FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Waking The Dead [DVD] [1999]

Waking The Dead [DVD] [1999]
enlarge	Director: Keith Gordon Actors: Billy Crudup, Bill Haugland, Nelson Landrieu, Ivonne Coll, Jennifer Connelly Studio: Uca Catalogue Category: DVD List Price: ~~£5.99~~ Buy New: £1.87 as of 23/11/2009 01:16 GMT details You Save: £4.12 (69%) New (16) Used (10) from £1.60 Seller: morediscsltd Rating: 7 reviews Sales Rank: 27091 Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Italian (Dubbed) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 101 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5050582011562 ASIN: B000057X1E Theatrical Release Date: March 24, 2000 Release Date: April 4, 2005 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review IWaking the Dead/I, like director-writer Keith Gordon's earlier films (IThe Chocolate War/I, IA Midnight Clear/I, IMother Night/I), is based on a well-regarded modern novel (by Scott Spencer) and has a great many quiet virtues: a genuine engagement with near-contemporary America, complicated characters well-played by a cast of perfectly selected not-quite-star performers and a questioning approach that sits ill with the too-easy answers of most contemporary films. The complex story opens in 1974 with the death in a car bomb explosion of Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly), a radical working with a faction of left-wing Catholics to rescue dissidents from Chile. This has a devastating effect on her straighter boyfriend, Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup), who is working within the system with an eye on rising in the Democratic Party through the patronage of a senior figure (Hal Holbrook), the man who is eventually to become the President. p We flash back to 1972 and Fielding's intense relationship with Sarah, marked by romantic and political differences that feel far more real than the contrived oppositional arguments in most political movies. Then skip 10 years forward to find a sleeker, hollow-faced Fielding running for Congress, tormented not only by memories of Sarah but her actual or phantasmal appearances. Another film might play this as a paranoid mystery thriller, but this goes for psychology, and Crudup delivers an intense portrait of a man cracking up by the loss of his ideals as much as his life's love--climaxing in a terrific restaurant outburst to his needy, congratulatory family. Unreleased theatrically in the UK, this outstanding film has award-quality performances from Crudup and Connelly, both doing their best screen work to date. pBOn the DVD:/B The picture is presented in 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital sound. You get the usual trailer, filmographies and puff piece featurette, but also three superb extras: a commentary from Gordon that passionately and intelligently addresses the thematic material and production circumstances of the film; a package of deleted scenes that goes well beyond the usual irrelevant snippets--everything here offers additional insights into the plot and character; tracks from the composers Tomandandy which play over the menus--a rare feature that's liable to become more common. --IKim Newman/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 1 2 Next » Love has no ending October 20, 2001 8 out of 10 found this review helpful Few films these days seem to get the chemistry just right when suggesting romantic inter-play between two people since for every 'Betty Blue' there is some Hollywood film that dribbles in sentimantality.brWaking the Dead though is just one of those rare films that lets you see the light and reminds you of the intensity by which the joining of two people through love for each other can be.brTrue love can last a lifetime even after the other person has departed since we will always have memories of them.brIn Waking the Dead it reminds us of this but also how we will always have images of them that will be reactivated by little moments in life and in people that we see that some how remind us of he or she.brIn the trailer to the film there suggested a supernatural element (is she / isnt she really alive) but purposely in the film it is left up to the viewers imagination as to what is considered real or not real.brIn every sense though this film is real and certainly the scenes involving Chilie's political turmoil in the 70's give it an added layer of texture of the cruel realities that life sometimes has to offer us but yet some things such as love cannot be destroyed.brOpen your mind, turn out the lights and have no distraction. Just journey into this film and love it for all its time it gives you, then watch it on DVD and see all the deleted scenes. In these scenes (Which last over 40 minutes) it provides an added texture to the film and depth to characters that you care about and again reminds you of what seperates the good films from the bad films of this world.brA film with out flaws is a rare thing indeed and i am sure some New York critic would rip my review to shreds but all i know is what i see and what i felt with my heart. Enjoy! Amazing yet Powerful April 17, 2003 Gordon Russell (United Kingdom) 10 out of 13 found this review helpful There i was, sitting on the back of a British naval war ship, at 0300 hours, stationed in the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, tempratures of -20 degrees celcius, keeping a watch on the ships gangway, when one of the lads came up and said "here jack, fling that in your dvd player", so i did. I have seen a lot of films in my time, many scary, many sad and many violent, but this is probably the most heart rendering and powerful film i have ever seen, and is the only one where i have had a tear in my eye at the sheer overwhelming intense atmosphere that i felt while sitting there helplessly in front of the screen. I dont know if it was just the location and time, but i believe that this is one of the most outstanding films of its time and i would fully recommend anyone to if not buy, at least watch, this piece of cinematic amazement!!! beautiful, poignant, mesmerising. July 4, 2001 6 out of 8 found this review helpful This film was a uniquely sincere cathartic experience. It was truely a beautiful film that was deeply intelligent not really on a cerebral level but certainly on an emotional level. It was emotively