 
|
|
 |
|
Bent
by MGM (Video & DVD)
| List Price: |
$14.98 |
| Price: |
$11.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: |
$3.49 (23%) |
|
|
DVD
BLUTEAU,LOTHAIRE
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Christian Martin
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Actors: Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Ian McKellen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Mick Jagger
Renowned British stage director Sean Mathias directs Martin Sherman's "powerful and provocative" (The New York Times) screenplay about one man's struggle to maintain his dignity while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. Featuring exceptional performances by Lothaire Bluteau (Black Robe), Clive Owen (Gosford Park), Brian Webber, Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings: TheFellowship of the Ring) and Mick Jagger, Bent will "grab filmgoers by the heart" (Rex Reed)! Max (Owen) is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Pursued and captured, Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewishbecause in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a forbidden relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.
Bent debuted onstage in 1979 with Ian McKellen starring in the London production and Richard Gere in its later Broadway version. The film version is adapted by the playwright, Martin Sherman, and closely follows his play's story of two gay concentration camp victims who are sent to Dachau and who fall in love, using their relationship as an emotional crutch in their efforts to rebuff the horror of the Holocaust. Max (Clive Owen), would rather wear a yellow star and proclaim himself a Jew than be lanced with the pink triangle that designates homosexuality. Horst, (Lothaire Bluteau) chastises him for his homophobia. Later the tables turn on Max, who finds--through Horst--the strength both to keep alive indefinitely and to ultimately embrace his sexual identity. Initially set in a war-ravaged Berlin, Bent is directed by Sean Mathias, who first directed Jude Law in Indiscretions, and he has crafted a film that reminds one of Ian McKellen's Richard III with its spare, stylized, and stark world bombed into rubble and chic theatrical disarray. There are many poignant as well as harrowing scenes, and the result is a somber work that stands as a reminder that intolerance cannot overtake individualism and love. While Bent received an NC-17 rating for depicting Berlin's decadent, anything-goes-for-a-price nightlife, MGM opted not to edit out the tone-setting prelude and pushed to preserve the film's integrity despite a rating that is itself a kind of death for any film that bears it. --Paula Nechak
| Customer Reviews: |
|
| |
| Well intentioned, but really not very good at all |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
 |
|
Clive Owen plays Max, a loose, carefree, and cowardly playboy who is captured by Nazis along with his gay partner and shipped off to the Dachau labor camp. He pretends to be in the yellow star unit meaning that he is Jewish instead of the pink triangle unit meaning that he is gay. But he meets a member of the pink triangle named Horst who he befriends and begins developing feelings for as they work day after day moving rocks from one place to another. The film is based on a play of the same name that gained much critical acclaim and won many awards.
The easiest way to look at this film is as a message film, with the message being to always stay true to who you are and to be strong of the community that you represent. The film nails this concept pretty much about as solidly as a message film ever could. Unfortunately, the film fails to rise above that. It fails to both entertain or to intrigue. The film feels blatant and obvious in it's storytelling, and as a result it loses the sincerity that it requires to work as a film. The film caters to it's target audience and does nothing to spark the audience's interest in the characters themselves. As a result, you never really care about the main character Max, nor do you care about anyone else in this picture. The film, instead, romanticizes the situation. It becomes a celebration of sexuality rather than humanity. The film opens with an orgy and several gay sex scenes, all directed with the intention of pleasing the audience, and then it dissolves into English soap opera territory before jarringly throwing the audience into the horrific atmosphere of the death camps. Even when we are in the death camps, however, the film doesn't really try to build any sympathy or character. We empathize somewhat with the plight of Max and the terrible things that he is put through, but we don't really see any reason to care more or less about his character or his choice of actions.
Things only get more and more ludicrous as the film continues. There's a sexual torture scene on the way to the camp, the endless scenes of sexual tension between the men at the camp, the many many moments of bland atmosphere in which there is no dialogue. All these scenes are well done, but none of them add anything to either the characters, the situations, the theme of the film, or the plot. All exist only for the audience's enjoyment. This film could have been just as effective without these scenes, which only increase the running time of the film. There are scenes that come off so stagey that it becomes cringe-inducing. There's even a scene of gun violence that feels extremely prepared and strangely very choreographed in a ridiculously blatant way. In addition, the continuity falls apart as well. The shooting scene results in a character's death, yet there are no bullet holes or blood on his clothing. To make things worse, a character puts the dean person's clothes on himself and ends up making the goof even more obvious than it already is. This film is a mess!
