List Price: $14.99 Our Price: $13.49YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
DVD Islands in the Stream
The film of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published novel has the air of an Important Event that never quite comes off. Here's Thomas, an artist who's outlived his artistry and settled into sun-kissed reclusiveness on one of the lesser Bahamas. With World War II literally rumbling on the luminous horizon, he divides his time between torturing metal into sculpture, lolling with semi-worshipful retainers and cronies, and committing occasional acts of petty, booze-induced, aimless destructiveness. He is, of course, not Ernest Hemingway. But if he were, who in 1979 would have more appropriately been asked to incarnate him than that disputatious, granite-jawed, reclusively inclined, Oscar-scorning actor George C. Scott? And who better to preside over the ceremony than Franklin J. Schaffner, the director of that earlier celebration of truculently rugged individualism, Patton?
Alas, Scott doesn't so much act as pose, and Schaffner sets up every shot and every encounter like a dust-jacket for a tasteful book-club edition (the DVD transfer is impeccably crisp; the images, stillborn). Thomas's attempts to bond with the three sons who come to visit after years of estrangement are painful, mostly because of the badness of the kids' dialogue and the worseness of the kid actors. However, as Thomas's boon companion Eddie--the "good man" rummy reminiscent of To Have and Have Not--David Hemmings is heartbreakingly fine. So, astonishingly, is the final reel, an absurdist adventure on the periphery of war... and we realize there could have been, should have been, a good movie in this bad idea for a movie after all. --Richard T. Jameson
After the sonorous triumph that constituted Patton, Franklin Schaffner bet again with George Scott with this nostalgic cinematographic adaptation based on Hemingway 's novel about the decision of a sculptor to retire himself for living with his sons in an island where they will remain isolated and where obviously will spurt conflicts with his ex wife.
A synopsis of HEMMINGWAY'S self-analysis of his life
I first saw this movie while based in the Bahamas working for the US Gov't as a contractor, at the time I had a good background with Hemmingway, thanks to a very good literate public education (which seems to be lacking today) that emphasised excellent authors such as Hemmingway, Thoreau, and Cooper. The movie, an excellent and faithful, but somewhat concised version of the book, follows what I consider Hemmingway's "self-lament" on the failings of his life and his desires for what he lost during the course of his full and enriched life-style, mainly, a stable and enriched family life and meaningful marriage. The book's fictional charecter, Thomas Hudson, mirrors in many ways Ernest Hemmingway's profile and charecterizes his life. The movie itself, especially if seen in widescreen, has excellent cinematography of the Bahama archielago. The charecters, although predictable, are not shallow, are identifiable and plausible, and the events and charecterizations based loosely upon factual events and incidents. The slight underlying political ramifications (such as the jewish immigrants, failures of both Cuba and the US in the immigrations laws, lack of Royal Navy prescence in the Bahamas)are all factual and in itself are generally forgotten when making movies and entertainment media of the time period. The Thomas Hudson characterization itself is indicative of Hemmingway's own personal "recklessness" of spirit and action.
Nearly perfect film of Hemmingway novel
Set against the backdrop of the second World War, "Islands in the Stream" tells the story of painter Thomas Hudson (George C. Scott in a terrific performance) who has escaped to the Bahamas in hopes of isolating himself from the world. The world still finds him in the form of the storm clouds of war and the visit of his sons from his two marriages. Hudson tries to reconnect with his young sons in particularly his middle boy who habors anger towards being adandoned by his father. The late David Hemmings gives a terrific supporting turn as Eddy a British ex-patriot who works for Hudson and is his closest friend. The veteran and young cast do a terrific job with the economical screenplay by Denne Bart Petitclerc (creator of the old TV show "Then Came Bronson")based on Ernest Hemmingway's posthumously published novel.
Director Franklin J. Schaffner ("Patton", "Papillion", "Planet of the Apes" and "The War Lord")was made to direct this material. His lyrical direction helps the cast give transcendant and powerful performances. Scott as usual puts his all into his portrayal of Hudson. The print struck and used here looks exceptionally good.
Paramount has done a exceptionally nice job in transferring this classic film to DVD. While not a perfect transfer, the bright vivid colors and crisp, sharp clear images perfectly capture the lazy ambience of the Bahamas. Although the source material isn't the best novel Hemmingway ever wrote it was, perhaps, his most honest. One can detect more than a whiff of autobiography in Hemmingway's Hudson and that element is strengthened by Scott's performance.
The film comes sans extras which is a pity (I wish that Paramount would look at the terrific job Warner Home Video has done with some of their smaller cult classics and follow suit)but it does feature a beautiful widescreen transfer of the film. Highly recommended.
This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $8.98YOU SAVE $6!
Buy it
John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: $14.99YOU SAVE $5!
Buy it
George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) directed this adaptation of James Michener's novel about the history of the 50th state. Max von Sydow plays a zealous missionary with a Calvinist bent, intent on enlightening the natives even as his wife (Julie Andrews) is romanced by the dashing Richard Harris. The film is both a glossy vision of Hawaii in the early 19th century and a sometimes-brutal drama full of death, a rough childbirth, stormy weather, etc. Hill's blunt editing, meant to emphasize the more terrifying aspects of the natural order of life, makes the film look particularly dated and mannered today. This is best appreciated for its cast, all of whom were making inroads in Hollywood at the time. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julie Andrews - Max von Sydow - Richard Harris Director(s): George Roy Hill DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.95 Your Price: $11.96YOU SAVE $2.99!
Buy it
Carol Reed (The Third Man) directed this 1965 portrait of the relationship between Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison), who commissioned the artist to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Based on a novel by Irving Stone, the script plods along, juggling the dynamics between the two men along with a somewhat perfunctory love story and distracting battle sequences. Reed seems more attuned to the nuances and great pains of the artistic process, as seen in sequences of Michelangelo working. But the overall focus of the film is unfortunately fuzzy. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Rex Harrison Director(s): Carol Reed DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.98 Your Price: $9.98YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
This vastly underrated Arthur Penn film from the mid-1970s ranks as one of the era's nastiest and most fascinating pieces of business, a detective story that shuttles back and forth between Hollywood and the Florida Keys, with a plot nearly as complex as Chinatown. Gene Hackman stars as a tired, aging private eye who, as a favor to a friend, agrees to track down a runaway teen. But the case turns out to be something much larger: a smuggling ring of Mayan antiquities. The human impulses get darker and darker and Hackman's character gets pulled in deeper and deeper, even as his own life is falling apart. Ultimately, in one of his best and most unsung performances, Hackman winds up hurting the people he is trying to help. A great cast includes Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren, a young... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Hackman - Jennifer Warren Director(s): Arthur Penn DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.97 Your Price: $15.98YOU SAVE $3.99!
Buy it
