Fun Fridays – Director’s Favourite Films – Peter Berg

Hello Film Doctor friends.

Our new Fun Friday post is all about contrasts: on one hand, we’ve got a spy blockbuster helmed by a rather classically trained actor & director, and on the other hand, a war drama from a US prime-time TV ‘darling’. What directorial film picks might this duo bring?

First we have Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Battleship , Hancock) director of real-life story adaptation “Lone Survivor” (released in the UK today).

Here are a couple of his top influences:

• “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975, dir. Sidney Lumet)

• • “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975, dir. Milos Forman) – apparently, a film Berg can’t get enough of, listed as his choice in the US radio NPR’s series “Movies I’ve Seen Million Times”.

And with the Kenneth Branagh–directed “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” on release in the UK today, the Film Doctor team take a quick look at Branagh’s special “Favourite Films of Laurence Olivier” list:

• “Rebecca” (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

• “Richard III” (1955, dir. Laurence Olivier)

• “The Entertainer” (1960, dir. Tony Richardson)

• “Marathon Man” (1976, dir. John Schlesinger)