Wide Awake

Starring:Joseph Cross, Timothy Reifsnyder, Dana Delany, Denis Leary, Robert Loggia, Rosie O'Donnell, Camryn Manheim, Vicki Giunta, Julia Stiles, Heather Casler, Dan Lauria, Stefan Niemczyk, Michael Pacienza, Michael Shulman, Jaret Ross Barron, Jarrett Abello, Joseph Melito, Peter A. Urban Jr., Jahmal Curtis, Michael Craig Bigwood
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

When his beloved grandfather passes away, fifth-grade Catholic schoolboy Joshua (Joseph Cross) has a crisis of faith. He asks both the nuns and his parents (Denis Leary and Dana Delany) difficult questions as he sets out on a mission: to find God and make sure his grandfather is OK. As if that weren't enough, he also has to contend with schoolyard bullies, the sudden appeal of girls, needy schoolmates, and the recklessness of his best friend David (Timothy Reifsnyder). Though the precociousness of the children is a little hard to believe, there's a genuine feeling and a surprising complexity of thought about faith that makes Wide Awake unexpectedly affecting. Despite the largeness of the theme, the movie is made up of small images and gentle humor, which keep it grounded in reality and consistently engaging. The strong supporting cast includes Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You), Camryn Mannheim (Happiness, TV's The Practice), and Rosie O'Donnell (A League of Their Own, The Flintstones, Harriet the Spy), as a nun who explains the Bible with sports metaphors. A pleasantly subtle comedy from M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Simply one of the best movies ever made........2007-02-11

Simply put, this is one of the best movies I've ever seen. There are a few slow parts in the movie which could have easily been eliminated, but the content was overwhelming and the story compelling.

It's a story of a boy's awakening to his spirtual side and his quest to find meaning in a confusing world. He faces mockery from some and kindness from unexpected sources and, in the end, finds himself 'wide awake' for the first time.

So is this a story of a spiritual seeking or simply a metaphor for the journey we all take as we come of age? The beauty of this movie is you don't need to choose. You get two stories for the price of one.

Not only did I find myself thinking about this movie several days later, this is also one of the few movies which actually made me cry out loud and I'm impressed by any movie which can move me to this extent.

Great Film.......2007-01-04

My rating on this one is based solely on the movie itself. My wife and I love this film and have watched it once or twice a year since it was released. I really like the message it sends about the value of looking beyond yourself and your own concerns and getting involved in others lives.

Not your typical M Night fare here. True, there is still the element of the 'supernatural' as seems to be true of all his films, be this one is definitely not a thriller or suspense flick, as most of his others are.

In contrast to the show itself, the DVD extras on this one are truly unspectacular. No matter,though. The movie more than makes up for it.

Misadvertised and underestimated.......2006-10-22

This is one of the great films I have seen lately. Although I am closer to the age of Joshua's grandfather, it conjures up memories of a youthful search and more than a little disappointment to learn how things really are. Other reviews have covered the material. I believe this movie should never have been advertised as a comedy, although it does have humor. It is tasteful and should be offensive to no one. However, the advertising does a disservice to the young character Joshua. He is altogether serious in his quest. By the end he has learned the challenges of life and "knowing", not just about the existence of God, but the problems and discouragements of living. Finally, in spite of the challenges, hard knocks, disappointments, and doubt, there was someone watching out for him. Although the final scene is a bit over the top, it occurs to me that it is a wonderful use of symbolism, a tool of mankind to understand his own spirit. We are always being watched and cared for, even when we aren't paying attention.

One of Shyamalan's best movies.......2006-08-14

Wide Awake will be a very pleasant surprise for fans of Shyamalan's more recent movies; this is one of his best. Even if you're not a Shyamalan fan, look this one up; other than a very strong story, it has no connection to Shyamalan's horror movies. This is a funny-serious, Christian-themed family movie. Many stereotypes about Catholic education are used, but these are done in a light-hearted manner, one might say lovingly; the positives of a Catholic education can be discerned right along with the stereotypically bad. Religious questions are presented in ways that should not offend.

