Rating: 
Summary: Do you really survive, even if you walk from a plane crash?
Review: It's another little known film folks. I am a fan of Jeff Bridges, so I was one of the few who sought this film out in Australia. "Fearless" was only showing in one cinema in Sydney and then only for two weeks. It was such a pity, since this is a movie that anyone should enjoy. It is also one to make you think.
Basically the story of a plane crash survivor coping with the trauma, "Fearless" goes way beyond just that. It shows some of the many tricks the mind can play on all of us. It deals with priorities in life, family, children, friendships. We see how mercenary the legal system can be. How does psychology approach near death experiences and what about the family of those that have had them. In short this film covers more than its fair share of big hitting issues.
Jeff Bridges plays Max Klein, the central character who goes through the crash and not only lives but is acclaimed as a hero after leading many of the other survivors to safety. It is his life that the film mainly deals with. He becomes detached from his past life, convinced that he can not die but at the same time he takes no pleasure in the things that he has or has achieved. His family can not seem to reach him and the only person he can really interact with is a fellow survivor, Carla Rodrigo, played by Rosie Perez. She is suffering greatly due to the loss of her baby and no longer wants to live.
Whilst Max seems quite successful at helping Carla he is powerless to help himself. The Psychiatrist Dr. Bill Perlman, played by John Turturro, is also unable to help Max, who treats him with disdain. As well, Max is drawn into the legal battle to gain compensation from the airline for himself and his best friend, who died in the crash. Brillstein, the lawyer played by Tom Hulce, is wonderful as an amoral man who feels some guilt over the behaviour that his profession forces on him whilst at the same time he feels he must defend his questionable tactics in order to get the best deal for his clients and incidentally, himself.
In the end, Max has to be saved by his loving but frustrated wife Laura, played by Isabella Rossellini, (the Daughter of Ingrid Bergman). When Max suffers a deadly allergic reaction to a strawberry which he deliberately eats, we are treated to a flashback which shows the plane crash from his point of view, in its entirety. It is a masterly job of special effects which makes your jaw drop. Laura resuscitates Max and brings him back to his real life from the limbo he had been living in.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the most moving films ever made.
Review: A beautiful, timeless film about the fragility and majesty of life. Jeff Bridges' performance is nothing short of captivating, while Peter Weir's spellbinding insight into Max's increasingly unconventional (yet somehow perfectly reasonable and understandable) behaviour - brought about by his survival of a plane crash - is breathtakingly cinematised. The relationship that starts between Bridges and Perez is heartbreaking and fabulously cliché-free. That this film has yet to be recognized as a masterpiece is a howling injustice, that few people seem to have seen it is an even bigger one. "Fearless" is a film of almost spirituality, clearly in love with human existence. This is breathtaking filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Disappointing DVD Treatment
Review: If any movie deserves NOT to be relegated to the Pan and Scan Only DVD line from Warners, it's this one. Fearless is one of the most moving films I have ever seen. I've seen a lot of movies, but this is the one I think about every day. Please check out the new issue of Film Comment (March/April 2000) for a nice appreciation of this movie and hope that Warner DVD will do right by this movie someday. Then again, the low price might help it reach the larger audience it always deserved. So touched I was by this movie, that when "The Truman Show" was being shot in Seaside, Florida, I wanted to walk up and give Peter Weir a hug. But, unlike Jeff Bridges' Max, I was fearful...
