This HBO docudrama depicts the notorious 1971 prison revolt at the Attica State Penitentiary in upstate New York. One can sense the mastery of veteran theatrical feature director John Frankenheimer in the movie's gripping suspense and gritty, hard-hitting realism. The semifictionalized narrative is told from the point of view of young Michael Smith (Kyle MacLachlan), a newly recruited prison guard. (The real Smith worked as a consultant on the film. ) When Smith arrives at Attica, the place is a revolt waiting to happen. When riots break out and the inmates take command of the prison, Smith and several other guards are held hostage. In this powder-keg climate, a relationship develops between Smith and the rebellion's wise, cool-headed leader, Jamaal (the superb Samuel L. Jackson), a political prisoner representing the African Liberation Movement. The insurrection at Attica became emblematic of protests taking place all over the United States at the time. "We've got a civil war going on in this country," says one prison guard, "This is where we hold the line. [+]

Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War-much like a masterless samurai, a. k. a. "ronin. " With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro's lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone, and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job-going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable-there's an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team's business-but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centerpiece of the movie is an honest-to-God car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon), but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Ronin is almost Frankenheimer's self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film. [+]