Joseph Cross carries this movie in the lead as the 11 yr old Joshua, who is struggling with the passing away of his beloved grandfather. Joshua decides to go on a mission: being enrolled in a strict Catholic school, and having strong religious memories with his grandfather, Joshua decides he needs to talk directly with God about his grandfather's passing. The mission is to figure out how to get God to agree to this. Not surprisingly, Shyamalan's story is very strong. More surprising are the many funny scenes involving school hi-jinks, along the lines of many lesser kids' movies. Shyamalan smartly keeps these under control; they are not overdone or screechy, and not surprisingly, are a lot more fun and memorable than the usual fare. These are mixed in with many serious scenes that carry meaning for young and old alike.

Although Cross and the story carry the movie, they are buttressed by many other fine performances. Rosie O'Donnell as a nun, Dennis O'Leary and Dana Delany as Joshua's parents, and Robert Loggia as the grandfather are excellent in providing a solid and caring adult base for Joshua. There is a great cadre of child actors surrounding Cross, led by Timothy Reifsynder as Joshua's best friend.

The final resolution to the movie is a bit too supernatural for my tastes. Even so, everything leading up to that ending, especially Rosie's school-ending commentary and Joshua's "Wide Awake" speech, both recapping the movie, are excellent. Highly recommended.

Twist Ending!.......2005-10-05

I thought Sixth Sense was Mortimer Shyamalan's first film, but when I happened across this at a local flea market, I just had to snap it up.

Yes, I buy fleas. You got a problem with that? Anyway, true to the style of Mortimer's distinctive oeuvre, the movie is crafted around a clever genre conceit which is carefully hidden away behind the seemingly mundane plot line and then hinted at throughout with lots of arty little boluses of symbolism, foreshadowing, subtext, and big red neon signs that flash on and off in Morse code for no apparent reason.

I think this movie is pretty hard to find, so I'm revealing the ending below the line of hyphens that is below this paragraph...

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At the end, it turns out that the school is actually a *magnet school*, and Joshua is the only student enrolled there who is not actually made of IRON.

Average customer rating:

Not your ordinary documentary
Don't Buy It
An eye-opener!

Wide Awake
Starring: William C. Dement
Director: Alan Berliner
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000N8UXTC
Release Date: 2007-05-29

Description

WIDE AWAKE is filmmaker Alan Berliner's uniquely personal tour through a lifelong obsession with insomnia. In the spirit of his highly acclaimed personal documentary films, Berliner once again uses his own life as a laboratory, this time to illuminate how a restless mind that won't shut down at night leaves him feeling "jet lagged in my own time zone." A brilliantly edited blend of the hilarious and deeply personal, WIDE AWAKE weaves hundreds of archival film clips, consultations with sleep specialists, an overnight stay at a sleep lab, conversations with family members, home movies, dream visualizations, and behind the scenes footage of the film being made, into a brutally honest self-portrait of a sleep-deprived and sleep-obsessed night-owl filmmaker. Torn between the creative passion he derives from the night, and the emotional tugs of love and family life, only the birth of his first child can get Berliner to consider joining the day shift.

Customer Reviews:

Not your ordinary documentary.......2007-06-05

I was stunned by how much I loved this film. It's a hilarious personal exploration of insomnia and creativity. The filmmaker and main character, Alan Berliner, tries to bring the audience inside his tired mind -- to feel, first hand, the strains of being unable to sleep. And it works. In the first part of the film I actually began to feel as tired and anxious as the filmmaker seems to be. But, then, Alan drinks a cup of coffee and the film takes on an jazzy, energetic pace as it shifts into the night. Alan gives us a wild tour of his studio, and then gets to work on making the film. Through it all he faces the conflict of how to balance his work with spending time with his beautiful baby and wife. The scenes with his family are so funny and poignant, and the cinematic metaphors he uses throughout the film are so perfect, that I was smiling and laughing all the way through. This is a multi-layered, truly brilliant, beautiful film -- that gets better with every viewing. A DVD worth owning.

Don't Buy It.......2007-05-31

We watched this last night. My partner wanted to stop after 30 minutes. I kept watching hoping the main character's wife would shake some sense into him. This movie sheds little light on insomnia but a lot of light on the filmmaker - he is VERY proud of himself. I found his constant assertion that he is different and brilliant annoying and not born out by the evidence: lots of people have trouble sleeping and/or are night owls and he clearly isn't brilliant. Most troubling is that he refuses, throughout the film, to do ANYTHING to try to sleep better. That left us with this question: how bad can it be if he doesn't care to change the status quo, for himself, his wife or his new baby?

