Fool for Love
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.78 You Save: $2.20 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.47 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Fool for Love
Movie Review: Excellent 20 years ago, still excellent.
Summary: 5 Stars
Eighteen, 19, 20 years ago, I first saw this film. I loved it, my teenaged kids loved it. I had no idea Sam Shepard had written the play, or even that there was a play, though it seems obvious now. We watched this over and over. I still play the sound track, sung, I found out somewhere recently, by Sam's sister, Sandy Rogers--talk about alternative country! I still watch this film from time to time. It's enchanting, it's funny, it's mysterious, and there's that kick-ass soundtrack. It never gets old for me.Movie Review: Interesting, if not totally successful theater to film transfer
Summary: 4 Stars
Interesting, laid back version of the Shepherd play. On stage, with Ed Harris in the lead, it was all frenetic energy and danger. Here the piece is more moody and dreamlike. At times that works tremendously well, and it is visually beautiful. The play has been opened up in a way that feels natural and not forced. And the use of narration is very interesting and productively unsettling, since the memories we see do not quite match the words we hear.
On the other hand, the slower pace makes the writing feel more melodramatic and almost old-fashioned in its twists. And Shepherd is nowhere near as interesting as Harris was on stage. We never feel that he is really dangerous. He comes off more as a love-struck kid than obsessed man. And it ends with a whimper, not a kick. Still, there are plenty of less interesting theater to film adaptations out there.
Movie Review: Same old Shepard galvanized by master artisan
Summary: 4 Stars
Shepard loves incest, family abuse, cowboys and rambling loose dialogue. And that seems to be all he knows. For all of his artistic integrity his plays have always felt a little on the nose and a little juvenile (his films even worse!). Altman's multiplicity of points of view, suppressed narration and mass-media-esque techniques give wonderful life to a play that is hardly worth the attention.Movie Review: Really good, but sometimes slow and hard to watch.
Summary: 4 Stars
I love Sam Shepard, so I'll see or read just about anything he's done. This one's a little hard to watch, though, partly because of pace, partly because of a slight bit of over-dramatizing from actors and director, and partly because of subject matter. Despite all this, it's still worth watching.Movie Review: Ok for film.... not near as wonderful as the dramatic play!
Summary: 3 Stars
The problem with Fool for Love is that it is based on a wonderful, emotional play. And if you HAVE READ the entire play, it is very difficult to see the work on film. So much gets lost in translation, so much emotion is lost, especially in this film. And naturally, for film, we need more dramatics, action, more scenery changes, and of course shortened dialogue.
When you see the movie version, you cannot "feel" the depth of love, loss, pain, co-dependency that May and Eddie have with one another. In the book, we understand how the relationship between May and Eddie is recycled from the parents. Life does repeat itself. However, in the movie, much of that doesn't come across.
If you have NEVER READ the play, and are new to the story, you may like it, the theatrics, dramatics, backflash, acting. Although Sam Shepherd did the screenplay from his own play, we get some reassurance on its production. How could the writer of his own play screw it up for film. The film was directed well, by the hugely popular and very successful TV and movie director, Robert Altman.
Sam Shepherd and Kim Basinger were cast well for their roles, however we experience visually who Eddie is rather learn who he is through dialogue. Randy Quaid's character Martin does not come across as the shy, simple and innocent man, and you miss the great written dialogue exchange that Eddie and Martin have in the book.
Eddie has come to take May back. While Martin arrives for an evening with May, Eddie divulges to Martin, the past, the sordid secret and through a few flashbacks, we learn how the incestual affair happened and how the parents life influenced May and Eddie's relationship.
If you are not into reading dramatic plays, go ahead and see the film. But if you wish to appreciate the complete emotional story, read the book first. Fool for Love and Other Plays.....Rizzo
More Movie Reviews:
1 2
1 2