Golden Door
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Movie Reviews of Golden Door
Movie Review: Wonderful!
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie gave me the chills as I watched the immigrants leave Palermo on the ship for their new life. I imagined it was just like it was when my great grandparents did this from Palermo in 1920. Some scenes are very realistic. I enjoyed this immensely!Movie Review: Golden Door
Summary: 4 Stars
The DVD was very interesting. My husband and I are planning on showing it to our 18 year old granddaughter before our trip to Italy. This will give her a idea of what familys went through to get to a better life in America.Movie Review: Golden Door
Summary: 4 Stars
This film is a Documentary-Drama with ancestors coming to a New Land and experiencing a whole new life and culture adaptation. A very good film and worth viewing for the whole family.Movie Review: A tiresome journey that gets even more tiresome
Summary: 3 Stars
Simply put, THE GOLDEN DOOR is a tale of one rural Sicilian family, the Mancusos, and their decision to immigrate to America (in an unidentified year.)
Their decision to emigrate is revealed to the Mancusos at a craggy shrine in the form of the mute son bearing trick postcards from America showing huge chickens, money trees,enormous onions etc).
Now...getting even to the embarkment place (this place is not identified) takes a laborious hour of sitting and watching writer-director Emanuele Crialese's use of tricky unexplainable sights/symbolism on the audience (giant carrots,money falling from trees and swimming in milk).This initially is somewhat interesting but grows wearisome as the trek this family makes in simply getting to the boat! At their place of departure, an Englishwoman, Lucy Reed (Charlotte Gainsbourg) joins them in their journey.
They make their arduous crossing.Interesting shots such as Angelo Mancuso sniffing women while they are asleep and a maelstrom where occupants are tossed back and forth are poignant and gripping.
Finally, everyone arrives at Ellis Island,New York.(Now we are well into the second hour of this film.)There we are introduced to the methods employed on the island to "weed out" genetic undesirables and to the hasty marriages that place two strangers in the bands of wedlock.
Crialese's film at best excites the audience with the shock of some of it's scenes, but the material is really nothing new or revelatory for anyone who has seen the endless PBS,HISTORY CHANNEL,DISCOVERY and A&E specials on Ellis Island and immigration.
GOLDEN DOOR is a one time viewing experience that is occasionally refreshing but ultimately is as tiresome as the journey. If that is Crialese's intention then he succeeded.Take this journey once,but then "hunker down!"
Movie Review: Harsh Lives
Summary: 2 Stars
"Golden Door" is a movie about a Sicilian family's immigration to America, "the land where milk flows in rivers". It is a look at the hardships they face in leaving their homes and traveling here, and the difficulties of actually being accepted by the authorities: illness and mental retardation, for example, could result in deportation.
The movie is introduced by famed director Martin Scorsese. Of Sicilian descent, Scorsese praises this film for being true to what he remembers of his childhood and his family. It may have been personally moving to him, but this was a boring film. It is so slow moving as to be almost painful to watch. It is filmed in dark and dreary colors (probably to emphasize the hopelessness of the immigrants' lives) but it resulted in a movie that is exceedingly depressing.
There are so many instances where the storyline makes no sense. For example, one main character is an attractive English redhead who captures every man's attention aboard the ship. All kinds of rumors circulate about her: Is she a princess? Is she a prostitute? Was she married to a nobleman? Is there some lover waiting for her? But her background and story are never revealed. All we know is she needs to marry someone, anyone, to get into the country. Even the immigration official tells her that she will be questioned why she, an Englishwoman, is traveling with Italian immigrants--highly unusual. But no questioning ever is shown.
It is not a spoiler to tell you that at the end of the movie when the main character is faced with a harsh decision the movie suddenly ends. We never know what happens, leaving a sense of dissatisfaction among viewers.