Evil Angels (released in Europe and the Americas as A Cry in the Dark) is a 1988 Australian film directed by Fred Schepisi. The screenplay by Schepisi and Robert Caswell is based on John Bryson's 1985 book Evil Angels, the title under which the film was released in Australia. It chronicles the case of Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week-old baby girl who disappeared from a camp-ground near Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) in August 1980 and the struggle of her parents, Michael and Lindy, to prove their innocence to a public convinced that they were complicit in her death.

The film was released less than two months after the Chamberlains finally were exonerated by the Northern Territory Court of Appeals of all charges filed against them.^[2]

Plot[link]

Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor Michael Chamberlain, his wife Lindy, their two sons, and their nine-week-old daughter Azaria are on a camping holiday in the Outback. With the baby sleeping in their tent, the family is enjoying a barbecue with their fellow campers when a cry is heard. Lindy returns to the tent to check on Azaria and is certain she sees a dingo with something in its mouth running off as she approaches. When she discovers the infant is missing, everyone joins forces to search for her, without success. It is assumed what Lindy saw was the animal carrying off the child, and a subsequent inquest rules her account of events is true.

The tide of public opinion soon turns against the Chamberlains. For many, Lindy seems too stoic, too cold-hearted, and too accepting of the disaster that has befallen her. Gossip about her begins to swell and soon is accepted as statements of fact. The couple's beliefs are not widely practised in the country, and when the media reports a rumour that the name Azaria means "sacrifice in the wilderness" (when in fact it means "blessed of God"), the public is quick to believe they decapitated their baby with a pair of scissors as part of a bizarre religious rite. Law-enforcement officials find new witnesses, forensics experts, and a lot of circumstantial evidence - including a small wooden coffin Michael uses as a receptacle for his parishioners' packs of un-smoked cigarettes - and reopen the investigation, and eventually Lindy is charged with murder. Seven months pregnant, she ignores her attorneys' advice to play on the jury's sympathy and appears emotionless on the stand, convincing onlookers she is guilty of the crime of which she is accused. As the trial progresses, Michael's faith in his religion and his belief in his wife disintegrate, and he stumbles through his testimony, suggesting he is concealing the truth. In October 1982, Lindy is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour, while Michael is found guilty as an accessory and given an 18-month suspended sentence.

More than three years later, while searching for the body of an English tourist who fell from Uluru, police discover a small item of clothing that is identified as the jacket Lindy had insisted Azaria was wearing over her jumpsuit, which had been recovered early in the investigation. She immediately is released from prison, the case is reopened, and all convictions against Lindy and Michael are overturned.

Cast[link]

• Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain
• Sam Neill as Michael Chamberlain
• Bruce Myles as Ian Barker, Q.C.
• Neil Fitzpatrick as John Phillips, Q.C.
• Charles Tingwell as Justice James Muirhead
• Maurie Fields as Justice Denis Barritt
• Nick Tate as Det. Graeme Charlwood
• Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Stuart Tipple

Reception[link]

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby said the film "has much of the manner of a television docudrama, ultimately being a rather comforting celebration of personal triumph over travails so dread and so particular that they have no truly disturbing, larger application. Yet A Cry in the Dark is better than that, mostly because of another stunning performance by Meryl Streep, who plays Lindy Chamberlain with the kind of virtuosity that seems to redefine the possibilities of screen acting . . . Though Sam Neill is very good as Lindy Chamberlain's tormented husband, Miss Streep supplies the guts of the melodrama that are missing from the screenplay. Mr. Schepisi has chosen to present the terrible events in the outback in such a way that there's never any doubt in the audience's mind about what happened. The audience doesn't worry about the fate of the Chamberlains as much as it worries about the unconvincing ease with which justice is miscarried. Mr. Schepisi may have followed the facts of the case, but he has not made them comprehensible in terms of the film. The manner by which justice miscarries is the real subject of the movie. In this screenplay, however, it serves only as a pretext for a personal drama that remains chilly and distant . . . As a result, the courtroom confrontations are so weakened that A Cry in the Dark becomes virtually a one-character movie. It's Mr. Schepisi's great good fortune that that one character is portrayed by the incomparable Meryl Streep."^[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "Schepisi is successful in indicting the court of public opinion, and his methodical (but absorbing) examination of the evidence helps us understand the state's circumstantial case. In the lead role, Streep is given a thankless assignment: to show us a woman who deliberately refused to allow insights into herself. She succeeds, and so, of course, there are times when we feel frustrated because we do not know what Lindy is thinking or feeling. We begin to dislike the character, and then we know how the Australian public felt. Streep's performance is risky, and masterful."^[4]

