Customer Reviews

Black Rainbow [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The beauty of film is that it captures a moment in time. "Black Rainbow" is such a film. Released in 1986 (nearly 20 years ago), this novel approach to psychic powers (a Medium) is just what the new Millennium ordered. Despite its frightful moments of peering into the future, it is refreshing to know that the same year my son was born, that this film was fresh and new like him. One part of the script says it all. "Why do serious things have to become entertainment?" Powerful! You will have to watch the film to understand.

The cast is superb. Rosanna Arquette is the medium. Her beauty is captured in a new light. Her mysterious aura sends chills and thrills down your spine all at once. What a hypnotic smile and dreamy eyes. Her father is portrayed by film legend Jason Robards. Upstart actor (at that time) Tom Hulce plays the agnostic reporter.

This film has a lot to offer even though its been on the shelves for nearly two decades.

In the thriller category (though dated) it receives a solid 5. The highlights in this film is are when Rosanna is on stage. As her followers flock to the church to witness her out-of-this-world gifts, she is convincing and sincere. A must see (even a rental) for psycho thriller fans. Good job Rosanna, Jason and Tom!!!

This is undoubtedly the greatest movie of its genre and Rosanna Aruqette shines with mystery and an aura that is realistic beyond your wildest imaginations. She is so convincing that she had me believing she was the character instead of a wonderful actress who makes movies. And Jason Robards was outstanding portraying her drunken father with guilt feelings about his dead wife and mother to Rosanna. STORY, PLOT, ACTING, COSTUME, EVERYTHING=PERFECT!

Of all the movies that I feel must be owned, I could not live without this one! I would have given it 6 stars rating but they don't offer it on Amazon.

Saying that Black Rainbow is one of its director's best films doesn't sound much of a compliment when you're talking about a man whose resume includes Morons From Outer Space and not one but two Clive Owen stinkers even if it is true. Mike Hodges' reputation these days rests solely on a gangster movie he made 35 years ago, and the fact that his subsequent efforts have either been too clinical to work (The Terminal Man), too flawed to completely satisfy (Pulp), outright awful (A Prayer for the Dying) or saw him fired early in production (Damien: Omen II) has done little to deter labelling him as a one-hit wonder. True to his run of luck, this neat little supernatural thriller was barely released, going straight to cable in the US and getting caught up in a distribution scandal in the UK, where Palace tried to get copies into video stores (selling it as virtual soft porn, believe it or not!) before the film even opened theatrically.

It's that old chestnut, the medium who sees too much - in this case getting messages from dead people who haven't died yet - and puts her life in danger, but it's rarely been done this well. Starting off as a sort of Emily Gantry as written by Eugene O'Neill (with Jason Robards playing another of his drunken pater familiases), it offers Rosanna Arquette her best role, and she certainly rises to the challenge. The premonition scenes carry a real frisson, there are neat humanising touches (the hitman for once has a family life and can't get a decent seat on an airplane) and Hodges' dialog is surprisingly good. But what really caries it is the characterization: these are all believably damaged people clinging onto any tenuous hope they can find, be it religion or the bottle, to prevent taking a good look at themselves - as one bereaved character puts it, "Maybe if we weren't so bothered about the hereafter we'd pay more attention to the here and now."

This movie is very interesting. A mysterious story about a fake medium that deceives people (compeled by the father). Suddenly strangelly she begins to listen to spirits and see the future in true. Rosanna's character is pretty mysterious, sensually shy, she is conflicted with her father. Fantastic and intriguer!!! Great ending.

First let me say that this disc is far from being a great transfer. This is pan and scan, the print is somewhat damaged. However the sound is really pretty good. At the price, who can complain. Now, the movie: I am exploring the work of Mike Hodges, and this like the others I've seen is an interesting film. Rosanna Arquette is very good. Jason Robards is good, but he's repeating a role he played many times. Tom Hulce shows that Amadeus may have been a fluke in which he was very well directed. But the story is interesting and the the bones are there for a better movie. This is really a British movie about people in the US. The different viewpoint is always facinating.

Great cinema? No way. Worth a rainy night's viewing? For sure. And worth some study if you're a film buff.

Black Rainbow stars Rosanna Arquette as Martha, a developmentally arrested woman manipulated by her father into doing medium shows at churches in little midwestern towns. Her father [Jason Robards] believes they're pulling a scam, but Martha believes she has real powers, just like her estranged mother, who was forced to do the same act. The truth of her abilities becomes clear when she stops telling people about their loved ones in the hereafter, and starts telling them about those in the present who are about to die. Unfortunately, this puts Martha in the middle of a union safery scam, the target of a union hit man, a corrupt police chief, and a newspaper reporter who alternately helps her and hounds her.

The relationship between father and daughter is genuinely interesting, a realistic dynamic that keeps them running away from one another and coming back together. But the rest of the movie provides no true horror, except for the first foreshadowing of death, which was eerie. This is an odd little movie that could have been a really well done character study and instead tried to turn into a horror-thriller that doesn't work at all. And we are all about horror. I'm afraid we'll have to put Black Rainbow in the "don't bother, it's truly bad" category.

Black Rainbow is a very well-made psychological thriller with fine performances; however, the quality of the DVD picture is rather poor, hence my two-star rating. This film deserves a high-quality film-to-DVD transfer.

I found this movie used at a flea market for $1.00 and figured "what the heck". The old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure" applies perfectly. Black Rainbow is a well made, well acted, and attention holding flick dealing with a seemingly scamming medium{Rosanna Arquette} who really does get accurate futuristic visions from time to time which are pooh-poohed by her alcoholic degenerate gambling father played by Jason Robards. Tom Hulce portrays a skeptical reporter who is investigating a murder which was apparently forecast in one of the medium's visions. What ensues is a riveting drama which includes more prognistications and a hired hit man who actually was the perpetrator of the original murder and fears that the medium would recognize him from her vision. I consider this movie to be a "keeper" and it comes with my highest recommendations.

The movie was filmed in Charlotte, Nc in 1989. I have never watched the whole movie. I never heard of it making it to the theathers and don't know why it didn't. I heard it flopped, some above seem to like it. I bought it for my daughter because her mother who passed away in 2002 is an extra in several parts of the film. One really close up full face wearing a big hat. Our Children & Grand Children miss you Lavette.

An interesting premise and a talented cast can't save Mike Hodges' BLACK RAINBOW from its own contrivances. Rosanna Arquette stars as Martha Travis, a medium who claims to be able to talk to people who have died from the other side. Jason Robards plays her opportunistic father who hauls the girl around from church to church in order to make big bucks. Things take a sharp turn however when it appears that Martha can predict future deaths, most notably the killing of a local man by an obvious "hitman." Tom Hulce appears as a young reporter who is agnostic himself and doesn't believe in Martha's so called psychic abilities, but is ordered by his editor to get an interview.
Arquette does well with her role, going from a quiet seething teapot to an explosive kettle; Robards is fine as her alcoholic father and Hulce holds his own. Whether or not Arquette is a fake is up to the viewer; the narrative makes it seem she's the real thing. However, even though the film maintains a creepy momentum, it loses it in its enigmatic finale. The viewer has to decide if Martha is still alive--or is she a ghost? I found the ending an unsatisfying resolution to an otherwise decent film.