Product Details

• Actors: Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emily Longstreth, J.T. Walsh, Michael McKean
• Directors: Christopher Guest
• Writers: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Michael Varhol
• Producers: Michael Varhol, Richard Gilbert Abramson, Richard Luke Rothschild, Valen Watson
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: April 15, 1997
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301599659
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,598 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Christopher Guest cowrote and directed this solid spoof about the pitfalls of believing your own hype. Kevin Bacon plays a high-minded would-be filmmaker whose student movie wins a prestigious national award and an invitation to Hollywood. Before he knows it, he is being wined and dined by agents, producers, and studio executives, who treat him like the new Orson Welles--until he starts making his first studio movie. Then he becomes bait for the piranha-like bottom-liners, who teach him the unfortunate lesson that the flavor of the week often gets eaten alive. Watch for Martin Short as a hilariously feckless agent and Jennifer Jason Leigh as a surprisingly chipper film student, given her black-rimmed eyes and all-black wardrobe. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skewed Comedy at It's Best, November 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Big Picture [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It's very hard to predict what movie a given person will like. Many people find this movie to be ho hum, at best. It's not conventional big release comedy, like The Addams Family, Mrs. Doubtfire, or Look Who's Talking. It's unselfconsciously odd in a very wonderful way. If you like movies such as Rushmore, The Princess Bride, 1000 Clowns, and Groundhog Day, I think I can guarantee that you will absolutely love this movie. It's my favorite comedy of all time.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See the film before your first job in the "Industry", May 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Big Picture [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I saw this film a few years after I worked for a very famous film company in Nothern California. This VERY humorous film is right on the mark about what it is like to work in the film industry! I laughed so hard my stomach hurt for hours after after the movie. If you are going to work in the "industry" as they say in the film world, see this humorous film to see what it is really like!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everyone was my friend then..., September 8, 2006

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Big Picture (DVD)

Hollywood make them, then they break them -- stars can fall as fast as they rise. Sometimes they rise again, and sometimes they disappear.

And Christopher Guest casts a jaded eye on the fickle ups and downs of Hollywood in "The Big Picture," a quirky, cynical movie which focuses on what the successful should never let go of. It has a few awkward stretches, but overall it's a darkly witty cult comedy ("You're tracking failure all over my carpet!").

Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) is the winner at an arty student movie competition, and instantly agents are chasing him all over L.A. In no time, he's the Rising Young Director, with a movie deal at a major movie corporation. But he's also starting to lose sight of his old life, as he tries to become a major success.

He changes the style, plot and characters of his arty movie for demographics, turning it into a beach bums/naked ghost movie. He dumps his pretty girlfriend (Emily Longstreth) for a bimbo actress (Teri Hatcher). When the studio head gets dropped, Nick falls as quickly as he rose. But a chance encounter with an old pal gives him a second chance -- an arty music video. This time, can he get it right?

Christopher Guest is best known for his brilliant mockumentaries, tackling everything from small-town musicals to folk festivals. His forthcoming one is another one about showbiz. But his talents are just as present in a "typical" movie, and Guest does a smart, quirky job of it.

The lesson: Be true to yourself and your art, don't fall for empty glitz, and don't let success go to your head if you're lucky enough to get it.

The story is a pretty straightforward one -- Nick gets great success, it goes to his head, he falls, and he rises again a wiser man. And the movie falls into straightforward lines, without many unpredictable plot twists. At first glance, it doesn't seem that unusual.

What makes it special? Well, simply put, Guest manages to infuse it with his unique type of wit, like the oddballish Pez music video and the noir fantasies of Nick's life. Not to mention the glorious dialogue. When speaking of Nick's one'n'only music video, a studio woman announces, "It's the best one yet, and I've seen 'em ALL!"

And Guest manages to show us agents, artists, students, directors and actors, but never descended to cliches. They're real people, no matter how nasty. And Bacon does a solid job as a young man who learns how empty glitz is. His best scene is the reunion with his friend Emmet, where he confesses, "I wanna be your friend again." And he's backed by good performances by Longstreth, Michael McKean and a dancing Jennifer Jason Leigh.

"Big Picture" treads where many movies have gone before, but it does so with an approach as fresh as a Pez People music video. A must-see.