provactive to such a large scale. The acting was phenomenal the direction amazing, but it was how the characters related to eachother, the great acting the beautiful dialogue but most importantly the realistic raw emotion that was reflected upon the screen. The emotion was so severe that sometimes it was almost uncomfortable to watch but ultimately fulfilling. pThis is a wonderful film that should be watched as it confronts realistically large philosohical ponderings and basic human interaction and ideals.The emotion permeates from the screen to the audiance in flawless waves. A delectably fulfilling profound treat to watch. Haunted by Love January 11, 2003 4 out of 6 found this review helpful Jodie Foster was the executive producer on this very good film about a real love between two people which may even be strong enough to transend death. Jennifer Connelly could easily have garnered an Oscar here if anyone had noticed. For that matter so could Billy Crudup. This is a real film about real people, filled with quiet passion and heartbreak. The questions it poses are not easily answered. Can we ever forget real love and move on? Are those we loved still with us somehow after death?pJennifer Connelley is Sarah Williams, a young and bright girl with a heart to full of love and compassion to let injustice rule the world. She is trying to make a difference through her church's efforts in Chile to smuggle out refugees when a bomb explodes, changing the life of her lover Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) forever.br brWhat follows are shifts in time as we see the young John Kennedy like Fielding find true love with this wonderful girl who doesn't seem to fit in with his political aspirations. It is a real and tender love explored more fully by director Keith Gordon than we often see today in films. Sarah becomes the cricket on his shoulder, his conscience for all that is good. pBut years later he still can not move on from that moment when his life ended. It is as though his soul was killed in the blast as well. Fielding is about to become a congressman while at the same time unsure if he is losing his sanity. A snowy night turns dark and he feels Sarah in the snow surrounding him. He begins to see her watching him. Is it possible she is still alive? Or is love reaching across the threshold of death.pWe may not have any conclusive answers when this film is over but it is still satisfying. Crudup is terrific as a phone call brings him to the brink of a mental breakdown and Connelly gives a haunting performance as the love that saves him once more. How she does so is left up to us. This is a somber and beautiful meditation on love and how lucky we are to ever find it.pThe shifts in time are mesmerizing in this richly romantic and hauntingly beautiful film you must see. It is genuinely unique and never to be forgotten once you have.... Fielding Pierce runs for Congress haunted by his dead love February 4, 2005 Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) 14 out of 15 found this review helpful Things get a little too cute at the end of "Waking the Dead," and while I appreciate the idea of leaving up what "really" happened to the audience, I do not think that this was the film was the one in which to try this particular trick. After all, this movie is not a ghost story, even though the main character is haunted by the dead woman that he loved, but a film that mixes romance and politics to the point where the film's big question really matters and should have been answered more directly.pIn 1982 a stunned Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) learns form the evening news that the woman he loves, Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connely) has been killed by a car bomb attack because of her involvement in opposing the corrupt government of Chile and U.S. involvement. We then go back to see how they first met, when he was serving in the Coast Guard, to avoid going to Vietnam, and she was the secretary for his brother, who is running some sort of counter culture magazine. He longs for a career in politics and she wants to bring down the system. Yet when Fielding says he wants to be president some day, she smiles because he clearly means it. pThese two characters from Scott Spencer's novel are politically polarized and these differences only grow as the two fall in love. They take turns accompanying each other to important social functions at which the other one become an embarrassment, before Sarah goes off and gets killed for her beliefs. Ten years later Fielding is given the opportunity to run in a special election for a seat in the U.S. Congress, as the handpicked choice of the governor and his chief political hack (Hal Holbrook). This is the first step to what Fielding has wanted his entire life, only Sarah sees it as a betrayal. True, Sarah has been dead ten years at this point, but that does not stop Fielding from first hearing and then seeing her. pIs Fielding going insane, is he being haunted, or is this some sort of sick game? Good question, but do not ask me the answer because I watched the movie. It is hard to spoil a movie when you are not sure what really happened at the end, although I could hazard a guess. Ultimately, the politics clashes between Fielding and Sarah are more interesting than their romance. You have to wonder how their relationship would have ended if she had not died, because sooner or later one of them would have had to blink. One of the strengths of "Waking the Dead" is that both of them are right and you think that if only they could find a way to work together great things could happen.p"Waking the Dead" is one of those titles that has a double meaning, for it applies to Fielding as much as it does to Sarah. That sense of ambiguity pervades Keith Gordon's 2000 film and certainly explains why the ending is so open to interpretation. But for me it does not quite work in the end, although Fielding's scene in his Congressional office works much better than his dinner with his family. Still, this is an interesting film for those who like to see film that try to play with an audience's mind (and which should be avoid like the plague by those who did enjoy "Fight Club" or "Memento"). Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 1 2 Next »

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