The Sweet Hereafter (New Line Platinum Series)
by Atom Egoyan
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Caerthan Banks, Gabrielle Rose, Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Tom McCamusDirector: Atom Egoyan
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-05-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Sweet Hereafter (New Line Platinum Series)
Movie Review: Quiet, dreamlike, somber, and riveting
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't watch this if you are subject to becoming depressed by sad movies. The Sweet Hereafter is, however, one of those films that has a dreamlike quality that sucks you in. The art of it is very appealing to me. Some will say it is slow, too quiet, a downer. But I think the emotion of it provides more than enough intensity.
The movie is based on a novel which is itself somewhat based on a true story of a small town in Texas where tragically many of the town's children were killed in a schoolbus accident, and ambulance-chasing lawyers descended on the town like a swarm of hungry locusts. The townspeople eventually received hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from a company which may or may not have really been responsible for the accident.
The movie takes this premise in a different direction. It focuses on one lawyer who comes to town and interviews witnesses, survivors, and moms and dads who lost their kids. The lawyer himself is going through a vaguely similar personal crisis -- losing his daughter to drugs. Great disruption is bubbling in the town because of the tragedy and the impending, potentially enriching, lawsuit. The ending is a surprise, turning everything upside down for a reason that has nothing to do with the accident, and no one will ever likely know the real reason.
What is the movie really about? It is about grief turning to boiling anger, mixed with greed. It is about the secret lives of ordinary people in small towns. It is about how justice can be meted out in strange ways.
I saw this several years ago, and then again this week. Both times I was riveted.
Summary of The Sweet Hereafter (New Line Platinum Series)
In synopsis The Sweet Hereafter may sound like a devastatingly unpleasant downer, but don't be discouraged. The real subjects of this luminous picture (adapted by director Atom Egoyan from Russell Banks's novel) are hope and renewal--avoiding the cheap emotions suggested by those clich?d terms. Like other Egoyan films (Exotica, for one), it's an intriguing sort of mystery, a puzzle in which the big picture is not revealed until the very last piece is in place. A metropolitan attorney (Ian Holm) travels to a small British Columbian town where 14 children have been killed in a school bus accident to prepare a class-action suit. With sensitivity and empathy, he approaches relatives with promises that the suit will give focus and closure to their grief. And as he investigates the circumstances of the accident, he not only uncovers a few local secrets, but dredges up some painful pieces of his own past. Slowly, deeper mysteries are revealed--eternal mysteries at the very heart of human nature: Who is to blame for a tragedy like this? And why do people feel such a need to assign blame? Is that how they give meaning to otherwise inconceivable events? How does one reassemble a shattered life? The Sweet Hereafter is too honest to offer bromides, but it shows how a few people struggle, as best they can, to answer these questions for themselves. DVD extras include audio commentary by Egoyan and Banks, a Charlie Rose interview with Egoyan, and a panel discussion with the filmmakers. --Jim EmersonAction & Adventure DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in dark, dark, not for the faint of heart
Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition)Release date: 2007-11-06; DVD
Best price: $7.97
Price in other shops:
The Sweet Hereafter (New Line Platinum Series)Release date: 1998-05-27; DVD
Best price: $15.13
Price in other shops:
Leaving Las VegasRelease date: 2000-01-01; DVD
Best price: $4.96
Price in other shops:
The Sea (Man Booker Prize)by John Banville
Knopf; Published: 2005-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.23
Price in other shops:
No Country for Old MenRelease date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
No Country for Old Men (Vintage International)by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage; Published: 2007-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.94
Price in other shops:
Wonderland (Modern Library Paperbacks)by Joyce Carol Oates
Modern Library; Published: 2006-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.13
Price in other shops:
House of Sand and Fog (Oprah's Book Club) (Vintage Contemporaries)by Andre Dubus III
Vintage; Published: 2000-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.43
Price in other shops:
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)DEPP,JOHNNY; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series)CUSACK,JOHN; Release date: 2002-09-24; DVD
Best price: $4.21
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition)Paramount; Release date: 2007-11-06; DVD
Best price: $7.84
Price in other shops:
Before the Devil Knows You're DeadImage Entertainment; Release date: 2008-04-15; DVD
Best price: $8.83
Price in other shops:
Pan's Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-05-15; DVD
Best price: $6.73
Price in other shops:
Away from HerLions Gate; Release date: 2007-09-11; DVD
Best price: $6.48
Price in other shops:
There Will Be BloodParamount; Release date: 2008-04-08; DVD
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
Sweet Hereafter: A Novelby Russell Banks
Harper Perennial; Published: 1992-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
The Lives of OthersSony; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $12.23
Price in other shops:
No Country for Old MenRelease date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops:
AraratPLUMMER,CHRISTOPHER; Release date: 2003-07-22; DVD
Best price: $5.34
Price in other shops:
ExoticaRelease date: 1999-11-16; DVD
Best price: $23.98