The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s controversial film about
the last 44 hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opened in theaters
across the United States on February 25, 2004. Not coincidentally,
the day was Ash Wednesday, the start of the Catholic season of
Lent.

The star of action-packed blockbusters like the Lethal Weapon
series and Braveheart, Gibson was earning more than $20 million
per movie at the time he decided to direct The Passion of the
Christ, for which he received no cash compensation.

        Jim Caviezel                         Mel Gibson

On December 25, 1962, To Kill a Mockingbird, a film based
on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name
by Harper Lee, 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same
name by Harper Lee, opened in theaters.

The Great Depression-era story of racial injustice and the
loss of childhood innocence is told from the perspective 
of a young Alabama girl named Scout Finch, played in the
film by Mary Badham, who lives with her older brother Jem
(Phillip Alford) and their widowed attorney father Atticus
(Gregory Peck). While Scout, Jem and their friend Dill
(John Megna) become fascinated by the mysterious shut-in
Boo Radley (Robert Duvall).

Atticus goes to court to defend a Black man falsely accused
of raping a white woman.  

To Kill a Mockingbird was nominated for eight Academy
Awards, including Best Picture, and won three Oscars,
including Best Actor (Gregory Peck).       

Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003)

        
 
        
        
        
        
        
        
       

In Scarface, Al Pacino played Tony Montana, who arrives in Florida
from Cuba in 1980 and eventually becomes wealthy from his
involvement in the booming cocaine business. Things fall apart
when Tony becomes addicted to the drug and his world collapses
in violence. Directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay by Oliver Stone, Scarface co-starred Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Robert Loggia. The film was loosely
based on a 1932 gangster film of the same name, directed by
Howard Hawks and reportedly inspired in part by the real-life
mobster Al “Scarface” Capone. Though De Palma’s Scarface
received mixed reviews upon its initial release and was criticized
for its violence, it proved to be a success at the box-office and
went on to achieve pop-culture status.

DIRECTOR BRIAN DE PALMA

Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United
States on August 15, 1979.

The film, inspired in part by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella
Heart of Darkness, among other sources, told the story of
an Army captain (played by Martin Sheen) and crew of men
who are sent into the Cambodian jungle to kill a U.S. Special
Forces colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone AWOL and is
thought to be crazy. Apocalypse Now, which co-starred Robert
Duvall and Dennis Hopper, became notorious for its long,
difficult production, which included budget problems, shooting
delays due to bad weather on the Philippines set, a heart attack 
for Sheen and a nervous breakdown for Coppola.  
                                             

Francis Ford Coppola became 83 in April.

The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and featuring words
and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen, received
its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August
12, 1939.

The beloved characters and familiar plot points were mostly
all there in the original children’s book, from the Kansas farm
girl in shiny slippers transported to Munchkin land by a terrible
tornado, to the wicked witch, the brainless scarecrow, the
heartless tin woodsman and the cowardly lion she encounters
once she gets there.