Product description

Look Back in Anger [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Price: £4.52
Average customer rating: 5.0

Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780792851639
ISBN : 0792851633
Label : MGM
Manufacturer : MGM
Publisher : MGM
Release date : 2001-12-11
Title : Look Back in Anger [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actor : Array
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1958-01-01
Region code : 1
Running time : 100
Studio : MGM
Theatrical releaseDate : 1958
MPN : D1002741D

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-07 rating:

A true 1950s classic!

One of the most dramatic of the critically acclaimed kitchen sink dramas where it always seems to be raining.

This is a very dark and brooding picture dealing with an unsuitable marriage between the classes. A true classic that stars Richard Burton and the great Dame Edith Evans.

Burton is at his most good-looking here, and plays a somewhat bitter, insecure, but intelligent loser married to the downtrodden and love-sick 'Alison' (played by the beautiful Mary Ure who committed suicide in 1975) - then along comes her best friend (Claire Boom) as his second helping of 'top drawer'!

This movie is now fifty years old. I have not seen the re-make, but it won't be as good as this!

This melancholic picture also stars a young Donald Pleasence with a rare starring role for Gary Raymond

review by: Author of several novels including Intents & Purposes date: 2008-05-10 rating:

The Original Angry Young Man
I watched Look Back in Anger last night for the first time in many years. It is a brilliant play but rather difficult to watch due to the uncomfortable scenes of verbal abuse involving Richard Burton's character and his down-trodden, upper-middle-class wife who seems to spend all her time ironing and looking beautiful but down-trodden. Apparently John Osborne wrote this play based on his own unhappy marriage to Pamela Lane and their life in a dingy flat in Derby during the fifties.

It takes a lot of effort to see beyond the contemptuous, bullying veneer of Burton's portrayal of Jimmy and it would be easy to dismiss him as nothing more than a villain. But glimpses beneath his odious exterior include his obvious devotion to his old landlady and his support of an Indian market-stall owner who is ostracised for being a foreigner. By the end of the film it becomes obvious that Jimmy is severely `damaged' psychologically but we, the viewers, are left to draw our own conclusions as to why he is selling sweets on a market stall and living in such squalid conditions when he is university educated.

To my mind Claire Bloom's character, Helena, is the real villain of the play. The scene where Jimmy launches a vitriolic tirade against Helena, calling her an `evil-minded little virgin' she slaps him and there is a suspended moment of emotion as Jimmy clutches his stinging cheek. It is probably the most obvious point in the film and made me cringe a little but somehow they manage to get away with it.

The film was made in 1959 and the play opened in 1956 so it is now well over fifty years old. In today's age of psychotherapy and anti-depressants would Jimmy be a better person (a happier person) or was he better-off being angry and frustrated i.e. himself? It certainly wouldn't have made such a marvelous play. In many respects this play has similarities to A Streetcar Named Desire where the character of Stanley Kowalski could almost be interchangeable with that of Burton's Jimmy. Both are powerful plays/films and make for disturbing, thought-provoking viewing but they are far from uplifting: Testament to an era when abortion was illegal, two double Scotches cost ten bob and Angry Young Men could sell Jelly Babies by day and play the trumpet in a jazz club at night.

review by: date: 2007-07-20 rating:

Get the culture secretary on to them
Have long since lost the video I had of this film. Does deserve a DVD release in this country, most definitely, it does. It is British through and through, it made the Royal Court Theatre famous for putting on daring contemporary work, it made its young author famous, it certainly didn't hinder the careers of its actors, and it coined two new terms used by the media, 'Angry Young Man' and 'Kitchen Sink Drama'. And the only place you can watch this version of landmark British theatre on DVD is...America. Sounding like a familiar story, isnt it!

review by: date: 2003-12-06 rating:

This is one hell of a good film
In this masterful movie from 1958, director Tony Richardson shows precisely why he became to be regarded as such a brilliant film director.

The film leads, Richard Burton and Claire Bloom, both supply electric performances - made especially memorable by the barely-concealed power of Burton's voice, manner and overall screen "presence"

Just a few seconds of Richard Burton on screen makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Is this the best film acting he ever did? I can't think of any other film in which he provided a better, more powerful performance.

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