The Boy with Green Hair

Rating:
Summary: Overpriced for such poor quality....
Review: After waiting for some time to receive my copy of this very much anticipated DVD, I was extremely dissappointed to receive the item I did. The film looks like someone copied a poor quality VHS tape to DVD....offensively ugly menu image makes this a horror to load up for viewing....terribly bad cover art, no insert, no additional footage of any kind or any extras at all (not even any info about the very interesting history behind Eden Ahbez and the song "Nature Boy") ....still, the film is a wonderful one and desereves to be cleaned up and authored to DVD properly. Shame on everyone involved in this project! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! How could you dare to sell it for the price asked? Mine will be returned. I recommend waiting for some respectful film buff who cares enough to at least clean up the film on their home computer...and the awful mono sound as well. Terra has some important lessons to learn....

Rating:
Summary: The little movie that caused a lot of trouble
Review: I first saw this movie when I was a child, and was immediately fascinated by it. I have seen it many times since, and enjoy it each time. It is a war story, (WWII) about a little boy, Dean Stockwell, (Peter) who loses both his parents and goes to live with his grandfather, Gramps, wonderfully played by Pat O'Brien. Gramps is a magician by nature and a waiter by trade, and he must work nights, consequently leaving young Peter home alone. The boy is terrified at first, but Gramps reassures him with the sentence: "There's nothing in the dark that wasn't there when the lights were on." He amuses the boy with magic tricks, and eventually wins his trust and love. One day at school there is a paper drive for war orphans, and it is then, from a classmate, (with the typical cruelty of children) tells him he resembles a boy in one of the war posters, and Peter responds: "I do not look like him; anyway, he's a war orphan." And the classmate says, "So are you." And that's how he finds out his parents are never coming back, and he really is a war orphan, and feeling betrayed, mistrusts Gramps and his teacher, and everyone else. Then he wakes up one morning and finds his hair has turned green. He is astonished, as is Gramps, who finds the color is permanent and will not wash out. When he goes to school that day, he attracts a great deal of attention, and at first, it's interesting; then people start to panic: "It's the milk, it's the school," etc. and fear spreads. So finally, the milkman complains and everyone shuns Peter and Gramps takes him to the barbershop where he has his head shaved completely bald. He wears a cap, but still the kids at school plague him, and one day, on the way home from school they chase him into the woods. They go away, he loses them, and finds himself in a glade, and flings himself down on the ground, crying...he looks up suddenly, aware that he is not alone, and sees a group of poor, bedraggled children, all sorrowful, all terribly thin, with torn, ragged clothes. The tallest and oldest of the children, a boy of about fourteen, speaks and tells him why his hair turned green...and why it is of such importance. The performances are fantastic, and the musical score is superb, a song written by a true original, **Eden Ahbez, the real First Hippie/rebel:

(**he was a legend in Hollywood for his unusual life style. Even after he and Jacobsen had a son, they kept on living out under the stars, with not much more than a bicycle, their sleeping bags, and a juicer to their name. The story may be apochryphal, but it's said that once, when Ahbez was being hassled by a cop who assumed from his wild appearance that he deserved to be hauled off to a mental institution, he remarked calmly, "I look crazy, but I'm not. And the funny thing is, that other people don't look crazy, but they are." The cop thought it over and responded, "You know bud, you're right. If anybody gives you any trouble, let me know.")

and it is called, aptly, "Nature Boy", sung beautifully by Nat King Cole. Haunting melody. It should be required viewing in all schools, and should also be released on DVD. Buy the VHS and see it, you are in for a great night's entertainment and more.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie...MISERABLE DVD
Review: It is outrageous that not only does a fine film like this get such poor quality DVD treatment, but that they have the gall to charge $14.99 for it!!!! I've seen much better quality in drugstore DVD close-outs for $3.99!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing film
Review: Joseph Losey's early masterpiece, The Boy With Green Hair, deserves a first-class DVD treatment. This is not it. The DVD quality is very, very bad.
Other Losey films, such as his version of M and Secret Ceremony need to be released on DVD also.

Rating:
Summary: Misguided utopianism
Review: The other reviewers consider this to be a good or even great film, not for it's quality, but due to its message. While no one loves peace more than I, I also know that as long as there are evil men in this world, there will never be peace. Whether it is Hilter or Hussen or whoever is next, if good and peace loving men do not stand against evil, evil will pevail. Some think that they can negotiate with evil, appeasing evil by giving a little ground in exchange for evil's promise to not take more. Evil can promise anything because it never intends to keep it's promise. This cycle continues until there is no more left to give.
Don't get me wrong, in itself this is not a bad film. It's message, however, is dangerous. The message is appealing, no sane person wants war, I do wish that by talking and being non-confrontaginal, we could change evil's mind, but that is not to be. So I rate this film one star, for the same reason other reviewers give it high marks, not for the quality of the movie, but for it's message.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing film
Review: This DVD is one of the worst transfers in my collection. The picture has an overall greenish tint to it and it seems to be "fuzzy" or out of focus. Little care seems to have been taken in producing this DVD. Printing on the case looks unprofessional. Stockwell's acting is first-rate, but the supporting cast does a walk-on, at best. I recommend this movie only for the most avid, diehard Dean Stockwell fan.

Rating:
Summary: Everybody Has Green Hair
Review: This DVD is one of the worst transfers in my collection. The picture has an overall greenish tint to it and it seems to be "fuzzy" or out of focus. Little care seems to have been taken in producing this DVD. Printing on the case looks unprofessional. Stockwell's acting is first-rate, but the supporting cast does a walk-on, at best. I recommend this movie only for the most avid, diehard Dean Stockwell fan.

Rating:
Summary: AWFUL DVD PICTURE FOR A FIRST-RATE FILM
Review: This movie has been a favorite of mine since childhood. It covers an important time in American history -- World War II, Macarthyism, xenophobia ... and love. Fine acting, superb screenplay by a talented writer ... and it deserves a first-rate recording. The picture is almost impossible to see, the colors are dull, the sound is dull ... One must strain to see and hear this delightful film. Give us a Re-Mastered Version and I'll pay anything for this heartbreaking, life-affirming piece of art that has become a (cult) classic!