Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)

Rating:
Summary: I can't belive it's this good!
Review: Sunset Boulevard, upon firt watching it, was the worst piece of "film noir" trash I'd ever seen. BUT, I watched it a second time. Wow! I actually got it the Second time! It's great! Gloria Swansen was the ultimate Norma Desmond wacko. If you're looking for something with that shadowy, stark black and white, Noir-ish flare, you've not further to look than Sunset Boulevard..

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best and most fascinating films of all
Review: A masterpiece in every sense of the word. Gloria Swanson gives a brilliant, tour-de-force performance. The rest of the cast is excellent. the script, direction, score, cinematography perfect. This IS a perfect movie except for Nancy Olson's sometimes contrived dialogue. Requires more than one viewing(I've watched it three times already.) Aside from Olson's dialogue, I give everything an A+. Don't miss this fascinating film.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: "Sunset Boulevard" is undoubtedly one of the best films of all time. What I don't understand is how a musical was adapted from this film. It's a bleak, dark, personal, scatching attack on Hollywood - and I can't stomach the thought of seeing it in color, or for that matter, seeing any of the characters sing. Joe Gillis wouldn't sing, Max the butler wouldn't belt out a song, even if he did play that organ, and the only way Norma Desmond would work her vocal chords is if the film was totally corrupted and she sang her way down the staircase at the end. I haven't seen the show, so it may be good, but this film seems to me to only work on film. It's a movie about the people who make movies - and what happens to them because of the cutthroat business. A remake of this film would be a brutal attack on Hollywood, but we've already seen that. Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors of all time, and his vision seems to go uncompromised. He blends film noir, comedy, romance and tragedy as if he were mixing a mere cocktail. It one-ups "Double Indemnity" in my opinion as the better film noir of Wilder's career. This film's brilliance - in writing, directing, acting, camerawork - cannot be denied. It deserves all the praise it gets and more, but I just can't see it as a Broadway show. Maybe my vision is clouded.

Rating:
Summary: An unpolished commedy
Review: A wonderful movie, however, I don't believe it deserves five stars because there are a few scenes, mainly those with Joe's girlfriend, which are rather dull and lack the general wit which courses thoughout the rest of the picture.

Rating:
Summary: And the Award Goes to--Gloria Swanson!
Review: There should have been two Oscars in l950 for Best Actress: Swanson's phenomenal comeback in "Sunset Boulevard" and Bette Davis's short-lived "comeback" in "All About Eve" (just take a look at her horrendous movie, "The Star" in l952 to see how far she had fallen). Instead, the Oscar went to some now forgotten actress named Judy Holiday. Thanks to Norma Desmond's one time lover, the camera, we can now watch a truly mythical star at her peak. Unless you've seen the Swanson magic in a few of the silents left of her (why Swanson and other silent stars never kept copies of their movies is a mystery)it might be hard to fathom why she was chosen to portray Norma. At her peak in the Roaring Twenties, she was the most famous woman on earth. You never saw her in public looking anything but like a glamorous star. Her movies were all guaranteed blockbusters. Even natives in Africa thought she was a goddess when they saw her on white sheets on which played the flickering shadows of Swanson's dream world. She would certainly have had a coronary if she saw today's female stars, who seem obsessed with wearing their beloved washed out jeans and tee-shirts (like sandra bullock, michelle pfeiffer) in public. Gloria imbued her role as Norma Desmond with real life experiences. After talkies came in, she along with other legendary stars were thrown into the trashcan. I've seen some of Gloria's early talkies. Her magic was gone. Her voice was windy and weak, without much force. Especially her "Music in the Air" in which she was forced to play a secondary role to now forgotten Douglass Montgomery. Even worse was the fate of her former rival, Colleen Moore who ranked at the very top of the silent screen heap, as Clara Bow's main rival. Colleen made some wretched talkies, especially the terrible "The Scarlett Letter" in l932 by a Poverty Row studio. She looked horrible and sounded even worse.I went to Swanson's auction in New York in the late eighties and it was just like watching the personal effects of Norma Desmond being auctioned off. Hundreds of hats, gowns, shoes, many dating back to the late l900s, and plenty of real and fake leopard skin capes, scarves, shoes. Boxes and boxes of costume jewelry, some from as far back as l912. Ironically, Gloria's chief rival for the l950 Oscar, Bette Davis, also made a movie in l952 studying a once great star, now forgotten, completely broke and desperate for a comeback. In "The Star", Bette had never been so hideously photographed, made-up or dressed and the film was so low-budget there wasn't even enough money to build sets so much of the action is shot on outdoor L.A. locales. But as to "Sunset Boulevard", take a glimpse of how a real movie legend looked and lived--both in the character of Norma Desmond and of the mythical creature who played her.

Rating:
Summary: "alright mr. demille,i'm ready for my close-up"
Review: gloria swanson gives an excellent performance as norma desmond who says one of the most famous lines in film history (the line is up above). a definite classic.

Rating:
Summary: Give it Six Stars
Review: From the opening pool scene to the stair descending finale, this masterpiece is riviting. The quintessential Hollywood movie.

Rating:
Summary: THE MOVIE THAT INSPIRED THE MUSICAL
Review: Increible thats all I can say its so wonderful. The plot the story, that inspired the wonderful musical.

Rating:
Summary: SUNSET BLVD IS A WINNER
Review: A TRUE HOLLYWOOD STAR PERFORMANCE! This movie is problaby one of the best examples of what is a classic Hollywood star. Gloria Swanson Is Norma Desmond, the greatest star of ALL! An excentric silent film star at the end of her career, who is desperate to hold on to the hopes of a triumpant return to the screen. She gives a mesmorizing performance especially in the final scene, as she escapes reality and revels in her own psychotic episode of stardom. A true DIVA in her own mind! A must see!!!

Rating:
Summary: Sunset Boulevard is one of the best classics ever.
Review: Gloria Swanson set a new standard for actresses with her outstanding performance as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. It doesn't get much better than this. Order this movie right away. It is worth every penny. You may even watch it more than once within the first week of puchasing. I know I did! "It's so good to be back! It's just you and me, and the cameras, and all those wonderful people out in the dark." "I am a STAR!"