Cradle Will Rock

Cradle Will Rock

List Price: $9.99
Our Price: $3.74
You Save: $6.25 (63%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.07 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

DVD Cover Information

• As labor strikes break out throughout the country during the 1930s, the art and theater world of New York City is a growing cultural revolution. Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center, while Italian propagandist Margherita Sarfatti (Susan Sarandon) gives Da Vincis to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini w

Movie Reviews of Cradle Will Rock

Movie Review: WE WILL ROCK YOU
Summary: 5 Stars

Tim Robbins's movie uses the Wells's production as an `excuse' to show us how art and politics can affect each other in many levels. The film is a wonderful American quilt with many tiny stories that little by little get togheter and creat a huge power over the audience. Besides "Cradle..." story, there is also the fight between Nelson Rockefeller and Diego Rivera over a mural painted by the artist in the lobby of The Rockfeller Center, in NY. The magnate went mad when he saw displayed in the painting Lenin's face. Another important pole of the movie is an ex-Mussolini's lover, who is in the US selling works by Italian geniuses, like Leonardo and Michelangelo, in order to get money to help Facism in Italy.

All there plots look a bit distant from each other in the beginning, but as the movies grows, one can notice how all of them are showing the power of the art and the artists over a society that is changing. Robbin's direction is very effective and touching. He shows how much he loves the artistic class and arts in genneral. But it is nothing new coming from one of the most political actors in Hollywood. The script mixes comedy, with musical and drama in perfect doses. Although the film takes some Artistic licences, they do not ccpromise the accuracy of the facts. By the way, as it is said in the beginning, it is `based on a mostly true story'.

The cast is a huge who-is-who, and every actor seem to be perfectly fit in his/her part. Joan Cusack has never been so deliciously hateful. Susan Sarando has a wonderful Italian accent and we can notice how sad her charater is because she has to sell works from masters to get money. Vanessa Redgrave is wonderful as a theatre enthusiast. She shines every scene she is in. The most importat female role belongs to Emily Watson, who perfectly plays an unemplyed-turn-to-actress singer who has to deal with lack of money in order to survive. The male cast is also exceptional. Hank Azaria is wonderful as the composer Mark Blitzstein, and it is amazing to watch his creation process of the show. John Cusack is as hateful as his sister, playing Nelson Rockefeller. Bill Muray is perfectly melancholic as a ventriloquist.

If Karl Marx had written musicals instead of essays, he probably would have written something very close to " Cradle Will Rock", the play. It has an extremely polical tune. Once I read in an interview Tim Robbins saying that Emily Watson's character was the hero of the movie. But I'm not sure of it. I think she may be the most important, but it seems to me that the hero -- if it happens to be one-- is the ART, which is portrayed as having a power to transform society. It is a wonderful smart and touching movie, that needs be discovered. Another thing, how do you understand the ending? I could not come up with a conclusion. It is very open.

Summary of Cradle Will Rock