Red Desert

Starring:Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti, Xenia Valderi, Rita Renoir, Lili Rheims, Aldo Grotti, Valerio Bartoleschi, Emanuela Paola Carboni, Bruno Borghi, Beppe Conti, Julio Cotignoli, Giovanni Lolli, Hiram Mino Madonia, Giuliano Missirini, Arturo Parmiani, Carla Ravasi, Ivo Scherpiani, Bruno Scipioni
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Director Joe Johnston has always had an entertaining sense of adventure, and with Hidalgo he proves it in spades. It's yet another underrated film for Johnston (along with such enjoyable popcorn flicks as The Rocketeer and Jurassic Park III), dismissed by many critics but a welcome treat for anyone drawn to good ol'-fashioned movie excitement. In his first role since playing Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Viggo Mortensen brings handsome appeal to his low-key portrayal of Frank T. Hopkins, a real-life long-distance horse racer who, as the movie opens, has witnessed the appalling massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. Drifting into Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, he agrees to compete, with his trusty mustang, Hidalgo, in "The Ocean of Fire," a treacherous 3,000-mile horse race across the Arabian desert. Toss in a bunch of conspiring competitors, a noble sheik (Omar Sharif), his lovely daughter (Zuleikha Robinson), and enough fast-paced danger to fill 133 minutes, and you've got a rousing, humorous, and lightly spiritual adventure that's a lot of fun to watch. It hardly matters that it's almost pure fiction (the real Hopkins was known by many as "a pathological liar"). More important is the love of movies and moviemaking that Johnston so delightfully conveys. --Jeff Shannon

Description

A sandstorm of epic proportions. A swarm of locusts so massive it obliterates the relentless sun. Deadly traps that defy imagination. These are just a few of the astonishing obstacles Frank T. Hopkins, the greatest long-distance racer ever, faces in the rousing action-adventure HIDALGO. Based on a true story and starring Viggo Mortensen (THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy), Hopkins (Mortensen) and his mustang Hidalgo enter the ultimate extreme sport of its time -- the Ocean Of Fire. Underdogs challenging the finest Arabian horses and riders, they must not only survive the grueling race across 3,000 miles of the Arabian Desert's punishing terrain, but they must thwart the evil plots of competitors who vow victory at all costs! A great story of personal triumph, amazing special effects, and memorable characters make HIDALGO one of the most thrilling adventures ever.

Customer Reviews:

The kind of movie I never get tired of seeing.......2007-05-11

My profile. 43 yo (and getting better). No qulaifications as a movie critic whatsoever

This is one of those adventure movies I just cannot stop seeing... everything is perfect, the production, the choosing of the actors, the action.. and the love between man and horse united in such way that makes you actually hear the horse's thoughts..

Painted Horse.......2007-03-15

Know one thought Frank Hopkins horse would win, Hidalgo went the 3,000 miles, over the desert of fire. This horse out ran a sand storm, This movie will be my favorite for a long tine.

How did I miss this?.......2007-02-20

When I read about the attachment Viggo Mortensen developed with the horses he rode in Lord of the Rings and later Hidalgo, I decided to buy this DVD. But how did I miss this movie to begin with? Omar Sharif is in it.

This is the fictionalized account of endurance rider Frank T. Hopkin's race in the Arabian desert, and an excellent blend of history, storytelling, movie magic, crossed cultures, and a test of endurance by man and horse. The story starts out with a Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee, in 1890. It takes an honest look at the fate of Native Americans, the American Mustang, and the inevitable rewriting of history by a conqueror, even as it provides an uplifting, sometimes humorous, action-packed story. I loved it, and my husband wanted to watch the DVD a second time within a few days. He rarely does that.

Destined for Greatness.......2007-01-17

The first 10 seconds of the film lays out the theme; transformation. An epic work that is right up there with the swashbuckling films of all times. A must see. We discover again what it means to be genuine, honorable, forgiving, courageous, trustworthy and dependable. To understand that the only one that can stop you from reaching your destiny- is you. To realize that when you remove barriers from between nations, there is an over-flow of love, anticipation and eagerness to enjoy your fellow man. And finally the movie reveals that all of us thirst for freedom, whether here in America or in a far-away land.

Hidalgo.......2007-01-17

A sweet cowboy story with a typical into the sunset ending, this movie is based on the life of Frank Hopkins, a real live long distance racer from American's past. I reccomend this movie for all those who like to see the underdog compete with the big boys and win one.

