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Domina is a British-Italian historical drama series created by Simon Burke. The Sky Atlantic series chronicles the life of Livia Drusilla, from her early years when Julius Caesar was assassinated to her marriage to the Roman emperor Augustus, which makes way for her to become the most powerful and influential empress in the Roman Empire. Domina stars Nadia Parkes, Tom Glynn-Carney, Enzo Cilenti, Peter Campion, Darrel D’Silva, Tom Forbes, Liam Garrigan, Oliver Huntington, and Alexandra Moloney. So, if you loved the historical drama, a captivating story, and compelling characters in Domina, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Troy: Fall of a City (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Netflix

Troy: Fall of a City is a historical drama miniseries created by David Farr. Based on the Trojan War, the Netflix series revolves around...

Night Moves, Spine #1255 released in the Criterion Collection on March 25th, 2025.

Last month the screen legend and acting icon Gene Hackman tragically passed away following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. As the details of his tragic passing — along with his wife Betsy — were made public, his fans were left grappling with the heartbreaking realization of his final moments. While watching Night Moves I was reminded of why Hackman was regarded as a master of his craft. His memory lives on, permanently engrained in the history of cinema and perfectly represented in the 4K restoration of Arthur Penn’s 1970’s classic.

RelatedCrossing Delancey (4K): Criterion Collection Review Night Moves plot

Los Angeles private investigator Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) makes his living by tailing cheating spouses and dealing with the worst of the worst that humanity has to offer. When he’s hired by aging actress Arlene Iverson to find...

Actor Gregory Peck may be best known for his Oscar-winning performance as Atticus Finch in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird, but over the course of his decades-long career, Peck appeared in more than 50 projects, including a western that many may have forgotten. Peck, along with Desi Arnaz Jr, the son of iconic duo Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, starred in 1974’s Billy Two Hats,which is now streaming on Prime Video.

Billy Two Hats takes place after a bank robbery gone wrong and the titular character, Billy Two Hats (Arnaz Jr.) is captured by Sheriff Gifford, played by Jack Warden. Billy’s partner, Arch Deans, played by Peck, rescues him, but ends up getting shot in the leg, leaving him unable to ride a horse. Billy, refusing to leave his partner behind, builds a cot that can be carried by horse, and they continue their journey, which makes them more...

Robert Aldrich gives the Cavalry Western a rough going-over in this brutal, unforgiving horror-western. Burt Lancaster gets in a fine late-career action turn as well. The pursuit of an Apache raiding party becomes guerrilla war in the desert, the kind of conflict that cements racial hatred forever. Aldrich and Alan Sharp’s answer to the ‘mud & rags’ western of the early 1970s carries on the director’s anarchic streak. This is how the West was won?

Ulzana’s Raid

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / 29.99

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Richard Jaeckel, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke, Joaquín Martínez, Lloyd Bochner, Karl Swenson, Douglass Watson, Dran Hamilton, Gladys Holland, Aimee Eccles, Tony Epper, Nick Cravat, Richard Farnsworth, Dean Smith.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Frank De Vol

Written by Alan Sharp

Produced by Carter DeHaven

Directed by Robert Aldrich

After all of the bloodletting...

Director/Tfh Guru Allan Arkush discusses his favorite year in film, 1975, with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rules of the Game (1939)

Le Boucher (1970)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

Topaz (1969)

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary

The Innocents (1961) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)

Rope (1948) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

The Awful Truth (1937) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Duck Soup (1933) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Going My Way (1944)

Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary

M*A*S*H (1970)

Shampoo (1975) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Bonnie And Clyde (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Nada Gang (1975)

Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Night Moves (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Katt Shea’s trailer...

Cast includes Screen Star Of Tomorrow 2018 Marli Siu.

Michael Caton-Jones’ The Sopranos, an adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel of the same name about a choir of Catholic school girls on a trip to Edinburgh, has begun production in the Scottish capital backed by Sony Pictures International Productions (Spip) and Screen Scotland.

Caton-Jones first optioned Warner’s novel in 1998. “It was always fundamental that the spirit of these fantastic strong female characters was brought to life accurately,” he said.

The Scotland-born filmmaker has co-written the film with Alan Sharp and Rachel Hirons. Caton-Jones and Laura Viederman are producing for Four Point Play Pictures,...

