Rating: 
Summary: Mel Gibson's most underrated movie
Review: "Man Without a Face" is one of the very few Mel Gibson movies that you don't ever hear all that much about. That's a huge mystery to me because I thought it was one of his best movies by far, and that's saying a lot after he's made so many great movies such as the Lethal Weapon series, "Braveheart," and many other blockbusters. Mr. McLeod (Mel Gibson) used to be a teacher until he was involved in a car crash and one of his pupils died in the crash. McLeod was rumored to have abused the boy when he didn't do anything. Now McLeod has been living in a town as an outcast for 7 years. He has major scars on one side of his face and he doesn't interact with hardly anybody. However, one day, 12-year-old Charles (Nick Stahl) asks McLeod to help him study for a test that he wants to take to try to get into the military academy. What neither McLeod nor Charles knows at the time is that they're a lot alike. Charles is emotionally neglected and McLeod is an outcast who is all by himself with no friends."Man Without a Face" is a spectacular movie. In my opinion, I think it's one of the most underrated movies that has ever been made. I think it should be one of the best known and most popular movies ever because it really is a great movie. It's a movie about true friendship and loyalty when the going gets rough. I recommend "Man Without a Face" to anybody that likes watching great movies.
Rating:
Summary: Great Work by Mel Gibson!!
Review: A *beautiful* love-starved 12 year old boy from a dysfunctional family learns what it is like to be loved and appreciated in this masterpeice directed by Mel Gibson. I was especially impressed with how Gibson handled this controversial topic - the realities of such a relationship are well documented in this film. He must have done quite a lot of research or had some life experiences to get it this close. :) The cute boy plays a convincing role as does Gibson. This movie has given me an entirely new respect for Mel Gibson. "The Man Without a Face" gets my 'best movie of the decade' award. :) Even better than "Ma Vie en Rose" IMHO, mostly due to the reality factor. If you haven't seen it, you need to!
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: A surprisingly good movie considering it was Mel Gibson's first directorial effort, and also considering the role required Gibson to obscure his matinee-idol looks and assume the role of a horribly scarred, possibly disreputable outcast in a cliquey, suspicious little Maine coastal town.
Nick Stahl as the young boy who befriends Gibson is also terrific in the role. No doubt the kid has a bright future in acting. He is absolutely convincing as the young hopeful pursuing his dream of getting into an exclusive boarding school. His dysfunctional family can only pour cold water on the boy's dreams, and in that sense the two are made for each other--Stahl is an outcast even though surrounded by his own family--and Gibson is already a social outcast who has completely withdrawn from society and is living in mysterious solitude--a solitude no-one has dared intrude upon until Stahl stubbornly refuses to be turned away by Gibson's outwardly gruff exterior. But the two come together when Stahl learns Gibson was a talented teacher once and can tutor him in the subjects he desperately needs to ace the exam into the exclusive boarding school. They overcome their own emotional baggage to forge a working friendship despite their difficulties.
Unfortunately, the movie strays off-base for a while with the kangaroo-court scene with the suspicious townies, who still have it in for Gibson, and the final ending is a little too short, but those are my only real criticisms. All in all a very well cast, acted, and scripted film. Big Steve says go see it (or in this case, rent it) and don't Bogart the popcorn. The last thing I wanted to mention is that I wonder if anybody else has noticed the similarity between this film and Stephen Crane's story, "The Monster?" Crane is of course known most for his Civil War novel, "The Red Badge of Courage."
Rating:
Summary: Not nessescarily a "gay" movie
Review: Although I loved the movie and the book for their powerful messages of inner beauty, I disagree with the view that this is a pro-gay movie. It was a FRIENDSHIP, more like a father-son relationship for Charles who needed a father figure. Why is every same sex relationship automatically presumed to be gay/lesbian? Ridiculus.
