Prefontaine

Prefontaine


Starring:Jared Leto, R. Lee Ermey, Ed O'Neill, Breckin Meyer, Lindsay Crouse, Amy Locane, Laurel Holloman, Brian McGovern (II), Kurtwood Smith, Adrian Amadeus, Laurence Ballard, Ryan Brewer, Robert Karl Burke, Kevin Calabro, George Catalano, Wade Clegg, Wally Dalton, Adam Fitzhugh, Jim Freeman (II), Tom Glasgow
Director: Steve James (II)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
Inspirational and entertaining, PREFONTAINE is another acclaimed success from the makers of HOOP DREAMS. It's the true-life story of legendary track star Steve Prefontaine, the exciting and sometimes controversial "James Dean of Track," whose spirit captured the heart of the nation! Cocky, charismatic, and tough, "Pre" was a running rebel who defied rules, pushed limits ... and smashed records ... in an incredible against-all-odds quest for Olympic gold! Now a major motion picture, the triumphs and heartbreaks of this unforgettable champion will have you riveted from beginning to end!
Prefontaine
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Prefontaine
  • Coaching Track & Cross Country
  • Excellent
  • A very good film about a person I'd never heard of before
  • motivational ?
Prefontaine
Starring: Jared Leto , R. Lee Ermey , Ed O'Neill , Breckin Meyer , and Lindsay Crouse
Director: Steve James (II)
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Without Limits
  2. Fire On The Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story
  3. Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine
  4. Running Brave
  5. Running on the Sun

Product Features:
  • Classic DVD
  • Exclusive interviews, highlights, and behind the scenes coverage
  • DVD's main menu allow you to jump directly to the action
  • Presented in full-screen digital video

ASIN: B000068MC2
Release Date: 2002-09-03

Product Description

Inspirational and entertaining, PREFONTAINE is another acclaimed success from the makers of HOOP DREAMS. It's the true-life story of legendary track star Steve Prefontaine, the exciting and sometimes controversial "James Dean of Track," whose spirit captured the heart of the nation! Cocky, charismatic, and tough, "Pre" was a running rebel who defied rules, pushed limits ... and smashed records ... in an incredible against-all-odds quest for Olympic gold! Now a major motion picture, the triumphs and heartbreaks of this unforgettable champion will have you riveted from beginning to end!

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Prefontaine.......2007-06-27

Great movie for the track athlete and/or track fan. Interesting look at an athlete who has transcended death and time to become a model for aspiring runners. Even if you don't run, Pre's attitude toward his training and competition teaches a valuable lesson in giving whatever you do in life your best effort.

4 out of 5 stars Coaching Track & Cross Country.......2007-05-12

We rented PREFONTAINE and had a pizza/movie social night for our team this spring. Most of the kids had never heard of this athlete, and they really enjoyed the show! They want to see another running movie-- this time featuring less white people! :)

5 out of 5 stars Excellent.......2007-05-12

It encourage me to try harder in running. Excellent movie. My daughter is an athlete 5 mile runner and she improved from 5:20 to 5:10 within a month. the 800 from 2:30 to 2:23.

4 out of 5 stars A very good film about a person I'd never heard of before.......2007-03-27

Not being into track and field i had never heard of Steve Prefontaine or his remarkable story. Jered Leto is very engaging as the runner with gold medal hopes and talent to spare and makes this movie "run" (sorry had to say that). Well worth the time and effort to find and watch this one.

3 out of 5 stars motivational ?.......2007-03-12

If you are looking for a fair balance between biographical and motivational, then this is your book. However, if you you are looking for a strongly motivating audio-visual material (e.g. preparing for a race), the movie is just not enough. More workout scenes would have required. No matter, Jared Lareto is great. On the whole, it is worthwile buying this book !
Fire On The Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Great
  • A fitting tribite
  • Great if your a runner
  • Finally, a true portrayal of a true legend.
  • A must watch for the serious distance runner
Fire On The Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story
Starring: Frank Shorter
Director: Erich Lyttle
Manufacturer: Chambers Productions
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Without Limits
  2. Prefontaine
  3. Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine
  4. Running Brave
  5. Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Co-founder

ASIN: B000FEB9DS
Release Date: 1995-06-30

Description

"Pre" embodied the spirit of athletic excellence. He had a belief in self and sport that transcended all but the outer reaches of human speed and endurance. As a freshman, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which hailed him as "America's Distance Prodigy". By the time he died in a tragic auto accident at the age of 24, Pre held all 7 American records between 2,000 and 10,000 meters. Off the track, he fought relentlessly for the rights of amateur athletes to prosper for their sacrifices. Narrated by Ken Kesey, Fire On the Track is the story of this young lion's life, as told through rare footage and the memories of those who knew him best - his teammates, coaches, family and friends. Interviews include David Bedford, Frank Shorter, Ian Stewart, Bill Bowerman, Jeff Galloway, Dick Buerkle, Lasse Viren, Dana Carvey, Mac Wilkins, Kenny Moore, Dave Wottle, Alberto Salazar, and many more.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Great.......2007-05-19

Great movie if you liked without limits and prefontaine you will love this movie

5 out of 5 stars A fitting tribite.......2007-05-13

This documentary is a fitting tribute to Steve Prefontaine. My teenage sons run track and absolutely loved this film. They worship Pre and this documentary shows the real passion of Pre's life.

