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DVD Oleanna
David Mamet's hot-button stage work comes to the screen, with Mamet at the directing helm and all of the play's provocations intact. It's a sinister two-hander, with William H. Macy as a smug college professor and Debra Eisenstadt as a desperate student who's struggling in his class. When the story moves to its second act, the twin specters of sexual harassment and political correctness are raised, forcing us to reassess the argument we've been watching. Brilliantly tooled as a stage workout, Oleanna loses something in its transfer to the screen, although it is always bracing to see Macy create one of his meticulous portraits of a less-than-heroic man. Mamet's ear for the absurdities of late-twentieth-century jargon (especially of the politicized variety) is mercilessly accurate, and in this ticked-off look at the intricacies of a power play, he gives you an earful. --Robert Horton
A previous reviewer called this film unnerving. Being a university professor, I can certainly attest that it touched a nerve. Oleanna is a fascinating character study that will almost certainly evoke powerful feelings in whoever watches it. After seeing it, I felt a lingering sense of unease that I couldn't quite explain. I thought about the film a long time before the reason dawned on me.
Oleanna is a story about a power play between two relatively unsympathetic characters: a pompous, complacent Professor and a dedicated, but dense, Student. At the start, the failing Student is seeking help from the seemingly indifferent Professor. As the plot slowly unfolds, the advantage gradually shifts from the Professor to the Student. By the end of the story, it's shockingly clear how high the stakes really were--the power play has morphed into a death match.
Some reviewers have argued that each character's point of view has merit. For example, the Student has sacrificed & struggled to get to college, and is (rightly) angry that she if failing a course by a the Professor who holds higher education in utter contempt. That being said, the Student is clearly unable to grasp anything beyond a literal interpretation of what she reads, hears, or experiences. Because of this, it's painfully obvious that she doesn't belong in college. However, rather than hold her to a clear intellectual standard, the Professor tries to coddle and accomodate her. It is this misguided deed, combined with her literal & paranoid interpretation of his actions, that leads to the Professor's undoing.
In the aftermath of their initial meeting, the Student charges the Professor with sexual harrassment and abuse of power. In subsequent acts, the Professor tries to reason with her, which only makes matters worse. Ultimately, she convinces the all-powerful Tenure committee to embrace her version of the truth. Only in the final act is it revealed she may have been out to destroy the Professor from the start. In fact, there's a not so subtle hint that she thinks she's God. And why shouldn't she? By the end of the story she has managed to change the destiny of both the Professor and herself. So what is the moral of this story? It is, simply, that the educated will let the stupid inherit the Earth. What makes Oleanna particulary frightening is that this can, and does, happen every day.
Worst acting ever!
I turned this movie on one morning and was glued to it for 30 mins because I just knew it was a joke! WHM spoke as if he were on an infomercial, and the actress who played the student was no better.Knowing now that it was based on a play makes perfect sence. Plays hardly ever translate to good films! The acting in a play is just totally different, overly dramatic, not believable.
Sorry, I hate to write a review based on 30 mins in the middle of a movie, but I purposely researched the title of this one so I could warn others off. No, actually, DO watch it! I want you to see for yourself how awful it is!
and I like W.H. Macy!
Thought Provoking
Oleanna gets my solid recommendation, at least for people who like small movies with really intense acting performances. Adapted pretty much straightforward from the play, it benefits from the intimacy of television, as it gets no benefit from being on a big screen. It is not really a feminist film as neither character is portrayed in a particularly flattering manner.
Oleanna is basically a two-character film, which is divided into three sections, corresponding to three visits by a young college woman to her professor's faculty office. It is a small elite college and coming from a modest background she has had to make a lot of sacrifices to attend the school. As we come to know her we see that she harbors an "extreme" amount of resentment concerning these sacrifices.
The Professor (William Macy who played the role on the stage) is pompous, arrogant, and overbearing. He pontificates excessively and having him as your instructor would not be an inspirational experience. His approach to teaching and the film's title (a reference to a couple who sold swampland to unsuspecting saps) is a slap at the rip-off that passes for higher education.
