Harry and Max

Starring:Bryce Johnson, Cole Williams, Rain Phoenix, Katherine Ellis, Roni Deitz, Tom Gilroy, Michelle Phillips, Justin Zachary (II), Max Picioneri, Mark L. Young
Director: Christopher Münch
Studio: Tla
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The Blue Max is highly unusual among Hollywood films, not just for being a large-scale drama set during the generally overlooked World War I, but in concentrating on air combat as seen entirely from the German point of view. The story focuses on a lower-class officer, Bruno Stachel (George Peppard), and his obsessive quest to win a Blue Max, a medal awarded for shooting down 20 enemy aircraft. Around this are subplots concerning a propaganda campaign by James Mason's pragmatic general, rivalry with a fellow officer (Jeremy Kemp), and a love affair with a decadent countess (Ursula Andress).

As directed by John Guillermin (who later made The Battle of Britain in 1969), the film's main assets are epic production values, great flying scenes, and stunning dogfights. The weak point is the sometimes ponderous character drama, not helped by Peppard, who is too lightweight an actor to convince as the driven antihero. Clearly influenced by Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1958), The Blue Max is a cold, cynical drama offering a visually breathtaking portrait of a stultified society tearing itself apart during the final months of the Great War. --Gary S. Dalkin

Description

The "Blue Max", a coveted medal for achievement in flying, is ruthlessly sought by Peppard, a poor-boy german soldier who climbs out of the trenches and into the aristorcratic air force. He is met with prejudice by the other contestants, wealthy snobs who

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding WW 1 aviation flck.......2007-05-12

This is my favorite WW 1 flick superbly depicting the dawn of aviation in warfare. It is an exceptional character study of individuals and of a war from the perspective of elite aviators of the country who unjustifiably started the horribly brutal and bloody worldwide conflict. The film takes place near the end of the war showing just how quickly Germany's fortunes turned from great optimism to obvious impending defeat.

The other reviewers have done well in explaining the paths of the individual characters and I will just say that George Peppard did a nice turn playing the main character. The other actors turned in excellent performances. The production values are exceptional and the Jerry Goldsmith musical score is moving and soars as one of his best. The dogfight combat sequences are well done too. Script and screenplay nicely compliment the films other attributes.

I highly recommend "The Blue Max" to everyone not just war buffs as it is outstanding drama, historically educational and an interesting character study. Well done on all all fronts. Bravo.

Blue Max DVD.......2007-03-22

I recently ordered an old movie, THE BLUE MAX, from Amazon. It arrived in a timely manner and in excellent shape. I was thoroughly satisfied with every aspect of my purchase.

The Blue Max.......2007-03-15

I was enticed to view this movie since I am a military veteran and a licensed pilot. The acting by George Peppard, James Mason and Ursula Andress is very compelling and captivating. The plot centers around a class struggle of a commoner (Peppard) against the officer corps and the aristocratic class of Germany and his zeal to prove that he is as good as they are by earning the coveted Blue Max. This medal is Germany's highest award for valor and is given after a pilot is credited with 20 confirmed kills. The air combat scenes are fairly accurate and the aircraft are correct for the models depicted, such as the British SE5 and the Fokker DRI. The ground war scenes are just as grisly and filthy as I can imagine that the trench warfare must have been. I would recommend this movie as a definite collectible to any war buff who enjoys air combat.

Great movie, effects as good as flyboys even tho it was from the 60's.......2007-03-09

The planes look great in this movie and the plot is cool. Its hard to tell sometimes that ist was made that long ago. I recemend this movie to every WW1 plane fanatic as well as fans of war flicks

The Blue Max.......2007-02-15

Great flying sequences. As a former military fighter pilot, the scenes to me,were believable and real for the time that the movie was made. Acting was excellent but what would you expect from George Peppard and Ursula Andress. James Mason was phenomenal. All the aircraft were pristinely restored.

Raymond Bernard - Eclipse Series 4 (Wooden Crosses / Les Miserables) (Criterion Collection)

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Les Miserables by Raymond Bernard - the best, and amongst the best films ever made.

Raymond Bernard - Eclipse Series 4 (Wooden Crosses / Les Miserables) (Criterion Collection)
Starring: Pierre Blanchar , Gabriel Gabrio , Charles Vanel , Raymond Aimos , and Antonin Artaud
Director: Raymond Bernard
Manufacturer: Eclipse from Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Les Enfants Terribles: Criterion Collection
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Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara (Pitfall / Woman In The Dunes / The Face Of Another) (Criterion Collection)
La Jetee/Sans Soleil (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: B000PKG6P8
Release Date: 2007-07-17

Customer Reviews:

Les Miserables by Raymond Bernard - the best, and amongst the best films ever made........2007-05-21

Of all the versions of les Miserables that I've seen (and I've seen a few of them), this is by far and away the best and also closest to the spirit of the book. The whole film is imbued with an atmosphere which transports you to a different time and place. The story absorbs you, the characters come alive. The composition of the images often gives the impression that they have been carefully sketched out, in the manner of Eisenstein or Bergman - only they have a simplicity that does not intimidate. The telling of the story, the acting, the scenery makes it an immortal film - it still makes you weep and it does not resort to Holywood's tricks to do so. For me it is amongst the top ten films ever made.