In the Washington Post, Rita Kempley said, "Streep - yes, with another perfect accent - brings her customary skillfulness to the part. It's not a showy performance, but the heroine's internal struggle seems to come from the actress' pores. Neill, who costarred with Streep in Plenty, is quite good as a humble, bewildered sort who finally breaks under cross-examination."^[5]

Variety made note of the "intimate, incredible detail in the classy, disturbing drama."^[6]

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. A Cry in the Dark was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the courtroom drama genre.^[7]

The line from the Lindy Chamberlain character, "The dingo took my baby", sometimes incorrectly rendered as "A dingo ate my baby", became part of pop culture after the release of the movie, appearing on such shows as Seinfeld, The Simpsons episode "Bart vs. Australia" where Bart taunts Bruno Drundridge by saying 'I think I hear a dingo eatin' your baby', and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where the name of Oz's band is Dingos Ate My Baby. In "The Stranded" episode of Seinfeld, it gives a satirical homage to the film when Elaine does an impression of the film and exclaims "Maybe the dingo ate your baby?" The quote was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.^[8]

Box office[link]

Evil Angels grossed A$3,006,964 at the box office in Australia.^[9]

Awards and nominations[link]

• Academy Award for Best Actress (Meryl Streep, nominee)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film (winner)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Streep, winner)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Sam Neill, winner)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Direction (winner)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (winner)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score (nominee)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Achievement in Editing (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (nominee)
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (Streep, winner)
• 1989 Cannes Film Festival - Best Actress (Streep, winner)^[10]
• 1989 Cannes Film Festival - Palme D'Or (nominee)^[10]

See also[link]

• Cinema of Australia

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Bryson, John. Evil Angels. Ringwood, Australia: Penguin Books, 1985 (first edition). ISBN 0-670-80993-4.
• Chamberlain, Lindy. Through My Eyes: Lindy Chamberlain, An Autobiography. Melbourne, Australia: William Heinemann, 1990. ISBN 0-85561-331-9.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: A Cry in the Dark

• Evil Angels at the Internet Movie Database
• A Cry in the Dark at AllRovi
• A Cry in the Dark at Rotten Tomatoes

Evil Angel(s) may refer to:

• Fallen angel, a term mainly used in Christianity for angels that have been banished from heaven
• Evil Angel (studio), a production company for pornographic films owned by John Stagliano
• Evil Angels (film), a 1988 film originally released in Australia, also known as A Cry in the Dark
• Evil Angels, a 1985 book by John Bryson
• Evil Angel (film), a 2009 horror film
• "Evil Angel," a song by Rufus Wainwright from his 2001 album Poses
• "Evil Angel," a song by Breaking Benjamin from their 2006 album Phobia

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, Dawn of the Dead, Con Air, the Mission: Impossible film series and the Syfy movie 2012 Zombie Apocalypse.

Early life and education[link]

Rhames was born in New York City, New York, the son of Reather, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic.^[1][2] His parents were raised as sharecroppers in South Carolina.^[2][3] Named after the late NBC journalist, Irving R. Levine,^[4] Irving Rhames grew up in Harlem.

He entered New York's High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. After high school, he studied drama at SUNY Purchase, where fellow acting student Stanley Tucci gave him his nickname "Ving".^[5] Rhames later transferred to the Juilliard School's Drama Division (Group 12: 1979-1983)^[6] where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1983.^[7]

Career[link]

Rhames first appeared on Broadway in the play The Winter Boys in 1984. Ving continued his rise to fame through his work in soap operas. He found work as a supporting actor, and came to the attention of the general public by playing the role of Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction (1994). Rhames also was getting public exposure on television as Peter Benton's brother-in-law on the medical drama ER, a recurring role he filled for 3 seasons. Not long after, Rhames was cast with Tom Cruise as the ace computer hacker Luther Stickell in Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible (1996). With solid performances in two of these highly popular productions, his face was now known to moviegoers, and the work offers began rolling in more frequently. In 1997, Rhames portrayed the Character of Nathan 'Diamond Dog' Jones in the popular film Con Air.

