On this day in movie history - The Firm (1993 movie & novel):

The Firm

directed by Sydney Pollack,

written by David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel,

based on the novel by John Grisham,

was released in the United States on June 23, 1993.
Music by Dave Grusin.

Cast:

Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney, Wilford Brimley, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, David Strathairn, Gary Busey, Steven Hill, Tobin Bell, Barbara Garrick, Jerry Hardin, Paul Calderon, Jerry Weintraub, Sullivan Walker, Karina Lombard, Margo Martindale, John Beal, Dean Norris, Lou Walker, Debbie Turner, Tommy Cresswell, David A. Kimball, Don Jones, Michael Allen, Levi Frazier Jr., Brian Casey, William J. Parham, Victor Nelson, Richard Ranta, Janie Paris, Frank Crawford, Bart Whiteman, David Dwyer, Mark W. Johnson, Jerry Chipman, Jimmy Lackie, Afemo Omilami, Clint Smith, Susan Elliott, Erin Branham, Ed Connelly, Joey Anderson, Deborah Thomas, Tommy Matthews, Chris Schadrack, Jeffrey Buckner Ford, Jonathan Kaplan, Rebecca Glenn, Terri Welles, Greg Goossen, Jeane Aufdenberg, Bill Booth, Lannie McMillan Quartet, Ollie Nightingale, Teenie Hodges, Little Jimmy King, James White.

Recommended reading:

The Firm

By John Grisham.

Filmed as The Firm (1993), directed by Sydney Pollack.

Published by Vintage.

Published 1991.

ISBN-10: 0440245923

ISBN-13: 9780440245926

Description:

Mitch McDeere has worked hard to get where he is: third in his class at Harvard Law. Aggressively recruited by all the top firms, and initially headed for Wall Street, Mitch surprises everyone by joining Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a very private, very rich tax firm in Memphis. Mitch and his wife, Abby, move to Tennessee and quickly settle into their new life: they’re young, happy, and on the fast track. Or so they think.

Soon, though, Mitch senses trouble: two of the partners die in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman; the firm’s management is overly proud of the fact that no one has ever resigned; and security measures at the firm, even for a company with billionaire clients, are more than a little stringent. Then, suddenly, Mitch’s vague suspicions come to life.

The FBI has the lowdown on Mitch’s firm and needs his help. Now Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place. The FBI will bust him if he doesn’t cooperate, and the firm will kill him if he does. There’s no way out.

Or is there?

On this day in movie history - True Grit (1969 movie & novel):

True Grit

directed by Henry Hathaway,

written by Marguerite Roberts,

based on the novel by Charles Portis,

was released in the United States on June 11, 1969.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Alfred Ryder, Strother Martin, Jeff Corey, Ron Soble, John Fiedler, James Westerfield, John Doucette, Donald Woods, Edith Atwater, Carlos Rivas, Isabel Boniface, H.W. Gim, John Pickard, Elizabeth Harrower, Ken Renard, Jay Ripley, Kenneth Becker, Leon Alton, Wilford Brimley, Forest Burns, Albert Cavens, Gene Coogan, Myron Healey, James McEachin, Dennis McMullen, Boyd 'Red' Morgan, Robin Morse, Edna O'Dell, John Pedrini, General Sterling Price (Ginger Cat), Stuart Randall, Clark Ross, Connie Sawyer, Jeffrey Sayre, Jay Silverheels, Dean Smith, Max Wagner.

Recommended reading:

True Grit

By Charles Portis.

Filmed as True Grit (1969), directed by Henry Hathaway.

Published by The Overlook Press.

First published 1968.

ISBN-10: 159020459X

ISBN-13: 9781590204597

Description:

“Quite simply, an American masterpiece.” – Boston Globe.

“Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.” – Larry McMurtry.

Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America’s most enduring and incomparable literary voices, and his novels have left an indelible mark on the American canon. True Grit, his most famous novel, was first published in 1968, and has garnered critical acclaim as well as enthusiastic praise from countless passionate fans for more than 50 years.

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just 14 when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Filled with an unwavering urge to avenge her father’s blood, Mattie finds and, after some tenacious finagling, enlists one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available US Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.

True Grit is essential reading. Not just a classic Western, but an undeniable classic of American literature as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself. For fans of either the John Wayne classic or the Coen brothers’ movie, it’s a chance to relive the story of Mattie and Rooster and experience their story as it was originally told. For fans of taut, funny storytelling, it will be a joy to experience in its original form.

This edition includes an afterword by bestselling author Donna Tartt (The Secret History and The Goldfinch) and a reading group guide.

On this day in movie history - The Natural (1984 movie & novel):

The Natural

directed by Barry Levinson,

written by Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry,

based on the novel by Bernard Malamud,

was released in the United States on May 11, 1984.
Music by Randy Newman.

Cast:

Robert Redford, Paul Sullivan Jr., Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Rachel Hall, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky, Richard Farnsworth, Joe Don Baker, Darren McGavin, Michael Madsen, John Finnegan, Alan Fudge, Ken Grassano, Mike Starr, Mickey Treanor, Jon Van Ness, Anthony J. Ferrara, George Wilkosz, Robert Rich III, Sibby Sisti.

Recommended reading:

The Natural

By Bernard Malamud.

Filmed as The Natural (1984), directed by Barry Levinson.

Paperback.

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

First published 1952.

ISBN: 9780374502003

ISBN 10: 0374502005

ASIN: 0374502005

Description:

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first – and some would say still the best – novel ever written about baseball. In it, Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material – the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era – and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin's comment still holds true: "Malamud has done something which – now that he has done it! – looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology."

On this day in movie history - The Electric Horseman (1979):

The Electric Horseman

directed by Sydney Pollack,

written by Paul Gaer and Robert Garland,

based on a story by Shelly Burton,

was released in the United States on December 21, 1979.
Music by Dave Grusin.
Songs by Willie Nelson:
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.
Midnight Rider.
Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.
So You Think You're a Cowboy.
Hands on the Wheel.

Cast:

Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nelson, John Saxon, Nicolas Coster, Allan Arbus, Wilford Brimley, Will Hare, Basil Hoffman, Timothy Scott, James Sikking, James Kline, Frank Speiser, Quinn K. Redeker, Lois Hamilton, Sarah Harris, Tasha Zemrus, James Novak, Debra L. Maxwell, Michele Heyeden, Robin Timm, Patricia Blair, Gary M. Fox, Richard Perlmutter, Carol Eileen Montgomery, Theresa Ann Dent, Perry Sheehan, Sarge Allen, Sylvie Strause, Richard Knoll, Angelo Giouzelis, Mark Jamison, Brendan Kelly, Sheila B. Wakely, X.V. Kelly, Gary Shermaine, Gary Liddiard, Jerry Kurland, J. Carlton Adair, Charles J. Monahan, George W. Etter, Raymond G. Maupin, Bob C. Barrett, Red McIlvaine, Frank Nicholas, Johnny Magnus, Vic Vallaro, Bob Bailey, Roger Lowe, Kim Kephart, E.P. King, Rita Picking, Bernie Pollack, Sydney Pollack, Tom Willett.