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Why Did I Wait So Long to Be So Disappointed . . . ?
Curiouser and curiouser
Barton Fink
Clifford Odetts=Barton Fink
if clifford odets were not already dead, he would die now -- thank god!

Barton Fink
Starring: John Turturro , John Goodman , Judy Davis , Michael Lerner , and John Mahoney
Director: Joel Coen , and Ethan Coen
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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ASIN: B00008RH3J
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Amazon.com essential video

A darkly comic ride, this intense and original 1991 offering from the Coen brothers (Fargo, Blood Simple) gleefully attacks the Hollywood system and those who seek to sell out to it, portraying the writer's suffering as a loony vision of hell. John Turturro (Miller's Crossing, Jungle Fever) plays the title character, a pretentious left-wing writer from New York City who is brought to 1930s Hollywood to write a script for a wrestling movie for palooka actor Wallace Beery. Fink thinks the job is beneath him, but his desire for acceptance gets the better of him, and he suddenly finds himself holed up in a fleabag hotel in Los Angeles, where he is almost immediately afflicted with writer's block. Various distractions begin to enter his life, first in the form of a famous southern writer (John Mahoney) whom Fink idolizes, and then his neighbor in the hotel, a seemingly amiable salesman played by John Goodman (Sea of Love, Raising Arizona). The writer turns out to be a self-loathing drunk whose secretary (Judy Davis) is the one actually doing the writing. And the neighbor, the working-class hero who Fink made his reputation writing about, may have a horrifying secret of his own. Equal parts social commentary and hilarious farce, and winner of the Best Picture, Actor, and Director prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, Barton Fink is a visionary and original comic masterpiece not to be missed. --Robert Lane

Description

Set in Hollywood during the 1940's, "Barton Fink" is a comic satire about creative egos, flashy moguls, a travelling salesman and a nasty case of writer's block. Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a New York playwright lured to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter. It doesn't take long for Barton's life to erupt in complete chaos. His studio boss orders the serious-minded Barton to write a low budget wrestling movie. Deeply disappointed, Barton returns to his seedy hotel, types one sentence and then¿ nothing. To make matters worse, he is continually interrupted by Charlie (John Goodman), a chatty travelling insurance salesman who lives next door. Eventually they become friends and Charlie tries to help Barton by teaching him the finer points of wrestling. As the clock ticks away and the temperature climbs, Barton becomes more desperate as his life spins out of control.

Customer Reviews:

Why Did I Wait So Long to Be So Disappointed . . . ?.......2007-07-03

This film had been recommended to me for some time, so I finally got around to renting it. Unfortunately, by the time it was over I just felt angry at how manipulated I felt. The Coens seem to take special glee in how "profound" they can appear by leaving the viewer in the dark as what the point of it all is. I believe the term is "intellectual masturbation."
To its credit, the production qualities are all first rate: production design, acting, music, and cinematography. The camera work, in particular, reminded me of a Kubrick film, with set pieces which must have taken several takes to get exactly right.
But in the end you feel cheated. The story requires too much patience to stick with in comparison to the payoff at the end, which is non-existent--Just the Coens snickering to themselves as they visually say, "See how cute and clever we are...?" And their point is...?
If you want to check out a Coen brothers film, rent or purchase Miller's Crossing. It is excellent!

Curiouser and curiouser.......2007-06-02

Barton Fink is a strange movie, even by the Coen brothers' standards. It's style is a blend of the two traditions the Coens normally alternate between in their movies: noir and screwball comedy. Set in the 1940s, Barton Fink is a nerdy Jewish playwright in the social realist mode, whose abiding ambition is to create a theatre for the common man. Enjoying success in his hometown, he is lured to Hollywood to script wrestling pictures for a wildly zany, enthusiastic producer - who gets some of the best lines in the film: 'You from New York? I'm from New York, well, Minsk if you go back far enough'. Checking into the delightfully seedy Hotel Earle (which is a character in itself with its gloopy, peeling wallpaper, cheap mysterious pictures of women on deserted beaches, and quaint, old timer lift operators) Barton suffers from writers block, unfamiliar with the popular wrestling genre, and hearing strange noises from the room next door.

A quarter of the way through, the plot is taught and suspense is great, Barton encounters his neighbour - the jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, who is the epitome of the common man Fink aims to put into his art - 'you want some stories Barton, I'll tell you some stories'. Barton, however, goes badly awry, falling in with the Falkneresque writer Bill Mayhew, who is a prolific, avuncular Hollywood legend when sober but a violent, unstable bully when drunk. Barton tries to learn the secrets of wrestling pictures from Mayhew's wife, Audrey, who has a great 1940s look of the tough minded, caring wife, with pale skin and red hair, and he is mortified to discover that Audrey has ghostwritten much of Mayhew's work.

Instead of questions at the sinister, Shiningesque Hotel Earle resolving themselves, the film busts apart at the seams in the latter stages. Madness, slapstick and exaggerated horror prevail - two tough talking, anti-semitic cops ('I knew this dump wasn't restricted')arrive to investigate the strange death of Audrey, and decapitation of Mayhew. The ending is a lazy piece of overblown fire and fury, with Barton suffering from his hubris and a great many strands of the film frayed and unresolved.

