Customer Reviews

Arizona Dream (AUS) ( Arizona Dream ) ( The Arrowtooth Waltz ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2.4 Import - Australia ]

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I have two favourite movies and one of them is "Arizona Dream". I can watch it endlessly and very often. You know sometimes you got the mood when you just want to sit and watch something old, something you've seen many times, something very dear and familiar. "Arizona Dream" works for me at those occasions. Actually I don't like Emir Kusturica and his other works. Paradox, but I adore "Arizona Dream". It's the movie which seem to absorb all the wisdom of the world and at the same time all its contradictory. In a few words I can tell about the plot that the film is about our dreams. That we all pursue them and doing that we don't notice people around who also have their dreams. And very often our desires obstruct other men's desires. And we can never be happy. I know, maybe it sounds silly but it's not.

I can't say what happened to Kusturica in this feature but all 140 minutes of the film are flying very fast and you wish it was endless. Johnny Depp is very different, Vincent Gallo is ingenious as always (just watch his "North by Northwest" remake scene), Jerry Lewis is hilarious, Faye Dunaway and Lili Taylor make a perfect duo.

"Arizona Dream" is a kind of a movie every time you watch it you find something new, you discover new hidden meanings and layers. You won't get bored with it for sure. If you don't believe me - check imdb ratings. They are quite good and I'm sure none of those who voted loves this film as I do. If there was an ultimate movie for me to recommend for everyone - it'd be "Arizona Dream" without any doubt. I understand it's not a commercial project but still it's a shame such a brilliant picture is still not out on region 1 DVD.

"Arizona Dream" is a quirky little movie (made in 1991, released in Europe in 1993, and not in the US until 1994) directed by Emir Kusturica that starred Johnny Depp in the early part of his career, alongside veterans Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway, and rising contemporaries Lili Taylor and Vincent Gallo. The film had a very limited showing here in the States and for years went without an official US DVD release. In 2010, Warner finally came out with a US release under their Archives label, but this version is the original VHS release that inexplicably edits out 21 minutes from the original theatrical version -- what a shame. In contrast, there are non-US region 0 releases (NOT the one featured here, but available on Amazon) includes the full 140-minute theater version, in 16:9 widescreen, and in English with optional subtitles. Shoppers would be advised to seek those versions out.

The movie itself features Johnny Depp as a young man named Axel who is working for the Department of Fish and Game in New York Harbor tagging fish, but seems to yearn for some greater understanding of the world and people. His cousin Paul, played by Vincent Gallo, tricks him into paying a visit to Arizona to be the best man at the wedding of his uncle Leo, who raised him. Axel is briefly pursuaded to work in the showroom of his uncle's Cadillac lot, but is soon captivated by a visit from eccentric mother Elaine (Dunaway) and her daughter Grace (Taylor), and goes off to stay in their house in the desert. The rest of the film follows Axel's romance with the older Elaine, who longs to become untethered to the world with dreams of flying, and their mutual involvement in a love triangle of sorts with Grace, who herself dreams of and repeatedly attempts suicide. Axel tirelessly builds flying machines to help Elaine, Grace sabotages them (needlessly so, since they never work), Leo tries to rescue Axel away from them, and as Elaine becomes ever-more unhinged, Axel finds his affection transitioning from Elaine to Grace.

The overall tone is both tragic, as the characters struggle to understand and are thwarted in realizing their respective dreams, and absurdly comic, in their misguided efforts to do so. The entire film has a dream-like quality, as people sometimes find themselves levitating and Axel continues to see a flying flounder from his dream about an eskimo family depicted at the start of the movie (the film also bears the subtitle, "The Arrowtooth Waltz," named for the Arrowtooth flounder... I only wish I could get past Kusturica having the flounder flying vertically, rather than correctly on its side as a flatfish), and there are recurring dramatizations of this dream in which Lewis and Depp take on the roles. Unquestionably an indie-arthouse flick, the quirkiness of the movie's characters allow the actors to shine -- Dunaway, in a performance that she would later infamously claim was "brilliant," IS brilliant; Lewis renders an understated display of his comedic chops; Gallo gives hilarious performances renacting scenes from Raging Bull, North by Northwest, and the Godfather; Taylor is excellent as always; and Depp is wonderfully reined-in, reminscent of his role in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" There's also a cute self-referential moment when Gallo mentions Johnny Depp, with Depp sitting quietly and unphased in the background.

I don't know what 21 minutes the Warner edition edited out, but if any of this sounds like your thing (or if, like me, you saw the movie when it first came out and were dying to revisit it), you'll want to find one of the full-length versions. It's an unassuming, quirky, imperfect, little masterpiece of filmmaking.

Just try to explain this movie.

Oh sure. You could recount the plot. But try telling the story without Johnny Depp's clucking or Lily Taylor bungee-hanging from panty hose or Papua, New Guinea, North By Northwest or the turtle on the dinner table. I'll bet you can't.

It's an oldie and a perennial favorite of mine, but definitely not for those who need nice, straight lines connecting their dots.

An ensemble performance of cinema greats. Wish I'd have been there. It must've been a blast to film this.

Actually, I heard and liked the movie soundtrack first before I watched the movie. I thought the song was quirky and funny, and then after watching the movie, I like them both. I must say it was one of the weirdest but funniest movie I've ever seen. Everyone was acting brilliantly especially Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway and Lili Taylor. Even though the ending was kind of strange and unfinished, it was a good ending to a totally wacky but "fishy" and dreamy movie. Not a typical Hollywood fare. Overall, I like it.

This is my favorite movie of all time. Great cast and well written. The editing is not the best but the writing makes up for it. It is a must see if you like non Hollywood movies.