Rating: 
Summary: Can't expain the attraction ' just see it
Review: I found Bagdad Cafe on DVD three days ago and have watched it twice since, each time with a big smile on my face. It's difficult to explain why this movie is so haunting; if you try to tell a friend "You've got to see this movie because...", you'd be stuck for a definable reason. It's a very gentle character study of two women, different as can be, who come to understand and even like each other. They are both frustrated with their current positions in life. Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht), the stranded German tourist, is willing to start repairing her life, even in this bleak desert setting. Brenda (CCH Pounder) has led such a hard-knocks life that she can't understand or accept anyone trying to help her. There's a wonderful supporting cast surrounding them, but the heart of this movie is the way the two women learn to be friends. You're either going to love this movie or be totally bewildered by what I (and other reviewers) see in it.This movie was shot in Newberry Springs, near Barstow; the restaurant is still there (originally called Sidewinder Cafe, now renamed the Bagdad Cafe, of course). This is the favorite movie of one of my sister's friend who lives in Brazil. When this friend's daughter Paula visited recently, we stopped by the Bagdad Cafe on the way to Vegas; Paula's mom shed tears of delight when she saw pictures of her daugher making a pilgrimage to this high desert Mecca.
Rating:
Summary: Two worlds collide
Review: BAGDAD CAFE is a wonderful example of how two very disparate people from different worlds can find harmony together and produce magic from their union.Jasmin, played by Marianne Sagebrecht, is a staunch, uptight German tourist who is abandoned by her equally staunch, uptight German husband in the middle of the Mojave desert. With no possessions to her name except a suitcase of men's personal articles and a thermos of very strong coffee, she wanders aimless through the desert and happens upon the Bagdad Cafe and Motel, a dilapidated motel/cafe/gas station frequented only by an eclectic cast of locals and the odd trucker or two.The Bagdad is owned an operated by Brenda, played by CCH Pounder, an irascible African-American woman who is stressed and overwhelmed at turns by the responsibility of running the Bagdad. When Jasmin comes for an indefinite stay, Brenda chafes at this odd foreign woman who seems to have come from nowhere. The tension is increased when Brenda notes the unusual objects in Jasmin's suitcase, one of which happens to be a magic kit which, later in the movie, literally and figuratively brings magic to Bagdad.The women come to realize that though each is from a different world, they share common bonds: each has an apatheic, uncaring husband who has been cast aside, and each is struggling to find a niche in a seemingly uncaring world. When they join forces, they transform the Bagdad from a dismal, lethargic desert outpost to a sparkling, enchanted oasis. The music is excellent! I loved the haunting theme song and that enchanting piano melody (I think it's Bach?) the young boy pianist constantly played.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite movie of all time
Review: This movie is just perfect. It deserves all the oscars in the world. After watching this movie, you feel good about life....
Rating:
Summary: Can't expain the attraction ' just see it
Review: I found Bagdad Cafe on DVD three days ago and have watched it twice since, each time with a big smile on my face. It's difficult to explain why this movie is so haunting; if you try to tell a friend "You've got to see this movie because...", you'd be stuck for a definable reason. It's a very gentle character study of two women, different as can be, who come to understand and even like each other. They are both frustrated with their current positions in life. Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht), the stranded German tourist, is willing to start repairing her life, even in this bleak desert setting. Brenda (CCH Pounder) has led such a hard-knocks life that she can't understand or accept anyone trying to help her. There's a wonderful supporting cast surrounding them, but the heart of this movie is the way the two women learn to be friends. You're either going to love this movie or be totally bewildered by what I (and other reviewers) see in it. This movie was shot in Newberry Springs, near Barstow; the restaurant is still there (originally called Sidewinder Cafe, now renamed the Bagdad Cafe, of course). This is the favorite movie of one of my sister's friend who lives in Brazil. When this friend's daughter Paula visited recently, we stopped by the Bagdad Cafe on the way to Vegas; Paula's mom shed tears of delight when she saw pictures of her daugher making a pilgrimage to this high desert Mecca.
Rating:
Summary: One of those rare gems that lurk unsung in the catalogues.