Rhames won a Golden Globe in 1998 for best actor in a TV miniseries for his performance in HBO's Don King: Only in America. At the ceremony Rhames gave his award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon, saying "I feel that being an artist is about giving, and I'd like to give this to you." Lemmon was clearly touched by the gesture as was the celebrity audience who gave Lemmon a standing ovation. Lemmon, who tried unsuccessfully to give the award back to Rhames said it was "one of the sweetest moments I've ever known in my life." The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced later that they would have a duplicate award prepared for Rhames. That moment was #98 on E!'s 101 Awesome Moments in Entertainment.^[8][9][10] The New York Times lauded Rhames for the act, writing that in doing so he "demonstrated his capacity for abundant generosity".^[10]

But Gary Dauphin, writing in Vibe, described Rhames' effort to give away his Golden Globe Award as "a grateful Negro happy to be invited to the party".^[11] Sacha Jenkins, in his 2002 book Ego Trip's big book of racism, called it "Best Example of a Negro Thinking Awards Grow on Trees".^[12] Riché Richardson wrote in Black masculinity and the U.S. South: from Uncle Tom to gangsta (2007) that the Spike Lee 2000 movie Bamboozled alludes to the 1999 Golden Globes ceremony incident.^[8] Richardson writes that when the character "Delacroix" tries similarly to give his own award to his white liberal boss in the movie, he is both reflecting on the Golden Globes Award ceremony incident and epitomizing the submissive-to-white-people Uncle Tom stereotype.^[8]

Rhames contributed attention-grabbing performances in Striptease (1996 as the wisecracking bodyguard Shad), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), reprised his Luther Stickell role for Mission: Impossible II (2000), playing Johnnie Cochran in American Tragedy (2000), as the ex-con boyfriend of Jodie's mother in the John Singleton film Baby Boy, portraying a gay drag queen in the television movie Holiday Heart, contributed his deep bass voice for the character of Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch (2002) and the subsequent TV series, and played a stoic cop fighting zombie hordes in Dawn of the Dead (2004) and the Day of the Dead 2008 "remake." Rhames has also appeared in a series of television commercials for RadioShack, usually performing with Vanessa L. Williams.

In March 2005, Rhames played the lead role on a new "Kojak" series, on the USA Network cable channel (and on ITV4 in the UK). The bald head, lollipops, and "Who loves ya, baby?" catchphrase remained intact, but little else remained from the Savalas original.

Rhames voiced the part of Tobias Jones in the computer game Driv3r.

In 2006, Rhames reprised his role in Mission: Impossible III, making him the only actor besides Tom Cruise to appear in all four Mission: Impossible films, and was announced that he would have a role in the Aquaman-based show Mercy Reef. In the integrating of The WB and UPN for the new network, CW, Mercy Reef was not picked up. It is an early contender for a midseason replacement, but currently no plans to air the series have been announced. Rhames played a homosexual, possibly also homicidal, firefighter who comes out of the closet in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. He narrates the BET television series American Gangster.

In the 2008 film Saving God he played an ex-con who is released from prison a changed man looking to take over his father's former church congregation in a deteriorating neighborhood. Rhames also stars in Phantom Punch, a biopic of boxer Sonny Liston released directly to DVD as well as The Tournament portraying a fighter out to win a no-rules tournament.

Rhames makes an appearance in Ludacris's song "Southern Gangstas" on his album Theater of the Mind. Rappers Playaz Circle and Rick Ross are also featured on the track.

He is engaged in a lawsuit with the producer of a film titled Red Canvas.^[13]

He filmed the movie Submission with Ernie Reyes, Jr. and UFC lightweight contender Gray Maynard and Randy Couture.

Rhames has a cameo appearance in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of the series of movies.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Ving Rhames at the Internet Movie Database
• Ving Rhames at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ving Rhames interview

Richard Alan Dutcher^[1] (born 1964)^[2] is an American independent filmmaker who produces, writes, directs, edits, and frequently stars in his films. Well known among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for his early Mormon-themed productions, Dutcher has been called “The Father of Mormon Cinema.” Although he left the LDS church over theological differences in 2007, his films continue to explore universal spiritual and religious ideas. Dutcher launched his own film distribution company, Main Street Movie Company, in 2005 and now seeks to take his movies from concept to full distribution independently.^[2]

Biography[link]

Dutcher was born in Oak Park, Illinois as Richard Hill. His family moved frequently, and at age seven his parents divorced. As a member of the LDS Church, Dutcher served a two year mission in Mexico.^[2]

Dutcher lived in his car during high school and was so financially strapped while attending college that he frequently had to choose between eating and going to the movies. Because of his love of film, he normally went to the movies.^[3] Dutcher graduated from Brigham Young University in 1988 with a degree in film.^[4] Dutcher was married in 1988 to Gwen, they have seven children together. After 23 years of marriage, they divorced in 2011 with Dutcher citing his decision to leave the church a "contributing factor" to the divorce.^[5]

Films[link]

His first feature film was Girl Crazy (1997), which he sold to HBO and Cinemax.

