Rating: 
Summary: "Ordinary People" deserves more than 5 stars!
Review: I saw this movie on the big screen when it was released in 1980 - I was just 14 years old. Timothy Hutton was a newcomer, but I had grown up watching, and adoring Mary Tyler-Moore on TV on her show, and reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show". It was somewhat startling to see her in this role of the icy-cold Beth Jarrett, but after a few moments on-screen one forgets completely that we're watching "Mare!" and she instantly becomes this character.I can't say enough about this movie - it has always been one of my top five favorite all-time films. Robert Redford (who won a Best Director Oscar) did a superb job casting and directing it. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but can anyone imagine other actors in the roles of "Conrad" (Timothy Hutton - who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), "Calvin" (incredibly, heart-breakingly-portrayed by Donald Sutherland)and of course "Beth"? Who other than Judd Hirsch can you imagine bringing such tenderness, caring and compassion to the character of Conrad's psychiatrist, "Dr. Berger"? As another reviewer stated so succinctly, there are so many layers to this film, you literally can't blink, or you'll miss something. In fact, 23 years later, having watched it maybe fifty times, I still have a new realization in every viewing. I've also read the book, and while it was a wonderful book, the movie is far and away more emotional. Be prepared; this is not a "feel-good" movie by any stretch of the imagination. It is thought-provoking, tragic, emotional and gut-wrenching, and it might make you re-evaluate aspects of your life. The subject-content (accidental death, severe depression, suicide) is very serious and can be upsetting or even depressing. This film also won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1980. I must add that no matter how incredible the entire cast, Timothy Hutton is the STAR of this film, and the Oscar he won, though well-earned, should have been for Best Actor. Whomever thinks that the role of Conrad was a supporting one, needs to re-evaluate that opinion. If you're considering purchasing this movie, do not consider further - just order it. It's one of those "must-have" for your collection. You will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: An Unfortunate DVD For A Classic Drama
Review: Let me first say that 5 stars is for the movie ONLY, and NOT the DVD. This release from Paramount Pictures was sure as heck making alot of the film's fans smile, waiting for the DVD for so long. But yet again we've been swindled by another bare-bones DVD release, with only an original theatrical trailer and a 10 scene chapter selection, which seems utterly ridiculous for a two hour movie; I always end up fast-forwarding to the scene I want. The widescreen transfer is not too bad though. I was very happy to find out that this is a clean, TRUE 1.85:1 widescreen picture (I'm thankful it wasn't matted) that favors the right side of the screen. But as for the audio, it's English mono with hiss and pop throughout the picture, which makes the movie experience half-and-half; the picture clean, the audio scratchy. Also, for those movie nuts out there who love watching a movie with Closed Captioning will be dissapointed. They are illegitimate at best, which also makes it unfair for the deaf and hard of hearing to enjoy the movie the way it's meant to be. I happen to get really annoyed when I watch a movie with very slow captioning. So then it looks like this:
[Captioning] "After Buck died, dad came into my room. He didn't know what to say. He put his arm around me. We just sat there."
[What He Actually Said] "My father came into my room, an-- and he didn't know what to say. This is-- this is right after Buck died. And, uh, he came over and he sat on the bed right next to me, put his arm around my shoulder, and we just sat there."
I feel that it kills the emotion of what's being said. It is these kind of DVD releases that make us happy hearing it's coming, and make us dissapointed after the purchase. I'm hoping that Paramount will smarten up in the future and not go forth childishly releasing DVDs with VHS-like quality and lazy Closed Captioning. 2 stars for an OK picture transfer. I just wish it could have been better...
Rating:
Summary: Best Picture Academy Awared, 1980. Best dramatic film ever!
Review: This is simply the best dramatic film ever made. Tremendous insight into forgiveness of self and others. Every person on the planet should see this film. Superb performances all the way around. A true masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Film
Review: Everything has been said,but I just want to tell the world,
"Ordinary People" is not to be missed.I had the wonderful
privilege of watching it the other day and have not stopped
thinking about it since.It is a heartbreaking,emotionally
moving family drama.With marvelous acting performances by ALL
and a lovely music score.It will haunt,captivate,and remain
with you for a lifetime.Watch it and see what I mean.
Well done,Robert Redford!
Rating: 
Summary: NOTHING ORDINARY ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!