4 out of 5 stars Great if your a runner.......2007-03-09

This is just another great movie if you love pre and running. Plain and simple.

5 out of 5 stars Finally, a true portrayal of a true legend........2007-02-24

I have seen without limits, Prefontaine, and read Tom Jordan's book on Pre. They all have little fabrications, but this, this is the real deal. All inspiring movies, but this is a must see.

4 out of 5 stars A must watch for the serious distance runner.......2007-02-23

I first saw this when it aired on TV, in 1995 or 1996, while I was still in high school. I didn't watch it again for over a decade, until I recently purchased this DVD. There were so many lines from this that were still in my head after all this years, like when the sportscaster says Pre was running against "the very big boys" and would have to wait until 1976 to win his medal. Or when the bronze medalist from the '72 Olympic 5000 meter race, the UK's Ian Stewart who passed Pre in the closing yards of the race, talked about Pre not being aware of how many the European runners could match Pre's pre-race plan of running the last mile in 4:00. The black and white footage of Pre powering down and then up a hill during one of his college cross country races was great, it was stuck in my mind during my runs for the next week. This DVD is much more worth owning than either of the ful length movies that have been made about Pre, although they are worth having as well.
Black Robe
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • WOW
  • The Forgotten Art Of Trusting A Film To Truly TELL A Story
  • Black Robe
  • Okay, not a barn burner though
  • New France, now seemingly forgotten
Black Robe
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau , Aden Young , Sandrine Holt , August Schellenberg , and Tantoo Cardinal
Director: Bruce Beresford
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)
  2. The Last of the Mohicans (Director's Expanded Edition)
  3. Incident at Oglala - The Leonard Peltier Story
  4. The Last of His Tribe
  5. Black Robe: A Novel

ASIN: B00005BKZS
Release Date: 2001-07-10

Amazon.com

Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak

Description

From acclaimed director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies) and adapted by screenwriter Brian Moore from his novel of the same name, Black Robe is "amazing an adventure film that is as intelligent as it is enthralling" (US)! French Jesuit missionary Father Laforgue travels to the magnificently austere Canadian wilderness to save the souls of a "savage and godless" peoplethe native tribes of the Huron and Algonquin. But the natives, who have their own spiritual value system that differs drastically from Christianity, are immediately suspicious, resentful and openly hostile toward the intrusive "Black Robe." And when Laforgue hires a reluctant group of Algonquin to escort him on a harrowing 1500-mile journey up the broad and sinuous St. Lawrence River, a devastating chain of events not only causes him to question his deeply held beliefs but also forever changes the course of history for the natives' way of life.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars WOW.......2007-02-06

The violation of true relationships in this film is astounding. It demonstrates the sheer violence that can be perpetrated against a people group that you feel has no value as human beings. Sometimes we get so caught up in our "mission" that we forget that we are all made in God's image and we all have value in God's sight. To ignore the incarnationality of Jesus within each one of us is to deny the great gospel message of Christianity. This film shows how a mission without regard for culture can result in devastation beyond all imagination. I highly recommend this film.

5 out of 5 stars The Forgotten Art Of Trusting A Film To Truly TELL A Story.......2007-01-26

Black Robe is a lush, incredibly deep, strikingly emotive motion picture, that tells the story of a young Jesuit priest's journey across the dense wilderness of seventeenth-century Quebec, undertaken while he simultaneously experiences a transformative test of his commitment to the stark way of life he has chosen. Which holds the greatest desire for him, a beckoning existence of ease and comfort amid relatives back in France; the possibility of earthly love; or service to God, that almost certainly includes a violent martyrdom?

Guided by his nation's Algonquin allies, the determined, idealistic young man of a privileged caste seeks to take up his assignment at a mission on the edge of "New France's" colonial frontier. As this decidedly quiet and cerebral epic unfolds, a journey of spiritual evolution takes this priest and his small band through numerous personal tests and into the face of many dangers, not merely from the unwelcoming savagery of the landscape itself, but from hostile aboriginals who welcome neither the Algonquians nor the European intruder into their homeland. What begins amid the opulence of Bourbon France becomes bluntly visceral with unsparing depictions of torture, bloodlust, rape, and death, and yet the way in which this tale is left to carry itself toward its most unforeseen climax is absolutely courageous.

There are too many noteworthy performances to list here, and any written description of the scenery within this film would fall flat. With its countless tiny moments that contrast cultures (Algonquians thinking the Frenchmen's' mechanical clock was somehow their king, since they lived by its motions) for the alternating bravery, sadism, devotions and loyalty of those characters within it, for its terrific story, and for its end to end flawless quality, I truly think Black Robe is among the greatest films shot in the 1990's, and might just be at the top of its particular genre.

5 out of 5 stars Black Robe.......2007-01-10

Definitely rated R but very interesting and disturbing in the white man's treatment of Indians.