The Hired Hand will be available on Blu-ray September 18th From Arrow Academy

Having been at the forefront of America s here-and-now with Easy Rider and the counterculture movies of Roger Corman, Peter Fonda retreated to the past and the American West for his directorial debut, The Hired Hand.

Fonda plays Harry, a man who deserted his wife and child to explore the wide-open plains with his best friend Archie (Warren Oates). Tired of the life , he decides to finally return home in order to rekindle his marriage and reacquaint himself with his daughter.

Scripted by Alan Sharp, shot by Vilmos Zsigmond and with a standout score by folk musician Bruce Langhorne, The Hired Hand is a beautiful, elegiac picture that ranks alongside The Outlaw Josey Wales and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as one of the finest Westerns the seventies had to offer.

Special Edition Contents

High Definition...

Blu-ray fans are now well aware that many great movies unavailable in the U.S., can be easily found in Europe. One of the best westerns of the ’70s is this jarringly realistic cavalry vs. Apaches drama from Robert Aldrich and Burt Lancaster, which used the ‘R’ rating to show savage details that Hollywood had once avoided. In this case it works — the genuinely scary movie is also a serious meditation on violent America.

Ulzana’s Raid

(Keine Gnade für Ulzana)

All-region Blu-ray + Pal DVD

Explosive Media

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date November 9, 2017 / available through the Amazon Germany website / Eur 17,99

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Richard Jaeckel, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke, Joaquín Martínez, Lloyd Bochner, Karl Swenson, Douglass Watson, Dran Hamilton, Gladys Holland, Aimee Eccles, Tony Epper, Nick Cravat, Richard Farnsworth, Dean Smith.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Frank De Vol

Written by Alan Sharp

Produced by...

Arthur Penn’s detective movie is one of the best ever in the genre, one that rewards repeat viewings particularly well. Gumshoe Harry Moseby compartmentalizes his marriage, his job, his past and the greedy Hollywood has-beens he meets, not realizing that everything is interconnected, and fully capable of assembling a world-class conspiracy. Gene Hackman tops a sterling cast in the film that introduced most of us to Melanie Griffith.

Night Moves

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date August 15, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Melanie Griffith, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Kenneth Mars, Janet Ward, James Woods, Anthony Costello.

Cinematography: Bruce Surtees

Production Designer: George Jenkins

Film Editor: Dede Allen

Original Music: Michael Small

Written by Alan Sharp

Produced by Robert M. Sherman

Directed by Arthur Penn

Night Moves is a superb detective thriller that plays with profound ideas without getting its fingers burned.

By Tim Greaves

The first of only three films for which Peter Fonda took up residence in the director's chair – the others being Idaho Transfer (1973) and Wanda Nevada (1979) – unconventional western The Hired Hand (1971)is the jewel of the triad. A couple of fleeting outbursts of violence aside, it's heavy on gentle drama and light on shoot-'em-up action, as such more a thinking man’s western than one whose white hats and blackguards are clearly defined from the outset and proceed to serve up a profusion of rapid-fire gunfights with bounteous squirts of ketchup.

Following an upsetting incident which prompts him to reflect on his life choices, drifter Harry Collings (Peter Fonda) informs his travelling companions Arch Harris (Warren Oates) and Dan Griffen (Robert Pratt) that he's decided to return home to the wife and daughter he deserted six years earlier. Before they can part ways Dan is shot by a...

By John M. Whalen

Ted Kotcheff’s “Billy Two Hats” (1974) is one of those off-beat kind of movies they made back in the mid-Seventies when studios still believed in small, realistic films that focused on character more than shoot-outs, believable story lines more than special effects and solid performances by seasoned actors who knew their craft more than flashy histrionics by shiny boys and girls who just stepped off the front pages of the supermarket tabloids. It’s not a great film by any means. It’s slow, and a bit heavy handed in getting across the themes contained in Alan Sharp’s (“Osterman Weekend,” “Ulzana’s Raid”) script, but it’s worth watching, if only so you can say you’ve seen the only “Kosher Western” ever made.

57-year-old Gregory Peck, speaking with a thick Scottish accent, stars as Arch Deans, a bank robber on the run with his...