Review: Based on the novel by Judith Guest, "Ordinary People" is the story of Conrad (Timothy Hutton), a young man who, after witnessing the drowning of his older brother and attempting suicide himself, finds it difficult to exist in the shadow of his brother's memory. His mother, Beth (Mary Tyler-Moore) doesn't help matters with her aloof ignorance and unwillingness to accept Conrad for who he is. When Conrad's dad (Donald Sutherland) recommends that he see a shrink (Judd Hirsch)Conrad is forced to come to terms with his own guilt and sadness. Robert Redford won the Best Director Oscar his first time out, creating a rich family drama with textured performances and mood. The entire cast is outstanding. Mary Tyler Moore really shys away from her squeaky clean television image and is perfectly cast.
Paramount Home Video has given us the movie in anamorphic widescreen. There is some pixelization, shimmering of fine details and edge enhancement present throughout. Nothing terribly distracting. Colors are balanced but slightly faded. Fine details are lost and film grain is present throughout. The audio is distorted somewhat and not very engaging. Still, the performances shine through, particularly Timothy Huttons.
After much debate, no audio commentary track by Redford was included. NO EXTRAS PERIOD! Come on! Get it together at Paramount and deliver the goods! We're waiting!
Rating: 
Summary: Family Melodrama
Review: 1980's Ordinary People was superstar Robert Redford's directorial debut. The film centers around an upper class Midwestern family, The Jarretts, whose lives are shattered when the oldest son of two is killed in a boating accident. As the want of many families when tragedies strike, they bottle their feelings up and try to pretend if they don't talk about what happened, the pain will go away. The younger son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton), was apart of the boating accident and he feels that it was his fault. He can no longer stand the guilt and pain and tries to commit suicide. Conrad then starts seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), and he starts facing his true feelings and the deep seated denial that exists in his dysfunctional family. Conrad's parents, Calvin & Beth (Donald Sutherland & Mary Tyler Moore), have their own struggles as Beth refuses to show any emotion towards Calvin and the death of their son. Cal desperately tries to hold his broken family together, but the pressure starts to weigh too heavily on him. The film is full of excellent performances. Ms. Moore plays totally against her normally upbeat personality by making Beth into the ultimate ice queen. Mr. Hirsch is very good and Mr. Hutton won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role. But the unsung hero is Mr. Sutherland, who is not only the glue who is trying to hold his family together, but the is backbone of the film. Mr. Redford does a fine job in his directing debut and he won his only Oscar for Best Director. The film also won Best Picture, but despite all the accolades, it is just a very good film, not a great one. It plays a little too heavily on the melodramatic and tends to be overly depressing in places. The film beat out what is considered by many to best film of the 1980's, Raging Bull, for best picture and Mr. Redford beat out Raging Bull's director, Martin Scorcese, in the directing category.
Rating:
Summary: A family falling apart
Review: This Best Picture of 1980 is an extraordinary and searing experience as we see one family in crisis falling apart at the seams. "Ordinary People" takes us into an upper middle class family where the older of its two sons has died in a drowning accident with the survivors left to deal with the emotional devastation. As family matriach Beth Jarrett, Mary Tyler Moore earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination and plays her character with what, at first, may come off as emotional distance and viciousness when, actually, she is essentially a weak person unable to handle anything less than perfection. As surviving son Conrad, Tim Hutton was a Best Supporting Actor statue for his protrayal of the emotionally shattered little brother dealing with his own guilt for having lived and his fight to be accepted by his mother. And as family man Cal Jarrett, Donald Sutherland is powerfully moving as the father who sees but cannot fend off the disintegration of his family. Robert Redford, in his directoral debut, won a Best Director Oscar, and justly so. Not an easy film to watch, "Ordinary People" nonetheless is an important lesson in the need for honesty and, in the end, doesn't cheat us with a happily-ever-after resolution. For in real life, that resolution isn't always happily ever after.
Rating:
Summary: Real drama about real people..
Review: I saw this film again after almost 20 years, and was again riveted by its artistry and integrity. Robert Redford's directoial debut was most acute, with generous close-ups, and a profound respect for the script. Timothy Hutton is the center of this film, and the completeness of his incredible performance can make no one doubt why he won the Oscar (Supporting?). I won't rehash the plot because everyone else has done that. But there's the performance of Mary Tyler Moore, shedding her good girl image and playing a selfish control-freak mother with virtually no emotion. She's incapable of saying "I Love You" to anyone in her life, including herself. It's a classic performance, adding to her already respectable body of work. Judd Hirsch was pivotal to the goings-on as the shrink (also Oscar nominated), and Elizabeth McGovern was excellent in one of her first roles as Hutton's puppy-love (she was nominated the following year for "Ragtime"). In a small but pivotal role, Dinah Manoff shines as the only person Hutton felt he could talk to, but ultimately, couldn't. Though this won most of the major Oscars (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Supp. Actor), the Academy should hang their heads in shame for ignoring the outstanding performance of Donald Sutherland. It was a subdued, centered performance that eventually made everything make sense. His final scene (with Moore) was so very sincere, and the closing scene (with Hutton), where they both said "I Love You" to each other, made everything seem all right. Even if he was nominated, it's hard to say if he could've beaten DeNiro in "Raging Bull". (I'm disappointed that Hutton's and McGovern's careers weren't greater.) Have tissues handy, and experience this wonderful display by Redford that made this dysfunctional family so compelling.