2 out of 5 stars Okay, not a barn burner though.......2006-11-02

Interesting movie, little short on the story line, some of the actors were not as believable as they could have been (the native americans), the romantic scenes were over emphasized, ...I love the period in history, is the only reason I remotely like the movie.

4 out of 5 stars New France, now seemingly forgotten.......2006-09-07

This movie seems to aim at being a serious historical comment and an action-adventure movie. It is hard to achieve both aims in the same movie. Life has never been cram-packed with action and adventure even for Jesuit missionaries. Nevertheless, the movie may have the value of interesting some viewers in the historical subject of New France, which had a long life of about a century and a half but can be seen as one of history's big might-have-beens nevertheless.

The music is beautiful, and so is the scenery. Captions are provided for the natives as they speak their own languages. Everything said in English, however, we are supposed to imagine spoken in French, I assume. Why the French should not speak French, I do not know. The DVD provides French and Spanish captions, but not voice-overs.

The movie is rated R, probably for sex and violence. I counted three brief sex scenes. Whether the first two are dramatically justifiable depends mostly on the audience. We take in both scenes through the eyes of the missionary, and both communicate something offensive, and this seems to be their point. In the first, standards of privacy are at stake. In the second, standards of commitment, as it turns out. (Much gets said about the sacrament of baptism in this movie; notably little, in view of the plot, about the sacrament of matrimony.) The third is Hollywoodesque and unlikely to say the least. The movie is fiction, nowhere more than in that scene. But as for the violence, the movie is loosely based on a past reality; and the violence is, if anything, toned down from the historically documented violence and cruelty of that time, place, and people. This does not mean that it is easy to view or that everybody wants to see it. For first-hand historical accounts, see the Jesuit Relations, available on Amazon.

One theme of the movie is that we are all religious creatures in the sense that awareness of our mortality calls forth a response of some kind. The Catholic faith was the response of French Catholics and the response taught by the missionaries. The natives had their own accustomed response. But are all responses equally good and truthful? The movie could seem to say so, but the Catholic answer, both then and now, is a firm no. The movie does not have to be interpretted as affirming religious neutrality or agnosticism, but such an interpretation is easily possible.

One scene shows a penitential gesture on the part of the missionary. It is possible to view this sympathetically, but I fear that it makes him look like a nut, since it hard to see how he can blame himself at that point. Penitential practices were not uncommon and could go rather far, but I know of no good reason to think that Catholic missionaries were neurotic.

In another scene, the young Frenchman Daniel tells the missionary about the Algonquin concept of afterlife. The missionary calls it "childish." Daniel asks rhetorically whether it is harder to believe than that of sitting on clouds enjoying a beatific vision. End of conversation, in the movie. Daniel gets the last word on the subject, and it seems anti-Christian. But in fact, it is merely anti-Dante; and, even at that, Dante's poem and similar works of the European Christian imagination -- the best of them -- would have been poorly summarized or understood. Obviously, the Catholic Church did not prohibit such works, but also teaches, "Heaven is the end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, article 1024). If sitting on clouds would just bore Daniel, then it would not be heaven for him.

Another theme has to do with dreams, whether happy dreams or nightmares. See article 67 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for a statement on private revelations, which says of them, in part, "It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation." Chomina's dream does reveal a piece of the future, as it turns out, and such dreams do not occur only in fiction, but generally they are, properly, little more than curiosities. By themselves dreams usually do not reliably guide the dreamer, after waking. The obstacle of interpreting a dream is usually insurmountable, and bad interpretation makes for bad guidance. The missionary's remark about people who think that dreams are real and this world is an illusion has everything to do with the Christian faith, for it is terribly important that Jesus lived in this world for real, not in dreams or in movies -- those dreams enabled through Thomas Edison -- and that he rose from the dead for real. See 1 Corinthians 15: 12-19 for St. Paul's statement on the importance of Jesus's resurrection as real. The missionary would have realized that he was awake in the same real world as Jesus, just sixteeen hundred years later. The year was 1634.

The movie shows three Huron elders debating whether their tribe should accept Christianity from the Jesuit missionaries. They think that doing so might weaken their ability to defend themselves militarily. Then a note at the end of the movie says that the Huron were later "routed and killed by their Iroquois enemies." Without knowing more, the audience would thus be led to believe that the misgivings of the Huron elders were well founded, as though the missionaries had been too pacifistic; but this belief can be doubted. Historically, the missionaries opposed the common practice of torturing defenseless captives, but did not oppose effective defence. In fact, they would have reason to defend their own work with arms if necessary.

Some details in this movie dramatize historical conditions of some note. For example, the very brief scene of Daniel fumbling with his firearm, such as it is, is surely a comment on those extremely awkward and unreliable weapons; the bow was still far superior. The missionary's comment about brandy in the first scene is a comment on the practice of plying the natives with an addictive substance that their culture had no long experience with. The costumes and sets are, I assume, facsimiles of the real thing.

Viewers who do not already know might like to be told that one line in the movie, "For the greater glory of God," is, or used to be, the motto of the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus: "Ad majorem Dei gloriam."

