Big Eden
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.99 You Save: $4.96 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $8.63 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Big Eden
Movie Review: Now this IS gay pride
Summary: 5 Stars
Much can be said about Big Eden being nothing but a fantasy world...but what a magnificant world it is! Big Eden is a magical place simply because it is so down to earth and understanding. It's only considered a fantasy because many perceive "gay life" as young 20somethings dancing and drugging it up at some flashly gay bar. And then there are gay pride parades...which are nothing more than freak shows. Most people believe that the gay lifestyle is all about drama and many gay men make that assumption believeable. I'm gay and I don't blame the world for any of these perceptions.
Big Eden is simply the "other" gay world. Do I believe it exists? Absolutely...though maybe not on the grand scale that Big Eden presents. But Big Eden gets so much credit from me for not having any sex scenes, no drag queens, no flashy designer clothes and no stereotypical gay behavior.
There is an issue of whether the town's people are conspiring from the very beginning to bring together Henry and Pike. With repeated viewings I see more and more that would indicate this. If this is the case, it's all the more magical! Big Eden, as a place and as a movie, is all about being subtle. It's about people reconviening at a place and time to find themselves and others and to move forward.
Actually Big Eden isn't a gay love story. It's simply a love story. Big Eden certainly isn't a gay mecca...it's simply a real community of caring people--like communities should be but often are not. And that's why some will view this story as pure fantasy.
The story is awesome...the acting subtle and real. This is a movie with a message...maybe a warning of sorts to gay people. Instead of pointing out to the world how different we are, maybe we such just concentrate on showing the world how similar we are to everyone else. Instead of working so hard to build our own community, maybe we should just join the community that is already there.
Movie Review: For lovers and romantics of all ages
Summary: 5 Stars
Big Eden is a romantic hope and fantasy for beautiful souls that enshrouds you within a gentle cocoon from the opening moments and slowly transforms you as it unfolds.
Yes, you do realize it is make-believe, but the performances, what performances. You are drawn inside their story in spite, no make that because, of yourself and your experiences. The writing is good, though a bit one-dimensional, yet it is the actors, their chemistry and abilities which shine here. It is they, the directing and the cinematography which craft this magical place. A place where everybody is surrounded by and accepted by love. Big Eden where everybody is just who and as they are with the bullies and lechers products of pulp novelists and bad dreams.
The lush and loving caresses of the scenery by the camera shots, the wide-pans, the long-shots, groups shots, fades and the silhouettes, well, they all amount to a striking artistry and taken together they are akin to a big happy pill. An immense shot of oxygen. The final and perfect chords of an ensemble chorale.
Even after more than thirty viewings, it never becomes stale or anticipatory as it unreels before you. It becomes the best beats of life's heart and as vital. In so many ways and wishes it is the best hopes for life and love. One reviewer compared it, I thought unkindly so, to "Pretty Woman" yet after reflection, I understand what they saw in a way. I cannot speak to their experiences, but as a gay man this is akin to "KISMET" or "MY FAIR LADY" because Henry had to first recognize the language of love to be able to see it around him.
For lovers and romantics of all ages, I do recommend this film.
Big Eden
Movie Review: Let your gay nature speak aloud
Summary: 5 Stars
The film is well done, that's all and that's good. But what makes it interesting is of course the subject, gay love, a love affair among gay men in the heart of a small community in Montana. We have all the essential elements of a good heart-breaking and heart-rejoicing story. The father who is going to die, the relatives and friends of the community to which the son comes back from New York who are helpful, friendly and over comprehensive to the point of deciding to help. Then an old best friend who had been very friendly in the past in High School arrives too, divorced with two little boys under his custody. The attempt at reopening the closed file fails because that best friend of old does not seem to accept to abandon all his habits of thinking and behaving and to just delve into the love that is proposed to him. But thanks to the villagers another love appears fast, the main hero and the Indian manager of the General Store and diner. This Indian is in cooking and he is manipulated into cooking for the son and the father when the father is back home from hospital. And a love affair car start there. This cross-cultural relationship makes it all the more impressive because to be gay is like to be an Indian in a small community, or as for that in a big one: it is difficult to assume because it is a minority situation but it has to be accepted by the concerned people first of all. One cannot be free in society if they are not free in their heads first of all. Then the film can close on a long kiss in the midst of the locals. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Movie Review: Happiness is a warm movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Big Eden is the one gay movie all your friends will enjoy. (All MY friends have loved it anyway!) Everyone - gay or straight, has yearned for someone to love them, and these 2 hours of sheer joy brings back that certain feeling all over again!Plot:
Gay painter Henry Hart upsets his busy New York career by returning to his hometown of Big Eden, Montana, to care for his ailing grandpa. Meeting up with childhood crush Dean gets him contemplating to stay on in Big Eden. Trouble is - Dean is straight and likely to remain so.
The gentle townspeople badly wants to include Henry in their community and so a plan takes shape. This includes a matchmaking widow, the painfully shy Indian manager of the local store, and some wonderful cooking...
Few romantic movies live up to their own hype. This one does. Big Eden has that intensely self-contained mood you want to experience again and again. It doesn't relate to a singular time or place. It's not dependent on anything but your imagination. Like Wuthering heights, Portrait of Jennie, Elvira Madigan, Summer of 42 and Love Story, it's simply there to be enjoyed by lovers of all creeds.
It could be the music - country and western love songs have rarely been used this effectively. It could be the scenery: Big Eden, Montana is shot in a National Park, all woodlands and mountains. It could be the cinematography, shaded autumnal tones, wonderfully lit log cabin interiors, the brilliant big sky. And, of course, the actors, the direction...
I guess I have to use the well-worn cliché: This movie IS greater than the sum of its parts. And very, very enjoyable. 5 stars.
Movie Review: Yeah, it's that good.
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't tell you anything others haven't said about this movie before.
1. A movie I could watch (and did) with my parents. And children.
2. A stand out movie because it's not about circuit party boys, shirtless hunks, and other stereotypes.
3. Feels a little like Northern Exposure- but isn't quirky- it's just assuming ONE thing.
4. That one thing? That a small community in Montana really doesn't have any problems at all with the fact that some of the city residents are gay. In fact, they nurture and support relationships- all relationships. Thus the title of the movie. What if we all DID just get along?
5. Ebert, et al, got it wrong. They couldn't understand point # 4. So, they didn't "get it". (Why is it so hard to suspend belief in this one little area, when our society enjoys programs about people who can teleport, time shift, practice witchcraft, and wizardry, etc? here is where I don't "get it".
6. Acting's great. Very believeable. A good solid cast- not unknowns, but not top billers, either.
7. The movie moves gently, slowly. The humor, present a lot, is very subtle. Not a bad thing. If you want things blowing up, and machine gun fire, go see an Arnold movie.
8. Wow. a gay- themed movie with a happy ending. How refreshing for a change.
9. Eric Schweig, the Native American, steals pretty much every scene he's in. He does, however, get upstaged by his dog, who steals the scenes from HIM!
Bottom line? A wonderful, insightful, movie. Enjoy it.