John Wayne stars as a tough colonel who leads a squad of Green Berets and a liberal war correspondent on a dangerous mission to capture a Viet Cong general. A 35mm presentation and introduction by Andrew Kirell, Editor-in-Chief, Mediaite.

Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robin Moore, The Green Berets is an anti-communist and pro-Saigon film produced at the height of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. It shows the conflicts and complications of warfare as cynical war correspondent George Beckworth, who works for a liberal newspaper, becomes complicent in the violence towards the Viet Cong. He joins tough-as-nails Col. Mike Kirby (John Wayne) on a special mission in South Vietnam and while he initially protests the U.S. torturous interrogation strategies, he transforms into a gung-ho fighter after witnessing the Viet Cong atrocities. In its heightened cinematic way, The Green Berets gives a voice to the stories that, at the time, people were only witnesses through media produced newsreels.

Part of the Journalists in Film series by VICE News and Nitehawk Cinema.

Starring: Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Beatrice Straight, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore! Fired after twenty-five years as an anchorman on UBS, Howard Beale proclaims on his last broadcast that he was going to commit suicide and, although he doesn’t, his on-air rant of self destruction becomes an unexpected ratings sensation. Fueled by the ambitious programming executive Diana Christensen, the focus of the network takes on a new trashy but lucrative turn that is to the disappointment of the news division president Max Schumacher (Beale’s longtime friend and Christensen’s occasional lover). Forty years after release, Sidney Lumet’s satirical film about the exploitative nature of trash news television is more relevant than ever.

VICE News and Nitehawk’s Journalists in Film series launches with Haskell Wexler’s MEDIUM COOL, a film about a television news reporter who becomes involved with the political power of imagery during the violence of the late 1960s.

Special recorded introduction by Robert Forster and in-person introduction by Jason Mojica, Editor in Chief of VICE News.

It’s 1968, and the whole world is watching. With the U.S. in social upheaval, famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler decided to make a film about what the hell was going on. Medium Cool, his debut feature, plunges us into the moment. With its mix of fictional storytelling and documentary technique, this depiction of the working world and romantic life of a television cameraman (Robert Forster) is a visceral cinematic snapshot of the era, climaxing with an extended sequence shot right in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. An inventive commentary on the pleasures and dangers of wielding a camera, Medium Cool is as prescient a political film as Hollywood has ever produced. – Criterion

Part of the Journalists in Film series by VICE News and Nitehawk Cinema.

SecretFormula presents…

Spoons, Toons & Booze Gone Wild

Your Favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons + Booze & Free Cereal + a Special Menu of Cartoons Featuring the Sexiest & Most Scantily Clad Toons on TV!

Do you miss your childhood Saturday mornings of waking up early to gorge on cereal and cartoons? If so, Secret Formula has the ultimate brunch for the kid in you…Spoons, Toons & Booze! We’ve got all your favorite Saturday morning cartoons, delicious cocktails and a free all you can eat sugar cereal bar, not to mention Nitehawk Cinema’s delicious brunch menu.

Before the FCC ruined everything, cartoons got away with some pretty sexy stuff on television. This month, we’re screening episodes featuring sexy babes and beefcakes, beach bodies, scantily clad toons and even more sexiness that was almost too hot for TV! If you’re turned on by anthropomorphic mice in tight jumpsuits, this is the show for you. 

– Over 80 cartoon series from the 1930?s through the 90?s and YOU get to choose what we watch!

– A special menu of episodes featuring the sexiest and most scantily clad toons on Saturday morning!

– A free all you can eat cereal bar filled with all the sugary, marshmallowy, fruity, chocolaty cereal you crave! Soy and regular milk available. 

– Special cereal-themed cocktail menu including “The Sonny”, a White Russian topped with Cocoa Puffs, and the “The Complete Breakfast” with Cinnamon Toast Crunch-infused rum, Bailey’s Irish Cream and iced coffee!

– Cereal Shots! Drop a shot of Baileys or Kahlua in to booze up your cereal bowl!

– Compete in contests to choose which cartoons we watch and win sweet prizes from Nitehawk Cinema!

A man wakes up with no memory in a nightmarish world without sun in DARK CITY.

In a city perpetually shrouded in night, a man named John Murdoch wakes up in a motel room with total amnesia. He is immediately accused of a series of brutal murders (none of which he remembers), a woman who claims to be his wife and a very mysterious doctor.  In his quest for the truth about his memory, why the city is always dark, why no one notices, and why people walk around comatose after midnight, Murdoch discovers an underworld run by telekinetics called “The Strangers” who possess the ability to alter the city and its inhabitants. Can he stop them before they destroy him and his mind completely?

Part of Nitehawk’s FUTURE NOIR midnite series.

Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin and find it in the early 80s new wave scene. 35mm presentation!

This independent science fiction films uses the new wave downtown scene of the early 1980s to show a rather dystopic and ugly version of the future. Campy and stylish with a heavy dose of depressing, Liquid Sky shows a world where tiny aliens descend to feed their heroin-like addiction of a “drug” produced after sexual climax. They use real heroin addict Margaret as their tool to score but she doesn’t mind it when her partners are vaporized because they’re all jerks anyway! With great production design and a heavy dose of punk attitude, Liquid Sky paints a rather dismal portrait of this scene as Marget kills, a scientist tracks the aliens’ intentions, and society falls apart around them all.

Part of Nitehawk’s FUTURE NOIR midnite series.

Starring: Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Otsuka, Yutaka Nakano, Iemasa Kayumi

The year is 2029 and the connection between humans and information on the network is stronger than ever. Unfortunately, crime has also developed. Based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, the film anime version of Ghost in the Shell follows the hunt of public security agency Section 9 for a mysterious hacker known and the “Puppet Master.” With the assistance of her team, Motoko Kusanagi tracks and finds their suspect, only to be drawn into a complex sequence of political intrigue and a cover-up as to the identity and goals of the Puppet Master. In this technologically advanced world, Ghost in the Shell contains philosophical themes of sex, gender, and self-identity.

In THE ABYSS, a diving team’s investigation of a crashed nuclear submarine brings the discovery of an aquatic alien species to the surface. A 35mm presentation!

Winner of the 1990 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (rightfully so as the special effects are gorgeously engrossing), James Cameron’s The Abyss is a gripping, claustrophobic thriller. It begins with a mysterious nuclear submarine crash that brings in a crew of Navy Seals to uncover what caused the accident. Turns out, it was an alien craft deep beneath the sea. So they enter into the abyss (a extremely deep water canyon) encountering not only a formidable new species but the increasingly erratic actions of each other.

Part Nitehawk’s ILM brunch program.

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan

The second in the Lucas/Spielberg Indiana Jones films is a little darker fare, taking place about a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark as our handsome adventurer Indiana sets out to retrieve a special gem and kidnapped boys from a remote East Indian Village. But nothing is ever straight forward for our sarcastic hero so Indiana Jones is joined by a prissy nightclub singer and a wise twelve year old. Temple of Doom has it all… a rollercoaster ride through a mineshaft, ritual sacrifice rescues, killer alligator traps, and monkey brain eating!