The Films of Alan Parker

Well fellow Full Metal Reviewer reader's, I'm back and this time I've got an arsenal of 12 classic films to review. Well some of them are classics at least. Some may be excellent, some may be good and some may be bad and together we will discover where each film lies on this epic and exciting journey. Of course, the common link between these films is that they are all directed by the great Alan Parker.

Alan Parker was born in England in 1944. In the early 1960's he began working as a copywriter in the advertising industry. In the late 1960's he began writing and making his own television advertisements and in 1971 he wrote his first feature Melody. Since then he has worked continually in both the British and American film industries. He has been nominated (and won) for a slew of prestigious awards and in 2002 he was knighted to become Sir Alan Parker.

Now, if one was to peruse The Internet Movie Database, one would see that Sir Alan Parker has directed more than 15 films, yet I am only reviewing 12 films. Why? How is this possible? Why am I doing this? Well, if you had read a previous post I did (a few months ago) you would know that I am only reviewing films that are
                 a) available in widescreen and
                 b) available in an official region 1 format.
Thus films like Bugsy Malone and The Road to Wellville, to name two, are not included. It's a shame really as I am dying to see both those films, and really anything Sir Parker has directed.

With that said, of the 12 movies that am about to watch, five of them I have never seen. Of the seven I have seen, five of them I remember being 'brilliant', one of them I remember sucking beyond belief and one of them I really don't remember at all. Here's the list, divided between seen and unseen and listed alphabetically.

                                               Seen                                            Unseen

                                          Angel Heart                                            
                                                Evita                                     Angela's Ashes
                                                Fame                                            Birdy
                                  The Life of David Gale                Come See the Paradise
                                      Midnight Express                         The Commitments
                                   Mississippi Burning                         Shoot The Moon
                                 Pink Floyd: The Wall

So now it's time to find out if my memories hold well with the films that I have seen. It's time to hopefully discover a new hidden gem, or at least to find another great movie to recommend. It's time to watch the films (what's available to North American's) of Sir Alan Parker. Are you ready? Good. Let's begin...