Average customer rating:

The kind of movie I never get tired of seeing
Painted Horse
How did I miss this?
Destined for Greatness
Hidalgo

Hidalgo (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Viggo Mortensen , Zuleikha Robinson , Omar Sharif , Louise Lombard , and Adam Alexi-Malle
Director: Joe Johnston
Manufacturer: Touchstone / Disney
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00024I2TA
Release Date: 2004-08-03

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Description

Customer Reviews:

The kind of movie I never get tired of seeing.......2007-05-11

Painted Horse.......2007-03-15

Know one thought Frank Hopkins horse would win, Hidalgo went the 3,000 miles, over the desert of fire. This horse out ran a sand storm, This movie will be my favorite for a long tine.

How did I miss this?.......2007-02-20

Destined for Greatness.......2007-01-17

Hidalgo.......2007-01-17

Average customer rating:

Complex, puzzle, claustrophobic, disturbing and brilliant film!
Long Desert, Almost Empty
you should own this beautiful film
Spiritual Desert of the Modern
The Last of Antonioni's Italy

Red Desert
Starring: Monica Vitti , Richard Harris , Carlo Chionetti , Xenia Valderi , and Rita Renoir
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Blow Up

ASIN: B00000JWWG
Release Date: 1999-09-21

Description

Richard Harris and Monica Vitti star in writer/director Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece. An alienated Italian wife searches for meaning in the industrial lunar landscape of Northern Italy, to no avail. Highly acclaimed as a masterpiece of visual form and the winner of the International Critics Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1964.

Customer Reviews:

Complex, puzzle, claustrophobic, disturbing and brilliant film!.......2005-08-22

The first Opus in color of Michelangelo Antonioni is not an easy going film to watch. It is extremely meticulous and harrowing picture. For the first time the rarefied atmosphere of the industrial processes, the marshy environment, the unbearable machines sound, the cloudy weather originated from industrial remainders, the overpopulation metaphor in the trailer, and the grind existential has never been expressed in the screen with such visual power and cynicism.
This gradual alienation has transformed the most of persons who, accustomed to live there in that poisoning surrounding do not perceive anything altered. But this woman seems hard to adapt herself to that oppressive reality:
She is under the rational perspective, to be on the verge of the madness. Her unstoppable schizophrenia and ontological loneliness, makes of her an isolated human being and the inner desolation is simply, a translation of the wrecking environmental degradation.
This towering movie remains as an island film through the years. It's a bold film hard to swallow and assimilate because it hurts.
The final speech between Monica Vitti and his son is one of the most demolisher, sordid, troubling, and brutally bitter in the cinema's story.
Indeed, the little birds know it and they chose to ignore that way.

Long Desert, Almost Empty.......2004-12-12

This film, although gorgeous to watch, is not something easy to behold. Most of the dialogue is mundane and tedious and the protagonists are annoying, spoiled and confounded bourgeoisie. Antonni drags us through their life and its like being dragged along some empty desert by a blind horse. What does he expect from us? Does he want us to side with the ill-fated Monnica Viti who eventually commits suicide in the end? Or does he want us to show that the desert is something very temporary? Either way, the film is a perfect blend of abstract philosophy devoted to these issues, its not entertaining, but neither is reading Hegel.

you should own this beautiful film.......2003-10-04

(rev. 10/4/03)
I don't care if its the orange-tinted DVD copy, or whatever, you have to own at least one copy of this film. It is so very beautiful, and bears repeated viewings. I've seen it forty times, and this is a conservative estimate.

(While you're at it, be sure to see - and own, if your prehensile to the direction in which I hint - Antonioni/Wenders effort, BEYOND THE CLOUDS, a film I saw in a battered print in an art house, after it had made the rounds for a couple of years - and was still able to conclude to an interested friend, that CLOUDS was also one of the most beautiful, intelligent films I had ever seen.)

It doesn't even matter that you can't "understand" it (watch anything enough times, and you'll start to "understand" it.)
Many people who can't fully "understand" (whatever that word really means) this film, like myself, watch it repeatedly.

Which, by the way, is one of the keys to understanding Antonioni: view his films at least a half-dozen times a piece, before rushing to any mad, espresso-inspired conclusions. Let them wash over you in various states and shades of receptivity. They are long meditations as much as they are films. Examine them for their dimensions of art, entertainment, depths of all sorts, and for the relationships of these dimensions to each other. Quite the mind-training, profitable exercise, I can assure. No extra charge for the amount of sensibility deepening they can cause in you, nor the firmness of mind they can challenge and foster in you, if you watch them right.