I found Barton Fink to be ultimately unsatisfactory for this reason, though some of its parts - the skilled recreation of old Hollywood, the waspish portrayal of prevailing attitutes, the horned dilemma faced by the writers: maximum money for minimal originality, and the wild studio execs - does mean the movie as a visual spectacle is likely to remain lodged in your mind.

Barton Fink.......2007-01-04

Very dark but pretty good not one of my favorite of the Cohen Brothers movies.

Clifford Odetts=Barton Fink.......2006-07-11

This is a great movie which has as its theme the subversion of purpose by the Hollywood grist-mill and the trouble of screen adaptation from the writer's point of view. The character Barton Fink is based loosely upon the real-life difficulties of playwright Clifford Odets in the world of Hollywood. Jack Lipnick is Louis B. Mayer. W.P. "Bill" Mayhew is William Faulkner. The character of Audrey is most probably a melange of Howard Hawks's real-life script girl Meta Carpenter, with whom Faulkner carried on an intimate relationship, and Leigh Brackett who worked with Jules Furthman to adapt Faulkner's work/dialog for Hawks's movies. Great imagery (the sink drain leading to the drain pipe reminiscient of the flash-back transitions in Edgar Ulmer's "Detour"), damned fine acting and smart dialog as well. Definitely the best of the Coen's.

if clifford odets were not already dead, he would die now -- thank god!.......2006-06-04

i seem to be finally catching up with the coen brothers, and have no idea why i stayed away so long. john turturro (yay suny new paltz theater department!) as a pretentious playwright (he might have written "the hours" years later), modeled none too lovingly on clifford odets. i love the in-joke of naming john goodmans satan spoof "karl mundt" (a joke only political junkies will get), and john mahoney is neat as a pseudo fitzgerald washed up writer. if not quite great, you can certainly see where "fargo" sprang from.

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Faithfully presented
Best version yet
Not a mini-series but a mini-version of Thomas Hughes' school novel

Tom Brown's Schooldays
Starring: Stephen Fry , Jemma Redgrave , Alex Pettyfer , Harry Michell , and Joseph Beattie
Director: Dave Moore
Manufacturer: Koch Vision
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ASIN: B000MR9C46
Release Date: 2007-04-10

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Tom Brown's Schooldays charts a young boy's first steps towards adulthood as he attends a troubled British school. As Tom Brown (Alex Pettyfer, Stormbreaker) arrives at Rugby Public School, so does the new headmaster, Dr. Arnold (Stephen Fry, Gosford Park, Wilde), a man who intends to stamp out the bullying and drunkenness that sow corruption in the school. Brown and Arnold collide, but Brown's true enemy is the brutal Flashman (Joseph Beattie), an upperclassman who dedicates himself to making Brown's life miserable. The adaptation of this classic English novel is extremely abridged (only 93 minutes, as opposed to the almost four-hour 1971 version) and takes some liberties with the story (Flashman's crimes are much more dastardly here). But the results are strong; though the exposition may feel a bit choppy and episodic, the mixing of storylines leads to an emotionally compelling second half. This version retains the novel's greatest strength, the complexity of Tom Brown himself; far from a cardboard icon of virtue, Brown's character allows for both courage and insolence, loyalty and rebelliousness. But the movie's greatest strength is Stephen Fry's performance; his magnetism, intelligence, and empathy drive Tom Brown's Schooldays forward. --Bret Fetzer

Description

This new adaptation of Thomas Hughes' famous novel tells the tale of a young boy's courage in the face of vicious bullying. Set in Rugby Public School during the mid-1800s, the eponymous Tom transforms from timid, homesick schoolboy to courageous student as he learns to confront his fears, stand up for his friends, and hurdle the obstacles of adolescence.

Customer Reviews:

Faithfully presented.......2007-06-27

I enjoyed this version of Tom Brown. Stephen Fry portrays the compassionate schoolmaster, who attempts to reform Rugby House. A faithful adaptation of the novel.

Best version yet.......2007-04-30

I have seen all the versions available of this story, and feel that this is the finest version yet produced. I enjoyed it much more than the BBC "Materpiece Theatre" series which is much longer. Usually, I prefer a more detailed story, but something did not appeal to me with the "Masterpiece" version. I have a DVD copy from England acted by John Howard Davies & Robert Newton. This is the highly acclaimed version by most from 1951. I guess the appealing qualities about the newest version are the music and filming, and most of all, the acting done by Alex Pettyfer (Tom), Stephen Fry (Dr. Arnold) and Joseph Beattie (Flashman). Supporting roles by Dane Carter (Tadpole) and Harry Michell (East) are also excellent. I recommend this new edition to all interested, especially over the 1971 "Masterpiece Theatre" version.

