Directed by:
Albert BrooksScreenplay:
Albert BrooksCinematography:
Allen DaviauComposer:
Michael GoreCast:
Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, James Eckhouse, Rip Torn, Mary Pat Gleason, Julie Cobb, Lee Grant, Ethan Embry, Buck Henry, Shirley MacLaine, Glen Chin (more)Plots(1)
After he dies suddenly, the hapless advertising executive Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) finds himself in Judgment City, a gleaming way station where the newly deceased must prove they lived a life of sufficient courage to advance in their journey through the universe. As the self-doubting Daniel struggles to make his case, a budding relationship with the uninhibited Julia (Meryl Streep) offers him a chance to finally feel alive. Buoyed by a brilliant supporting cast that includes Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry, Defending Your Life is a rare feat of personal, philosophical filmmaking that happens to also be divinely entertaining. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Albert Brooks
USA
Best movies:
Finding Nemo (2003)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Meryl Streep
USA
Best movies:
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Out of Africa (1985)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
James Eckhouse
USA
Best movies:
Trading Places (1983)
84 Charing Cross Road (1987)
Big (1988)
Rip Torn
USA
Best movies:
Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980) (TV movie)
Men in Black (1997)
Hercules (1997)
Mary Pat Gleason
USA
Best movies:
Basic Instinct (1992)
Traffic (2000)
Lorenzo's Oil (1992)
Julie Cobb
USA
Best movies:
Brave New World (1980) (TV movie)
Lisa (1990)
Salem's Lot (1979) (TV movie)
Lee Grant
USA
Best movies:
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Detective Story (1951)
Ethan Embry
USA
Best movies:
First Man (2018)
Empire Records (1995)
Cheap Thrills (2013)
Buck Henry
USA
Best movies:
The Graduate (1967)
Taking Off (1971)
Harrison Bergeron (1995) (TV movie)
Shirley MacLaine
USA
Best movies:
Barbra: The Concert (1994) (concert)
The Apartment (1960)
Being There (1979)
Glen Chin
USA
Best movies:
The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
The Drummer (2007)
Susan Walters
USA
Best movies:
Texas Justice (1995) (TV movie)
Kill the Messenger (2014)
Defending Your Life (1991)
Ernie Lively
USA
Best movies:
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
The Man in the Moon (1991)
Dark Skies (1996) (series)
Noley Thornton
Best movies:
Heidi (1993) (TV movie)
Defending Your Life (1991)
Fine Things (1990) (TV movie)
Leonard O. Turner
Best movies:
Star Trek (2009)
Gang Related (1997)
Life (1999)
George D. Wallace
USA
Best movies:
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Minority Report (2002)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Art Frankel
USA
Time Winters
USA
Best movies:
A Little Princess (1995)
Columbo (1971) (series)
Murder in the First (1995)
Ernie Brown
USA
Best movies:
The Monster Squad (1987)
Defending Your Life (1991)
Lost in America (1985)
Ken Thorley
Best movies:
Men in Black (1997)
Switchback (1997)
Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) (TV movie)