Another line, a sweeping comment on European history, made by an older priest in France, says that the English and the Germans were uncivilized until "we" took our faith to them. If "we" means the Church, then the comment is right as a summary. If it means the French, then it is not quite right. The Chrisitanization of the English was undertaken by missionaries from Ireland and from the continent, not all of whom came from Gaul. The most renowned mission to the Germans was that of St. Boniface, an Englishman. But all of that pertains to late antiquity or the early middle ages, and the priest's line in the movie could actually have reflected views of Frenchmen by the early 1600s, whose grasp of European history might have been strongly influenced, and distorted, by the more recent part of it.

Joan of Arc is called "St. Joan." Her sainthood would have been, I suppose, accepted in an informal sense in France in the early 1600's. But she was not actually canonized a saint in the Catholic Church until the 1920s. Quite a few canonized Catholic saints were in serious trouble with the Church during their lifetimes, but Joan is the only one that I know of who was actually put to death by the Church, to the especially horrible death of being burned alive. It was the Church under the control of her English enemies, but it was still the official Catholic Church. That was long before Luther.
Savage Messiah (2002)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Savage Messiah is Something of a Hidden Treasure
  • A heart wrenching tale taht test what you knew about society
  • GREAT
Savage Messiah (2002)
Starring: Polly Walker (II) , Luc Picard , Isabelle Blais , Isabelle Cyr , and Julie La Rochelle
Director: Mario Azzopardi
Manufacturer: First Look Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. 8 1/2 Women
  2. The Gambler
  3. Dark Harbor
  4. Talk of Angels
  5. Sherrybaby

ASIN: B00007L4LV
Release Date: 2003-02-04

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Savage Messiah is Something of a Hidden Treasure.......2007-02-13

The sociopath Roc Tremain (Luc Picard) is the Canadian version of Charles Manson. He ruthlessly manipulated those within his community of true believers. They refused to abandon Tremain even after witnessing his torturing and murdering one of their fellow members. Their own children were readily sacrificed to this mad man's lust and violent behavior. Disgustingly, Tremain had little sexual interest in the older children. He apparently preferred his female victims to be no older than five or six years old! Government officials did next to nothing until a brave social worker (Polly Walker) relentlessly forced the issue.

I thoroughly enjoyed Savage Messiah. The acting is superb along with the dialogue. Why am I among the very few who thinks so? I cannot begin to understand why this gem of a film is so ignored. It is truly a four and a half to five star film. Please make a point of seeing it. I'm sure you will agree with me.

David Thomson
Flares into Darkness

4 out of 5 stars A heart wrenching tale taht test what you knew about society.......2003-03-13

Savage Messaih is the true story of Roc Tremain who had a commune up in Canada where he lived with his 9 wives. On the outside it would seem like they are a happy and peaceful folk, if not a little kinky at times. However whn dweliing upon the inner mysteries of the commune it was revealed that Roc was truelly a monster who physically, psychologically, and sexually abused his 9 wives and 17 children.

This stroy story tells how he was found out about what he did. ALthough the movie cannot even begin to explain what all he really did (and still hold the R rating as well as being viewable in most nations) it does show mostly how he manipulated his wives especially when they all claimed to love him.

The reason this story is so sad and disturbing is the fact that it actually happened, and to many degrees still happens not just in Canada, or BRitian, or any other nation, but also here in the United States. This harsh tale of Physical, Mental, and Sexual abuse may test to some degree of what you thought you knew about Society, and of people as well.

5 out of 5 stars GREAT.......2003-03-12

Based on a true story;modern Mansonesque self proclaimed prophet goes wild in Canada.Gripping,disturbing,and highly watchable.
Black Robe
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • WOW
  • The Forgotten Art Of Trusting A Film To Truly TELL A Story
  • Black Robe
  • Okay, not a barn burner though
  • New France, now seemingly forgotten
Black Robe
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau , Aden Young , Sandrine Holt , August Schellenberg , and Tantoo Cardinal
Director: Bruce Beresford
Manufacturer: Vidmark / Trimark
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)
  2. The Last of the Mohicans (Director's Expanded Edition)
  3. Incident at Oglala - The Leonard Peltier Story
  4. The Last of His Tribe
  5. Black Robe: A Novel

ASIN: 1573623903
Release Date: 1998-07-08

Amazon.com

Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars WOW.......2007-02-06

The violation of true relationships in this film is astounding. It demonstrates the sheer violence that can be perpetrated against a people group that you feel has no value as human beings. Sometimes we get so caught up in our "mission" that we forget that we are all made in God's image and we all have value in God's sight. To ignore the incarnationality of Jesus within each one of us is to deny the great gospel message of Christianity. This film shows how a mission without regard for culture can result in devastation beyond all imagination. I highly recommend this film.

5 out of 5 stars The Forgotten Art Of Trusting A Film To Truly TELL A Story.......2007-01-26

Black Robe is a lush, incredibly deep, strikingly emotive motion picture, that tells the story of a young Jesuit priest's journey across the dense wilderness of seventeenth-century Quebec, undertaken while he simultaneously experiences a transformative test of his commitment to the stark way of life he has chosen. Which holds the greatest desire for him, a beckoning existence of ease and comfort amid relatives back in France; the possibility of earthly love; or service to God, that almost certainly includes a violent martyrdom?

