There's still something reassuring about sitting down to watch a Spencer Tracy movie. Onscreen he projected a rare quality of steadfast integrity, and notwithstanding his bare-bones philosophy of acting—"Just know your lines and don't bump into the furniture"—he elevated the quality of everything he did. Fifty or 60 years from now, people will be saying the same thing about Gene Hackman, as his latest film, the otherwise unexceptional Class Action, shows. Byway of celebrating Hackman's 60th birthday (it was in January, but let's not quibble), head to the video store and line up these five typically accomplished pieces of work by one of the movies' most masterful craftsman: The Conversation, Superman, The French Connection, Hoosiers and—why not, it's a party—The Poseidon Adventure.
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