'Movies on the Green' Begin July 8 on City Campus

The University Program Council at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will present "Movies on the Green" again this summer, with classic movies showing in an outdoor setting on the UNL City Campus.

Every Thursday from July 8 through Aug. 12, a movie will be screened on the lawn north of Kimball Recital Hall, 12th and R streets (extended) on City Campus. The screenings are free and open to the public and begin at dusk (approximately 9 p.m.). Popcorn and soda will be sold at the screenings. The series is cosponsored by the University Program Council with the assistance of contributions from Jerry Jensen, IATSE Local 151, and US Bank.

The schedule:

July 8: "The Buddy Holly Story" (1978, PG), directed by Steve Rash, starring Gary Busey and Don Stroud. Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes. A powerful biography of the 1950s Texas rockabilly phenomenon who took his band, The Crickets, to the top of the charts before a tragic airplane accident ended his life on Feb. 3, 1959. The movie portrays Holly as a regular, hardworking type who struggles with peers and the music industry before he makes it big with the huge hit "That'll Be The Day." It also details the final events leading up to the plane crash that also claimed the lives of Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. "The Buddy Holly Story" won an Oscar for best adapted score and garnered two nominations for best actor and sound.

July 15: "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979, PG), directed by Robert Benton, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Runtime: 1:45. Benton's moving and well-observed adaptation of Avery Corman's novel about the aftermath of divorce stars Hoffman and Streep as the separating couple, Ted and Joanna Kramer. When dutiful wife and mother Joanna decides to leave Ted, an advertising executive, she also leaves him with the responsibility of caring for their young son, Billy (Justin Henry). Hoffman and Streep turn in exceptional Academy Award-winning performances, and Benton crafts a memorable exploration of parenthood by wisely focusing on the tiny dramas of everyday life.

July 22: "Gulliver's Travels" (1939, not rated), directed by Dave Fleischer, starring Jessica Dragonette, Lanny Ross and Pinto Colvig. Runtime: 1:17. In 1939, Dave and Max Fleischer -- who created the classic jazzy Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons -- turned their animation skills to a feature film adaptation of Jonathan Swift's classic novel. The film is alive with great visual and verbal gags and amazingly surreal visuals, both classic Fleischer traits. The second feature-length cartoon to hit the market (following Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937), it garnered Academy Award nominations for best original score and best song ("Faithful Forever").

July 29: "Butterflies Are Free" (1972, PG), directed by Milton Katselas, starring Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert and Eileen Heckart. Runtime: 1:49. Young Don Baker (Albert) is blind. In San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district at the beginning of the 1970s, he makes the considerable move toward independence by moving away from his mother (Heckart) and into his own place. Incidentally, he finds himself falling for Jill (Hawn), the free-spirited actress in the apartment next door. Don must then convince his mother that Jill is good for him. Heckart won a best supporting actress Oscar for her work in the film.

Aug. 5: "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959, not rated), directed by Otto Preminger, starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and George C. Scott. Runtime: 2:41. Preminger thrives in tense legal showdowns and this is perhaps his best, mostly for Stewart's cagey performance as a deceptively wily small-town lawyer. An army lieutenant shoots a bar owner for allegedly raping his wife. A trial ensues, in which his attorney attempts to convince the jury that the lieutenant is innocent of first degree murder because he was the victim of an "irresistible impulse." The plot is complicated by the nature of the criminal and defendants, none of whom is purely good or evil.

Aug. 12: "Repulsion" (1965, not rated), directed by Roman Polanski, starring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry and John Fraser. Runtime: 1:45. Produced in the United Kingdom, "Repulsion" is a classy, truly horrific psychological drama in which Polish director Polanski draws out a remarkable performance from Deneuve. Polanski's first movie filmed in English, it chronicles the descent into schizophrenia of a sexually confused, isolated young woman. Highly acclaimed and extremely gripping, Polanski's disturbing film can be seen as a prelude to his later work in the field of psychological horror, "Rosemary's Baby," and especially, "The Tenant."

CONTACT: Karen Wills, Adviser, University Program Council, (402) 472-8153