Guided by his nation's Algonquin allies, the determined, idealistic young man of a privileged caste seeks to take up his assignment at a mission on the edge of "New France's" colonial frontier. As this decidedly quiet and cerebral epic unfolds, a journey of spiritual evolution takes this priest and his small band through numerous personal tests and into the face of many dangers, not merely from the unwelcoming savagery of the landscape itself, but from hostile aboriginals who welcome neither the Algonquians nor the European intruder into their homeland. What begins amid the opulence of Bourbon France becomes bluntly visceral with unsparing depictions of torture, bloodlust, rape, and death, and yet the way in which this tale is left to carry itself toward its most unforeseen climax is absolutely courageous.

There are too many noteworthy performances to list here, and any written description of the scenery within this film would fall flat. With its countless tiny moments that contrast cultures (Algonquians thinking the Frenchmen's' mechanical clock was somehow their king, since they lived by its motions) for the alternating bravery, sadism, devotions and loyalty of those characters within it, for its terrific story, and for its end to end flawless quality, I truly think Black Robe is among the greatest films shot in the 1990's, and might just be at the top of its particular genre.

5 out of 5 stars Black Robe.......2007-01-10

Definitely rated R but very interesting and disturbing in the white man's treatment of Indians.

2 out of 5 stars Okay, not a barn burner though.......2006-11-02

Interesting movie, little short on the story line, some of the actors were not as believable as they could have been (the native americans), the romantic scenes were over emphasized, ...I love the period in history, is the only reason I remotely like the movie.

4 out of 5 stars New France, now seemingly forgotten.......2006-09-07

This movie seems to aim at being a serious historical comment and an action-adventure movie. It is hard to achieve both aims in the same movie. Life has never been cram-packed with action and adventure even for Jesuit missionaries. Nevertheless, the movie may have the value of interesting some viewers in the historical subject of New France, which had a long life of about a century and a half but can be seen as one of history's big might-have-beens nevertheless.

The music is beautiful, and so is the scenery. Captions are provided for the natives as they speak their own languages. Everything said in English, however, we are supposed to imagine spoken in French, I assume. Why the French should not speak French, I do not know. The DVD provides French and Spanish captions, but not voice-overs.

The movie is rated R, probably for sex and violence. I counted three brief sex scenes. Whether the first two are dramatically justifiable depends mostly on the audience. We take in both scenes through the eyes of the missionary, and both communicate something offensive, and this seems to be their point. In the first, standards of privacy are at stake. In the second, standards of commitment, as it turns out. (Much gets said about the sacrament of baptism in this movie; notably little, in view of the plot, about the sacrament of matrimony.) The third is Hollywoodesque and unlikely to say the least. The movie is fiction, nowhere more than in that scene. But as for the violence, the movie is loosely based on a past reality; and the violence is, if anything, toned down from the historically documented violence and cruelty of that time, place, and people. This does not mean that it is easy to view or that everybody wants to see it. For first-hand historical accounts, see the Jesuit Relations, available on Amazon.

One theme of the movie is that we are all religious creatures in the sense that awareness of our mortality calls forth a response of some kind. The Catholic faith was the response of French Catholics and the response taught by the missionaries. The natives had their own accustomed response. But are all responses equally good and truthful? The movie could seem to say so, but the Catholic answer, both then and now, is a firm no. The movie does not have to be interpretted as affirming religious neutrality or agnosticism, but such an interpretation is easily possible.

One scene shows a penitential gesture on the part of the missionary. It is possible to view this sympathetically, but I fear that it makes him look like a nut, since it hard to see how he can blame himself at that point. Penitential practices were not uncommon and could go rather far, but I know of no good reason to think that Catholic missionaries were neurotic.

In another scene, the young Frenchman Daniel tells the missionary about the Algonquin concept of afterlife. The missionary calls it "childish." Daniel asks rhetorically whether it is harder to believe than that of sitting on clouds enjoying a beatific vision. End of conversation, in the movie. Daniel gets the last word on the subject, and it seems anti-Christian. But in fact, it is merely anti-Dante; and, even at that, Dante's poem and similar works of the European Christian imagination -- the best of them -- would have been poorly summarized or understood. Obviously, the Catholic Church did not prohibit such works, but also teaches, "Heaven is the end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, article 1024). If sitting on clouds would just bore Daniel, then it would not be heaven for him.

Another theme has to do with dreams, whether happy dreams or nightmares. See article 67 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for a statement on private revelations, which says of them, in part, "It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation." Chomina's dream does reveal a piece of the future, as it turns out, and such dreams do not occur only in fiction, but generally they are, properly, little more than curiosities. By themselves dreams usually do not reliably guide the dreamer, after waking. The obstacle of interpreting a dream is usually insurmountable, and bad interpretation makes for bad guidance. The missionary's remark about people who think that dreams are real and this world is an illusion has everything to do with the Christian faith, for it is terribly important that Jesus lived in this world for real, not in dreams or in movies -- those dreams enabled through Thomas Edison -- and that he rose from the dead for real. See 1 Corinthians 15: 12-19 for St. Paul's statement on the importance of Jesus's resurrection as real. The missionary would have realized that he was awake in the same real world as Jesus, just sixteeen hundred years later. The year was 1634.