Carol (Debra Eisenstadt) is flunking his class, her work is inadequate but she feels entitled to special treatment because of her disadvantaged social situation and her many sacrifices to attend the school. It is on this point that the film is especially interesting because part of her situation has merit, she simply wants him to teach her-to respect her and her aspirations for an education (i.e. to actually be a teacher). And someone from her background should receive help with the technical terms and theoretical abstractions, which are familiar to those who received better preparation in high school. Toward the end of her first visit the professor for unknown reasons switches from stern taskmaster into his paternal mode and seems to realize that he really should be doing his job better.
But Carol misinterprets his sudden interest and on her second visit informs him that she and a support "group" are pursing a sexual harassment complaint with his tenure committee. Her allegations, when viewed out of context appear to have merit and upset him enough that he physically blocks her exit. This simply compounds his trouble.
Her third visit occurs after he has been denied tenure and is packing up to leave the school. While clear that the professor has never had any sexual interest in her and was not trying to trade sexual favors for a grade, Carol's interpretation of his actions seems reasonable and sincere until she attempts to blackmail him and condescendingly admonishes him about the pet name he uses for his wife. At that point (if not before) you realize that she is a nut case who has irresponsibly ruined his life, in part because of her resentment about her overall situation at the college and in part because of an unconscicious desire for power.
This makes for a intriguing twist as Carol is revealed as one of those well meaning people so caught up in the rightness of their cause (and the seductive power of suddenly having influence) that they become blind to the human consequences of their actions.
David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut was this mesmerizing study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist, and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for con men to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lindsay Crouse - Joe Mantegna Director(s): David Mamet DVD Release Date: Released the 19 December 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Campbell Scott plays a green young technocrat who invents a secret and highly successful high-tech process that, it appears, most of the free world would like to get their hands on. His own company may not be dealing with him fairly, and competitors are lurking around every street corner and kiddie carousel in New York (not to mention Caribbean hideaways) hoping to steal, cajole, or trick him out of the formula. The plot is as full of switchbacks as a mountain highway, and the delights are in watching it unfold around Scott, who is not so much of a naif that he doesn't catch on that not only his formula, but his life, are in dire danger. Steve Martin is consummately assured--and scary as hell--as a wealthy big shot determined to come out on top. David Mamet's script is refreshingly free... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Steve Martin - Ben Gazzara Director(s): David Mamet DVD Release Date: Released the 04 November 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Pity the poor film director (William H. Macy). He's arrived with cast and crew in the perfectly Rockwellian town of Waterford, Vermont, only to discover that the local mill--a crucial location for his movie, since it's titled "The Old Mill"--burned down in 1960. The idealistic screenwriter (Philip Seymour Hoffman) would rather pursue a pure-hearted local (Rebecca Pidgeon) than do a last-minute rewrite; the town's aspiring politico (Clark Gregg) wants to milk the production for every dime it's worth; the oft-exposed bimbo starlet (Sarah Jessica Parker) is now balking at her contractual nude scene; and a local teenager (Julia Stiles) is only too willing to exploit the indiscretions of the film's skirt-chasing star (Alec Baldwin). And of course, the power-wielding producer (David Paymer) is... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Rebecca Pidgeon Director(s): David Mamet DVD Release Date: Released the 19 June 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Like moths to a flame, great actors gravitate to the singular genius of playwright-screenwriter David Mamet, who updated his Pulitzer Prize-winning play for this all-star screen adaptation. The material is not inherently cinematic, so the movie's greatest asset is Mamet's peerless dialogue and the assembly of a once-in-a-lifetime cast led by Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Alec Baldwin (the last in a role Mamet created especially for the film). Often regarded as a critique of the Reagan administration's impact on the American economy, the play and film focus on a competitive group of real estate salesmen who've gone from feast to famine in a market gone cold. When an executive "motivator" (Alec Baldwin) demands a sales contest among the agents in the cramped office, the stakes are critically... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jack Lemmon - Al Pacino Director(s): James Foley DVD Release Date: Released the 19 November 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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