Bent is a failure of a film. I appreciate what Sean Mathias was trying to do, but he really mishandles it. There are some things that work, and those things are mostly in the early scenes. There is an early scene involving Mick Jagger, in a top-notch performance as a drag queen, that is pretty cool. Ian McKellen makes a brief appearance as well, and I found his character to be more interesting than anyone else in the film. The performances aren't bad. There is some decent scenery. The music score is somewhat memorable. The scenes on the train are really harrowing. The film isn't horribly made, but there's really no reason for me to recommend it. I understand that this film has somewhat of a following in the queer cinema realm, but I've never really liked most of those films anyway. Just do yourself a favor and skip this one. It really isn't any good at all. I think that this kind of story can be told successfully, but this isn't worth seeing.
|
| Holocaust Romantic Tragedy |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
 |
|
Romantic tragedy of the Holocaust as a Belgium Jew residing in the Berlin of the Nazi thirties was caught between his biology and ethnicity themselves sustain mortal threats in then Germany.
It is better once watching than reading a dozen of reviews anyway.
|
| Beautifully and Brilliantly,Bent ! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
 |
|
This is an extremely powerful and tragic movie focusing on the prosecution of the gays during the nazi era. More specifically it focuses on the coming of age of the protagonist, played by protean talent, Clive Owen and shows clearly how love could transcend the physical. The pivotal scene in which they speak with each other in a rather animated way and experiencing the physical sensations of intimacy without touching each other is quite a surprise and brilliantly poetic. The love that results from the relationship provides the motivation for the final scene of the movie - the courage to be who one really is and to be able to finally feel that love could MOVE! I would consider this movie to be a gay classic. Brilliant!!
|
| Brokeback Holocaust |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
"Bent" is one of the most depressing films I have ever watched.If your not in a good mood,don't look at this movie.
The acting is brilliant,but for most of the film your watching rocks being moved from one pile to another,then back to the original pile,but it has to be in the story.
The train sceen is alfuw,if this really happened,these inhuman evil German Hitler animals have to be burning in hell forever.
Clive Owen's is fantastic,along with everyone else,including Mick Jagger.
Its been 24 hours since I've seen "Bent ,"and its still haunting me.This is a love story between 2 guys during the Holocaust who never touch or kiss,but still have sex together.
|
| Compelling drama about the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
|
|
"Bent" has been on my must-watch movie list for a while [having watched and reviewed many other WW II dramas, especially those dealing with the Holocaust] and I finally watched it tonight. It proved to be a compelling viewing experience and quite amazing considering the majority of the movie is set in an internment camp and focuses on two men moving rocks from one pile to the next and repeating these movements.
Of course, the theme of the movie itself is much more complex than moving rocks - set during the early days of the Reich [before the mass killings], it traces the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. It begins in Berlin, in a nightclub operated by Greta, a transvestite [played to brilliant effect by Mick Jagger] and the camera focuses on Max [Clive Owen in a ground-breaking role], a gay Lothario who goes about seducing good-looking young men, even though he is seriously involved with Rudy, a dancer. Max's dalliance with a lover of Ernst Roehm [a well-known Nazi offcial who was also gay and who was executed under Hitler's orders] leads to Max and Rudy being targeted by the Gestapo and having to flee Berlin. Max tries to get his Uncle Freddie [Ian McKellen in a minor but memorable role], himself a closeted gay, to help but leads nowhere. Both Max and Rudy get arrested and dumped on a train bound for a camp [this was before the notorious death camps were established].
Max finds himself getting gradually de-humanised through a series of horrific incidents, yet when he arrives at the camp, he is determined to stay alive, going to the extreme of taking on the Jewish star instead of the pink triangle [symbolising one is gay], thinking that it will afford him a better chance at survival. His 'companion' during this internment is Horst [Lothaire Bluteau in a finely nuanced performance] and both men come to really care for each other, even achieving orgasm during a stand at attention without touching each other. Will Max finally find salvation and release from his suffering? Will Horst and Max have a happy-ever-after? The final minutes of the movie provides these answers.
A compelling movie that is a must-watch for those interested in the Nazi doctrine of persecuting certain groups of people deemed undesirable, in this instance, the homosexuals. It is a subject matter that is often neglected, yet this group of people suffered greatly under the Nazi reign. Having formerly taught Holocaust history, I found this movie to provide immense insight and I am definitely adding Bent to my collection of Holocaust/ WW II DVDs. Highly recommended!
|
|