The movie shows three Huron elders debating whether their tribe should accept Christianity from the Jesuit missionaries. They think that doing so might weaken their ability to defend themselves militarily. Then a note at the end of the movie says that the Huron were later "routed and killed by their Iroquois enemies." Without knowing more, the audience would thus be led to believe that the misgivings of the Huron elders were well founded, as though the missionaries had been too pacifistic; but this belief can be doubted. Historically, the missionaries opposed the common practice of torturing defenseless captives, but did not oppose effective defence. In fact, they would have reason to defend their own work with arms if necessary.

Some details in this movie dramatize historical conditions of some note. For example, the very brief scene of Daniel fumbling with his firearm, such as it is, is surely a comment on those extremely awkward and unreliable weapons; the bow was still far superior. The missionary's comment about brandy in the first scene is a comment on the practice of plying the natives with an addictive substance that their culture had no long experience with. The costumes and sets are, I assume, facsimiles of the real thing.

Viewers who do not already know might like to be told that one line in the movie, "For the greater glory of God," is, or used to be, the motto of the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus: "Ad majorem Dei gloriam."

Another line, a sweeping comment on European history, made by an older priest in France, says that the English and the Germans were uncivilized until "we" took our faith to them. If "we" means the Church, then the comment is right as a summary. If it means the French, then it is not quite right. The Chrisitanization of the English was undertaken by missionaries from Ireland and from the continent, not all of whom came from Gaul. The most renowned mission to the Germans was that of St. Boniface, an Englishman. But all of that pertains to late antiquity or the early middle ages, and the priest's line in the movie could actually have reflected views of Frenchmen by the early 1600s, whose grasp of European history might have been strongly influenced, and distorted, by the more recent part of it.

Joan of Arc is called "St. Joan." Her sainthood would have been, I suppose, accepted in an informal sense in France in the early 1600's. But she was not actually canonized a saint in the Catholic Church until the 1920s. Quite a few canonized Catholic saints were in serious trouble with the Church during their lifetimes, but Joan is the only one that I know of who was actually put to death by the Church, to the especially horrible death of being burned alive. It was the Church under the control of her English enemies, but it was still the official Catholic Church. That was long before Luther.
Charlie Rose (December 9, 1998)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Charlie Rose (December 9, 1998)

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    ASIN: B000LC57PU
    Release Date: 2006-12-21

    Description

    First, screenwriter William Goldman talks about the success of his films like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Princess Bride" and offers his perspective on the declining movie industry (from January 7, 1997).||Then, Robert Towne, Academy Award nominated screenwriter, discusses his new film that he has directed, "Without Limits," that tells the story of track star Steve Prefontaine (from September 22, 1998).||Finally, Richard LaGravenese, the screenwriter of films such as "The Bridges of Madison County" and "The Horse Whisperer," discusses the new movie he has directed, "Living Out Loud," that stars Holly Hunter (from November 6, 1998).
    Black Robe
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • WOW
    • The Forgotten Art Of Trusting A Film To Truly TELL A Story
    • Black Robe
    • Okay, not a barn burner though
    • New France, now seemingly forgotten
    Black Robe
    Starring: Lothaire Bluteau , Aden Young , Sandrine Holt , August Schellenberg , and Tantoo Cardinal
    Director: Bruce Beresford
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    Similar Items:
    1. The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)
    2. The Last of the Mohicans (Director's Expanded Edition)
    3. Incident at Oglala - The Leonard Peltier Story
    4. The Last of His Tribe
    5. Black Robe: A Novel

    ASIN: B000065KB0

    Amazon.com

    Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars WOW.......2007-02-06

    The violation of true relationships in this film is astounding. It demonstrates the sheer violence that can be perpetrated against a people group that you feel has no value as human beings. Sometimes we get so caught up in our "mission" that we forget that we are all made in God's image and we all have value in God's sight. To ignore the incarnationality of Jesus within each one of us is to deny the great gospel message of Christianity. This film shows how a mission without regard for culture can result in devastation beyond all imagination. I highly recommend this film.

    5 out of 5 stars The Forgotten Art Of Trusting A Film To Truly TELL A Story.......2007-01-26

    Black Robe is a lush, incredibly deep, strikingly emotive motion picture, that tells the story of a young Jesuit priest's journey across the dense wilderness of seventeenth-century Quebec, undertaken while he simultaneously experiences a transformative test of his commitment to the stark way of life he has chosen. Which holds the greatest desire for him, a beckoning existence of ease and comfort amid relatives back in France; the possibility of earthly love; or service to God, that almost certainly includes a violent martyrdom?

    Guided by his nation's Algonquin allies, the determined, idealistic young man of a privileged caste seeks to take up his assignment at a mission on the edge of "New France's" colonial frontier. As this decidedly quiet and cerebral epic unfolds, a journey of spiritual evolution takes this priest and his small band through numerous personal tests and into the face of many dangers, not merely from the unwelcoming savagery of the landscape itself, but from hostile aboriginals who welcome neither the Algonquians nor the European intruder into their homeland. What begins amid the opulence of Bourbon France becomes bluntly visceral with unsparing depictions of torture, bloodlust, rape, and death, and yet the way in which this tale is left to carry itself toward its most unforeseen climax is absolutely courageous.

