Fool for Love

Starring:Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, Harry Dean Stanton, Randy Quaid, Martha Crawford (II), Louise Egolf, Sura Cox, Jonathan Skinner, April Russell, Deborah McNaughton, Lon Hill
Director: Robert Altman
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Really good, but sometimes slow and hard to watch.
Excellent 20 years ago, still excellent.
Lots of heat, but no fire
A great Robert Altman ý Sam Shepard collaboration
Same old Shepard galvanized by master artisan

Fool for Love
Starring: Sam Shepard , Kim Basinger , Harry Dean Stanton , Randy Quaid , and Martha Crawford (II)
Director: Robert Altman
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Vincent & Theo (Ws Sub)
Paris, Texas
Nashville
Kansas City

ASIN: B0001AW0UW
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Description

Sam Shepard and Kim Basinger "ignite a sexual bonfire whose embers will haunt you" (People) in this explosive tale of doomed love and loss in the barren, unforgiving West. Based on Shepard's own award-winning play and directed by seven-time OscarÂ(r) nominee* Robert Altman, Fool for Love is "a stunning collaboration" (Newsweek). Cowboy drifter Eddie (Shepard)reconnects with May (Basinger), the love of his life, in a seedy desert moteleven though she's taken up with a new boyfriend (Randy Quaid). But that's not the only threat to their rekindled passion. A mysterious old man (Harry Dean Stanton) also harbors a secret so dark and forbidden, it could destroy Eddie and May's love forever. *Best Picture (with Bob Balaban, David Levy), Director, Gosford Park (2001); Director, Short Cuts (1993); Director, The Player (1992); Best Picture, Director, Nashville (1975); Director, M*A*S*H (1970)

Customer Reviews:

Really good, but sometimes slow and hard to watch........2007-02-16

I love Sam Shepard, so I'll see or read just about anything he's done. This one's a little hard to watch, though, partly because of pace, partly because of a slight bit of over-dramatizing from actors and director, and partly because of subject matter. Despite all this, it's still worth watching.

Excellent 20 years ago, still excellent........2005-06-12

Eighteen, 19, 20 years ago, I first saw this film. I loved it, my teenaged kids loved it. I had no idea Sam Shepard had written the play, or even that there was a play, though it seems obvious now. We watched this over and over. I still play the sound track, sung, I found out somewhere recently, by Sam's sister, Sandy Rogers--talk about alternative country! I still watch this film from time to time. It's enchanting, it's funny, it's mysterious, and there's that kick-ass soundtrack. It never gets old for me.

Lots of heat, but no fire.......2005-03-13

This is Sam Sheppard's (he wrote and stars in it) incestuous love story, told at a fever pitch. Eddie (Sheppard) and May (Kim Basinger) have been lovers since high school; only later do they find out they have the same father. Their relationship becomes one of frustration and rage as they dance around each other in a seedy motel somewhere in the West, yelling and socking each other over a passion that cannot be. It goes on too long and the flashbacks that reveal the root of the problem come too late and too fleetingly. The principles do their drag-'em out best, but in the end it's much ado about very little. The movie is not very entertaining or enlightening, and it has a strong egocentric feeling about it for Sheppard. Randy Quaid also appears.

A great Robert Altman ý Sam Shepard collaboration.......2004-05-24

The first perceptions one has of a work of art likely set one's standard by which that work is subsequently judged in comparison with its presentation in another medium. For example if the work is first encountered as a stage-play, then that form becomes the defacto standard for later comparisons, and a subsequent film of that work will likely never achieve one's preconceived expectations. This reviewer first encountered "Fool for Love" in a local theatre in 1985, never having seen the original play.

Readers who are fans of Tennessee Williams' PBS/Showtime 1984 TV version of "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof" with Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones (forget the worthless and sickeningly bowdlerized 1958 Taylor-Newman version, a perfect example of how rampant, uncontrolled religious censorship runs amok and destroys a work of art); or fans of Eugene O'Neill's 1960 "The Iceman Cometh (the Broadway Archive version with Jason Robards); will find this film fits neatly within that pantheon. With this work, Sam Shepard's genius rightly assumes co-equal rank with that of both Williams and O'Neill.

But there is a difference between this film and that of the two outstanding films cited above. This work is NOT just the filming of a great stage-play inside some cheesy New Mexico motel room. Director Altman actually had the complete, rundown "El Royale" motel-cabin, restaurant-bar and junkyard complex built to his specifications outside Sante Fe, where a 360 degree camera sweep would reveal nothing else beyond the complex but the isolated, lonely mountainous and grassy scrubland just off the interstate. The set is complete with flickering burned-out neon; abandoned vehicles; curtain-covered "kitchenette", tiny bath lavatory, medicine cabinet and stool in every cabin; and urine-God-only-knows-what-else stained mattresses (with bed vibrators); a way-station for desperate travelers going elsewhere. Director Altman reports in the documentary that the film set construction was so realistic, travelers passing on the interstate would actually stop and try to book accommodations or eat in the "restaurant."