Review: A very German tourist tourist is abandoned by her travelling companion in the middle of the desert with just her luggage and a thermos of very strong coffee.She makes her way to the kind of roadside motel that seems to hover on the brink of self destruction ,peopled by an eclectic cast of characters of whom Jack Palance as an artist who brings our tourist out of herself and the foul-tempered owner played by CCH Pounder trying to cope with the failing business and her off the wall family are outstanding.As the tourist Marianne Sagebrecht is just sufficiently alien to force each person with whom she comes in contact to re evaluate their own sense of themselves as they try to understand her values.They even have trouble understanding her coffee. This is a movie about people living with people .It is warm,funny,understanding and generates that magic so rarely seen in current Hollywood offerings that gives one a real sense of loss when the credits roll.This review is based on a letterbox laser disc .
Rating: 
Summary: Different Worlds Harmonize -- Quiet Gem of a Film
Review: When a middle aged Bavarian Tourist lands in a remote, scarcely populated California desert town, she creates not only a stir with the locals, but eventually brightens the spirits of her host family as well as all the "regulars" who pass through the "Bagdad Cafe". What started out as a "big mistake" soon looks like divine providence. "Miss Jasmin" (the German lady with a matching accent) and "Miss Brenda" (the rough-talking owner of a greasy-spoon restaurant who employs Jasmin and gives her a home) become close friends. An aging "showbusiness man" (brilliantly played by pre-City-Slickers Jack Palance) views Miss Jasmin as his "muse" and is inspired to paint her portrait. When word gets out that her tourist visa had expired, the local Sheriff forces Jasmin to return to Germany. Sadness canvases the place where Jasmin had been embraced as a welcome change of schedule. The life she had brought with her seemed drained away with her departure. There isn't much plot to stretch the running time (the original German cut runs nearly 2 hours), however there are many bittersweet moments in this simple, but beautiful film. The last few scenes deliver the inevidible (thus predictable) conclusion. A little on the "artsy" side and clearly without a multi-million dollar budget, but still a palatable final product.****
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn.
Review: I'd heard nothing but good things about this movie from critics and family members. Clearly, a lot of folks like this movie. It didn't do a lot for me, though. It had its moments.
Rating:
Summary: Different
Review: Reviewed and summed up well by others, I'll just add that from a truck enthusiast's perspective, this movie contains bonus footage and sounds of a tidy Barstow Cat-powered peterbilt and GM-powered 4070 International, plus background shots of various highway rigs and freight trains. A wonderful movie
Rating:
Summary: Few words....
Review: I guess when I was about 11 I was asked to learn a song called "Calling you"....A hard job but I did like my voice sounded while I was interpreting that song. I could hardly understand the lyrics but I could feel the whole thing was great. I heard this song was in the O.S.T of a movie called "Bagdad Cafè". I had to see it. I needed to see it. It was hard to find the VHS at the time for in Italy good movies and good music are not really appreciated. Whatever. It moved me. I cried. I learned something about life in general from that movie. Silly me... tonight I watched again this movie...on an unknown tv channel....and i cried again.
I have no many words to say. I don't want to run the risk to be more silly than this. It's quite enough. And, you know what? There's no need to say too many words. You gotta see it to understand why so many people loved it. and still love it.
The best words to describe it are these "A desert road from Vegas to nowhere/ someplace better than where you've been/ a coffee machine that needs some fixing/ in a little cafè just around the bend/ a hot dry wind blows right through me/ the baby's crying and I can't sleep/ but I can feel a change is coming/ coming closer/ sweet release....I am calling you / Can't you hear me / I am calling you"
Love Sarah Micòl
Rating:
Summary: Few words....
Review: I guess when I was about 11 I was asked to learn a song called "Calling you"....A hard job but I did like my voice sounded while I was interpreting that song. I could hardly understand the lyrics but I could feel the whole thing was great. I heard this song was in the O.S.T of a movie called "Bagdad Cafè". I had to see it. I needed to see it. It was hard to find the VHS at the time for in Italy good movies and good music are not really appreciated. Whatever. It moved me. I cried. I learned something about life in general from that movie. Silly me... tonight I watched again this movie...on an unknown tv channel....and i cried again.
I have no many words to say. I don't want to run the risk to be more silly than this. It's quite enough. And, you know what? There's no need to say too many words. You gotta see it to understand why so many people loved it. and still love it.
The best words to describe it are these "A desert road from Vegas to nowhere/ someplace better than where you've been/ a coffee machine that needs some fixing/ in a little cafè just around the bend/ a hot dry wind blows right through me/ the baby's crying and I can't sleep/ but I can feel a change is coming/ coming closer/ sweet release....I am calling you / Can't you hear me / I am calling you"
Love Sarah Micòl
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