Search - The Homecoming on DVD

What have you done with the scissors?

Craig Betteridge | Berkeley, CA United States | 04/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of these days, regrettably all to soon, Harold Pinter will no longer be with us. An intellect and a force in modern theater, he made one of the strongest statements of the state of our world in his 2005 acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Who is this man? You can find his archived acceptance speech and Charlie Rose interview. After that you will find yourself drawn to his most critically popular play as movie. Screenplay and movie made decades ago is still, and always will be, relevant.

Is it commentary or a profound comedy ... It's both and a question for you ... What have you done with the scissors?

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Pinter's welcomes you.

Thomas Mcmillan | concord, ca United States | 08/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a must see movie for those unfamiliar with Harold Pinter. He is a master story teller with convoluted language and plots. He will open the world of absurdest theatre to you. Next stop Samuel Beckett. Enjoy."

Excellent.

Robert P. Beveridge | Cleveland, OH | 10/10/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Homecoming (Peter Hall, 1973)

I read Harold Pinter's play late last year, and then saw this adaptation of it crop up on a couple of thousand-best-films lists soon afterwards (for the record, they were Peter Travers' and the New York Times'). Synchronicity! I had to see it ASAP, and here we are.

If you're unfamiliar with the play, a quick synopsis: Joey (Elizabeth's Terence Rigby) and Lenny (Ian Holm), their father Max (the gifted stage actor Paul Rogers), and Max's brother Sam (My Left Foot's Cyril Cusack) all live together in a flat in London. None of them is of a great deal of use; the one truly productive member of the family, Sam, is an insufferable prig, while the others are generally layabouts. We see them in the beginning going through their normal lives, until the other brother, Teddy (Michael Jayston) arrives for a visit with his wife Ruth (Vivien Merchant, then Pinter's wife in life). Teddy assures her a number of times that his family will like her a great deal. Then they all finally meet, and, well, things get absurd.

It's a smashing play, both straightforward and complex at the same time, both uproariously funny and possessed of a deep hopelessness at the human condition. And really, when you've got such a great play, the only thing you need to make it into a great film is a cast who can actually bring a good interpretation to the material and a director who's willing to film the thing without changing too much. Well, Hall was a stage director before he was a film director, so no problems there, and there's a top-notch cast to be had here. How can you possibly go wrong? Short answer: you can't. Has been seen by far too few people these days, and should be seen by many, many more. ****

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