I don't understand the complaints of 'washout' colors in this film. Viewed on decent equipment, it should look great. To me, watching this film just for its sheer aesthetics, can be like dying and going to heaven. However, to each his own. . .

Perhaps the beauty of 'Il Desserto Rosso' IS of the stark, minimalist 60s variety. No matter. With the way the director has framed -- and paced -- the shots in RED DESERT, even if the film wasn't in color, it would still be very beautiful.

Which doesnt mean this film isnt overwhelming and disturbing, as much of Antonioni's work is. Don't come to Antonioni to use him as a tool to entertain and distract(though he can do that also.)

If it helps, Antonioni may mean different things to each viewer. This is perhaps for the best. As some say of certain aspects of poetry, they cannot be taught: they are best discovered on one's own.

For better understanding of this film, see Cassavete's WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, and compare.

I cannot say enough about the inherent intelligence of this film. Every scene, the nature of Antonioni's pacing, the length with which he lingers on a shot, the sort of script he uses, and the way he has his actors speak their lines -- bespeaks a kind of maturity and intelligence that is a credit to the director, and a flattery to the viewer.

RED DESERT is, in its own way, a rivetting breath of fresh air. It is a distinct clearing of the senses, to experience a beautiful, mature, intelligent film that treats viewers as though they were grown-ups complete with fully-functioning brains.

One way to appreciate/perspect the value of this film, is to consider that it was made just two years after Antonioni's better-known black and white film L'AVVENTURA was declared one of the 'Top Ten Films of All Time' in the famous 'Sight and Sound' film magazines' critics poll.

I have already implied how privileged and gratified one ought to feel at being presented the gift of Antonioni's world of color (he uses Goethe's theory of color, by the way.)

Go ahead. Rent this film. You'll then know what I mean. And you will want to OWN a copy. You'll see it's worth the price for the chance to always have this film around just to relish its sheer beauty and color at intervals. I wish everyone the rare cinematic pleasure this film has afforded me.

It is sad to reflect that many otherwise intelligent people, only know Antonioni (when they know him at all) through his BLOW-UP (1966.) Failure to familiarize oneself with his early 60s work ( aka the Antonioni tetralogy, if you include RED DESERT)leaves one not only shortchanged in one's capacity to appreciate BLOW-UP. It robs one also of one of the most significant, mind-and capacity-improving cultural experiences one could have, at this stage of the game.

(HINT: I own two different VHS prints of this beautiful masterpiece. Sense the dedication: its called, Practice What You Preach.)

Spiritual Desert of the Modern.......2003-01-16

This film is as stark as they come. It begins with lingering shots of an industrial waste land and a confused Monica Vitti wandering aimless within it. Vitti we slowly find out has had some sort of break down and each sequence of the film serves to elaborate the distance she has fallen away from reality. She attempts to find relief from her mental anguish by having an affair with a man who seems to intuitively understand her but the affair does not bring peace to her troubled state of mind. Though Antonioni's first color film this is not what I would call a "beautiful" film. What is striking about Antonionis use of color is how he uses it like a painter uses color and thats to express emotions. For instance Richard Harris' apartment has grey walls but the morning after when Vitti wakes up the walls are a soft pink. It is a striking effect to use colors to describe emotional states. Perhaps this is the scene the other reviewer found to be "beautiful". Most of the film is striking only because it is so stark. Never before or since has any film maker lingered on such ugly things like smoke stacks and industrial waste and the rusting hulls of ships as Antonioni does here. Antonioni purposely makes the world ugly in order to stress that for Vitti at least the world feels uninhabitable. I can think of three great films in the 1960's that dealt with a womans breakdown: Bergman's Persona, Polanski's Repulsion, and this one. Polanski no doubt admired Antonionis color palette and in Rosemary's Baby applies some of the same techniques. I think perhaps the people who will most enjoy this film will be lovers of modern painting, especially European painters of the post war period like Tapies--a painter whose work is often evoked in this film as well as other Antonioni films. Antonioni composes his shots like a painter and is ever sensitive to the way his figures are defined by what he surrounds them with as much as what they do or say. Always an interesting experience to watch an Antonioni but his films do take patience and are definitely for people who already have a taste for existential meditation whether it be in the novel, the museum or in the cinema. I would not suggest starting with this film if you are new to this director. L'Avventura and La Notte are the two I would begin with.