Not a mini-series but a mini-version of Thomas Hughes' school novel.......2007-04-12

"Tom Brown's Schooldays" was originally published in 1857. Thomas Hughes had attended Rugby School, an English public school for boys from 1834 to 1842, but it seems the title character was based on his older brother George. The book is considered the first in the genre of school novels, spawning a host of imitations during the Victorian era, the most successful of which would be the Harry Potter novels of the 21st century. The BBC did a mini-series version of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" in 1972, where as this 2005 television adaptation by ITV runs only 93 minutes. I was going to say that this was by far the shortest BBC literary adaptation I had ever seen, but it turns out it was by ITV.

The relative short length of this production is especially interesting since it omits the chapters at the start of the novel dealing with the childhood of Tom Brown in his home in the Vale of White Horse. There young Tom spends days riding his pony and leading a happy, carefree existence, before being sent to the living hell of his schooldays. Instead, the script by Ashley Pharoah takes the two major stories that make up the actual school days, Tom being bullied by Flashman and Tom being told by Dr. Arnold to look after young George Arthur, and weaves them together instead of having them comprise separate parts of the story. So in this version Tom Brown (Alex Pettyfer) shows up at Rugby School and immediately becomes the target for the bullying Flashman (Joseph Beattie, and, yes, this is the character that George MacDonald Fraser made the "hero" of his "Flashman" historical novels). Meanwhile, headmaster Dr. Thomas Arnold (Stephen Fry) is trying to reform the rowdy school into a more Christian place, insisting that he will take the students at their word, just like he would a grown man, a policy that Flashman will sorely put to the test.

The conflict between Tom and Flashman is at the heart of this version, featuring an escalation of effronteries by the older boy that exceed what is in the novel. Flashman's big crime in the novel was to get exceedingly drunk, and Pharoah's script comes up with bigger and badder things in this version to expedite the villain's demise. The problem is that while I like the way the script makes Flashman's bullying a lot more threatening to a contemporary audience, the twist regarding George Arthur (Harry Smith) changes the ending way too much. Instead of thinking of the lessons that young Tom Brown has learned from his schooldays, I am watching the final credits wondering if this is supposed to be an implicit rejection of George Arthur's Christian idealism. Just because I appreciated some of the major changes in the story does not mean that I do not think there are certain lines you should not be crossing over, and I have to round down because of the line this one crosses at the end.

Young Pettyfer does not have to do much as Tom beyond reacting to the indignities heaped upon him by Flashman and the others and coming to the defense of Tadpole (Dane Carter) and other younger classmates who are the prey of the older bullies. Beattie plays Flashman with great relish, both when he is bullying the little boys and when he lies right to the face of Dr. Arnold. The key performance is that of Fry, who does a nice job of playing restrained anger when he finally lowers the boom on Flashman. My favorite scene is when the good doctor learns a lesson in irony as to what happens when you believe a liar and do not believe someone who is telling you the truth. But primarily "Tom Brown's Schooldays" is about a bully getting what is coming to him, and I hope the kid who terrorized my life when I was the same age as Tom got his own comeuppance sooner or later. At the very least, I would like to believe that Hughes is completely right on that score.

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The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal
Great movie, great features
Death and Life Spar to Greater Meaning
Bergman's Best ...But Very Dated

The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection
Starring: Gunnar Björnstrand , Bengt Ekerot , Nils Poppe , Max von Sydow , and Bibi Andersson
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Manufacturer: Criterion
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ASIN: 6305174083
Release Date: 1999-01-26

Amazon.com essential video

Ingmar Bergman's 1956 film has been parodied by everyone from Woody Allen to Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, but it remains one of the strangest and richest classics of world cinema. Max Von Sydow plays a knight returning from the Crusades to encounter an apocalyptic scenario inspired by the Book of Genesis. He plays chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot), sees a manacled witch, watches a band of flagellants go by--all of it foretelling an inevitable end to life. Unabashedly allegorical and lyrical and existing in a world unto itself, the film is enormously mesmerizing no matter what one thinks of the weighty meanings Bergman has attached to it all. The DVD release has English subtitles, audio commentary by critic Peter Cowie, theatrical trailer, and Bergman's filmography. --Tom Keogh

Description

After a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight challenges Death to a fateful game of chess. More than forty years after its initial release, Ingmar Bergman's stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of filmmaking and an essential building block in any collection. Criterion is proud to present The Seventh Seal in a pristine new transfer.

Customer Reviews:

The Seventh Seal.......2007-06-27

One of the most influential films ever made, Bergman's "Seal" is a mesmerizing, apocalyptic allegory whose universal themes and striking beauty--captured in Allen Ekelund's magnificent black-and-white photography--continue to inspire reverence. Bergman regulars Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson, and Nils Poppe are sensational in supporting roles, while the long-faced Von Sydow makes a perfectly dour, disillusioned knight. With its witches and flagellants, madmen and plague victims, Bergman's "Seal" is filled with all manner of fascinating images, capped by a dance-with-Death finale you'll never forget.

The Seventh Seal.......2007-06-05

My list of Bergman films has definitely been growing. A great black and white about a knight's return from the Crusades where he is faced with the crisis of the existence of god as he enters plague ridden Sweden. Throughout the film, the knight plays intermittent games of chess with death for his soul as well as knowledge about god. Filled with a great cast of characters that make the film funny, sad, beautiful, disturbing - ahh, I do love Bergman! (Most descriptions of the film say this is Bergman's best but I disagree with this (Wild Strawberries all the way!) and think the movie is simply easier to watch and fall in with than some of his other movies.

