Search - The Postman Always Rings Twice on DVD

Janie B. (Friskie) from OKEECHOBEE, FL
Reviewed on 5/28/2014...

Exciting! These two are red hot together. Jack is classic!

Michel D. (michelann) from WALNUT GROVE, MO
Reviewed on 7/25/2012...

Wow Sexy Movie!!
I remember my mother had the original book in paperback form and I would sneak it to my room to read certain chapters. LOL This is still a sexy movie and I'm glad I found it on DVD (have had VHS copy for years now). Jack Nicholson is not the best looking man on the planet but he has that certain something that can talk the pants off most any gal! Jessica Lange proves she does a better job of wrestling men than gorillas but she sure can act! Watch for his at the time girlfriend (Angelica Houston) in a small role and she is smokin' hot herself. This is an old movie brought back with better casting and dares to be seriously R rated but without much actual nudity. Just good acting in a well written script.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Jessica J. (JessyBird03) from MOORE, TX
Reviewed on 12/14/2008...

I have to disagree with the blurb on here that says they plan to share in the insurance payout. Actually neither of them knew about the money until after they killed Nick. Ok, that said, I really liked this movie. Jack Nicholson did a stellar job in his role. Jessica Lange as well. There was a lot of man-on-woman violence, which I did not like, but overall the movie was gripping enough to keep me entertained.

2 of 4 member(s) found this review helpful.

Underrated, but still not entirely realized

Dennis Littrell | SoCal | 07/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This remake of the 1946 film which starred Lana Turner and John Garfield is significantly better than its reputation. The script, adapted from James M. Cain's first novel, is by the award-winning playwright David Mamet, while the interesting and focused cinematography is by Sven Nykvist, who did so much exquisite work for Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. An excellent cast is led by Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, whose cute animal magnetism is well displayed. Bob Rafelson, who has to his directorial credit the acclaimed Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), both also starring Jack Nicholson, captures the raw animal sex that made Cain's novel so appealing (and shocking) to a depression-era readership and brings it up to date. Hollywood movies have gotten more violent and scatological since 1981, but they haven't gotten any sexier. This phenomenon is in part due to fears occasioned by the rise of AIDS encouraged by the usual blue stocking people. Don't see this movie if sex offends you.Lange is indeed sexy and more closely fits the part of a lower-middle class woman who married an older man, a café owner, for security than the stunning blonde bombshell Lana Turner, who was frankly a little too gorgeous for the part. John Colicos plays the café owner, Nick Papadakis, with clear fidelity to Cain's conception. In the 1946 production, the part was played by Cecil Kellaway, who was decidedly English; indeed they changed the character's name to Smith. Also changed in that production was the name of the lawyer Katz (to Keats). One wonders why. My guess is that in those days they were afraid of offending Greeks, on the one hand, and Jews on the other. Here Katz is played by Michael Lerner who really brings the character to life.Jack Nicholson's interpretation of Cain's antihero, an ex-con who beat up on the hated railway dicks while chasing any skirt that came his way, the kind of guy who acts out his basic desires in an amoral, animalistic way, was not entirely convincing, perhaps because Nicholson seems a little too sophisticated for the part. Yet, his performance may be the sort better judged by a later generation. I have seen him in so many films that I don't feel I can trust my judgment. My sense is that he's done better work, particularly in the two films mentioned above and also in Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and such later works as The Shining (1980) and Terms of Endearment (1983).The problem with bringing Postman successfully to the screen is two-fold. One, the underlying psychology, which so strongly appealed to Cain's depression-era readership, is not merely animalistic. More than that it reflects the economic conflict between the established haves, as represented by the greedy lawyers, the well-heeled insurance companies, the implacable court system and the simple-minded cops, and to a lesser degree by property owner Nick Papadakis himself, and the out of work victims of the depression, the have-nots, represented by Frank and Cora (who had to marry for security). Two--and this is where both cinematic productions failed--the film must be extremely fast-paced, almost exaggeratedly so, to properly capture the spirit and sense of the Cain novel. Frank and Cora are rushing headlong into tragedy and oblivion, and the pace of the film must reflect that. A true to the spirit adaptation would require a terse, stream-lined directorial style with an emphasis on blind passions unconsciously acted out, something novelist Cormac McCarthy might accomplish if he directed film. I think that Christopher Nolan, who directed the strikingly original Memento (2000) could do it.For further background on the novel and some speculation on why it was called "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (Cain's original, apt title was "Bar-B-Que") see my review at Amazon.com."

What happened to letterbox?

Dennis Littrell | 10/12/1998

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As much as I love this faithful version of James M. Cain's classic novel, this DVD is flawed and useless. Warner Brothers, who released the DVD, failed to include a letterbox side...What gives?Wasn't the whole point of creating DVD to make EVERYONE happy: the Pan And Scan People, as well as the Letterbox People? Wasn't it about choice?We've already seen what POSTMAN looks like Pan and Scan: LOUSY. The film was shot anamorphically(2.35:1 aspect ratio), so that means approximately 42% of the picture is still hiding inside your TV somewhere...POSTMAN hasn't ever been released in a letterbox format. So until it is, I wouldn't reccomend this DVD to anyone...... unless NOT seeing what the director intended is your bag... END"

A movie about fate and lust...

Raymond Carver | Baton Rouge, LA USA | 01/31/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson star in a very dark tale of two lovers who sought freedom from their grim, quietly desperate lives in each other's arms. Unfortunately, their quest to remain together leads to the destruction of several lives, and quite possibly their own. The movie is primarily set in a rural area, where Lange's character works at a small roadside diner owned by her husband, a Greek immigrant. One of the most important elements of the film is that it never really demonizes the antagonists, and this is true with respect to the husband character - he has his faults, but he doesnt appear to be overly domineering or abusive. In any event, as fate would have it, one day a drifter appears at the diner, Nicholson's character, and soon he and Lange are making love on her kitchen work table, in one of several extremely graphic sex scenes which are peppered throughout the movie. Now, only Lange's husband stands in the way, and Nicholson and Lange decide to get rid of him. The rest of the movie depicts their attempts on the husband's life and the consequences of their actions, without judgment from the filmmakers, as the story moves to its ultimate, and ultimately shocking, conclusion.

The movie does drag at points, and some of the characters seem unnecessary, but the point is never lost on the audience - both fate and lust, while they draw two people together magnetically, can spell disaster."