AnneOBrienRice

I saw this film once in 1973, the first time it was aired on TV, I presume. I found it fascinating and atmospheric, suspenseful and frankly terrifying. Right now, I can't seem to find it on DVD or in any form. I'd love to see it again and hope the powers that be are going to issue it on DVD soon so that it can be appreciated by a new generation. ---- It has a startling premise and I don't want to ruin anyone's viewing pleasure by telling too much. But it presents a Jewish Rabbi, as I recall, who is being forced out of his home in New York, and who uses his magical abilities to take revenge on the young man who is helping to force him out. There is a twist near the end, but the final scene is perfectly horrifying. I felt the film well captured the potentially Gothic atmosphere of Manhattan with its dim old tenements and small ancient grave yards. Highly recommended. The acting was excellent. The writing was excellent. What more can I say except I'm eager to see this again.

No, not for children, but mesmerizing and brilliant, exposing violence in all its hideousness; never glorifying it, even for a moment. Viggo Mortensen is turning out to be one of the most remarkable actors of our time, right up there with Johnny Depp and Gary Oldman. The subtle changes he achieves in his performance are so incredible that you really have to see the film more than once to get the full range. Everybody's excellent. Cronenberg, as always, is superb in his direction, delivering something utterly surprising moment to moment, and consistently thrilling artistically in spite of the most jarring shocks. Highly recommended to those who have a special fascination for the way violence is handled in film or any art form, which means that the title is right on. The pace is perfect. I rank it with the HBO series Deadwood for being a trip into Hell in which we see souls wrestling with absolutes and determined to achieve moral triumphs, in spite of overwhelming odds. I want to see the film a third time to better understand the relationship of the high school sequence to the major theme of the film.

And this conventicle has brought us a glistening and irresistible nightmare. There are delicious Dickensian overtones throughout, and the look of the film itself is poetically potent. The entire mix is shockingly seductive with an unforgettable ending. Burton's humor is part and parcel of his sheer brilliance, as always, and, as always, the great Johnny Depp is intense and positively unforgettable. All performances are electric, the pace and length are perfect, and the film draws us deeper and deeper with every moment into its stunning blend of the grotesque and the undeniably beautiful. Analysing the power of a film like this is no simple matter. The whole is dazzlingly disturbing. You don't want to miss a second of it, even though the film is merciless to us and to its protagonists. It sings, it glows, it enchants, it horrifies. I want to see it again. And again. It's a brutal and shattering masterpiece.