Great movie, great features.......2007-05-15

I love entertainment that makes one think, and this film definitely fit the bill. It raised all kinds of questions about religion and death as it walked the viewer through a world plagued by fear and questions of meaning. The characters were all unique, including the knight and his squire, the actors, the smith, and the many others they encounter along the way.
I loved the movie so much I knew I just had to watch it with the commentary. It was by a film historian and was very well written and interesting, communicating the historical period in which the story takes place and the life and career of Bergman and how this film fits into that context. Therefore, I highly recommend both the movie and the commentary.

Death and Life Spar to Greater Meaning.......2007-04-30

Ingmar Bergman's `The Seventh Seal' deserves to be the classic it is. Offbeat but profound and interesting, the film takes place during Medieval Times when the plague was ravaging Europe. A knight (Max von Sydow) and squire return from the Crusades, battle weary, but no less zealous to start a crusade for the meaning of life in Sweden their home country. Weary on the beach, the Knight gets into a chess match with Death personified, a game that will come back periodically throughout the movie. In the meantime, they gather with traveling actors looking for love and respect while offering needed respite during dreary times. Whether sparring in game or conversation the dialogue is brimming with meaning about how life and death frame one another. The resolution may not get the assent of the entire audience, but it will offer some solace and thoughtful resolve.

Watching 'The Seventh Seal' is fascinating, but I couldn't help thinking that in an age that often looks to 'The Left Behind' series for meaning about life and death, death seems so much more eminent and illuminating in Bergman's take of Medieval Times, whose real life participants had more right to think of Doomsday than we do.

Bergman's Best ...But Very Dated.......2007-03-17

Recently returning to his beloved Sweden after participating in The Crusades, young Antonius Block (Max von Sydow, DUNE) finds himself on the beaches of his country, not really safe and not very sound. Death (Bengt Ekerot) follows him and tells Antonius that his time is up. Not willing to go until he finds out the truth about the afterlife, Antonius challenges Death to a game of chess. And it's a winner take all game (life and death).

The game takes a few days to play, and as Antonius travels with his trusty squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) they encounter other wayward souls looking for life's meaning. Most notable among these is a band of traveling actors; a man named Jof (Nils Popppe), his wife Mia (Bibi Andersson), and their infant child (thinks Joseph, Mary, and Jesus and you'll be right on target). Jof is a juggler, but also a visionist. He can see strange things, and although this is made slight of during the early portions of the film, it is later a pivotal catalyst to the entire movie's machinations.

Antonius and his band of vagabonds drift through Sweden as The Black Death sweeps across the nation. Death is very busy, thus giving Antonius more time to make it home to his wife (whom he hasn't seen in years).

But once home, Death catches up with Antonius, and he has to come to terms with the afterlife, whether he wants to or not. When Death knocks at the home of Antonius Block, everyone inside has to decide what awaits them on "the other side". Antonius prays for enlightenment about God (if there is one) and hopes to receive a sign (which never really comes).

In the end, his efforts at delaying Death help Jof, Mia and their infant child escape the unknown of the hereafter, thus giving a sense of meaning to Antonius' life.

It is noteworthy to mention that this movie has a seriously stilted screenplay. The actors' lines often seem strange and even out of place, making the viewer shrug in a mind-boggling way. Anybody who's seen an Ingmar Bergman film probably won't be bothered by this, but it is something to definitely prepare yourself for if you haven't.

Often heralded as one of Bergman's best films, it certainly was ...up to that point.

Being severely dated by today's film standards, the low budget is achingly present but not overly intrusive. The sets, make-up and acting are all well-played. But the biggest star is the lighting and camera angles. Careful use of light and shadow gives a terrible sense of foreboding with a minimal soundtrack. The perching of cameras in trees and on odd angles gives the film its own original look, honoring this film with several award wins (including the Cannes Film Festival's Special Jury Prize ...actually it was a tie that year but we won't go there).

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"A rose by any other color smells"
A CLASSIC WESTERN...

The Searchers (Blu-Ray)
Starring: Beulah Archuletta , Ward Bond , Danny Borzage , Henry Brandon , and Jr. Harry Carey
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: Blu-ray

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ASIN: B000JLSM00
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Description

Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, a believer more in bullets than in words. He's seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive, five-year quest, Ethan encounters something he didn't expect to find: his own humanity.