An eye-opener!.......2007-04-24

I only caught part of this show when it was originally on HBO. It was much more interesting that I had thought it would be. I've been trying some of the tips for getting more sleep and some of them seem to have worked! I'm looking forward to watching the entire program on DVD. Thanks for another good feature, HBO!

The Battle of Franklin: Five Hours in the Valley of Death

Average customer rating:

Good Video, Bad History
One of the best out there
Their best documentary yet.

The Battle of Franklin: Five Hours in the Valley of Death
Starring: The Chitwood Bros. and Richard Fatherly
Director: The Chitwood Bros.
Manufacturer: Wide Awake Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009SQFJS
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Product Description

The Battle of Franklin is the winner of a 2007 Midsouth region Emmy for Best Historical Documentary.

On the afternoon of November 30, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood peered through his field glasses at the well-entrenched Union Army camped next to the Harpeth River near the small town of Franklin. Despite the protests of Hood s subordinate generals, and for reasons still debated even to this day, Hood made the ill-advised decision to attack the Yankees straight-on.

Hood s orders set off one of the largest infantry attacks ever in North America, leading to five of the bloodiest hours of the entire Civil War. More than 9,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, including six Confederate generals killed or mortally wounded the largest number of generals killed at any battle during the war.

Created from over 100 hours of footage, Franklin: Five Hours in the Valley of Death was three years in the making. From footage gathered at a national level re-enactment and highly-crafted specialty shots, this documentary highlights thousands of "soldiers" shot in a variety of media formats, from the crystal clear look of high-definition to the gritty realness of archival-looking film. The DVD also includes 40 minutes of bonus content shot at the national re-enactment, a short documentary on Franklin battlefield preservation, and an interview with noted Franklin historian, Thomas Cartwright.

Partially filmed on the original battlefield, this painstakingly accurate and stunningly beautiful 70 minute documentary takes you into the trenches. As cannons and muskets roar, you ll hear the actual thoughts and words of soldiers who experienced the horrors of the Battle of Franklin.

Customer Reviews:

Good Video, Bad History.......2007-06-09

The film is a marvelous visual and audio production, but from a historical perspective, there is no balance whatsoever. The writers of the film seem to have adopted the historical interpretation of the Battle of Franklin from Wiley Sword's highly subjective and fact-filtered book, The Confederacy's Last Hurrah. Sword set the standard for selective disclosure and historical concealment in his otherwise eloquently written award winning book.

The name "Hood" is mentioned 54 times in the 68 minute production, making him the most prominent character in the film. Although the film relies heavily on verbatim quotes from Battle of Franklin veterans and others, of the 58 total quotes in the documentary, the oft mentioned Hood is allowed only three quotes. One quote concerns his relationship with his fiancé, which is unrelated to anything else in the film, and the other two quotes are followed immediately with derisive comments from the narrator.

The film states that Hood conspired to replace Joseph Johnston as commander of the AOT. The film doesn't reveal that William Hardee, AP Stewart, Leonidas Polk, and Joe Wheeler also disapproved of the retreating tactics that cost Johnston his job. Hardee wrote to Jefferson Davis in June 1864, "If the present system continues we may find ourselves at Atlanta before a serious battle is fought." Hood wrote similar letters, yet he is the only Johnston subordinate accused of backstabbing his superior.

The film's writers only included quotes from Hood's critics, while concealing words of support and admiration for Hood from both Confederate and Union veterans, as well as Confederate governors and presidents. Pvt. Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee Infantry wrote of Hood in his memoirs, "He (Hood) was a noble, brave and good man, and we loved him for his virtues and goodness of heart." "We all loved Hood; he was such a clever fellow, and a good man." "Every impulse of his (Hood's) nature was to do good and to serve his country as best he could." No such comments appear in the film.

Hood is portrayed as a commander who preferred frontal assaults, when in fact Franklin was the only frontal attack Hood ever ordered as a commander.

The film paints Hood as a cold and ruthless commander, saying he "bled his boys" in Virginia when witnesses recorded Hood openly grieving for his men at every one of his previous battles.