Dutcher's next film was the 2000 indie smash God's Army, which grossed over ten times its $250,000 production budget. Dutcher produced, wrote, directed and starred in this film about Mormon missionaries, focusing on a Mormon elder determined to finish his two-year mission even though he is dying of brain cancer. The film debuted with a world premiere in Sandy, Utah and was taken on tour around North America for limited engagements. The commercial success of God's Army is widely credited for launching the LDS Cinema movement.

Dutcher followed this film in 2001 with Brigham City about the search for a serial murderer in a small Utah town which has never had a murder before. The movie explores how residents of a close-knit religious community, who are mostly LDS, react to and deal with the situation.

Dutcher's next film, States of Grace, was released November 4, 2005. This film follows a set of missionaries in Los Angeles caught in the middle of gang warfare. Wade Major of Boxoffice Magazine wrote of the director, "Dutcher has joined the ranks of the very best independent filmmakers in the world."

Dutcher's film, Falling, shown in a single theater in Utah in January 2008 and in Los Angeles in August 2008, tells the story of a Hollywood videographer, Eric Boyle, who stumbles across a gang murder and sells the footage to a Los Angeles news station for a small fortune. Boyle's life falls apart when the exposed gang members come after anyone with a connection to the incriminating footage. In an interview Dutcher said that this was the most personal of all his works, and that he would self-distribute the film. The film was rereleased on April 27, 2012, in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a limited art house run.^[5] The Los Angeles Times said that Falling is "One of the best pictures of its kind in recent memory," and the Los Angeles City Beat called it "a primal scream from an immensely talented artist."^{[citation needed]}

Dutcher's latest film is Evil Angel, an action/horror film called starring Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible, Pulp Fiction), to be released in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

His next film will be The Boys at the Bar, a comedy set in St. Louis, Missouri, which will begin filming in May of 2012.^[5]

Parting letter[link]

In 2007, the Provo Daily Herald published an open letter from Dutcher on its editorial page where he announced, "I am no longer a practicing member of the church." He explained that he had taken a spiritual journey that "may ultimately prove incompatible with Mormon orthodoxy." He hoped to explore human spirituality in film more broadly, but like early church leader Oliver Cowdery, someday he might return to the faith.

Dutcher lamented that Mormon cinema was dying from too many shallow, poor-quality films trying to "make a few bucks." He urged Mormon cinema to abandon "moronic," unfunny comedies that rely too much on self-mockery, and family films, which often lack any valuable meaning. He felt that church-produced movies fail to "share … the beauty and power of Mormonism," and are instead "polite, remedial and not-so-factual recitations of Mormon History and scripture". The potential of Mormon cinema was still unappreciated and untapped. Dutcher thought the market could be revived by reintroducing well-crafted film that explores the great depths of Mormon themes and experience. Rather than just making "clean" movies, free from violence and vulgarity, Dutcher said "it is better to tell an R-rated truth than a G-rated lie."^[6]

This letter provoked strong criticism from some LDS Church members, most notably Kieth Merrill, a Mormon filmmaker whose work was included in Dutcher's criticisms. In his fiery reaction, Merrill claimed Dutcher was arrogantly ignoring the importance of social and spiritual values. Merrill saw Dutcher as attacking LDS cinema because of the poor response to his latest films.^[7] Two days later, in a letter to the editor, Merrill apologized for his harsh criticisms, regretted the loss of Dutcher, and wished him well in his future.^[8]

Film plans[link]

Dutcher at one point was planning to direct Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, a film about the life of the early LDS prophet. While Dutcher did not specifically comment on his plans for his movie on Joseph Smith in his 'Parting words' letter, Dutcher did state that he will no longer be making Mormon films. ^[6]

Dutcher's film Falling, was released January 18, 2008 at a single Salt Lake City theater, and later shopped to art-house theaters, where he did not expect to make back the film's money. Dutcher's 'Parting words' letter suggests that these and future movies may be spiritually-based but not Mormon related.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Richard Dutcher at the Internet Movie Database
• Dutcher filmography and biography
• Official Richard Dutcher Homepage