- Format: NTSC, Import
- Number of tapes: 1
- Studio: New Line Home Video
- VHS Release Date: Sep 1 1998
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- ASIN: 6303422853
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Simple Men opens with small-time hood Bill (Robert Burke from RoboCop 3) asking a bound and blindfolded security guard if he can have the guard's Virgin Mary medallion. "Be good to her and she'll be good to you," says the guard. Immediately after, Bill is double-crossed by his girlfriend and his partner. From there, the plot goes off in a completely different direction: Bill and his younger brother Dennis (William Sage, High Art), a philosophy student, go off in search of their father, a former star shortstop who may have committed a bombing many years ago. Their only clue is a phone number on Long Island; they end up at a cafe run by Kate (Karen Sillas, Female Perversions), which is also the hangout for Elina Löwensohn (Nadja) and Martin Donovan (Hollow Reed, The Opposite of Sex). But plot is never the point in Hal Hartley movies (Trust, Amateur, Henry Fool); it's just a clothesline on which to hang odd, quirky scenes--moments like Donovan and Sage trying to imitate Löwensohn's dance movements to a Sonic Youth song, or a half-drunken conversation about pop music and self-exploitation. Hartley's deliberately stilted dialogue and stylized performances actually play better on video; the movie feels more intimate, making the humor more relaxed and fluid. Hartley is the kind of idiosyncratic filmmaker who provokes love-him-or-hate-him responses, but there's a deep sincerity to his artifice that goes beyond mere posing. Against all commercial wisdom, he's struggling to find his own cinematic poetry. Such an uncommon aspiration is worth checking out. --Bret Fetzer
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simple Men on DVD,
By Don McCabe (Houston, Tx) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Simple Men (VHS Tape)
For all you Hal Hartley fans who have desired having a copy of Simple Men on DVD, your time has come. Simple Men will be released on DVD widescreen format January 27, 2004. I can't wait to get my copy!!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another fine example Hartley's stripped down style,
By
This review is from: Simple Men (DVD)
After repeated viewings, I still find Simple Men a refreshing escape. A true autuer, Hartley's characteristic stripped down style becomes immediately apparent. His use of a revolving cast of regulars, including William Sage, Robert Burke, Martin Donovan and Elina Lowensohn lends to the creation of a Hartley-esque paradigm. His world consists of quirky loners with abstract philosophies, unlikely lovers, and down on their luck drifters.
In particular, Simple Men is a road movie following Sage and Burke, who play two brothers looking to find their escaped-con father, a former baseball hero. Their journey provides a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern type odyssey filled with false starts, false leads and false love. The subtle musical accompaniment serves as an interjection to the sparse use of dialogue and camera work, a true stamp of a Hal Hartley film. I find some of Hartley's traits as a filmaker are comparable to David Mamet, especially in the way he shapes his characters around their method of speech. Some may find the pace of this film slow, however I find it lends to enhance the determination and perseverance of the characters search for their father, as it allows them to find themselves along the way. Isn't that the point of any road movie when it comes down to it?
1.0 out of 5 stars
poor effort,
By A Customer
This review is from: Simple Men (DVD)
This is one of Hartley's lesser efforts.He recycles characters and mannerisms to the point of tedium. It's too bad considering his many other fine films.
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