Customer Reviews

Northfork

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I think some people are overdoing their reviews of this film. It wasn't that bad. I found that most of the writers of bad reviews of this film found themselves confused with it. I didn't seem to have that problem. Don't blame the producers/director if you fail to understand the film. I found it to be very unique.

It's not a masterpeice but I wouldn't classify it as trash eithor. Some very wonderfully shot scenes in this film. There are also some touching moments. Maybe if they actually had a budget for this film they could have put in some CGI or missle launching robots to please the ignorant. Considering the fact that they didn't have squat to make this movie I think they did a great job. I also praise the actors in this film for investing their time (pretty much without pay) to a film that was bound to not succeed. It showed that they themselves were fond of the story and were willing to make sacrifices in order to be apart of it.

With some real money behind it I think this film would have been a great success.

I fully agree that this movie was odd. This was our first experience with the Polish brothers. Throughout the movie my husband kept asking now who is that? Whose house is that? We compared it to "Vanilla Sky" which we also walked out of the theater going "Oookay and Huh?" It was a good movie though. Incited discussion.

This is a very beautiful, but rather confusing movie. You feel the progress of the plot in your emotions, but you're not quite sure what the progress is. Nevertheless if you think, you can piece together a general idea of what it's about, and a general idea is all you really need to watch something (if you're in doubt, watch Akira or spend some time as a working immigrant). The movie feels slow, but when it's over it seems very short, and you wish it lasted longer. It has a soundtrack of haunting music box melody, oldtime 50s tunes (we are not speaking of rock music), and one other style, used to great effect in one of the funny parts. The overall mood is melancholy, but also often very beautiful; sometimes pensive; sometimes a sense of wonder; sometimes very funny and sometimes dry. This movie has something for everyone, and is mixed and out there enough for everyone to think it is weird. You'll be glad you watched it, but no one else will be able to predict why you'll feel that way.

In 1955, the town of Northfork, Montana was flooded when the gates of a completed dam were closed. Against this backdrop, two related stories are told. In one, three teams of men, motivated by rewards of lakefront property, attempt to get local die-hards to move on before their homes are flooded. This story is filled with humor - visual gags, offbeat characters, and a 100% off-the-wall scene at the local diner. But there are human touches, too, as one father-and-son team argue over whether to save their wife/mother's coffin from the rising flood.
In the other story, Father Harlan (played with heart-breaking tenderness by Nick Nolte) takes care of Irwin, a young orphan who is dying. As Irwin drifts in and out of consciousness, his fevered mind creates visions of angelic beings and reunion out of the landscape and his pitifully few belongings - a model airplane, a comic book, bird feathers he's collected.
This film is very carefully crafted. The two, interleaved stories are visually unified by the "big sky" landscape and a color palette of muted blues, grays, and tans (everything - land, water, buildings, machinery, people - is color-coordinated). The transitions between the two stories deliberately link the fantasy-like character of Irwin's angelic visions with the absurd elements in the evacuation story, and at one point suggest that Irwin's dreams may not be that far off the mark. And finally, Nolte's monologue, inspired by his own experience, goes straight to the heart of the matter.
The result, for me, was a gentle and moving meditation on the inevitability of change and loss, and the grace we find through humor and acceptance. This is visual poetry, a movie to watch again and again.

The Polish brothers got a little too cute with this story. The movie was just a collection of images that were thrown together. Save your money on this one, folks.

YOU'LL EITHER LIKE THIS MOVIE OR HATE IT. PROBABLY YOU'LL HATE IT IF YOU HAVE NO IMAGINATION. PROBABLY YOU'LL LIKE IT IF YOU DON'T NEED AN EXPLANATION OF THE MOVIE PLOT AND CAN TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER ON YOUR OWN. THIS ONE IS VERY VISUALLY BEAUTIFUL STARK AND VERY QUIRKY. THE MUSIC IS VERY PLEASING AND KIND OF SPOOKY AT THE SAME TIME.

NOT LIKE THOSE STOCK HOLYWOOD MOVIES WITH A STANDARD PLOT. IT'S VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL AND OUTLINES WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE DEATH OF A TOWN (NORTHFORK), THE DEATH OF A BOY (NOT SO FAST YOUNG MAN), THE DEATH OF ONE'S PAST LIFE (ALL ABOUT MOVING ON AND WHERE WE ARE GOING). THE QUALITY OF LIVING AND DYING IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT IN THE END COMPARED TO WHAT WE HOLD ON TO IN THIS LIFE.

SO CHECK THIS ONE OUT IF YOU'RE A THOUGHTFUL SORT. AVOID IT IF YOU DON'T LIKE TO THINK TOO MUCH!!!!!

I loved this movie. It seemed to me to be a study, a meditation, an exploration on life and death, on the absurdity of it, on fate, on existential truths, on transience,on permanence, black humor, silly humor, utter, profound sadness, religion and being human, human spirit, soul, the love of God, detachment/attachment,loss, family, - the whole big ball o'wax - and MORE!! It seemed an amalgam of Buddhism, Christianity, nihilism - and MORE!!
Plus, it contained what I believe to be the key to it all: you may be an orphan, but you're a child of God. I loved this movie and would put it on my favorites list.

