Starring: Jon Voight, Paul Winfield, Madge Sinclair, Antonio
Fargas, Hume Cronyn
Plot: The story follows a young teacher, Pat Conroy, in 1969
assigned to isolated "Yamacraw Island" off the coast of South
Carolina and populated mostly by poor black families. He finds out that the
children as well as the adults have been isolated from the rest of the world
and speak a dialect called Gullah. The school has only two rooms for all grades
combined, with the Principal teaching grades one through fourth and Conroy
teaching the higher grades. Conroy discovers that the students aren't taught
much and will have little hope of making a life in the larger world and so he
wishes to change that.
My Review and Thoughts:
Film (5/5)
Film (5/5)
This is a wonderful powerful film of extraordinary
performances, direction, storytelling and most of all meaning. A must see film
of a landmark truth and a brilliant cinematic piece of cinema history.
This stars the amazing wonderful actor Jon Voight. He is a
true acting Pioneer. He has always been
a cinema figure to me throughout the movie world. Being in some of the greatest
films of all time. He starred in my true personal favorite Midnight Cowboy. He
is truly a gifted actor and award worthy performer. Many of his films such as
the wonderful amazing awesome disturbing Deliverance (1972), Coming Home (1978)
which won him his Academy award for best actor and his wonderful performance in
1979's The Champ. He is a master talent at acting.
This was directed by a truly wonderful director that we lost
in 1990, Martin Ritt, he was truly a gifted man. A playwright, an actor but
most of all a director is what he's remembered for. He mastered such greats as HUD,
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Great White Hope, Sounder, Norma Rae,
among many priceless others. What’s interested in reality is he directed the
1964 film The Outrage which is the American retelling of the classic
masterpiece of Kurosawa's Rashomon. Sadly that crazy house of un-American
activities committee in the 1950's started looking at this wonderful director
and he became blacklisted by supporting supposedly the Communist Party. This
was during a time that too many wonderful directors, actors, got that tag and
destroyed them because of the stupidity of these lynch mob type people. He was
blacklisted from television, he was not able to do anything on television again
because of that blacklisting and so he returned to theater. Thankfully after
the stupidity of the red scare movement in Hollywood which started to die down
he was able to direct again.
When he started out his first directed movie was 1957's The
Edge of the City which is an amazing film and after that he would go on to
direct many, many more, including this powerhouse of a film. Now interesting is
he directed 1976's The Front starring Woody Allen. This was the first feature
film to talk about the blacklist. It was about how people would put their names
on blacklisted writer’s screenplays so that the movies could be made.
This movie Conrack is based on the 1972 autobiographical
book The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy. Conroy is possibly one of the greatest
living writers of all time. He created such beautiful novels and memoirs from
The Prince of Tides to The Great Santini, which both were created into
award-winning Oscar-nominated films. What's interesting to note about Conroy is
his stories are always emotionally charged and he states that the reason most
of his stories involve this, is, it's because of his upbringing. His father was
physically and emotionally abusive and so a lot of his pain goes into the
characters and into the stories that he creates. The Water is Wide would go on
to win Conroy a humanitarian award from the National Education Association and
it was wonderful to see his book become this thought-provoking amazing
wonderful and emotionally charged and touchy-film. If you have a chance pick up
his books. He is truly possibly one of the greatest, existing, personal, and
emotional storytellers ever. Many of his books contain his personal thoughts,
his upbringing, and his childhood. You can see a lot of himself and a lot of
his reality in his stories, specifically The Great Santini which is considered
one of his greats. This book also caused a lot of friction in his family. His
family felt that he spoke too much and the characters were based a lot on
reality.
Now the story of Conrack talks about a small little island
off of South Carolina. It's a poor island. There your character Conrack tries
to communicate with the Islanders. They all are speaking basically in a
dialect. All of them are descended from slaves and have no contact to the
mainland of people. He wants to and tries and struggles to find a way to reach
these people to teach them. Many of them are illiterate, many of them have no
idea what's beyond their small little community. Conrack does battles with the
principal because he uses unconventional methods. He believes the school and
the principal don't wish to educate or help these individuals become educated.
The administrator and principle basically ignore the problem of the school.
The book is categorized as nonfiction and sometimes
categorized as a novel of fiction. More or less it’s autobiographical and talks
about basically Conroy's struggle during his time there.
This movie also stars some wonderful African-American actors
such as Paul Winfield. He started acting in the 1960's. He has done television
and movies. He was always a wonderful character actor, always one of those
characters in the background or the secondary character but also created very
memorable performances throughout his career. I will always remember him as
Terrell in Star Trek the Wrath of Khan. He was a master talent at acting in
such greats like 1978's King where he played Rev. Martin Luther King in the
wonderful miniseries. He captures perfectly his parts in, 72's Sounder, The
Blue and the Grey Miniseries. Always a gifted character in many TV shows such
as Wiseguy, 227, L.A. Law, Touched by an Angel and so many others. Sadly he
passed away in 2004. He crafted the character of Mad Billy in Conrack in a
wonderful detailed performance.