    There are too many noteworthy performances to list here, and any written description of the scenery within this film would fall flat. With its countless tiny moments that contrast cultures (Algonquians thinking the Frenchmen's' mechanical clock was somehow their king, since they lived by its motions) for the alternating bravery, sadism, devotions and loyalty of those characters within it, for its terrific story, and for its end to end flawless quality, I truly think Black Robe is among the greatest films shot in the 1990's, and might just be at the top of its particular genre.

    5 out of 5 stars Black Robe.......2007-01-10

    Definitely rated R but very interesting and disturbing in the white man's treatment of Indians.

    2 out of 5 stars Okay, not a barn burner though.......2006-11-02

    Interesting movie, little short on the story line, some of the actors were not as believable as they could have been (the native americans), the romantic scenes were over emphasized, ...I love the period in history, is the only reason I remotely like the movie.

    4 out of 5 stars New France, now seemingly forgotten.......2006-09-07

    This movie seems to aim at being a serious historical comment and an action-adventure movie. It is hard to achieve both aims in the same movie. Life has never been cram-packed with action and adventure even for Jesuit missionaries. Nevertheless, the movie may have the value of interesting some viewers in the historical subject of New France, which had a long life of about a century and a half but can be seen as one of history's big might-have-beens nevertheless.

    The music is beautiful, and so is the scenery. Captions are provided for the natives as they speak their own languages. Everything said in English, however, we are supposed to imagine spoken in French, I assume. Why the French should not speak French, I do not know. The DVD provides French and Spanish captions, but not voice-overs.

    The movie is rated R, probably for sex and violence. I counted three brief sex scenes. Whether the first two are dramatically justifiable depends mostly on the audience. We take in both scenes through the eyes of the missionary, and both communicate something offensive, and this seems to be their point. In the first, standards of privacy are at stake. In the second, standards of commitment, as it turns out. (Much gets said about the sacrament of baptism in this movie; notably little, in view of the plot, about the sacrament of matrimony.) The third is Hollywoodesque and unlikely to say the least. The movie is fiction, nowhere more than in that scene. But as for the violence, the movie is loosely based on a past reality; and the violence is, if anything, toned down from the historically documented violence and cruelty of that time, place, and people. This does not mean that it is easy to view or that everybody wants to see it. For first-hand historical accounts, see the Jesuit Relations, available on Amazon.

    One theme of the movie is that we are all religious creatures in the sense that awareness of our mortality calls forth a response of some kind. The Catholic faith was the response of French Catholics and the response taught by the missionaries. The natives had their own accustomed response. But are all responses equally good and truthful? The movie could seem to say so, but the Catholic answer, both then and now, is a firm no. The movie does not have to be interpretted as affirming religious neutrality or agnosticism, but such an interpretation is easily possible.

    One scene shows a penitential gesture on the part of the missionary. It is possible to view this sympathetically, but I fear that it makes him look like a nut, since it hard to see how he can blame himself at that point. Penitential practices were not uncommon and could go rather far, but I know of no good reason to think that Catholic missionaries were neurotic.

    In another scene, the young Frenchman Daniel tells the missionary about the Algonquin concept of afterlife. The missionary calls it "childish." Daniel asks rhetorically whether it is harder to believe than that of sitting on clouds enjoying a beatific vision. End of conversation, in the movie. Daniel gets the last word on the subject, and it seems anti-Christian. But in fact, it is merely anti-Dante; and, even at that, Dante's poem and similar works of the European Christian imagination -- the best of them -- would have been poorly summarized or understood. Obviously, the Catholic Church did not prohibit such works, but also teaches, "Heaven is the end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, article 1024). If sitting on clouds would just bore Daniel, then it would not be heaven for him.

    Another theme has to do with dreams, whether happy dreams or nightmares. See article 67 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for a statement on private revelations, which says of them, in part, "It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation." Chomina's dream does reveal a piece of the future, as it turns out, and such dreams do not occur only in fiction, but generally they are, properly, little more than curiosities. By themselves dreams usually do not reliably guide the dreamer, after waking. The obstacle of interpreting a dream is usually insurmountable, and bad interpretation makes for bad guidance. The missionary's remark about people who think that dreams are real and this world is an illusion has everything to do with the Christian faith, for it is terribly important that Jesus lived in this world for real, not in dreams or in movies -- those dreams enabled through Thomas Edison -- and that he rose from the dead for real. See 1 Corinthians 15: 12-19 for St. Paul's statement on the importance of Jesus's resurrection as real. The missionary would have realized that he was awake in the same real world as Jesus, just sixteeen hundred years later. The year was 1634.

    The movie shows three Huron elders debating whether their tribe should accept Christianity from the Jesuit missionaries. They think that doing so might weaken their ability to defend themselves militarily. Then a note at the end of the movie says that the Huron were later "routed and killed by their Iroquois enemies." Without knowing more, the audience would thus be led to believe that the misgivings of the Huron elders were well founded, as though the missionaries had been too pacifistic; but this belief can be doubted. Historically, the missionaries opposed the common practice of torturing defenseless captives, but did not oppose effective defence. In fact, they would have reason to defend their own work with arms if necessary.