Rating:
Summary: Gibson's directorial debut in an unusual romance
Review: Based on Isabelle Holland's story of the love between a tutor (Justin, played by Mel Gibson) and a young boy (Chuck, played by Nick Stahl in his first major role), this is Gibson's first foray into directing movies. The novel tells the story of young Chuck, a fatherless and lonely 13 year old, who needs a tutor if he is to get into his choosen high school. Justin McLeod is the town ogre, a reclusive and mysterious figure. Many years ago, he was burnt in a car accident, while he was a teacher at a boys school. One of the boys died during the accident, and there are unstated issued surrounding his relationship with that boy. With his face terribly scarred from the accident, Justin has hidden away from people. The man and the boy do not get along at first, but their relationship grows. The boy needs guidance and nuturing. And Justin comes out of his shell as he helps the boy. Their respect is mutual, and each becomes a major part of the other's life. At the climax, the boy runs away from his mother and spends the night with his only friend. He is discovered at Justin's cottage the next day, in suspicious circumstances, wearing only his Jockey shorts. The town jumps to conclusions, they are quick to pick on the town "funny guy". Justin is tried and goes to prison, cruelly severing his relationship with the boy. At the end of the movie, the boy graduates from high school, having done very well from Justin's tutoring and loving. Justin reappears in the background. And we are left with the question, does the relationship resume? This movie has an odd twist. Super macho Gibson directs and acts in a gay positive movie. While there is no sex explicit or implicit in the movie, the story is controversial. Its about the consensual relationship between an older man and a young boy. END
Rating: 
Summary: A Refreshing Film
Review: Considering that Mel Gibson is always known for his stunning looks, it was wonderful to see him in a film that exposes only his talent. He does a great job here and his character really makes you think about the "more to a book than its cover" saying. You'll find yourself asking how often you judge people and things based on appearance alone. A super movie.
Rating:
Summary: Simply, the best movie ever made.
Review: Dont hesitate to watch it. You won't find anything better than this
Rating:
Summary: Great film, but script is a bit too faceless
Review: First-time director Mel Gibson is Justin McLeod, a reclusive somebody or other of a picturesque New England town. Mcleod has wisdom beyond his years, but disfigurement after a horrific accident has cut him off from the wise, but beautiful inhabitants of his small town. In the late 1960's, young Charles Norstadt (Nick Stahl) has come here in the tow of his mother and two step-sisters - one a supportive one, the other demanding, malicious and inwardly jealous for the love of their mother, both intellectually above him. Chuck chafes not only under the bile of sister-Gloria, but also under his mother's drowning love, both of which - he is sure - will rob him of his chance to follow in his late father's vaguely glorious footsteps. He is actually his own greatest obstacle - more accurately a learning disability that has him look blank-faced through the flick. Hoping to triumph over the odds, Chuck applies to an exclusive military academy, and turns to McLeod for help in passing the rigorous entry process. Reluctant to have any contact, McLeod breaks down and not only helps the boy, but shares a confidence which will tie the two and, when Chuck accidentally fails to keep it under wraps, force McLeod back into the open. It will also force Chuck to examine who his father really was. While McLeod is merely disfigured, it's Chuck's deceased father who is really faceless victim alluded in the title. ... For his first directing job, this was actually an exemplary flick, but it suffers because it's not clear who the flick is supposed to be about. Gibson keeps the focus off of his own character, probably afraid he'd accidentally turn the film into a vanity piece, but he doesn't really beef up Charlie's character either. Charlie has a low threshold for fear and pain, and he falls into a fugue whenever it's hit (mostly, the film will cut without interval to show Charlie in a trance-like state). Frankly, I couldn't see the homosexual undertones arising from anything more than the narrow-mindedness of Charlie's self-righteous neighbors. Surprisingly, the main characters and the script cater shamelessly to such right-wing fantasies as evil, domineering females (Charlie is the sole male in a house of hyper-intelligent women who ruthlessly and callously victimize him, not allowing his attention-deficits to hold them back) while Charlie's mother surrounds herself with wealthy and left-leaning intellectual friends, the very picture of elitist liberals