Any Mother's Son (1997)

One night in 1992, Allen Schindler (Paul Popowich), a 21 year-old navy sailor serving on the USS Belleau Wood, was on shore leave in Sasebo, Japan. He was followed into a public restroom and beaten to death. While given a military funeral, it was still a full two months after his brutal murder that his mother, Dorothy Hajdys-Holman (Bonnie Bedelia), discovered that her son had been killed by two of his own shipmates. "They beat him to death." she says, "They beat him beyond recognition!" Dorothy becomes even more distraught when the representatives of the US Navy refuse to provide her with full details on her son's murder.

Then a newspaper reporter informs Dorothy that her son was gay, and that this might have been the reason he was killed. But the Navy has nothing to say about it, the entire matter will be swept under the rug, with Dorothy remaining as much in the dark as the rest of the world. A deal had already been made with one of Allen's killers, who after a secret court-martial was given what amounts to a legal slap on the wrist. Dorothy comes to grips with her own homophobia in learning to respect who her son was. Radicalized by the incident and its aftermath, she joins forces with a crusading journalist to force the Navy to reveal the whole truth--and she will not allow the court-martial of Allen's other assailant to be conducted behind closed doors. "I don't think people really know that the assailant served only 78 days, and he didn't even get a dishonorable discharge. My son signed papers saying they could give him a dishonorable discharge just because he declared he was gay," Dorothy said. "Is our country saying that it is a bigger crime to be gay than to help kill somebody?"

One of the most controversial and widely-reported true stories of the early 1990s is dramatized in this made-for-cable movie. The upshot of this high-profile case was the creation of the Service Members' Legal Defense Network, assuring that no branch of the armed services would ever again be able to conspire to cover up a major crime. Dorothy Hajdys-Holman served as the film's technical advisor, while the US Navy refused to cooperate. "I am the one who named the movie. I wanted people to realize that Allen could be any mother's son," Dorothy explained. "Any Mother's Son" made its Lifetime cable network debut on August 11, 1997. Pray for Rain composed the original music, Bruce Harmon wrote the screenplay, and David Burton Morris directed.

My Fellow Americans (1996)

Former US Presidents Russell P. Kramer (Jack Lemmon) and Matt Douglas (James Garner) have spent the past 30 years hating each other. The film begins with the Republican Senator Kramer of Ohio winning the Presidential election, narrowly defeating Democratic Indiana Governor Douglas in a very close race. We hear Kramer's trademark speech, "Our dreams are like our children ... " He says he hopes their stay in Washington is for a long time to come. The movie then skips forward four years, to Douglas' landslide win over the incumbent Kramer, who says 80 million voted against him. By the end of his first term, Douglas is well-known for his infidelity. The funniest sequence finds the two blundering into a small-town gay pride march and falling in step with a marching band of Dorothys from ''The Wizard of Oz", strutting to an arrangement of ''Over the Rainbow.'' After being safely escorted from the parade to Cleveland by a gang of black-leather-clad women on motorcycles, Kramer says that he was wrong, he should have allowed gay enlistees into the military.

The film skips forward another four years, to where Kramer's former Vice President William "Bill" Haney (Dan Aykroyd) defeats Douglas. Haney's Vice President Ted Matthews (Heard) is widely seen as an idiot and becomes an embarrassment for the Haney administration. Haney detects a scandal brewing and tries to nail it to the previous administration. Haney agrees to resign, while Douglas and Kramer are introduced to the sniper who saved them, who turns out to be a gay man they had encountered earlier in the film during a Gay Pride parade in West Virginia. Kramer and Douglas, one-time political opponents, are thrown together, and the film goes on and on and on. It concludes with Matthews set to begin a prison term and Douglas and Kramer, running on the same ticket as independents in the Presidential election, arguing over which of them will be the nominee for President. Douglas first takes the podium when he throws a dollar on the floor to distract Kramer. As Kramer bends over to pick up the dollar, Douglas takes the mic and says: "My fellow Americans," presumably to announce himself to be the nominee, and causes Kramer to swear in front of the crowd, when the film cuts out mid-sentence.

Many call this "The Odd Couple Goes to the White House." Lemmon and Garner play ex-presidents in this comedy, each of them having served only one term as chief executive. The best jokes are in the first five minutes. We meet both men living life after the White House, Kramer making speeches for whoever will pay his large fee, while Douglas writes relevant books no one reads. Any time they show up at the same function, they insult each other like snarling schoolboys. Comedy comes largely from the series of cheap shots and snide recollections the two hurl at each other. The feel-good part comes from their bonding over shared experiences as past presidents. This political thriller builds as the hired guns keep trying to assassinate the ex-presidents.

"My Fellow Americans" is a bit goofy, but it's a good farcical spoof with just enough plot twists to keep it from becoming entirely predictable. Funny at times, yet after the brief introduction it goes downhill, becoming yet another road movie traveled by characters who hate each other. As the jokes get dumber and cruder, the movie may become tedious for some viewers. The DVD contains production notes, theatrical trailer, bloopers, optional Spanish and French soundtracks, optional full-screen and widescreen presentations, and Dolby audio. William Ross composed the original music. E. Jack Kaplan, Richard Chapman, and Peter Tolan wrote the screenplay. Peter Segal directed.