Search - Flight From Death - The Quest for Immortality on DVD

I am the breast cancer patient in the film

Toni Riss | Garland, Tx United States | 09/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Working on this film and having the good fortune to meet Greg and Patrick gave me a voice. I have read the criticisms about filming me in a mausoleum, and I would like to clear this up. I love cemeteries and I am dealing with my own mortality. I asked them to film me in a place where I loved to walk around. If you look at some of the tombstones you learn a great deal about the residents there. And I couldn't have worked with two more sensitive people than Greg and Patrick. They were concerned I was over doing it.


I would hope that the critic listened to what I had to say, because I'd like to think people will learn from my experience."

Finally on DVD!!!

JOHN J. MCGRAW | Solana Beach, CA USA | 09/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This insightful documentary has been making the film festival circles for quite a while and has earned the many awards given to it. But finally it is on DVD and available to the public!

The documentary is built around the ideas of Ernest Becker, a brilliant social scientist whose books "The Denial of Death" and "Escape from Evil" really drive the commentary of this documentary. In particular, the notion that a great deal of human striving and culture revolves around our denial of death and our yearning for immortality is the touchstone idea of the film. The lesser idea--that much of human evil derives from a neurotic ambition to make a mark, control others, gain monumental wealth and power--surely helps to explain many of the difficulties we see in our current world.

The quality of the filming, the commentary, and the narration is second-to-none. The classy presentation of Ernest Becker's ideas would surely gratify the man were he alive today.

If you have ever asked the timeless questions then this film is for you."

How do we think of death?

Scott Huber | Seattle, WA USA | 07/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Until I saw this documentary, I never really took the time to think about death as I am only in my mid-thirties. But this documentary goes much further than that and asks why do people go to war and why do people kill others? There are discussions about why the terror attacks were made on the World Trade Center. But this analysis goes beyond all the hyped-up media you have seen to date. The film is about fear of our own mortality. During the hour you spend watching this film, your eyes are opened to your own fears. While these feelings may be obvious, the reality as it hits you is almost shocking. If you would like insight on not only yourself, but the rest of the people on the planet, regardless of race or religion, this documentary is well worth your time."

The most important film I've ever seen

David Hanks | 09/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Flight from Death does not try to tackle the question of what happens after death. Instead, it poses questions that ask how dying and death affect living and life. Questions such as: Why do people try to avoid death? Why is death so feared? Why is it so difficult to even think about the inevitability of our own death, much less discuss it? What role does the fear and anxiety of death have in our subconscious? Is the fear and anxiety of death a root motivator behind everyday behaviors?

I'm not sure how much the film actually provides answers these questions, which is good. What makes this film so important is that it puts these difficult, normally avoided questions squarely on the table for discussion, letting us find our own answers.

Ever since I saw Flight from Death at a special screening two years ago in San Francisco, I've thought of it as the most important film I've ever seen. Over time, waiting for the DVD, I wondered if I'd feel the same. I do. For those of us who have spent part of life surrounded by death, this film helps to make 'impossible' conversations possible.

One last thing that I found so wonderfully refreshing is that Flight from Death doesn't treat death in a slow-moving, somber or sullen tone. Through quick editing, some fast-motion cinematography and lively, thought-provoking interviews, the film treats death as a meaningful celebration of life. As I remember Toni Riss (the breast cancer patient interviewed in the film) saying at the special SF screening in 2003, "Faced with death, living my life has never been better.""