Search - The World According to Garp on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children Movie Release: 1982 DVD Release: 04/03/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 16 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 15 Genres: Comedy Drama, Tragi-comedy, Coming-of-Age

The 1982 film version of the John Irving novel The World According to Garp attempts to captures the quirky spirit while condensing the Irving original. Robin Williams plays the title character, the son of unmarried, unorthodox feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close, in her film debut). Every effort made by Jenny to broaden Garp's outlook on life -- she even arranges for him to spend the night with a hooker (Swoosie Kurtz) -- crams more fears and phobias into his psyche. Aspiring to become a novelist, Garp succeeds in this goal at the same time that his mother publishes her first feminist manifesto. Though successful and happily married to college sweetheart Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Garp remains envious of his fearless mother, who has taken in the radical "Ellen Jamesians," a group named after a young woman who had her tongue cut out by a rapist. Mutilation, in fact, becomes something of a leitmotif in Garp's life, climaxing (in every sense of the word) in an auto accident brought about by Helen's tryst with Michael Milton (Mark Soper). There is, of course, much more to the story than this: standing out amongst the dozens of offbeat supporting characters is John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon, a transexual ex-football jock. John Irving appears as a referee during a college wrestling match, while director George Roy Hill plays the pilot whose low-flying plane crashes into Garp's new home. The World According to Garp didn't attract as large an audience as other, more conventional Robin Williams vehicles, though Close and Lithgow would both be nominated for Best Supporting Actor statues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robin Williams - T.S. Garp
Mary Beth Hurt - Helen Holm
Glenn Close - Jenny Fields
John Lithgow - Roberta Muldoon
Hume Cronyn - Mr. Fields

George Roy Hill's adaptation of John Irving's The World According to Garp comes to DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. English and French soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials are limited to cast and crew biographies and a theatrical trailer. The film has certainly never looked or sounded this good on home video, making the disc worth a look even if it lacks any compelling extras. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide