Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Skip the movie. Read the book.
Review: I had such high hopes for this film, having read the novel and finding it to be one of the most beautifully written and poetic books I've ever read. Toni Morrison's award-winning BELOVED is a tough read but a rewarding one.

I'm giving the movie version two stars because of the attempt at making this book a film. I know that most movies pale in comparison to their paper inspirations, but this is a book that shouldn't have -- couldn't have -- been made into a quality adaption. Yes, you could make it a good slave/ghost story, but to keep out the beauty of Morrison's language and sentence structuring would be a travesty. Kudos for Demme to realize this, but by trying to involve the poetry and style of the novel, he's made a mess of a film. And the beautiful and talented Thandie Newton is ... distracting. Her personification of Beloved borders on comical every time she tries to communicate with other characters. Some things are better left to the reader's mind I guess.

I highly recommend everyone reads BELOVED the novel, then you will understand how poorly the screen adaption is.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good movie
Review: Bizzare, long, unnecessary story...none of the characters are likeable. The only thing you care about is it getting to the end and then you wish you hadn't spent those hours of your life watching this bizarre, stupid movie.

Rating:
Summary: A somber story of troubled people in a troubled time
Review: This is an important film of Academy Award caliber. The characters are unforgettable and the story, with its haunting surreal quality, will linger long in my mind. I personally find Toni Morrison difficult and confusing to read. This was true of the book. Translated to film, however, the story works, and I found myself intrigued and interested in the tale set in 1873 of former slaves, making a new life for themselves and still living with the horror of the past.

Hooray for Danny Glover. He is outstanding in the part of Paul D, the former slave who comes courting Sethe, played by Oprah Winfrey, who is living with the effects of one horrible act of desperation. Oprah brings her presence to the film and is a good actress. Alas, though, perhaps it is because she is so very very well known, she was always more Oprah to me than the character she was playing. The transitions and flashbacks within the film are seamless, so much so that I didn't realize until the list of credits rolled, that the part of Sethe as a younger woman was played by a different actress, Lisa Gay Hamilton. She's in the scenes that give the movie its dramatic punch and drive the story and her acting is outstanding.

At almost three hours the video is too long. Some of the middle could have been honed down. Sethe's daughter, Denver, played by Kimberly Elise and the strange young woman visitor named Beloved, played by Thandie Newton, have many scenes together. The audience guesses, long before the characters do, as to exactly who Beloved is, and there are much too many scenes illustrating the same points. While played beautifully by the two young actresses, a few less examples would have served the movie better.

Beloved is the story of some troubled people told against a historical background that has never been really done well in a film before. It's a somber story, with not a bit of comic relief to relieve the tension that keeps mounting. It is also a classic tale of sin and punishment and, finally, a sort of redemption. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: How can you not love this movie
Review: After seeing this haunting, eery movie (I know I didn't spell that right), I can only say I was wonder-struck. I was in awe. To gore hounds or action movie fanatics it might seem slow, but if you actually sit down to watch an actual movie and an actual story, you will not be dissapointed. The feeling of haunted beauty never leaves you throughout this movie; it comes in over-powering waves and trickles into your mind like a mellon colly dream. OK, don't think that this is at all a "black chick movie" or any nonsense like that; I myself am a white guy, and I absolutly loved it; don't let anything get in the way of your watching this movie!!! I'm a guy, and I actually burst into tears three times while watching this masterpeice. One was when the woman helped Sethe deliever Denver into the world (don't make fun of me!). When Baby Sues was talking to the crowd of people in the woods at the end, that got me. Then, while the credits were rolling, I sat back and thought about the movie as a whole, about sad, haunted (there's that word again) beauty of the story. I can't remember her name, but the young woman who played Beloved - wonderful! Her performance sent chills down my back! Astounding performences to all the cast...This is a terrifically wonderful movie.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, but true to the book
Review: This movie has it all: animal abuse, people abuse, incest, full-frontal nudity, demonic influence, and even more. What makes it worse is that there really isn't any theme (I read the book and watched the movie and could say the same for both). If we are made to sit through such terrible scenes, there should be a resolution or message (for example, in Roots we all came out from watching the movie knowing that slaves were abused and regretting that our ancestors might have been involved). However, Beloved leaves the viewers confused. Was Sethe supposed to learn to let go of the past? That's all I got out of it...and I'm not even sure that's correct.

One thing going for this movie -- they took out the scenes mentioned repeatedly in the book about slaves raping cows. That's one scene I can do without.

If you read the book and enjoyed it, you might enjoy the movie. However, be aware before viewing that it is excessively graphic, slow-moving, and does not have a resolution at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Worst Movie I've ever seen
Review: If i get a sec I might think of a worse movie. There is constant nudity throughout the show and the opening scene is terribly horrifying. I nearly got up and walked out of the theater. The plot was boring and slow. I sat there praying that the movie would end sometime soon. I don't recommend seeing this with your mother.

Rating:
Summary: brilliant acting-- haunting soundtracks
Review: Jonathan Demme's "Beloved" based on Toni Morrison's novel is a movie that tries to depict the after effect of slavery. It is a story that symbolizes the historical reconstruction period and the African American loss through the life of the main character Sethe. "The story takes place at a time when the United States was picking up the threads of its social, economic, and political life and attempting to weave them into a new pattern. It was known as the period of reconstruction- the time for dynamic change". It was a time when slavery was beginning to end although confused historians would say slavery was over.

The movie gives the viewer some blurry images of the slavery times. As Sethe's master came up to claim his "property" Sethe attempted to kill all four of her children in order to save them from being taken back to the slavery plantations. She ended up murdering her youngest daughter. From then on Sethe and the rest of the family is haunted by the spirit of her dead daughter. Although her sons decide to leave the house because of the disturbing and chaotic spirit's violent and horrifying behavior, Sethe along with her teen-aged daughter stays on and takes life as it comes. Then after eight years in 1873 Paul D- a lost friend of Sethe from the slavery plantations in Kentucky walks into the scene and into Sethe's life. The spirit dislikes the idea of Paul D's entry and rebels in all sorts of mystical ways. But Sethe's life becomes more colorful with Paul's introduction. For some time the family becomes a strong unit. There is a scene of a fair for black people which indicates the social life of the African Americans. It showed the minimum entertainment they could have in those days. Poverty is also pictured to show the low standard of living of now independent but poor blacks. The story takes a twist as somebody named Beloved enters the house. But the most inspiring character of the movie is Baby Suggs. She is an enlightened old black lady who teaches the black community about love, life and humanity. Her words indicate how people from a particular race have experienced the least amount of love and respect. Baby Suggs is a massive spiritual force in the community. This symbolizes the spiritual help that the black soul needed in order to cope with their sufferings and to accept their history.

Rachel Portman's soundtracks of purity, clarity and African spontaneity simply added intensity to the dramatization of the historical message of the film. The story beginning with Portman's amazing sound draws the viewer's mind instantaneously to the screen. The song expresses the eccentricity and the richness of Africa and Africa-originated people. It is the music that is cultured in the African American soul - inside the inner-most core of the African American heart. It is the melancholy sound of former slaves who are haunted for years by their past. The sound is a soft rebel against racial discrimination.

However, the flow of the movie was hindered by some scenes that had no purpose. Beloved's (Thandie Newton) over-exposure was unnecessary. Her behavior was strange enough. The scene of Sethe (Oprah W.) urinating in the open was also of unknown value. May be the purpose was to show their way of life but these scenes were simply - "odd to the eye".

Jonathan Demme's "Beloved" is a movie passionately made. It's a movie that has been directed and produced with utmost respect. Through the stories of paranormal activity, destroyed family of a former slave, glimpses of Sethe's past, the flowered friendship turned love between Paul and Sethe, we get an impression of African American culture, their standard of life and their miseries during the reconstruction era.

Rating:
Summary: Working on a Deeper Level
Review: It's really too bad that this movie isn't appreciated more. Many were off-put it seems by its brutality, darkness and ghost-story feel. It blows my mind that so many critics dropped the ball on this one. I've never read Toni Morrison's celebrated novel, but I could immediately tell from the first few scenes that the film was rather faithful. It has detail and intensity, and a depth that is characteristic of great literature. From the first ghost scene with the dog I was immediately enthralled and curious as to what this story was about and what it was trying to say, and just as importantly, how it was saying it. This story works on a deeper level. Morrison's use of ghosts to reflect internal workings is terribly inventive and interesting. The ghosts and stuff, starkly beautiful and strange, captured through Demme's powerful eye, do not need to be read as real or not real. Sure, they have a power of themselves over the viewer, which Demme does wonderfully. But, my point is, this is based on a book, and the ghosts more than anything are metaphors which paint and convey the internal pain and suffering of the truth. This film wonderfully shows us that somethng like slavery and rape can't just be forgotten or healed easily or quickly. These horrors, true horrors, persist through time and space, they are ghosts that move through history. And the more we suppress them the more powerful they become. That in itself, even without respect to Morrison's impassioned story about the survival of the American African slave, is in itself, a deep and profound message. "Beloved" is filled with these sometimes horrible truths, but it never forsakes humanity, it never levels an accusatory finger. The brutal truths are also wonderfully tempered with tender moments. One of the best in my opinion being the spiritual gathering of freed slaves, an eloquent vision of the power of love and community. If you don't get what I'm saying, you will as you get further and further into this film. Movies and books that work on this level deserve our attention. And despite what Leonard Maltin writes, Winfrey's performance is awesome. This movie simply demands more out of us. Give it and you will be rewarded with a great fusion of the ugly and the beautiful in search of deeper spiritual truths.

Rating:
Summary: A Great movie hurt by bad editing
Review: Beloved is a hard film to rate. It is very well-acted and buitifully directed. The story is every bit as haunting and interesting as the book and it's obvious that this movie was a labor of love.

Unfortunatly, the film is far too long. I know this sounds like a minor complaint but it is not. I wouldn't mind it if the film didn't drag as much but the pace is dreadfully slow. Also, like the book, the film is very dark and depressing but it seems to lack the closure that the book had. As much as the movie interested me there were many times when I longed for it to be over.

Beloved is a very well-made movie that suffers from a slow pace.

Rating:
Summary: Very Fine in its Own Right
Review: Obviously the making of this film was an endeavor of the heart not only Oprah Winfrey, but for everyone involved. Love for the novel is apparent throughout this intensive drama. However, having read the beautiful novel by Toni Morrison, I have to say that the movie came short of the impact of the book. In the novel, the events building to the climax are subtle, sad, and even poetic. Their power is there, but deep and trembling below the surface. In the film, however, they are emboldened - a visual and emotional bombardment. The story itself is a devastating masterpiece. Those who have never read the novel will very likely love this movie. It possesses masterful dramatic performances, cinematography, and musical scoring. Yet for those who have already read the book, the expectations may go well beyond even the artistic beauty of this fine film.