Cinema’s Hidden Pearls – Part I

By Alex Simon

One of nature’s rarest items, a pearl is produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. Truly flawless pearls are infrequently produced in nature, and as a result, the pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. Hidden pearls exist in the world of movies, as well: films that, in spite of being brilliantly crafted and executed, never got the audience they deserved beyond a cult following.

Here are a few of our favorite hidden pearls in the world of film:

1. Night Moves (1975)

Director Arthur Penn hit three home runs in a row with the trifecta of Bonnie & Clyde, Alice’s Restaurant and Little Big Man,...

By Don Stradley

The final image of Arthur Penn’s “Night Moves” certainly gets the movie pundits in a lather. The scene consists of Gene Hackman as private eye Harry Moseby, shot to pieces but still trying to steer his motor boat to shore. Bleeding badly from his wounds, he’s unable to reach the gears; he ends up setting the boat in a circling motion. From above, we see Harry’s boat circling aimlessly in the Gulf Stream. This scene, which brings the film to a finish, has been described as a metaphor for many things, including America’s lost identity after the Watergate era, to Moseby’s own fruitless search for the truth, to Penn’s own floundering career. To me, it always looks like the boat is going down a drain (or a toilet). It’s the sort of ending that leaves a viewer wondering if you’ve missed something,...

Following are some supplemental sections featuring notable director & actor teams that did not meet the criteria for the main body of the article. Some will argue that a number of these should have been included in the primary section but keep in mind that film writing on any level, from the casual to the academic, is a game of knowledge and perception filtered through personal taste.

****

Other Notable Director & Actor Teams

This section is devoted to pairings where the duo worked together at least 3 times with the actor in a major role in each feature film, resulting in 1 must-see film.

Terence Young & Sean Connery

Must-See Collaboration: From Russia with Love (1962).

Other Collaborations: Action of the Tiger (1957), Dr. No (1962), Thunderball (1965).

Director Young and actor Connery teamed up to create one of the very best Connery-era James Bond films with From Russia with Love which features a great villainous performance by Robert Shaw...

One of the pleasures of being a jobbing film director is spending time with talents such as Alan Sharp. I trailed happily around New Zealand and Los Angeles after him for a year or so while we tried to beat Robert Louis Stevenson's The Beach of Falesa into a shape to attract the money (we never made it). One sunny afternoon, when the little Auckland bay ferry bumped up against the jetty of a trackless island where Alan had a beachhouse, he abruptly jumped ashore in a panic. "Oh my God. Take care of the luggage!" he shouted, over his shoulder. I expected to find a dead body or two, or at least a plague of locusts, when I staggered up to the house. But all was well. Alan was bent over a jungle of cannabis plants in a sort of garden. He was watering them. "It's Ok. They're Ok,...

Swashbuckling screenwriter behind Rob Roy, Ulzana's Raid and Night Moves

Alan Sharp, who has died of brain cancer aged 79, once claimed that as a screenwriter he was most interested in "moral ambiguity, mixed motives and irony", all of which are applicable to two of his best movies, the western Ulzana's Raid (1972), directed by Robert Aldrich, and the thriller Night Moves (1975), directed by Arthur Penn. Most of his screenplays were written in the 1970s and reflect the era in which America was suffering the effects of the Vietnam war and post-Watergate paranoia. This goes some way to explaining the bleakness and cynical sense of destiny in Sharp's films, which he called "existential melodramas".

He was born in Alyth, near Dundee. Although the majority of his scripts were set in the Us, where he lived for many years, Scotland remained pre-eminent in his character and culture. His script for Rob Roy (1995), a...

I had the pleasure of meeting novelist/screenwriter Alan Sharp while preparing the production notes for the 1983 Sam Peckinpah movie "The Osterman Weekend," which was to be the director's last. While that film did not mark either man's finest hour, Sharp was one of Hollywood's most respected screenwriters; he specialized in muscular western noir. He died last weekend at the age of 78 after a long illness. Born in Scotland, after writing a series of novels, Sharp wrote the screenplays for Peter Fonda's 1971 follow-up to "Easy Rider," "The Hired Hand," co-starring Fonda and Warren Oates; Robert Aldrich western "Ulzana's Raid" (1972), starring Burt Lancaster; Arthur Penn's iconic private eye thriller "Night Moves" (1975), starring Gene Hackman and Melanie Griffith; and Michael Caton-Jones' 1995 Highland outlaw epic "Rob Roy," starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange. Sharp also directed the...

