VHS : Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
|
|
In association with Amazon.com
|
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this English-language feature directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) stars David Bowie as a silent, ethereal POW in a Japanese camp. Protesting--via his own enigmatic rebellion--the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (Ryuichi Sakamoto). While the two seem locked in an unspoken, spiritual understanding, another prisoner (Tom Conti) engages in a more conventional resistance against a monstrous sergeant (Takeshi). The film has a way of evoking as many questions as certainties, and it is not always easy to understand the internal logic of the characters' actions. But that's generally true of Oshima's movies, in which the power of certain relationships is almost hallucinatory in self-referential intensity. The cast is outstanding, and Bowie is particularly fascinating in his alien way. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - An accurate presentation, within confines of an R rating
This film presented in a fair manner the abhorrent mentality of the Japanese during the days of their Empire; depicting that reality on film would have required an X rating, because their treatment of non-Japanese humans was beyond atrocious. Things ended in August 1945 exactly as they should have.
Rating:  - Keeps on keeping on-curiously prophetic
American critics took a lot of potshots at this film, since it doesn't have the usual Fascinating Fascism (a phrase of the late Susan Sontag's) of the war picture, in which the ego in the darkness can sit back and feel invincible. The leading character apart from David Bowie's daemon of righteousness, played by Tom Conti, makes womanish cries when he is beaten, and he gets beaten alot. He says, "I wish they would stop hitting me".
No Americans appear as does William Holden in the Kwai ... Read More
Rating: - All civilizations based on absolute subservience are dead
This film was kind of cult when it came out. Because of David Bowie of course, but also because of the side of the Second World War it showed. In this case, the Japanese refused to apply Geneva conventions and forced onto their prisoners the code of conduct of the Samourai. The result is of course a great level of suffering, total disregard of death and dying, treating a hara-kiri execution as an honor, an honorable spectacle that any soldier should consider as a privilege to be able to watch ... For ... Read More
Rating:  - The issue is language
David Bowie is not Mr. Lawrence. Nor is Mr. Lawrence Ryuchi Sakamoto, although those are the two faces that stand out on the box cover of most releases of this film. Mr. Lawrence is Tom Conti, who plays British translator Col. John Lawrence, standing as the bridge between the English-speaking prisoners and the Japanese jailers in a prison camp during WWII. As a war-time translator, Col. Lawrence is in the most difficult position imaginable. In order to be fluent in a language, it is necessary to understand ... Read More
Rating: - West vs. East in WWII (Warning: no English subtitles for Japanese dialog)
I originally saw this movie many years ago on a cable premium movie channel, and I think that version had either English subtitles or dubbed English vocals for the Japanese dialog. Anyway, the particular VHS version offered here by Amazon has neither. Amazon's product description does not warn potential purchasers of this "missing piece." That said, I am glad that I decided to purchase this movie (VHS video) so that I could see it again. Also, for you viewers who are members of the NetFlix or Blockbuster rental ... Read More
|
|
|