Character interactions are complex and intense, at times funny yet simultaneously deadly serious, loaded with crackling, sizzling dialog and byplay which run tempestuously hot and cold. While these behaviors seem initially inexplicable, they are driven by past events, which growing intimations and clarifications gradually unveil. The present day portrayals are freely intermixed with metaphors and ghostly influences from that past. The shocking realities of that past are shown in flashback with all the contradictions and lies of convenience that creep into such re-telling. The way these elements are brought seamlessly together make this a film of such depth that it screams out for multiple viewings to appreciate its full merits.

Because of the vitality and completeness down to every last detail; a large background cast of other people including bit-parts and stand-ins for principal actors when they were younger; horses and cattle galore; functioning beat-up cars, trucks with dirty windshields and horse-trailers; and characters' past flashbacks filmed in a variety of supporting locales; this production never once assumes the aura of its stage-play origins. No matter how much one touts the supremacy of the original play, one would have to concede that there are elements of this joint Altman-Shepard recreation of Shepard's original that would simply be impossible to realize on the stage.

Sam Shepard's screenplay is perfectly realized. Robert Altman's direction of the story, the actors, and the background settings is nothing short of masterful. The cast is uniformly superb. Pierre Mignot's beautifully clear and largely night-time color cinematography and George Burt's musical assemblage blend it all together into an unforgettable masterpiece of cinematic art.

A fascinating 20 minute making-of documentary by Robert Altman (refreshingly low-key in comparison to the usual rampant narcissism displayed in too many such documentaries) is included, along with the original theatrical trailer. The DVD's 1.85:1 original theatrical aspect ratio picture quality is excellent. Sound is fine, though stereo surround effects are muted or non-existent, not a problem as such effects could make no contribution. Like Williams and O'Neill, Shepard has created a highly cerebral film. Those who are teen-age action-adventure addicts need not waste their time on this pre-eminently adult fare

Same old Shepard galvanized by master artisan.......2004-02-14

Shepard loves incest, family abuse, cowboys and rambling loose dialogue. And that seems to be all he knows. For all of his artistic integrity his plays have always felt a little on the nose and a little juvenile (his films even worse!). Altman's multiplicity of points of view, suppressed narration and mass-media-esque techniques give wonderful life to a play that is hardly worth the attention.

Average customer rating:

Favorite Movie of all times
Sweet, offbeat romance
Good characters in a modest movie
Thanks for the nice reviews!
High level of maturity needed absolutely. Great movie!

Nobody's Fool
Starring: Rosanna Arquette , Eric Roberts , Mare Winningham , Jim Youngs , and Louise Fletcher
Director: Evelyn Purcell
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00066VTWG
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Description

Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) and Eric Roberts (Final Analysis) generate all kinds of crazy chemistry in this wildly offbeat tale of romance and redemption. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Crimes of the Heart, Nobody's Fool is full of "lovable eccentricity" (Screen International) and "oddball charm" (Boxoffice)! Small-town girl Cassie (Arquette) has made a few big mistakes in love including an attempted stabbing! Labeled a kook by some,and largely avoided by all, Cassie wallows in shame and self-pity until a traveling Shakespearean troupe arrives and she falls for a hot backstage roadie (Roberts). Can she trust this stranger offering romance and a one-way ticket out of town? Or will she find that, in the words of the Bard, "the course of true love never did run smooth"?

Customer Reviews:

Favorite Movie of all times.......2003-10-11

This movie needs to come out on DVD.... Does anyone know WHEN it might?

Sweet, offbeat romance.......2002-02-25

I saw this film when it ran in NYC in 1986, and like the rest of the audience (who applauded when it was over), was totally charmed by it. I could never understand why it didn't do better at the box office - poor marketing, perhaps? I understand it's done very well as a video.

The performances and the originality of the script are what stand out in this film. Rosanna Arquette manages to be funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Eric Roberts is so damned sexy and appealing in this film, it's hard to understand why he didn't get more romantic leads. When Arquette's character shouts at him, "Stop looking at me with those eyes!", every woman in the audience knows what she is talking about. He is magnetic, and gives great dimension to a somewhat underwritten part. The chemistry between these two is great. All of the supporting actors give first rate performances.

Some of the quirkiness of Beth Henley's script could have been whittled down - she seems to delight in presenting odd characters for effect, such as the albino bride, schizophrenic cousin and the obese younger brother, who don't add a lot to the story, but seem like contrived distractions. These elements might work in her plays, but only take away from the development of the main characters and their relationship to each other.