Regarding the Tennessee Campaign, Spring Hill, and Franklin, the film gives many quotes and testimony from characters, but silence Gen. Hood completely. He recorded the reasons for his decisions in his Official Reports and memoirs, but the film censors him. Hood wrote in his OR, "I learned from dispatches captured at Spring Hill, from Thomas to Schofield, that the latter was instructed to hold that place till the position at Franklin could be made secure, indicating the intention of Thomas to hold Franklin and his strong works at Murfreesboro. Thus I knew that it was all important to attack Schofield before he could make himself strong, and if he should escape at Franklin he would gain his works about Nashville. The nature of the position was such as to render it inexpedient to attempt any further flank movement, and I therefore determined to attack him in front, and without delay."

At Spring Hill, many Confederates held Hood blameless for the Federal escape, yet the film states that Hood "allowed" the Union army to escape. Franklin veteran S.A. Cunningham wrote in 1893, "...the march to Spring Hill, where the Federal retreat was so nearly cut off, a failure for which it was understood General Hood was not to blame, created an enthusiasm for him equal to that entertained for Stonewall Jackson after his extrordinary achievements...The soldiers were full of ardor, and confident of success. They had unbounded faith in General Hood, whom they believed would achieve a victory that would give us Nashville." Such testimony is absent in the film.

At Franklin, the film outrageously says that Hood "sacrificed" his men, when many veterans-Union and Confederate-supported Hood's decision to attack, but like others, they too are silenced.

Perhaps Hood's performance in the Tennessee Campaign was best summarized by Tennessee Gov. Isham Harris, who accompanied the AOT on the campaign. Harris wrote to Jefferson Davis, "I have been with General Hood from the beginning of this campaign, and beg to say, disastrous as it has ended, I am not able to see anything that General Hood has done that he should not, or neglected anything that he should have done which it was possible to do. Indeed, the more that I have seen and known of him and his policy, the more I have been pleased with him and regret to say that if all had performed their parts as well as he, the results would have been very different." Like other Hood supporters, Harris isn't quoted in the film.

The final words of the documentary include, "At Franklin, it (the Army of Tennessee) had almost wrecked itself in an attack that should never have been ordered." Union veteran L.A. Simmons of the 84th Illinois wrote that at Franklin, "He (Hood) was playing a stupendous game, for enormous stakes. Could he have succeeded in breaking the center, our whole army was at his mercy. In our rear was a deep and rapid river, swollen by recent rains- and to retreat across it an utter impossibility. To break the center was to defeat our army; and defeat inevitably involved a surrender, and Nashville was at his mercy, and could be taken in a day. His army well understood that they were fighting for the possession of Nashville. Ours knew they were fighting to preserve that valuable city, and to avoid annihilation." Although the battle was a tragic and decisive defeat for Gen. Hood, the decision to attack was not without justification.

If the documentary was intended to be purely entertainment, it is successful; if the intent was to educate, it has only given one side of the story.

One of the best out there.......2005-09-08

I am probably a little biased considering I took place in the reenactment in which they filmed many of their shots. When I saw the finished result I was very impressed. They brilliantly captured the horror of the battle of Franklin, and showed why it was truly the valley of death.

They also give you a very good look at the men who fought this battle. By taking excerpts from letters and eyewitness accounts, you see the battle from the fighting man's perspective. You also see why this battle may have been the most horrifying battle throughout the entire war. I would definitely recommend this documentary for any history buff's collection, or for anyone wanting to learn more about the Civil War.

Their best documentary yet........2005-06-03

This is Wide Awake Films most recent documentary project and their best to date. They have reinvented the documentary after Ken Burns did the same in the 1990's.

The style and storytelling of this DVD is superb and will make a welcome addition to your Civil War library. The Battle of Franklin is one of the most compelling chapters in our Civil War Between the States. This DVD will help you to learn about this tragic battle.

Average customer rating:

Manassas 1861
Director: The Chitwood Brothers
Manufacturer: Wide Awake Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

Simply one of the best movies ever made.
Great Film
Misadvertised and underestimated
One of Shyamalan's best movies
Twist Ending!

Wide Awake [Region 2]
Starring: Joseph Cross , Timothy Reifsnyder , Dana Delany , Denis Leary , and Robert Loggia
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD