Return to Innocence

Starring:Richard Meese, Andrew Martin (III), Steve De Forest, Cynthia Downey, Shawn Berry, Lou Franson, Jeff Harman, Joseph Ragusa, Darian Weiss, Madelaine Culp, Monte Van Vleet, Brett Chukerman, Trevor Evans (III), Onika Nicole Craven, Carolyn Robertson, Bill Crowley, Paul Vito Abato, Wes Martin, Jeremy Sullivan, Corey Foxx, Rocky Costanzo, Richard Meese, Andrew Martin, Steve DeForest, Lou Franson, Shawn Berry, Madeline Culp, Cynthia Downey, Joseph Ragusa, Darian Weiss
Director: Rocky Costanzo, Richard Meese
Studio: LifeLine Entertainment, Inc
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

outstanding
Powerful
Very Powerful
Good premise, ok film
Guilty until proven innocent

Return to Innocence
Starring: Richard Meese , Andrew Martin (III) , Steve De Forest , Cynthia Downey , and Shawn Berry
Director: Richard Meese , and Rocky Costanzo
Manufacturer: LifeLine Entertainment, Inc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Abandoned
For A Lost Soldier
The Boys of St. Vincent
Man of Ashes
You Are Not Alone

ASIN: B00008DP18
Release Date: 2003-04-01

Customer Reviews:

outstanding.......2005-12-30

one of the better movies i have ever seen. there are two or three cast members that need to go back to school but they hold very minor parts and anyone can get thru them. the underlying theme of this movie is man/child love but after the beginning it is not soo apparent. i almost turned this movie off about 15 minutes into it. [i had just watched 2 1/2 french speaking films] if you wtched latter days you know that even God hates the french. ha. i was really happy to see that this movie is in black and white. had it been in color it would have lost a lot of what makes this movie great. based on a true story, the starkness reminds me a little of "Citizen cane." the stories are not alike at all but the stark reality is there for both of them. this movie does not have the strange camera angles that c.k. had but the director makes a great movie with the light. this is a great movie and i thoroughly enjoyed it. we need more like this but would like to see more gay actors in them.

Powerful.......2004-12-31

I bought this DVD not knowing what to expect -- it had been recommended by Amazon.com -- and the initial thoughts that swept through my mind when I started watching it were "It's in black and white!" and "wooden acting." But after only 20 minutes, I had to turn off the film. Only about 18 months later did I find the courage to watch the entire film -- not because it is has a dreadful director or actors but because it contains stomach-wrenching power.

The director, Rocky Costanzo, concedes in the audio commentary that he picked the script, which draws a broad line between pederasty and [...], and directed it at the age of 27 just to get noticed. But he is so disarmingly frank about the film's weaknesses that it's impossible to hold any grudges.

That said, Costanzo and every actor clearly gave this no-budget film everything they had and then some. The film is hauntingly shot and makes a superb use of shadows. Some of the actors -- particularly the police detective and the defense lawyer -- give compelling performances but, most importantly, the actor playing the sexually abused boy, Andrew Martin, then 14, manages to arouse simultaneous feelings of sympathy and anger -- a difficult feat for any actor.

The film is at its best in the courtroom, where the hero goes on trial on false sex abuse charges. The surprise testimony from a former boy prostitute whose life was changed by the defendent brought tears to my eyes.

"Return to Innocence" symbolizes all that is wonderful about independent films and DVDs. No major studio would have picked up this project, and if it wasn't for the DVD, I never would have seen it.

Very Powerful.......2004-03-11

When you aren't expecting much from an indie movie, sometimes you can be caught off guard the way I was with this one. These scenes were so powerful and in your face that it was hard to take at times. I liked the attorney the best. He was calm throughout the difficult scenes. I also thought the main boy did a nice performance. Good job all around including the dark music, which only added to the darkness of the movie.

Good premise, ok film.......2004-01-28

As the previous reviewers have stated, this is indeed a powerful film. However, itýs the premise and some (certainly not all) of the performances which make it so. The film itself leaves much to be desired. The thankfully original and wholly worthy premise is that a 13 year-old boy who was once sexually exploited by his own mother happens to be in love with an older married man who is now his counselor. There is a mutual and highly plausible love between the boy and the man. But when itýs discovered that the man has had sex with the boy, the man, of course, must pay. His job, his career, his reputation, his life with the wife he loves (whoýs expecting a child), will all be lost when the news is made public. When the man dies from wounds sustained in an accident, the boy avenges the manýs accuser by claiming the accuser ý not the man he loved ý ýmolestedý the boy. The remainder of the film is devoted to the accuserýs trial ý and, in a nice twist, the accuserýs guarding of the boyýs ýsecretý from the eyes of the law, which could certainly never understand. Most of the performances in the film seem completely amateurish with the notable exception of the boy, Tommy, played with a sad, noble innocence by Andrew Martin (who has only two gratuitous underwear shots and conveys a very convincing need to be loved, really loved, throughout). The accuser, his lawyer and the trial judge also play their parts very effectively. The filmýs direction, brave and welcome as it may be to present a story of this magnitude, seems far more hackneyed. The choice of black and white video filming may seem ultra cheap (the movie was never transferred to film), but it lends the atmosphere a somewhat appropriate air of exploitation documentary like youýd expect to see on late-night cable TV. But the incessant talking (everybody has A LOT to say in this film) and the annoying two takes that director Rocky Costanzo uses in almost every one of the far too long dialog scenes are unnecessary AND unartful (one speaker bathed by white, another speaker bathed in black, back and forth, back and forth, back and forthýyou get the point). Iýd recommend this film to any of the witch hunters out for so-called child molesters who donýt understand the potential of love that a boy can have for a man and the love that a man can have for a boy. But it doesnýt matter. The only people who will see this film ý or care about its message ý are the people who already agree with its premise. Interesting, none the less.

Guilty until proven innocent.......2004-01-21

Reality is what I took from watching this film. What a perfect example of how society is today. Why do so many people "assume" that a person is guilty of a crime just because they are accused? That is something I will never understand. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

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