Novelist and film and television writer Alan Sharp has died. Sharp passed away on February 8 in Los Angeles after a long illness, CAA said in a statement. He was 79. Sharp, a Scotland native, launched his writing career in 1965 with A Green Tree In Gedde. The acclaimed novel, initially banned in Scotland for its sexual content, won the 1967 Scottish Arts Council Award and was the first of a proposed trilogy. The second novel in the trilogy, The Wind Shifts, was published in 1968. The third, Don’t Cry, It’s Only A Picture Show, was left incomplete when Sharp relocated to Hollywood to focus on screenwriting for film and television. Sharp went on to pen screenplays for as many as 20 feature films, including Rob Roy, Night Moves, The Osterman Weekend, Little Treasure, and Dean Spanley. Sharp also wrote the screenplay for the mini-series Ben-Hur, which aired on CBC in Canada and ABC in the U.

I’ve always been a war film buff, maybe because I grew up with them at a time when they were a regular part of the cinema landscape. That’s why I read, with particular interest, my Sound on Sight colleague Edgar Chaput’s recent pieces on The Flowers of War (“The Flowers of War Is an Uneven but Interesting Chinese Ww II Film” – posted 2/20/12) and The Front Line (The Front Line Rises to the Occasion to Overcome Its Familiarity” – 2/16/12) with such interest. An even more fun read was the back-and-forth between Edgar and Sos’s Michael Ryan over the latter (“The Sound on Sight Debate on Korea’s The Front Line” – 2/12/12), with Michael unimpressed because the movie had “…nothing new to add to the war genre,” and Edgar coming back with “…‘new’ is not always what a film must strive for. So long as it does well what it set out to do…...

Mini-Review

When you think of Dustin Hoffman today, you do not think of an individual who is spineless and without the balls to defend his woman (Susan George), who made an ever-lasting impression in this film with her perky nipples and erotic display as the wife to Hoffman’s character, David Sumner.

Straw Dogsm directed in 1971 by Sam Peckinpah, starts with the basic concept of a couple moving to the village side to enjoy the quiet life. Building slowly from a seemingly calm opening act, Straw Dogs sees the aforementioned couple being put to the ultimate test to defend themselves against the violence that is set to destroy and violate them. Oozing sexual tension and male masculinity, this is a film worthy of Criterions Collection. Sadly, in less than a few months, we will get a remake to a film that never needed it.

Disc Review

At number 182 in the Criterion Collection,...

Excited for Shout! Factory's July release of the weirdness that is Damnation Alley on Blu-ray and DVD? Did you pre-order your copy and get your limited edition lithograph? How about a few clips to offer you incentive?

From the Press Release

Shout! Factory has announced the July 5 release of the western-meets-sci-fi themed Oblivion on DVD and the July 12 release of the highly requested doomsday cult classic Damnation Alley on DVD and Blu-ray. Oblivion DVD Srp $14.93, Damnation Alley DVD Srp $19.93, Blu-Ray Srp $26.97.

Shout! Factory is offering a free, limited edition 8"x10" Damnation Alley lithograph with purchase, available exclusively at Shout! Factory's online shop.

In Oblivion, it’s all about cowboys and aliens. On a frontier light years from the O.K. Corral, a bizarre gang of futuristic desperados have their sights set on turning the tumbleweed town of Oblivion into their own private playground. Their lizard-like leader, Redeye (Andrew Divoff, Wishmaster...

For the past couple of years the good folks over at Shout! Factory have been giving some of the genre's most obscure titles really stellar treatments that serve to blow the mind. The trend continues with their latest two releases slated for July, Damnation Alley and Oblivion!

From the Press Release

Shout! Factory has announced the July 5 release of the western-meets-sci-fi themed Oblivion on DVD, and the July 12 release of the highly requested doomsday cult classic Damnation Alley on DVD and Blu-ray. Oblivion DVD Srp $14.93, Damnation Alley DVD Srp $19.93, Blu-Ray Srp $26.97.

Shout! Factory is offering a free, limited edition 8"x10" Damnation Alley lithograph with purchase, available exclusively at Shout! Factory's online shop.