    Some details in this movie dramatize historical conditions of some note. For example, the very brief scene of Daniel fumbling with his firearm, such as it is, is surely a comment on those extremely awkward and unreliable weapons; the bow was still far superior. The missionary's comment about brandy in the first scene is a comment on the practice of plying the natives with an addictive substance that their culture had no long experience with. The costumes and sets are, I assume, facsimiles of the real thing.

    Viewers who do not already know might like to be told that one line in the movie, "For the greater glory of God," is, or used to be, the motto of the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus: "Ad majorem Dei gloriam."

    Another line, a sweeping comment on European history, made by an older priest in France, says that the English and the Germans were uncivilized until "we" took our faith to them. If "we" means the Church, then the comment is right as a summary. If it means the French, then it is not quite right. The Chrisitanization of the English was undertaken by missionaries from Ireland and from the continent, not all of whom came from Gaul. The most renowned mission to the Germans was that of St. Boniface, an Englishman. But all of that pertains to late antiquity or the early middle ages, and the priest's line in the movie could actually have reflected views of Frenchmen by the early 1600s, whose grasp of European history might have been strongly influenced, and distorted, by the more recent part of it.

    Joan of Arc is called "St. Joan." Her sainthood would have been, I suppose, accepted in an informal sense in France in the early 1600's. But she was not actually canonized a saint in the Catholic Church until the 1920s. Quite a few canonized Catholic saints were in serious trouble with the Church during their lifetimes, but Joan is the only one that I know of who was actually put to death by the Church, to the especially horrible death of being burned alive. It was the Church under the control of her English enemies, but it was still the official Catholic Church. That was long before Luther.
    Charlie Rose with Scott Pelley; Robert Torricelli; Donald Sutherland (September 10, 1998)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Charlie Rose with Scott Pelley; Robert Torricelli; Donald Sutherland (September 10, 1998)

      Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
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      ASIN: B000IU33LK
      Release Date: 2006-09-18

      Description

      First, Scott Pelley of CBS News reports on the Clinton confession and apology and the direction he sees the affair taking. Then, Robert Torricelli, Democratic senator from New Jersey, discusses Clinton's confession speech, which he attended, the Starr report, and more. Finally, actor Donald Sutherland discusses his career and his new movie, Without Limits, in which he plays the coach of the legendary Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine.
      Charlie Rose with Laurence Tribe; Robert Towne (September 22, 1998)
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        Charlie Rose with Laurence Tribe; Robert Towne (September 22, 1998)

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        ASIN: B000IU33JM
        Release Date: 2006-09-18

        Description

        First, Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School explains the procedures of the impeachment process and relates this information to the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Finally, Robert Towne, Academy Award nominated screenwriter, discusses a new film he has directed, Without Limits, which tells the story of the track star Steve Prefontaine. He discusses the star of the film, Billy Crudup, and the making of the movie.
        Prefontaine [Region 2]
        Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
        • Prefontaine
        • Coaching Track & Cross Country
        • Excellent
        • A very good film about a person I'd never heard of before
        • motivational ?
        Prefontaine [Region 2]
        Starring: Jared Leto , R. Lee Ermey , Ed O'Neill , Breckin Meyer , and Lindsay Crouse
        Director: Steve James (II)
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        Similar Items:
        1. Without Limits
        2. Fire On The Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story
        3. Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine
        4. Running Brave
        5. Running on the Sun

        ASIN: B0001NIYH2

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Prefontaine.......2007-06-27

        Great movie for the track athlete and/or track fan. Interesting look at an athlete who has transcended death and time to become a model for aspiring runners. Even if you don't run, Pre's attitude toward his training and competition teaches a valuable lesson in giving whatever you do in life your best effort.

        4 out of 5 stars Coaching Track & Cross Country.......2007-05-12

        We rented PREFONTAINE and had a pizza/movie social night for our team this spring. Most of the kids had never heard of this athlete, and they really enjoyed the show! They want to see another running movie-- this time featuring less white people! :)

        5 out of 5 stars Excellent.......2007-05-12

        It encourage me to try harder in running. Excellent movie. My daughter is an athlete 5 mile runner and she improved from 5:20 to 5:10 within a month. the 800 from 2:30 to 2:23.

        4 out of 5 stars A very good film about a person I'd never heard of before.......2007-03-27

        Not being into track and field i had never heard of Steve Prefontaine or his remarkable story. Jered Leto is very engaging as the runner with gold medal hopes and talent to spare and makes this movie "run" (sorry had to say that). Well worth the time and effort to find and watch this one.

        3 out of 5 stars motivational ?.......2007-03-12

        If you are looking for a fair balance between biographical and motivational, then this is your book. However, if you you are looking for a strongly motivating audio-visual material (e.g. preparing for a race), the movie is just not enough. More workout scenes would have required. No matter, Jared Lareto is great. On the whole, it is worthwile buying this book !

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        3. Ilsa Collection (She Wolf of the SS/Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks/The Wicked Warden)
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