that conservatives love to hate. The town's upper-crust eastern liberals, though tossing back their martini's with pseudo-intellectual aphorisms about Vietnam and "imperialistic, post-Hegelian, authoritarian crap" of the stablishment ruthlessly show their own true face when they realize that McLeod is now a target for suspicion. The opening scene is a fantasy - of Chuck's triumphant graduation from Military School - one his freely acknowledges as "John Wayne meets Hugh Hefner". Whether you buy into the fantasy or not, it's the only one the script delves into, and it strips of everybody of much of their face. Charlie himself doesn't so much learn to see the true face of those around him, as have the truth thrust in his face. It's painful, and a bit of a botch of a movie, but still one you should catch anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Great film, but script is a bit too faceless
Review: First-time director Mel Gibson is Justin McLeod, a reclusive somebody or other of a picturesque New England town. Mcleod has wisdom beyond his years, but disfigurement after a horrific accident has cut him off from the wise, but beautiful inhabitants of his small town. In the late 1960's, young Charles Norstadt (Nick Stahl) has come here in the tow of his mother and two step-sisters - one a supportive one, the other demanding, malicious and inwardly jealous for the love of their mother, both intellectually above him. Chuck chafes not only under the bile of sister-Gloria, but also under his mother's drowning love, both of which - he is sure - will rob him of his chance to follow in his late father's vaguely glorious footsteps. He is actually his own greatest obstacle - more accurately a learning disability that has him look blank-faced through the flick. Hoping to triumph over the odds, Chuck applies to an exclusive military academy, and turns to McLeod for help in passing the rigorous entry process. Reluctant to have any contact, McLeod breaks down and not only helps the boy, but shares a confidence which will tie the two and, when Chuck accidentally fails to keep it under wraps, force McLeod back into the open. It will also force Chuck to examine who his father really was. While McLeod is merely disfigured, it's Chuck's deceased father who is really faceless victim alluded in the title. ... For his first directing job, this was actually an exemplary flick, but it suffers because it's not clear who the flick is supposed to be about. Gibson keeps the focus off of his own character, probably afraid he'd accidentally turn the film into a vanity piece, but he doesn't really beef up Charlie's character either. Charlie has a low threshold for fear and pain, and he falls into a fugue whenever it's hit (mostly, the film will cut without interval to show Charlie in a trance-like state). Frankly, I couldn't see the homosexual undertones arising from anything more than the narrow-mindedness of Charlie's self-righteous neighbors. Surprisingly, the main characters and the script cater shamelessly to such right-wing fantasies as evil, domineering females (Charlie is the sole male in a house of hyper-intelligent women who ruthlessly and callously victimize him, not allowing his attention-deficits to hold them back) while Charlie's mother surrounds herself with wealthy and left-leaning intellectual friends, the very picture of elitist liberals that conservatives love to hate. The town's upper-crust eastern liberals, though tossing back their martini's with pseudo-intellectual aphorisms about Vietnam and "imperialistic, post-Hegelian, authoritarian crap" of the stablishment ruthlessly show their own true face when they realize that McLeod is now a target for suspicion. The opening scene is a fantasy - of Chuck's triumphant graduation from Military School - one his freely acknowledges as "John Wayne meets Hugh Hefner". Whether you buy into the fantasy or not, it's the only one the script delves into, and it strips of everybody of much of their face. Charlie himself doesn't so much learn to see the true face of those around him, as have the truth thrust in his face. It's painful, and a bit of a botch of a movie, but still one you should catch anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie my favorite Mel Gibson movie
Review: I loved this movie I saw it when it when it first came out on video when I was 12. Since then I've seen it at least 30 times. I thought Mel Gibson had never been better than he was as Justin McLeod. Nick Stahl was great as Chuck. I read the book after I saw the movie and didn't not care for it that much. The movie was so much better. The ending was so sad. I just cried and cried. It was a great movie. Thumbs up to Mel on his directing debut. If you haven't seen it you should. I recommended it to so many people and once they saw it they understood why I love this movie. Good job Mel! :-)
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