Customer Reviews:

"A rose by any other color smells".......2007-03-19

It is a tragedy that Warner Bros has gone to so much trouble to preserve John Ford's greatest film (and thus at least one of the ten greatest films of all time) in this version. Don't get me wrong - Bluray is dazzling. I bought a player just to see this DVD and believe incredible trouble was gone to to master in 6K and "future proof" this important classic. But it's the future I worry about because somewhere around the time of the so called "Ultimate" version of this very great film, somebody decided to "fix" the look of it and bring its 8 perforation Vistavision and Technicolor (arguably superior to 70mm) into line with 2 perforation ultra cheap spaghetti westerns and the like and the work of director Ford and cinentaographer Winton Hoch who won the Oscar a couple of years earlier with 'THE QUIET MAN' is to be handed to future generations in this inferior facsimile, not just of the original (which I've seen in Technicolor) but Warners' earlier DVD release (regrettably not on Bluray), which was superb. Compare just the opening title frame (they do so at DVD Beaver) and you'll see what I mean.
I am very grateful to those who went to so much trouble, but please when you come to the MGM library of classics like 'THE WIZARD OF OZ' trust the original film makers and don't try to fix somthing that ain't broke.

A CLASSIC WESTERN..........2006-12-17

This film, directed by the legendary John Ford, and starring John Wayne in the leading role is a western that has achieved mythic proportions. Touted as one of the greatest westerns ever filmed, it is, I will grant you, an entertaining film. In it, John Wayne plays the anti-hero, Ethan Edwards, an ex-confederate soldier, who goes to Texas in 1868 to visit his brother and his family on their ranch in Texas. While visiting, a report of marauding Indians in adjacent land draws out the Texas Rangers and Ethan, who joins them. When they discover that a decoy has been used to lure them away from the settlement, they hurry back, only to find that Ethan's family was masacred and his two nieces gone, taken captive by Comanche Indians.

Ethan goes to the rescue, joined by Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), a friend of the family who is himself part Indian. After a while, they discover that only the younger niece, Debbie, has survived. Their quest to bring Debbie back, or so Martin thinks, takes place over a period of five years. At some point along the way, Ethan's relentless quest for Debbie seems to undergo a transition from rescue mission to execution squad in the belief that it is better to be dead than to have "gone Injun".

The film suffers somewhat from revisionist history and its own stereotypic portrayal of Indians. They are portrayed as either savages or buffoons fit only to be the butt of jokes. Moreover, the character of Ethan is an enigma, as he changes from heartbroken uncle to death squad killer in his relentless search for his surviving niece. Ethan embodies hatred and racism, concepts that are tantalizingly laid out but never fully examined or explored, which is why Ethan remains an enigma.

Debbie, played as a child by Lana Wood and as a teenager by Lana's older sister, Natalie Wood, is a symbol around which Ethan's character gets its raison d'etre. It is she who gives him the will to go on, whether it be for the right or wrong reasons is another issue. Natalie Wood is lovely as the older Debbie, though the makeup has to go, as it serves to take away from the rusticity of the film and jerk the viewer back to Hollywood. This was typical of films in those days. No matter what the situation, the women were always in full makeup.

Still, notwithstanding some of the film's political incorrectness and incongruent production values, it is still an entertaining film and about as good as westerns get. John Wayne is memorable as Ethan Edwards. Handsome Jeffrey Hunter gives an excellent performance as Martin Pawley. Ward Bond, as captain of the Texas Rangers, is terrific. The rest of the supporting cast give performances that vary in quality. Still, this film remains the quintessential western flick and one worth watching.

Average customer rating:

romantic soap of the 50s
Great sequel to Peyton Place
Good follow-up on its own merits
Classic - Peyton Place
Gossip, Gossip, Gossip

Return to Peyton Place
Starring: Mary Astor , Joan Banks , Helen Bennett , Bill Bradley , and Harry Carter (II)
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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ASIN: B00074DY16
Release Date: 2005-02-22

Description

Carol Lynley stars as Allison, whose book about her neighbors at Peyton Place creates problems for her family. Tuesday Weld, Jeff Chandler co-star.

Customer Reviews:

romantic soap of the 50s.......2007-06-03

no lana turner but whit eleonor parker and mary astor.
romantic nice movie of the 50s

Great sequel to Peyton Place.......2007-02-15

Return to Peyton Place begins with Rosemary Clooney singing the beautiful title song,(she sings it faboulously, and she is featured here because her then husband Jose Ferrer is the director (also see his State Fair..a hilarious mess) the Franz Waxman melody that enhanced so much of the 1957 film, Peyton Place. Then you get a whole new cast, and Carol Lynley, writing a book about Peyton Place with Jeff Chandler. She and he are 'artists", and they have to deal with Mary Astor, a pillar of morality in Peyton Place. Her performance is not to be missed; it is a thorough lesson in screen acting, lessons she shared with Bette Davis years before. If you are curious about how to dominate a low end script, watch Ms. Astor do it.

Then there is Tuesday Weld, who should have been cast as Allison but is Salina Cross and very good in her scenes with Mary Astor. She(Weld) has some harrowing moments in trying to defend herself from charges of lustiness with certain folk in Peyton Place. Eleanor Parker is the new Connie and she is not as good as Lana Turner, but she has moments with Lynley that define a new kind of melodrammatic acting..so over the top Everest would be a mole hill here. . Also, Lucianna Paluzzi is here, with her Italian ways,her accent is so thick she is mostly incomprehensible, and she is driven to ,literally, the heights and depths of despair.Her scenes with Mary Astor are seering moments of sado-masochistic behavior. Bret Halsey, an actor with incredible limitations, is puddy for Mary Astor, who plays his mother. Robert Sterling as Parker's officious husband, and principal of Peyton Place High School, is an unintentional bore and has odd facial expressions and an aversion to E. Parker that makes one wonder.

