Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful adaptation of Joyce's short story , 13 May 2006
The Dead was John Huston's final film, shot in California as he directed with the aid of oxygen. It's a film very much in minor key, which is suited to its source- the final short story in James Joyce's masterful collection, Dubliners.
It's wonderfully shot, sort of the missing link between Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975) and Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993) in terms of lighting and the way it captures the sisters party on twelth night in Dublin, 1904. The cast are excellent, from leads Donal McCann (as Gabriel) and Anjelica Huston (as Greta) & such actors as Colm Meaney, Rachel Dowling & Donal Donnelly. The film itself is basically a meal set on Twelth night by hosts the Markham sisters and their niece- we cut between various characters, & the film moves from dancing to poetry to singing to the meal itself; there are also moments of great comedy, particularly centred around drunken Frank. The film, like its literary source, makes reference to Irish politics (eg West Briton, Republican union meetings, Irish traditions, Parnell) & art- notably opera, which features in a brilliant scene focused on Anjelica Huston. It's a minor key film, no major melodrama and just under 80 minutes in duration, but the end- where Greta tells Gabriel about her teenage paramour who died young (reminding me of the traditional Irish song 'I am Stretched On Your Grave')& how Gabriel didn't really know his wife. Dublin is wonderfully captured under a rain of snow & the final scenes, when Gabriel- on a night of celebration and union, notes that death is looming & we see images surrounding Dublin and snow, of graveyards, and of Aunt Julia's future death- moves into the poetic- the mise-en-scene offering an image for every one of Joyce's transcendental lines.
The Dead is an excellent adaptation of Joyce's short story- far from the travesty that was the film of Joyce's Ulysses; of course, it should lead you to the source short story (if unfamiliar). I had read Dubliners several times before seeing this & think this is a sterling adaptation of a great literary work, to rank alongside such films as Swann in Love, The Wings of the Dove, Tess, The Portrait of a Lady & A Room With a View. Sometimes work in a minor key can be just as profound as a 'big film' like Schindler's List or whatever. The Dead is just that & comes highly recommended- thanks to the nice person who bought it for me from my wish list!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful adaptation of Joyce's short story..., 13 Jan 2004
The Dead was John Huston's final film, shot in California as he directed with the aid of oxygen. It's a film very much in minor key, which is suited to its source- the final short story in James Joyce's masterful collection, Dubliners. It's wonderfully shot, sort of the missing link between Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975) and Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993) in terms of lighting and the way it captures the sisters party on twelth night in Dublin, 1904. The cast are excellent, from leads Donal McCann (as Gabriel) and Anjelica Huston (as Greta) & such actors as Colm Meaney, Rachel Dowling & Donal Donnelly. The film itself is basically a meal set on Twelth night by hosts the Markham sisters and their niece- we cut between various characters, & the film moves from dancing to poetry to singing to the meal itself; there are also moments of great comedy, particularly centred around drunken Frank. The film, like its literary source, makes reference to Irish politics (eg West Briton, Republican union meetings, Irish traditions, Parnell) & art- notably opera, which features in a brilliant scene focused on Anjelica Huston. It's a minor key film, no major melodrama and just under 80 minutes in duration, but the end- where Greta tells Gabriel about her teenage paramour who died young (reminding me of the traditional Irish song 'I am Stretched On Your Grave')& how Gabriel didn't really know his wife. Dublin is wonderfully captured under a rain of snow & the final scenes, when Gabriel- on a night of celebration and union, notes that death is looming & we see images surrounding Dublin and snow, of graveyards, and of Aunt Julia's future death- moves into the poetic- the mise-en-scene offering an image for every one of Joyce's transcendental lines. The Dead is an excellent adaptation of Joyce's short story- far from the travesty that was the film of Joyce's Ulysses; of course, it should lead you to the source short story (if unfamiliar). I had read Dubliners several times before seeing this & think this is a sterling adaptation of a great literary work, to rank alongside such films as Swann in Love, The Wings of the Dove, Tess, The Portrait of a Lady & A Room With a View. Sometimes work in a minor key can be just as profound as a 'big film' like Schindler's List or whatever. The Dead is just that & comes highly recommended- thanks to the nice person who bought it for me from my wish list!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irish Aunts and a deceptively simple tale, 22 Dec 2006
Like all great stories, and great films for that matter, THE DEAD is anything but simple. The layers are seemingly endless, like the skin of an onion. Filled with richly drawn and beautifully played characters, the late John Huston's last film is a fitting tribute both to Ireland and to James Joyce, whose story is translated to the screen with the kind of sensitivity that is not too often to be found in the cinema.
Taking as its central point an annual party given by Miss Kate and Miss Julia, two elderly Dubliners, this is a gentle drama of small folk, their lives and loves, their triumphs and tragedies.
No incident in the film changes the world, but the people in it are those who are for all time, and anyone viewing 'The Dead'
cannot fail to be moved by it.
(A recent reviewer on the radio regretted that she had first seen the film before she was old enough fully to appreciate it. Older and wiser, she was in raptures over the recent re-release.)
This minimalist classic, similar in many ways to my own personal favourite, 'Babette's Feast', must surely rank high in the list of movie greats.
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