Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786300270206 Format: Color ISBN: 6300270203 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: 1995-01-31 Running Time: 101 Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 1968-08-26
Customer Rating: Summary: Rachel, Rachel-- Where are you? Comment: It has been a very long overdue to release this remarkable movie in DVD. A great film and very moving performance by Joanne Woodward (among her best performances along with her work in Sybil). Customer Rating: Summary: Very Touching Comment: This is a very touching movie. The performances are very good. Paul Newman as a director is a natural. Great to see James Olson in any movie. Customer Rating: Summary: Like a bud opening after a violent storm Comment: Paul Newman debuted as a director with this movie and it shows. Everything is done so carefully and meticulously that there is hardly any room for anyone to breathe. But at the same time there are some things that work very well - especially the flashbacks, some only a few seconds in lengh.
Joanne Woodward plays a sexually suppressed and totally sheltered middle-aged school teacher. She lives with her mother and her life is so insulated she doesn't know how to even talk to anyone outside her limited circle. One day a schoolmate returns to town (played wonderfully by James Olsen) and seduces her. She immediately falls for him, and so ardently that she frightens him away. Then she thinks she's pregnant, which forces her for the first time to think of her own life, but it turns out to be only a cyst. The whole incident, though, has shaken her into action, and at movie's end she's heading to Oregon and a new life (maybe).
The movie is slow and spare, deliberately so, and at times seems to be weighted down into inertia. But it's got something to say, however minor, and says it well. Worth a watch. Hopefully it will make to DVD soon. Customer Rating: Summary: Miserable script, and not a classic by any means, a waste of time Comment: Joanne Woodward plays a 35 year old schoolteacher who lives with her mother tending to her needs. In a small town, her uneventful life is running the risk of becoming an old spinsters life with cats in the house. Her dreary life is overshadowed by a domineering mother with few demands. Socially and sexually awkward, she has childhood memory flashbacks and a fantasy life that erupts with each person she meets. She has what resembles friendship with 2 characters, an evangelical church going friend and a visiting high school teacher from the city, who meets her at a social gathering and he courts her awkwardly. Towards the films end, the irresponsible schoolteacher from the city abandons her, and she is left to her fantasy dream life that she was pregnant with his child, which turns out to be only a cyst, which is removed. Fortunately, she asserts her individuality at the end by accepting a job out of town and moves with her mother to leave the town she's known, waving goodbye to memories and hauntings of a miserable childhood.
"I never thought anything alive could grow in me", Joanne Woodward says in an end scene. Nothing was growing in this movie. No character, no story, no plot, no living anything. I never thought this movie could be more boring.
This film is more about the fantasy life that Joanne Woodward's character has than anything else.
The film is very dark, very moody and miserly.
This film was all serious all the time, too heavy to bear. No comedy, or any levity. A horrible film. Not a classic by any means.
It would have been better as a stage adaptation than a screen adaptation.
Spending too much time in Joanne Woodward's characters head would make anyone feel miserable.
Not a mass appeal film, could have been made to appeal to a wider audience. Fans of this film would fall into a very narrowly defined category.
The script would have benefitted greatly with some additional story idea, like what if she was a widow? What if she had a disease? What if the school had a crisis? What if she was attacked? What if a storm wreaked havoc on the town? What if...? Instead, the viewer is left bored to death, with endless monotony.
The film is set to the tune of Joanne Woodwards inner life, which is nothing much to watch, as she remembers childhood memories of witnessing an embalming preparation; an awkward touch; conversations with people; walks in a grassy field.
The performance by Joanne Woodward is remarkable however. She is utterly believable. To sustain a melancholic character of sheer misery for any length of time takes skill.
This film badly needed a joke, or some humor, put some where, to show some humanity and relieve the audience, and make it more accessible.
As an example of how poorly made the movie was, I left the room to work with laundry, came back, and nothing had happened. I missed nothing because there was nothing to miss.
I imagine I could have made dinner, ate it, sewn a sweater, and watched a foot ball game, and Joanne Woodward's character would still be having a fantasy of who she wished she was.
Although a cliche, this film borders on being marginalized as an "artsy" film, neglecting an audiences need to be entertained as well as informed.
This film is added to the list of the most boring and miserable films I've seen.
If you've read my description of the films story, you've already seen the film. There is no need to watch this film. A film that can be reduced to 3 or 4 paragraphs is not a good film. A good film defies a total description.
Recommended Alternative Films: Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman did a remarkable job with "The Glass Menagerie" with John Malkovich in 1987. Check that out if you can. Customer Rating: Summary: Rachel, Rachel, A Triumph! Comment: It was so important to Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman that they make "a little film that meant something", that they didn't even take a salary from Warner Brothers. Also, they invested much of their own money to get its deep message across.
This incredible film from 1968 continues to stand the test of time. Woodward received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her sensitive portrayal of Rachel Cameron, a 35-year-old New England spinster who lives with her domineering, possessive mother. Rachel's world is very limited, due in part to her mother's constant nagging and neediness, and Rachel's own-self doubt. This is the story of a lonely, isolated woman who looks to find love with a man from her haunted past and how she breaks out of her shell. Early on, finding a man and having a child is the only way Rachel knows to find validation and meaning to her life. By the end of the story Rachel realizes that the only person that can give her true validation is herself.
Estelle Parsons also gives a stellar oscar-nominated performance. Parsons plays Rachel's emotionally tormented friend and co-worker, Calla, who is also lost within herself and is desperately trying to grasp at something...anything.
Ahead of its time, RACHEL, RACHEL also gives a positive view of lesbianism and acceptance. The fact that the subject of homosexuality was even addressed was rare for a major studio release at that time.
Paul Newman's directorial debut has a powerful impact. RACHEL, RACHEL is a melancholy masterpiece that should not be missed.
I will also add, however, that this film is very intense and meant to be watched with no distractions, as its message is meaningful; the symbolism is at times subtle.
If any potential viewer is the type that leaves the room to do something while the movie is on, and then comes back to pick it up again, he or she shouldn't even bother as its message will be lost.