The ending of Return To Peyton Place is a treasure of great and bad acting..terrible direction, and incredible style and talent, complments of Ms. Astor, on how to do the whole thing and take the film away from everyone.

There's a lurid quality to it all, and this sequel is not as polite as the first Peyton Place(a very good film). This sequel shows Peyton Place to be a really disturbed town within, like Black Rock in Bad Day At Black Rock.
The mentality of all of them is small and pornographic, and Allison's book about the past goings on is the sum total of the town itself,illiterate, mean spirited and low vibration, and Allison is like this herself, splitting infinitives, her verb tenses all mixed up, and her continuous pouting and constant referral in every crisis to sexual repression. The book (written in the film)is, in an odd way, the best the town could ever do in this regard. In this sense Allison is more Peyton Place than anyone else; she is proud of her bad book, and wants to build a new Peyton Place on it.

See this film on DVD, and enjoy all of its craziness. You will not forget Mary Astor. Also check out the talk shopw scene with Lynley and the dubbing of the host by Jose Ferrer..unbelievable, and this man worked with David Lean.

Good follow-up on its own merits.......2007-02-13

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It has a stellar cast & is an engrossing sequel to the original. The plots are interesting & the actors are talented & enjoyable to watch. It isn't fair to compare it to the original. The original was great, but then so is this contribution to the film series. I would recommend it to be watched back-to-back on a sunday afternoon, it would make for a fun marathon. Myself, I'm not at all a fan of sequels, but Carol Lynley, Jeff Chandler, Mary Astor & Brett Halsey deserve kudos for their meat & potatoes performances in this production. I'm very pleased it's finally on DVD.

Classic - Peyton Place.......2006-11-05

If you liked Peyton Place, you will love this movie. Jeff Chandler does a great job portraying "the publisher" of Allison's book as well as her lover for the moment. This also has a variety of things happening in Peyton Place that you will find interesting.

Gossip, Gossip, Gossip.......2005-11-07

It isn't mandatory that you watch Peyton Place before Return To Peyton Place as the actors are different and some of the characters did not reappear in the sequel. I watched both back to back and Return To... was just as glossy, trashy and colourfully slick as its predecessor. With a story like this, taking place in a small town full of characters, there are more than enough stories to interweave. The audio commentary of Sylvia Stoddard is a great supplement to this dvd. (see also The Best of Everything) She related stories about Tuesday Weld, Mary Astor and Grace Metalious among many others. This is a well-produced melodrama and I recommend it on that basis.

Average customer rating:

Deuces Wild doesnt have that much fight in it
no more west side story comparisons,please!!
A more intense version of West Side Story
save your money
just ok .... far from great , but not awful

Deuces Wild
Starring: Fairuza Balk , Nancy Ellen Cassaro , Matt Dillon , Stephen Dorff , and Balthazar Getty
Director: Scott Kalvert
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00003CY1G
Release Date: 2002-08-06

Amazon.com

Take West Side Story, remove the music, add excessive profanity and violence, and you'll get Deuces Wild. It's an overripe melodrama in which rival street gangs--in this case Deuces vs. Vipers in 1958 Brooklyn--inevitably clash in a deadly rumble, preceded by shameless scenery-chewing from nearly everyone involved. Stephen Dorff plays the head Deuce, agonizing over his older brother's drug overdose and leading a cast of rising stars and familiar faces including Brad Renfro as Dorff's hot-tempered kid brother, Norman Reedus as the vicious lead Viper, Fairuza Balk as Renfro's no-nonsense girlfriend, and Matt Dillon (uncredited) as the kingpin who introduces heroin to Dorff's drug-free turf. Balthazar Getty, Frankie Muniz, and James Franco are also in the cast, suggesting that director Scott Kalvert was hoping for an unforgettable ensemble. What he got instead was a stale story crowded with percolating posers, recommended only for those who've never seen the 1979 street-gang classic The Warriors. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Deuces Wild doesnt have that much fight in it.......2005-09-26

Stephen Dorff (Blade, Entropy) stars as the leader of the gang called the Deuces and he was stricken years ago when one of his brothers died from an overdose that his enemy on the otherside of the street, the leader of the Vipers, played by Norman Reedus (Blade 2, Gossip) gave him. Now, Reedus springs out of prison and wants to take revenge on the Deuces starting a club on their side. Brad Renfro (The Jacket, Tart) plays the second older brother of Dorff who falls madly in love with a member of the Vipers sisters, played by Fairuza Balk (Almost Famous, The Craft) but his brother Dorff has his suspicions about her and doesnt want Renfro to be going out with her. Then things heat up as both gangs go head on in fights and brawls to see who comes out on top. Sometimes boring, nothing that can bring it up to be a good movie. Some of the acting is laughable and the editing, especially the fast motion/slow motion sprinkled into the fight scenes are really lame. Also starring Matt Dillon (Crash '05, The Outsiders) who is wasted here, Balthazar Getty (Lost Highway, Lord Of The Flies), Max Perlich(Blow, Drugstore Cowboy), James Franco (James Dean, Spider-Man 2) , Johnny Knoxille (Big Trouble, Dukes Of Hazzard), Frankie Muniz (Agent Cody Banks, Big Fat Liar), Deborah Harry (lead singer of Blondie) and Dre de Matteo (Assault On Precinct 13 '05).