In Oblivion, it’s all about cowboys and aliens. On a frontier lightyears from the O.K. Corral, a bizarre gang of futuristic desperados have their sights set on turning the tumbleweed town of Oblivion into their own private playground.

Director Kevin Macdonald discusses his latest film, which is based on the popular adventure novel by Rosemary Sutcliff

Kevin Macdonald began his career directing documentaries, like the critically acclaimed Touching the Void. But it was his work on the Academy Award winning feature film The Last King of Scotland that has made him one of the fastest rising directors working today. Macdonald has gone onto direct the film adaptation of the hit BBC television drama State of Play, which starred Oscar winners Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, and Ben Affleck. He also collaborated with Oscar winning director Ridley Scott on the YouTube inspired documentary film Life in a Day, which will premiere later this week at the Sundance Film Festival.

Opening in theaters on February 11th is the director's latest feature, the "sword and sandals" epic The Eagle, which stars Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Jamie Bell (Jumper...

Canadian production company Muse Entertainment has announced the beginning of principal photography for a new television adapation of Ben Hur. The finished film will air as a miniseries with a cast that includes Joseph Morgan, Stephen Campbell, Ray Winstone, Kristen Kreuk (Lana Lang in Smallville), Alex Kingston and Art Malik.

Muse is co-producing Ben Hur with companies from Spain, Morocco, Germany and the United States. Shooting is currently taking place in Morocco. Among the people named as producers is David Wyler, the son of William Wyler. The senior Wyler directed the 1959 film version of Ben Hur starring Charlton Heston. That film won 11 Academy Awards.

The press release from Muse announcing the start of filming is below.

Los Angeles, Barcelona, Berlin, Montreal: May 5, 2009 - The legendary story of Ben Hur began principal photography May 4, 2009 and is being produced for the first time for television. Based on the original 1880’s novel by Lew Wallace,...

Joseph Morgan, Emily VanCamp and Stephen Campbell Moore are starring in "Ben-Hur," a four-hour miniseries produced and financed by Alchemy Television Group.

Steven Shill, helmer of surprise boxoffice hit "Obsessed," is directing the adaptation of the 1880 Lew Wallace novel from a script by Alan Sharp ("Rob Roy"). Production begins this week in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

Morgan will play the title role immortalized by Charlton Heston in the 1959 movie -- a wealthy Jewish youth in the time of Jesus Christ -- who is seeking revenge and reclaiming his identity after being betrayed by his friend, Messala (Moore). VanCamp plays Esther, the daughter of a slave and Ben-Hur's love interest.

Also in the cast are Ray Winstone as Ben-Hur's adoptive father, Kristen Kruek ("Smallville") as his sister and Hugh Bonneville as Pontius Pilate.

Alex Kingston, Lucia Jimenez, Miguel Angel Munoz, Marc Warren, Art Malik and James Faulkner round out the cast of the project,...

ABC is bringing Ben Hur to the small screen. The network will air a new four hour mini-series based on Lew Wallace’s famous novel. Steve Shill, whose directed episodes of Rome, The Sopranos, Dexter and The Tudors, is on board to direct. Alan Sharp (Rob Roy, The Osterman Weekend) penned the screenplay. Hur centers on a Jewish prince who is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend. He regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. It was previously adapted to the big screen by director William Wyler, a film that starred Charlton Heston and won 11 Oscars, including best picture. Wallace’s novel was published on November 12, 1880 and became the best-selling American novel until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. The book was also the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope. William Wyler’s son, David Wyler, will executive produce the miniseries.

Actor Tim Roth

Tim Roth Is Telling No Lies

By

Alex Simon

Editor's Note: This article appears in the March issue of Venice Magazine.

One of the film world’s great chameleons, Tim Roth was born in London May 14, 1961, the son of a journalist and a school teacher. After dropping out of art school, Roth was discovered by maverick British director Alan Clarke, and cast in his incendiary 1982 study of the skinhead movement in the UK, Made in Britain. Tim Roth hasn’t stopped working since, with over 70 feature and TV roles to his credit including such iconic titles as The Hit, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Vincent and Theo, Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You, and most recently, the lead in Francis Coppola’s first feature in ten years, Youth Without Youth.

Roth stepped behind the...