Rating:
Summary: Psychology of Fearless
Review: Fearless is a classic. Jeff Bridges turns in an Academy Award winning performance that was overlooked in 1993. Rosie Perez is NOT annoying--and she really can act. It's a film dealing with post traumatic stress. It's a film exploring survivor's guilt. It's a film about feeling indestructible and coming back to reality, to the people who need you. If you like human interest films, this is a winner. It's a gem of a film, and if you like(d) it you might also enjoy The Fisher King (1991), American Heart (1992), The Last Picture Show (1971)--all with Jeff Bridges. As for director Peter Weir, you might enjoy The Truman Show (1998) and Dead Poet's Society (1988). This film is open to numerous interpretations depending on what state of mind you're coming from. I think from an emotional/spiritual standpoint this film is satisfying. This film is a drama and is mainly rated R due to adult themes and subject matter. Rent it or buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding the after-effects of the NDE
Review: This is a tremendously beautiful and bittersweet experience. Jeff Bridges' character survives an airplane crash, and returns from a NDE. This movie portrays the immediate effects of returning to this life, after glimpsing something beyond that is alluring and quite familiar at the same time. Bridges' performance as a manifest ghost with one foot in heaven, and one foot caught in what can feel like a hell for some time after a NDE, is a representation of the spiritual threshold that friends and family are never quite able to comprehend, and, in some cases, fear. At a different level, we are presented with a survivor of a disaster; a mother - whose young son is killed - who experiences guilt, but also a spiritual crisis as she questions, for the first time, her belief(s) in/about God. This is an extraordinary film.
Rating: 
Summary: Close to the worst movie I've seen in a long time
Review: Sorry to disagree with everyone else, I thought though the premise was good, the execution was pretty bad. This is a movie I never care to see again, cause it's a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: When my plane finally goes down
Review: See Fearless.It details the experience of two west coast airplane crash survivors. In one of the most effective structural devices I've ever witnessed in a film, the movie begins a few minutes after the crash and ends at almost the same point, using sharply intercut flashbacks to circulate the story. Jeff Bridges and Rosie Flores are the two survivors who can't quite resurface into the banality of society, with Isabella Rossallini and Benicio Del Toro as family members either intentionally or unintentionally attempting to pull them back from a green state somewhere between dead and living. The mood of the film is very introverted, much is communicated in poetically short sharp sentences and sublime moments. Scenes resonate: Bridges walking dangerously into traffic at the beckoning of a familiar light, Rossallini torturing John Turturro at a dance class, Flores attempting to last out a survivor's reunion. Personally, the film's real truth is its ability to connect with powerful lifelong experiences and beliefs. The feeling of skittering through life outside the bounds of 'normal living' with friends and acquaintances gently (and sometimes rudely) attempting to tug me in is so accurately represented here. And the notion that most people are not consciously aware that they are alive and use their finite resource with little care. This is not a show loaded with greeting card sentiments. See it.
Rating:
Summary: Vastly under-appreciated
Review: This movie is so emotionally draining and effective that it is heartbreaking just thinking about it. No other movie has changed my personal views in such a profound way. Peter Weir, Jeff, Rosie - Thank you for showing me your heart.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary film and a deeply personal one for me.
Review: This film spoke to me in a way that no other film has. It is about a man (superbly played by the under-rated Jeff Bridges) who survives a plane crash and finds that he cannot communicate anymore with those closest to him. His personal axis has shifted. It is as if they no longer speak his language. He is introduced to a fellow crash survivor (Rosie Perez in her best role) whose child died in the tragedy. Because of their shared experience he can talk with her on an even level of understanding, but finds his grip on life and reality slowly slipping away from him. This is a deeply moving and spiritual film. It is intelligently written (Rafael Yglesias adapted his own novel), and in a strong career I feel that this is director Peter Weir's best film. Also, the use of Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 is a masterstroke and beautifully underscores the affirmative ending. I have seen this film many times and it still deeply affects me, a resonance that reaches beyond the screen. It is a compassionate, thoughtful and ultimately uplifting exploration of faith and redemption. I can't recommend this film enough, particularly to those who are troubled and feel that their voice cannot be heard. On a different note: Being a serious film buff, I find it a shame that this wonderful film was not released in the widescreen format on DVD. I would hope that for a future re-release this situation is remedied.
Rating: 
Summary: The movie's great, wish there was more to the DVD
Review: This is one of my favorite movies of the 90's (much better than Weir's over-hyped "The Truman Show"), so when I saw it was out on DVD, I bought it immediately. Unfortunately it's pan-and-scan, and the only special features are scene and language selection (and since I speak English, the latter doesn't matter). Why can't DVD be the format for the letterbox-lover? At least give us a front-and-back widescreen/fullscreen option. Sure this title is cheaper than most, but I still feel cheated. Guess I shold have read the box more carefully.
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