Also starring the wonderful beautiful and amazing Madge
Sinclair as Mrs. Scott. She gives her all to this performance and creates a
very memorable and truly brilliant stunning performance, as the school
principal. Sadly she passed away in 1995. But if there ever was truly an actor
that you should grace and should seek out, then it’s her performances. She was
always stunning in just about everything she did. From small part to big part
she captured and gave it her all 100% in everything. I will always remember her
in the masterpiece, stunning, historical, wonderful 1977 Roots. She can also be
remembered from countless television series such as Trapper John, M.D., Ohara,
Gabriel's Fire, Pros and Cons and countless other TV shows and movie
appearances. She also was the voice of Sarabi in Disney's Loin King. She will
forever be remembered for her performances.
This also stars the one and only Antonio Fargas who has been
acting since the early 60's. He will more or less be remembered as Huggy Bear
in Starsky and Hutch television series. Been in countless movies and TV series
and he still is acting strong today.
But I have to mention this has one of my all-time favorite
actors of any generation and it's none other than the masterpiece performer and
gifted talented wonderful Hume Cronyn. He not only was one of my favorite
actors of all time who sadly passed in 2003 but he was married to one of my
favorite beautiful actresses and that was Jessica Tandy. He had style, such
grace, and such emotions. He was structurally sound in his characters. He owned
every part he did. He created every persona, every emotional trait to every
character that he ever graced television or movies with. Started acting in the
40's and continued to act all the way up to 2003. His many talented
performances in such awesome films as 1943's Shadow of a Doubt, 1946's The
Postman Always Rings Twice, 1944's Lifeboat, 1985's Cocoon, 1987's Foxfire,
1987's Batteries not Included, 1988's Cocoon: The Return, 1993's To Dance with
the White Dog. I miss his talent he was an extraordinary performer on screen.
I think what needs to be brought up about this story, about
this concept of a teacher going to an unprivileged area, teaching illiterate
students which society basically has given up on or basically doesn't want
nothing to do with them. It shows you the beautiful nobility of a person that
wants to teach, that wants to educate, and that wants to further one's future.
To me there is nothing greater than a hero teacher. There is nothing greater
than one who teaches. For without learning we are nothing. For we do not honor
our teachers enough. Our teachers can create some of the greatest thinking
minds of all time. Teachers can express love, can express the power of history,
and can express the very makeup of the world into a child. Education is
everything. Teaching is everything. To teach a proper education to someone,
that is starving for knowledge is one of the most important, if not the
important reality in life. The problem with society this day, is people aren't
educated right anymore. People aren't given their full potential of knowledge
anymore. We live in a society that teaches with computers and technology and
yet does not teach the very fundamentals of writing one’s own signature or even
counting with one's own thoughts or remembering historical education and
narrative of life. We as a human race must learn, must educate and must further
our reality and knowledge to grow and to succeed into a greater nation.
The character of Conrack wanted to teach his students,
wanted to teach these illiterate pupils starving for truth and knowledge. He
wanted to give them their full potential and that is the beauty of this film.
It shows you the power of a teacher. The power of this teacher not wanting to
give up on what he saw. To give up on a child, to give up on an individual
starving for knowledge is wrong. He wanted to educate them to let them
experience knowledge and not be denied it.
Martin Ritt creates a flawless atmosphere. The grand story
telling of Pat Conroy is a thought provoking, mind numbing and it pulls at your
emotions and your heartstrings. The beauty of this book is it's mixed with many
genera's of writing, drama, history, reality and so much more that it creates its
own little world of amazement. That amazing story is captured in this wonderful
film.
This is a powerful movie that after watching it again after
20 years it still works in all its original ways. A flawless story of
characters, situations and the struggle of a teachers dream. A pure
tour-de-force of written quality that only a master storyteller can create and
a master director who brought it to screen.
Rating the quality of the new limited edition Twilight Time
Blu-Ray: Production of only 3,000 Units:
Audio/Video: (5/5)
Beautiful and new and fresh for this generation. A crisp
vibrant colorful beauty once again. It’s an older filmed movie but the modern
clarity worked in fixing many of the old style film. Audio is superb as always
with these special edition Twilight Time Blu-rays.
Video
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Extras: (5/5)
Isolated Score Track also includes effects and is delivered
via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.
Theatrical Trailer (480p; 2:41)
Commentary with Paul Seydor and Nick Redman.
Isolated Music Track.
Overall Blu-ray Product: (5/5)
This is brought out by Twilight Time Special Edition 3,000
Unit Blu-ray. They have done it once again creating a masterful print and
masterful audio. A wonderful and truly stunning film that should be owned by
everyone if you get a chance to pick up this special edition by Twilight Time
it should set with honors on your movie shelf. Twilight Time does such a
fantastic job in isolating the music track and creating it beautifully on
Blu-ray.
Wonderful movie, wonderful special edition Blu-ray.
INFO:
Make sure you head over to www.screenarchives.com to buy all the wonderful Twilight Time Blu-rays. The main page that gives you these beautiful releases on top quality Special Editions.
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