Perfect movie I find it really a disgrace that it isn't available on DVD region 1 along with the making of documentary.The first time I saw it, I found it to be amazing and beautiful.Although it is slow moving, it is really worth the effort to sit thru it and enjoy. There are some departures from the novella, but they only enhance the film. I recommend reading the short story after the movie like I did.
Slow movie with a perfect ending. The last scene of "The Dead" includes a voice over by Donal McCann and just may be one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. In retrospect it was the perfect way for John Huston to finish his long career. But before this scene, I found the movie challenging to sit through. The acting was superb but much like Huston's "Under the Volcano", the story seemed to meander along at a slow pace and and I lost my interest, hoping something would happen soon. My patience was rewarded in the last scene, but I think the movie would have been better as a short feature film (featurette) of perhaps 45 minutes. As it is, I can't give it more than 3 stars, but I'm still glad I saw it, and it should be on DVD.
Update: the movie is available on a PAL region 2 DVD in the UK. It's for sale at amazon.co.uk
Achingly faithful to the great short story It's a great sadness this movie has not been converted into a readily available DVD. It turned me on to the James Joyce short story of the same name and now both live in my mind, frequently inspiring me to dwell on how the shared memories of our lifetimes make up who we are, both as individuals and a community. If you are at all introspective about your life, I am almost certain you will love this film. If you have seen it, maybe it belongs in your personal collection. It is the ONLY ONE in mine.
Richer with each viewing I saw this this first time at the movies 20 years ago on a magical evening when snow was swirling as I left the theater. I had loved the short story and thought the film was a good adaptation. Since then I have seen it three or four more times on video and each time I find that the movie speaks to me more eloquently. Last time I saw it was two years ago and I have to admit I started crying after about ten minutes and wound up sobbing for the last fifteen or so. If there's perfection in filmmaking, this is it. John Houston somehow managed to make a film that improves on the finest short story in the English language. Where is the DVD????
A great adaptation of James Joyce's short story Considered by most critics as John Huston's last masterpiece, I think it's very good, but not deserving that high rank. First of all one has to read the original story, because of the lack of action everything is very subtle, everything happens as an undercurrent. One hints only at things for they exist no longer except in the minds of the people gathered here. Besides, those things belong in the past. They are memories, lost loves, lost youths and fond memories all. Dublin lives in the past, among the dead. All Dublin except for Gabriel (the alter ego of Joyce himself), who wants out of this Irish cemetery, even to the risk of being labeled a Brit. What's Galway compared to the continent? But his emigrating will have more than social repercussions. He has to consider his wife, who also belongs in the world of the past through the remembrance of her young lover, of long ago.
Luckily for Joyce, his wife (when they left Ireland they were still unmarried) wasn't like that. He had his Nora with him, and they were of the same thinking. But that was unusual in those times, breaking away with traditions and conventions.
There's a lot to learn from these kind of films. We in Spain can relate also, in this time when regional clans and their nazionalism pulls us apart for the sake of their mythical past and local heroes, and poisons us politically filling us with hatred towards one another, what is best to do? To search for ghosts of the past and live quixotically, or to break away from the political-correct oppression of social-nazionalism and emigrate to... where? Don't give in to what people say is the truth. Find out for yourself.
By the way, I figured out why I couldn't like the film as much as i wanted to (after watching it for the third time): I don't like very much the way Angelica Huston plays Gabriel's wife. It's just not convincing at all. Everybody else is wonderful, though.
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