Rating:
Summary: Profound no matter how you look at it
Review: I have seen "Ordinary People" at least a dozen times over the past 17 years. I was 15 when I first saw it. It is one of a small handful of films that I have turned back to over the years as I've grown for new insight and meaning with profound results (others include "Midnight Cowboy" and "Taxi Driver"). Each and every time I see this, I see something new and am still deeply affected. People and critics throw out the phrase "works on so many levels". This is an ideal film to model that nebulous concept. You could ask 50 people to screen it and ask them what they think it is about, and you would get 50 different responses. You could ask those same 50 people to screen it again in 5 years, and then ask them what they think it's about. You would get 50 different responses again. And so on and so on. You would get "it's about suicide", "it's about [someone] that dies", "it's about a family tragedy", "it's about teen depression", "it's about a cold mother", "it's about a dysfunctional family", and on and on. These are all true (and then some) so it's nearly impossible to describe this film in a nutshell. "Ordinary People" (the movie and the great book from which it was adapted) shows us how families can go on for years and years (and even generations) without ever realizing or having to assess how everyone feels about one another. Some families get away with it, for things run smoothly on the surface. But sometimes things happen to shatter that facade. Could be an illness, a drug problem, a divorce, a death, whatever. Sometimes something so terrible happens that a family is forced to face each other and speak the unspoken. But sometimes, the unspoken simply cannot be spoken, at least by some of the members. That is the case with this family. The mother is so empty and emotionally sterile that it is clear she had never been a true part of that family. At least outside of her first child. ...The father struggled with his feelings, and wanted to share them, but probably felt unable to with such a cold, heartless matriarch in the family. And the... son didn't know what... he wanted, and was caught somewhere between his mother's sterility and his father's earnestness. He was always trying to please both, never realizing that it would never happen with his mother. At least until [something happened], for which the guilt mounted and mounted (with little help from his parents to relieve). Watching these three characters (well, two, really, for the mother is emotionally arrested) cope with this tragedy and assess their positions in the family unit is so compelling and so wrenching that it's almost voyeuristic. Robert Redford's direction really does feel like we're peeking into the windows of a family that we "know" down the block. Little did we know (or did they) what was really going on. This is a somber movie; it is not a simple TV movie-of-the-week. It shows that serious pain must be endured before pleasure can be found/regained. You can't sweep anything under the rug. And honesty is a must in any family or relationship; communication is vital to its survival. There's no way around it. Sometimes the communication will lead you to the worst conclusion--that you simply cannot get along--but the truth always prevails. Because only in truth can you even try to change/understand/improve things. Technically speaking, this is superbly crafted. The acting is brilliant, the direction is penetrating, the dialogue ranges from exuberant to shattering, and everything else is perfect. I've seen a lot of movies, and it still amazes me that one of the most grueling, heart-wrenching pieces of acting I have ever seen was by young Timothy Hutton. The sight of his face and the sound of his voice will tear you apart. To me, that young actor carried the bulk of this heavyweight picture. He is nothing short of brilliant here. Donald Sutherland, definitely a great actor, hasn't been any better than this. To me, he is the ultimate portrait of the honest man struggling with his confusing role as a father and husband. And Mary Tyler Moore, of course, is frighteningly intense as the mother; it's impossible to link this woman to Mary Richards. Great support from everyone else, including the wonderful Elizabeth McGovern (with a character that receives much more development in the novel), and Judd Hirsch as the boy's psychiatrist (their scenese together are brilliant). I can't stress this film's importance enough. It demands multiple viewings. It is a shining example of how much insight film (and art in general) can shed on our lives if handled with care, taste, and realism. It covers ground that is universal to us all, regardless of family background. Don't cheat yourself out of a profoundly moving experience. And it just might change your life. Now how many movies can you say that about?
Rating:
Summary: An overlooked classic!
Review: Four outstanding performances by the four principle players.
A subtle script, not slow, but thoughtfull. An incredibly difficult subject, somehow pulled off. A depressing movie, yet an incredibly human one. An encapsulation about the difficulties we face in trying to be fair to ourself, fair to others, and fair to the quest for the truth. Superb!
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