted Kramer is told by his wife Joanna that she is leaving him. After a life of being 'somebody's daughter' or 'somebody's wife ' she's going off to find herself - leaving Ted to care for their 6 year-old son. Ted while trying to hold down his job gets to really know his son: cooking his meals taking him to the park understanding every need and fear. For the first time in his life he feels like a fulfilled parent. But then Joanna returns. And she wants her son back... Papillon (Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner) (1973): They called him Papillon meaning butterfly. If only he had wings to go with the name. Unable to fly Henri Charriere virtually willed himself free. He persisted until he did the impossible: escape Devil's Island. Stranger Than Fiction (Dir. Marc Forster) (2006): This is an inventive comedy about a novelist (Emma Thompson) struggling to complete her latest and potentially finest book - she only has to find a way to kill off her main character Harold Crick and she'll be done. Little does she know that Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is inexplicably alive and well in the real world and suddenly aware of her words. Fiction and reality collide when the bewildered and hilariously resistant Harold hears what she has in mind and realizes he must find a way to change her (and his) ending. Joan Of Arc (Dir. Luc Besson) (1999): The year is 1429. France is in polical and religious turmoil as members of the royal family battle for rule. But one peasant girl from a remote village gave her country the miracle it was looking for. Milla Jovovich is Joan of Arc a young woman who would inspire and lead her countrymen until her execution at the age of nineteen. Raised in a religious family Joan witnessed her sister's rape and death at the hands of an invading army. Years later as the same war raged on Joan stood before her king with a message she claimed came from God: give her an army and in God's name she would reclaim his diminished kingdom. Tootsie (Dir. Sydney Pollack) (1982): Michael Dorsey is fine actor but an irreproachable perfectionist who can hardly make ends meet; the best he can do for his wallet is take on a couple of jobs as a part-time drama coach and a part-time waiter. But when with the help of a few accessories (including rouge and a padded bra) he transforms himself into Dorothy Michaels everything changes. Dorothy lands a hot job on a soap opera monopolizes the covers of glossy magazines and wins thousands of adoring fans. But when he falls head-over-heels for his co-star Julie (Jessica Lange) he's got a real problem: How can he tell Julie he loves her when she thinks he's a she? Accidental Hero (Dir. Stephen Frears) (1992): Davis is ace reporter Gale Gayley who literally falls into the story of a lifetime when she's a passenger on a airplane that crashes into a Chicago bridge. In the smoke and darkness she's saved by a rude foul-mouthed hero who promptly disappears into the night..leaving only his shoe behind. When Gale's TV Station offers a million dollars to the mystery hero a gentle Vietnam vet (Garcia) appears to claim the prize - and share it with the city's homeless. But this screwball Cinderella story is complicated by the fact that the real hero is a small-time crook (Hoffman) whom nobody believes. Both men have something heroic inside as well as something to hide and it's up to Gale to discover the true meaning of courage.

• Nadine | DVD | (26/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When Nadine (Basinger) accidentally comes into possession of property map worth millions Vernon (Bridges) her financially strapped husband comes up with a plan to make a killing. Unfortunately so does Buford Pope (Rip Torn) an unscrupulous businessman who'll stop at nothing to get the map. So as Vernon's plan gets Nadine mixed up in police ambushes roof-to-roof chases salvage yard shootouts and cold-blooded murder it's only a matter of time before Buford has them in front of a firing squad with nochance of escape. But Nadine needn't worry. Vernon's got a plan....