no more west side story comparisons,please!!.......2005-02-21

when i heard about DEUCES WILD back in late 1999 early 2000,i was elated at the prospect of there finally being another 50's/early 60's type of street gang melodrama on the horizon.
yet,of course,because of the 9/11 incident in new york,the a-holes in hollywood decided to push back its release for quite a while,so i had to be content with the occasional promo photo in random movie magazines.
finally the movie came out without much fanfare,alas it was also the 'spiderman' weekend,and also the innocuos 'lord of the rings' was in theatres as well that weekend,but luckilly that meant i was in the movie theatre with just myself,my girl and about ten other people.
i thought the movie was excellent,great costumes,great cars,great period music,great locations,good yet hammy acting,gorgeous leading ladies,stylized violent rumble scenes,cheezy yet touching overacted scenes between familys,decent period detail.
yet then the reviews started coming in,and everybody who had ever had freshmen english or drama class compared it annoyingly to west side story,a 1961 singing and dancing musical,when they should have made comparisons to another tho far superior 1961 gang film,john frankenhiemer's black and white opus,'the young savages',or even to photographer bruce davidson's late 50's photo essay,'brooklyn gang' or even the short comic story in the late 70's underground comic,'50's funnies',called,'turf',about a gang in the 50's fighting with another gang who wanted drugs in the neiborhood and who had mob backing and a character was even named marco.....awfully convenient dont you think?
anyways,while this movie was'nt as good as 'the young savages','lords of flatbush' or 'the wanderers',to name but a few,but it was a hundred times better than the wimpy 'west side story' could ever be.
i dont know if this review helps,but the leads in this film were really good,stephen dorf,brad renfro,drea dematteo,faruiza balk,matt dillon,normon reedus and james franco putting in good performances......also i liked the fact that they did,nt over saturate the film with to much music from the past,it was just the right amount,very good choices of songs by 'dion and the belmonts','jerry butler and the impressions','the valentines','dee clark' and a few others.
and of course,faruiza balk and drea dematteo,tho a little long in the tooth to be playing teenagers,looked absolutely scrumptiuos.

A more intense version of West Side Story.......2004-11-27

Scott Kalvert did an outstanding job directing this movie and making the time period as realistic as possible. The similarity between this and Westside Story is the gang rivalry. In Westside Story, you have The Jets vs. The Sharks and in this movie you have The Deuces vs. The Vipers. I didn't see all of Westside Story though but it seems like its less intense than this movie. This movie has some Rebel Without A Cause as well but I didn't see that movie either. I compare this movie to Rebel Without A Cause because of the gang element and Stephen Dorff is The Jimmy Dean of this movie. Stephen Dorff does a great job as 'Leon', the noble yet violent leader of The Deuces. Brad Renfro also does a great job as Leon's younger brother Bobby. He is easily influenced by his brother's hatred towards The Vipers and his life-style is even more chaotic when he meets 'Annie', who is played by Fairuza Balk. Drea DeMateo was so so as 'Betsy', Norman Reedus does a great job as 'Marco', and Matt Dillion does a great job as 'Fritzy'. Overall, its a powerful and intense movie and a must see for movie fans. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

save your money.......2004-04-13

Unless you like cheesey, poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly executed movies save yourself the money. If you just have to have a nostaglia trip, get The Outsiders instead

just ok .... far from great , but not awful.......2004-01-10

Well like most others have commented yes the basic plot of the movie has been too many times to count . And yes there have been dozens of movies about the big-greasy hair and white t-shirt gangs of the late 50's and early 60's . But how many of those involved heroin dealers? or how many were as violent but as well written as this movie ... Yes , I will admit that the casting is a little weird in places . Most of the characters are suposed to be in their late teens or early twenties , and Fairuza Balk and Drea Demateo are just a little too old to be playing girls in their late teens . Or the head of the Deuces and his brother are really out of place , the are suposed to be in their early 20s! Couldn't they have found actors with less receaded hair lines?

The film itself is ok and is filled with ok writting, decent acting , and tons of nostalga ( all the cars and the BROOKLYN Dodgers). And if you want to know the honest truth I saw the movie mostly because I'm obssessed with Fairuza Balk (dont ask why , Im not sure "why") .Yeah overall the movie does leave something to be desired in some areas but you should find something to like and will probably watch this again when you dont know what else to rent or need to kill an hour or two. So yeah its an ok movie.

Average customer rating:

Far from real noir
film noir-nice going
i wake up screaming, take 2
Watered-Down Material, but Interesting Study in the Changing Feminine Ideal in 1950s.
Deja Vu All Over Again

Fox Film Noir, Vol. 19: Vicki
Starring: Jeanne Crain , Jean Peters , Elliott Reid , Richard Boone , and Max Showalter
Director: Harry Horner
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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