What she does get right is the complex relationship between love, obsession, humor and disaster. In Henley's world, tragedy exists right around the corner from happiness, and nothing is black and white.

It was interesting to read the comments from Dean, an actor in this film. It does seem like editing might have done this one in. I could have used more development of the Riley character, a little more humor, and less parading of oddballs.

But all in all, a worthwhile film for its performances and originality. It looks good too, with lovely shots of the outdoors, and attractive, appealing leads. All in all, one of the more memorable movies I've ever seen. Even if it stunk at the box office, those involved should be proud of it.

Good characters in a modest movie.......2002-02-10

Rosanna Arquette and Eric Roberts, especially, are very good in this movie. Their budding relationship and the unfolding of their ambitions for the future, circumscribed by their clear limitations, weaknesses, and past histories, is interesting and worthwhile. Unfortunately I was distracted by what I felt were cheap laughs at the expense of many characters, including Arquette's ridiculous birthday-balloon costume, the incompetence at the acting workshops, and the characters at her workplace. While it was insightful that Arquette was vilified for actions that would be easy to forget in a big city, her family's nature would be enough to place her at the margins of society. Pretty good and worth seeing, too bad it wasn't better.

Thanks for the nice reviews!.......2001-01-31

Hi, as one of the actors in this small film, I really appreciate the kind words about it. The screenplay by Beth Henley was very funny, infact, in it's original form, the script was a laugh riot. Somehow, either by cost cutting or by director and editing cuts the film was whittled down to a quirky romance, with a lot of the comedy missing. It's still a sweet and funny film. So buy it or rent it, but if you like quirky characters, you'll like this film. -Dean Ricca

High level of maturity needed absolutely. Great movie!.......2000-08-30

Most people won't understand the heartbreak of being pregnant and abandoned. I never see any movies that try to deal with this type of personal tragedy. If you can imagine the pain that Rosanna Arquette's character is dealing with, you can enjoy this movie. The pain of giving a child up must be severe. This poor girl has no one to talk to but brainless idiots and a friend who tries to understand. Did she grow up with no one to care for her? The father of the child marries some rich girl while Arquette's character is still pregnant. OUCH! This type of heartache is something that young women should make it their business to avoid. Watch it and learn. Please.

American Short Story Collection: I'm a Fool

Average customer rating:

I really enjoyed this video
the best of the television years available.
Everyone can relate to this story

American Short Story Collection: I'm a Fool
Starring: John Tidwell , Ron Howard , Amy Irving , Dennis Hopper , and Donna Lee Miller
Director: Noel Black
Manufacturer: Monterey Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000AXWGR2
Release Date: 2006-01-10

Description

Written By: Teleplay Ron Cowen, based on the Sherwood Anderson classic

Starring: Ron Howard, Amy Irving

Directed By: Noel Black Traveling from town to town during the summer of 1919, young Andy ( Ron Howard) has left his Ohio home in search of adventure and romance as a horse trainer on the country fair racing circuit.

More than a little "wet behind the ears", Andy learns a bittersweet lesson about life when he meets Lucy ( Amy Irving, Academy Award Nominee), the girl of his dreams at the racetrack one day. Ashamed of his occupation, Andy leads Lucy to believe he's wealthy.

Soon one deception leads to another, until there is no way to tell Lucy the truth. The irony of the story is that Lucy and Andy have fallen deeply in love. As Andy dejectedly admits on his way out of town, all is lost because "I'M A FOOL."

DVD Features: Author Bio, Actor Bio, Printable Study Guide, About the American Short Story Collection, Audio Interview - Robert Geller, Henry Fonda Intro

Seen on PBS

Customer Reviews:

I really enjoyed this video.......1999-06-04

This is a wonderful performance by James Dean. It should be in every Dean fan's library. Parts of his performance are reminiscent of Chaplin's 'little tramp' character. This video really shows how talented JD was.

the best of the television years available........1998-12-23

Im A fool is the best production for tv that Dean ever did. Though not the best quality it has a timeless story, eddie(green acres) Albert and a 16 year-old Natalie Wood. Deans performance Stands out for its truth and honesty.

Everyone can relate to this story.......1997-11-07

From the start, the narrator always tried to find an easy way through life. Even though the narrator had good intentions by impressing the beautiful woman with lies about his vast wealth, the lies were the same reason that he lost her forever. Good story. END

Average customer rating:

Really good, but sometimes slow and hard to watch.
Excellent 20 years ago, still excellent.
Lots of heat, but no fire
A great Robert Altman ý Sam Shepard collaboration
Same old Shepard galvanized by master artisan

Fool for Love [Region 2]
Starring: Sam Shepard , Kim Basinger , Harry Dean Stanton , Randy Quaid , and Martha Crawford (II)
Director: Robert Altman
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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