The Last of Antonioni's Italy.......2002-12-19

When Red Desert was released, even the most ardent Antonioni fans expressed grave concern. Then Michelangelo abandoned Italy. In hindsight (always a precarious vantage point), this film is in many ways far superior to his subsequent work (the once popular 'Blow-Up' has dated terribly). The problem with the film is Monica Vitti's character. Is she psychotic? If so, it makes everything she experiences suspect. Richard Harris is suitably stolid as her befuddled husband. In later years, Harris confessed that he found Antonioni to be a "pseudo-intellectual." This, from the Man Called Horse! But what does the film try to say about our industrialized world? Antonioni was obviously fascinated by it and by its implications, as contemporary interviews suggest. But his film seems to present it as a nightmare - through which poor Monica Vitti stumbles, bewildered.

Red Skelton: America's Clown Prince: Lillian Martin/Iceman Goeth/Desert Island/Deadeye & The Alamo/

Average customer rating:

Red at his finest

Red Skelton: America's Clown Prince: Lillian Martin/Iceman Goeth/Desert Island/Deadeye & The Alamo/

Manufacturer: Edi Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Product Description

Episodes: 1 - Lillian Martin; 2 - The Iceman Goeth; 3 - Desert Island; 4 - Deadeye & The Alamo; 5 - Freddie's Romance; PLUS Extra Features: The Pledge of Allegiance, Red at The Reno Rodeo, The French Painter and The Forest Ranger

Customer Reviews:

Red at his finest.......2007-04-12

The tape wasn't exactly what I was looking for my mother wanted the Red Skelton doing the pledge of allegiance and this was not on there. But she loved this one and was very happy with it. I was very happy with the seller Mr. Maning was fantastic shipped it to me very quickly and in perfect condition.

Red Desert / Il Deserto Rosso - (Russian Import - PAL DVD)

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Red Desert / Il Deserto Rosso - (Russian Import - PAL DVD)
Starring: Monica Vitti , Richard Harris , Carlo Chionetti , Xenia Valderi , and Rita Renoir
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Manufacturer: Film Prestige
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

- Italian subtitles
- Deluxe Digipak
- Film Prestige Collection

ASIN: B000MC6XMK

Product Description

NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES and AUDIO!!! Region free, Russian PAL DVD (not playable on standard US DVD players). Audio Tracks: original DD 2.0 ITALIAN and DD 2.0 RUSSIAN. SUBTITLES: ITALIAN and RUSSIAN. ATTENTION: PAL is European video standard which WILL NOT play on regular R1 DVD player (multisystem PAL/NTSC compatible DVD player required). Please, get familiar with all details about DVD video standards and region coding to prevent any misunderstandings............................................................ SYNOPSIS: Red Desert (Il Deserto Rosso) once more combines the considerable talents of director Michelangelo Antonioni and star Monica Vitti. Cast as Giuliana, an unhappy wife, Vitti suffers from an unnamed form of depression and malaise. Her quicksilver emotional shifts disturb everyone around her, but they, like she, pretend that nothing is truly wrong. British engineer Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris) seems to understand what Giuliana is really after in life, and he acts upon it by entering into an affair with the troubled woman. Giuliana eventually comes to terms with her physical and mental pain, but this hardly means that she's "cured" in the conventional sense. Monica Vitti's sense of isolation is heightened by Antonioni's (and cinematographer Carlo DiPalma's) choice of colors, and especially by Carlo Savina's bizarre electronic musical score. This is a landmark movie in Antonioni's effort to portray alienated individuals in contemporary life; he places people against towering forms of technology to emphasize their smallness and lostness in the modern world of technological change.

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Girls on Bulls: Desert Heat
Starring: Girls on Bulls
Manufacturer: Red Static Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BBOU7C
Release Date: 2006-04-04

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Jordan: The Royal Tour

Manufacturer: Travel Channel
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Description

You can't get a better tour guide than the monarch of his own country. Opening with His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein riding his motorcycle through the red and dusty desert, what follows is an eye opening journey through one of the most exotic countries in the Middle-East. From the craggy peaks of Wadi Rum to the depths of the Red Sea, come with us as we scuba dive, explore the beauty of Petra, walk the Roman ruins of Jerash and come face to face with a Bedouin Camel Guard. We'll take you along with us as we uncover all of the treasures the country of Jordan has to offer.

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