Rating: 
Summary: Friendship, music and far too much whisky
Review: This movie stars Dexter Gordon and features among others Herbie Hancock, Billy Higgins, John McGlaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard and Ron Carter. If you like jazz that's probably all you need to know to make you go see it. It's a loving recreation of Paris in the 1950s when many of the best American jazz musicians liked to hang in and around the Blue Note café, a venue which, if I only had a time machine is probably where I would most want to spend my evenings. There we find Dale Turner (Gordon) who is in France playing his tenor and drinking himself to death. Turner is based on a kind of amalgam of Bud Powell and Lester Young. His self-destructiveness and bizarre speech habits (all his male friends are nicknamed "Lady" something or other) are pureYoung. The friendship with a young Frenchman Francis (Francois Cluzet) with forms the film's dramatic centre is based on an episode in the life of Powell. Cluzet's character is perhaps one of the weaker aspects of the film. His conversations with Turner are a bit unsuccessful in getting very far past fanspeak, You are so wonderful, I love your music so much, etc., etc., which I confess I started finding a little tiresome. But generally it's a really delightful movie and one it is possible to enjoy even if you aren't a jazz nut. But the music is certainly a huge treat. The scene where Gordon and Lonette McKee's Darcey Leigh (clearly based on Billie Holiday) perform "How Long Has This Been Going On" is one of the most unforgettable and mesmerizing musical moments in any film. Music aside, it's a rather quiet, low key drama about how Turner befriends Francis and his young daughter who must then struggle to help him control the drink habit which is inexorably killing him. It's fairly slow moving. Not a lot happens. But it's a touching and likeable movie, slow and tender like much of its soundtrack, and is kept interesting mainly by Dexter Gordon's marvellous performance as Turner, a heartbreaking mixture of poetry and kindness on the one hand and hopeless alcoholic desperation on the other. He acts almost as well as he plays and he plays, well, he plays like Dexter Gordon.
Rating:
Summary: Real emotions from real characters
Review: This touching and realistic movie is quietly dedicated to jazz pianist Bud Powell and saxophonnist Lester Young (both expatiriates who lived in Paris) on whose life the character of "Dale Turner," the saxophonist, is based. The character of Dale Turner, a jazzman in his last days, is played by Dexter Gordon, a jazzman soon to die of throat cancer. Dexter Gordon, a real-life expatriot jazzman who spent much of his playing years in Denmark, deservedly received an academy award nomination for his moving portrayal based on not only a real life story but people and settings with which he was personally familiar. In many ways it is the story of all three musicians, Gordon, Powell and Young. But even more it is based on a fine book on the life of Bud Powell by the young Frenchman who befriended him (which I cannot put my hands on right now). It's as close to truth as you can come. By the way, Dexter played Montreux the next year and while he sounds fragile in the film, he play with great strength.
Rating:
Summary: Real emotions from real characters
Review: This touching and realistic movie is quietly dedicated to jazz pianist Bud Powell and saxophonnist Lester Young (both expatiriates who lived in Paris) on whose life the character of "Dale Turner," the saxophonist, is based. The character of Dale Turner, a jazzman in his last days, is played by Dexter Gordon, a jazzman soon to die of throat cancer. Dexter Gordon, a real-life expatriot jazzman who spent much of his playing years in Denmark, deservedly received an academy award nomination for his moving portrayal based on not only a real life story but people and settings with which he was personally familiar. In many ways it is the story of all three musicians, Gordon, Powell and Young. But even more it is based on a fine book on the life of Bud Powell by the young Frenchman who befriended him (which I cannot put my hands on right now). It's as close to truth as you can come. By the way, Dexter played Montreux the next year and while he sounds fragile in the film, he play with great strength.
Rating:
Summary: FIVE STARS ¿ ¿ ¿ BUT!
Review: WHY DOES AMAZON.COM NO LONGER STOCK THE OREIGINAL ENGLISH-FRENCH VERSION? About one to two years ago, I purchased the original video version of 'ROUND MIDNIGHT from this site. Now it is only available here dubbed in Spanish. I don't get it. Perhaps it is becoming more difficult to find this video in English (...pretty awful because the gravel-voiced dialogue by the star/sax player, Dexter Gordon ... who won an Oscar for Best Actor ... makes the movie!). Based on the lives of Bud Powell and Lester Young, this tribute to American jazz musicians and their world is supported from beginning to end by a once-in-a-lifetime performance by real-life tenor-sax great Gordon himself! Jazz great Herbie Hancock directed the music for this film ... and won an Academy Award Oscar for his score. Adding to the charm of this tragic, bittersweet tale is that much of the dialogue is in French, further adding to the flavor (spice!) of the movie (yet another reason I can't imagine the Spanish-dubbed version can work). This film, perhaps more than any other, reveals the fundamentally different, dignified, adoring manner in which Europeans treat American jazz musicians; by contrast, these days, to their fellow Americans. The price for this video would be fair for the 120 minutes of fabulous jazz sound track ALONE. The poignant, visually pleasing story comes WITH the music! Too bad we cannot order the original form of this video HERE. [I would like to see a review here by a bilingual, English-Spanish viewer who can comment on the issues I raised above ... and also can compare both versions of this most entertaining video]
Rating:
Summary: A realistic look at jazz musicians in Paris
Review: With an all-star cast like Dexter Gordon and Herbie Hancock, along with many of their jazz colleagues, this movie is a realistic look at what many jazz musicians have had to go through. Countless musicians, like "Dale Turner" (Dexter Gordon) have had to deal with drugs, alcohol, discrimination and other problems. What makes this movie even better is the fact that real musicians are playing instead of just faking their instruments like in so many other movies. Herbie Hancock wrote an excellent score, and even stuck in his own "Watermelon Man" as background music in a bar scene. Other jazz greats like Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, etc. make cameos in the film. Dexter Gordon is excellent as the lead character. Highly recommended for any jazz fan who wants to see a movie with real musicians playing their instruments, and a lot of good music. "Syrupy jazz ballads" they may be, but I somehow don't think "Cherokee" or "Ornithology" would be appropriate here. A mellow film, mellow music, and loud and clear message that promotes respect for jazz and its many enduring musicians.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Realistic But Quite Enjoyable
Review: Yes, it's annoying that the plot hadda have some idealistic and passionate white French guy offer salvation to the tortured and irresponsible Negro jazz musician, but the movie is an enjoyable character study. Dexter Gordon gives an undeniably riveting portrayal of the quintissential jazz cat and the climactic outdoor memorial concert is great.
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