Northfork (Michael Polish, 2003)

Michael and Mark Polish, the same writing team behind the delightfully twisted Twin Falls, Idaho, now unveils Northfork. I'm not sure there are enough good things I can say about this movie, and yet I feel I lost a lot in translation from the big screen.

The basic structure around which all the stories revolve is the moving of the (real) town of Northfork, Montana, to higher ground in 1955. Various subplots involve three teams of related men hired to move the locals who refuse to leave their homes; the priest who runs the local orphans' home, which is left with a sole orphan to place; and four individuals impossible to describe who are searching for a relative.

The acting in this film is simply superb, which is to be expected given its high-powered cast. James Woods, Nick Nolte, Kyle McLachlan, Claire Forlani, Daryl Hannah, Peter Coyote, Michele Hicks, Ben Foster, and Anthony Edwards, among many others, all make appearances (one wonders only why the Polish brothers didn't case their favorite actor, underrated comic genius Garrett Morris, in this one). The sound transfer to the DVD is one of the worst I've ever heard, however; the voices are mixed so painfully softly compared to the ambient sound that subtitles are a necessity in some parts of the film unless you want the cops citing you for noise violations. Use the subtitles. You want to catch what's going on.

Despite the darkness of the locations and cinematography (which lends the film a claustrophobic, ominous air throughout), the main feeling of the work is a sense of pure whimsy. Angels in Montana in 1955? Well, that would seem to be the case, along with a conspiracy to hunt them down and amputate their wings. James Woods actually says the words "Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?" and pulls it off. The eviction agents find themselves in increasingly absurd situations as they travel from house to house, and the orphan, who is terminally ill, orchestrates wilder and wilder delusions in his head. (Possibly. It gets hard to tell what's real and what's going on in the boy's head.) I'd be hard-pressed to call Northfork a comedy, but it contains moments of sheer comic genius.

Brilliant. ****

I think judgement of movies has a lot to do with the expectation going in. Unfortunately, most people's film expectations constrain them to the exclusive appreciation of three act narrative structure, single protagonists, and pyrotechnics. If you're looking for those things, don't see Northfork.

If you don't see it, you'll miss out. It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever watched. Gorgeous cinematography, intriguingly strange story, layers of concept with integrated meaning as deep as you want to look, and sparse (and sometimes beautiful [at points even hilarious] dialogue) -- by the way, when a film uses images and mood to tell a story instead of dialogue, the filmmakers are masters.

You're not going to be able to plop down and delve into this movie over pizza and conversation. But if you have the time and attention span to slow yourself down, you'll see what movies can really do.

I can't ever remember seeing two sides so utterly opposed on one film here at Amazon. Either you loved it (my case), or hated it (several others).

Having looked over both sides' reviews here, I've come to the conclusion that those who disliked 'Northfork' are those who enjoy straight forward storytelling, mindless story-flow, and would prefer to watch such films as 'Conan The Barbarian Versus Sheena: Warrior Princess' (you don't have to search for this film on Amazon, you knuckle-draggers out there, it doesn't exist).

Once in a while-a long while-a movie comes along that is more than a simple film; it is a form of abstract art that is left up to the viewing public to decide exactly 'what' it is. Those who enjoyed this film here at Amazon (4 or 5 star reviews) seem to understand this. Perhaps the ape-like reviewers who gave it 1 or 2 stars ought to look over these other reviewers histories and contemplate (that means 'to think about', for those who don't like big words) WHY they gave it a higher review.

But let's dive into the film . . .

This is the story of a town that is dying (preparing to be submerged underwater by a dam development). And while the town is dying, a young boy (possibly an angel who was shot down and lost his wings), too, is passing on. He's dropped off at Father Harlan's church (played excellently by Nick Nolte) as the adopted parents flee the rising water (they claim he's too sick to make the voyage out of Northfork, but there's a reason for this if you watch carefully).

Peter Coyote, Mark Polish, and several other black-clad men in spiffy suits and perfectly buffed cars have been assigned to help the last holdouts of Northfork evacuate. . . peacefully or otherwise. Carried by all of these well groomed men is a special suitcase with a pair of angel wings in them. Why? Keep watching!

As the waters from the dam continue to rise, the dying boy becomes more and more ill, having "visions" of angels who are searching for . . . him? Maybe. Is this young boy the missing angel? Or are these creatures simply a figment of the boys imagination, a dying minds last few images (there is, after all, a Cup Of Tea, a Flower and a Hercules magazine, and other items on his bedside table that could explain where these ethereal images came from, right?)?

The filming of this story is extraordinary. It is a sheer joy to watch. It is uplifting (in the end), and has a message for all of us: we aren't just here to watch ourselves come into the world, but to watch ourselves leave as well.

This film's cast is unbelievable, too. It stars Nick Nolte, Darryl Hannah, Peter Coyote, Anthony Edwards, Kyle MacLachlan, Mark Polish, James Woods, and a smattering of other highly regarded actors and actresses. When you get a cast like this to come and be in your film, you've done something right. And the Polish brothers (the makers of this film) have NOT done something right; they've done something PERFECT.