Customer Reviews

Carried Away

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a lovely movie, quiet and understated. It tells of a middle-aged couple who run a tiny two-classroom school in a rural farming community in Texas. Joseph (Dennis Hopper) has a bum leg from a childhood accident and walks with a crutch. Rosalee (Amy Irving) was once his high-school sweetheart. She went on to marry his best friend but has been a widow since the end of the Korean War. They have been carrying on a tepid romance for years which seems to be going nowhere. Then comes Catherine (Amy Locane), a precocious 17 year old who enrolls in Joseph's class and becomes enamoured with the older man. Her torrid affair with him sparks off his cooling relationship with Rosalee. The film is rated R and includes full frontal nudity of all three leads. Sex is portrayed in a naturalistic, mature way, unlike what we usually see in Hollywood movies. Perhaps because of its Brazilian director, Bruno Barreto, its sensibilities are more European than American. To its credit it doesn't go into the preachy moralism about underaged sex or student-teacher sex that such films tend to veer into. Instead it celebrates the rekindling of romance and a second chance at love for two aging people.

Fine Line Home Entertainment has provided a fine DVD transfer in the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio (anamorphic). The print is clean and free of damage. Picture quality is excellent. Images are sharp with good contrast. Colors are rich and vibrant. Black levels are well rendered. Sound is available in the original English Dolby 2.0 Stereo, a Dolby 5.1 Surround remix or a DTS 5.1 remix. Optional English and French subtitles are provided. There is an engaging commentary by both director Bruno Barreto and his wife Amy Irving.

I am usually put off by the subject matter in this film, but it is far from the usual. I like to compare this film to "Lolita"- but I think the average person is better able identify with Joseph (Dennis Hopper) than with Nabokov's Humbert. This film is all about coming of age- when you're already an adult. How to cope with growing older, and losing the virility of youth in favor of manly responsibility. Joseph is a man torn between these two worlds. As a handicapped man a little past middle age- he is hesitant to marry the woman he knows he should marry, and tries to hang-on to youth by engaging in an illegal and dangerous affair with a seductive minor. The thing that makes this movie great is the incredible scene between Irving and Hopper that is done nude. That scene is a lasting testament to self love, the triumph of reality over fantasy, and the beauty found in flaws (instead of the beauty in flawlessness). Get this movie. Some of the scenes are really steamy. But more than that, it is a moving film.

For the first 20 minutes of this movie, I kept thinking, "What the hell is this?" I'm glad I waited out the initial apparent lack of plot and seemingly gratuitous sexuality to appreciate the nuances and the layers of this fine film. This movie, you see, is about appearances and trying to get beyond them to reveal what's underneath in order to "come of age as an adult." One of the most touching and telling scenes of this struggle takes place between Irving and Hopper late in the film. It's worth it.

Honestly I didn't realize Amy Locane was such a bombshell until I watched this movie. And she also gave a very strong performance. Amy Irving did a really great job too. "Carried Away" came out in 1996, and I haven't seen in the last 5 years any other movie scene as explicit (and thought provoking at the same time) as the one with Irving and Hopper in the buff - yes, both of them. In the wrong hands, that kind of shots could have turned this terrific film into a Lolita-style soft porn.

This starts out as a very sleepy agrarian tale, but quickly gets kinky when Dennis Hopper launches an affair with a 17-year-old student. He sort of ditches his long time girlfriend, the rarely seen Amy Irving, and complications ensue. There's a kind of creepy side plot involving the cancer death of Hopper's old mom. Lots of full frontal nudity, including Hopper and Irving. She, the ex- of Stephen Speillberg, is now married to the director here. I laughed as Hopper, who must be at least 67, claims to be a 47-year-old teacher here, while Irving, who must be in her late 50s, exposes herself. It turns out better than expected, despite the ominous casting of the crazy Gary Busey as the dad of the gorgeous teen bedded by Hopper. Worth watching. Did this ever play in theaters?

I rented this movie many years ago and loved it so much I just had to buy it. It is a timeless classic with Dennis Hopper as a middle aged man that is in love with a woman for six years, yet he cannot commit to marriage. In his weakest moment, he makes a mistake and has an affair with a high school student of his. This finely acted movie ( Amy Irving is wonderful, also) examines the male mid life crisis and sometimes the regret that comes with it. There is a beautiful, poignant nude scene at the end of the movie, that truly explains the frustration Dennis Hopper is going through. A must see, many times over!

I was carried away with this movie. Dennis Hopper and the rest of the cast were great.

Very well acted by Amy Irving, allowing herself to look drab, and
older, and especially Dennis Hopper, who gives what might be his most
restrained performance ever, and creates an unforgettable character in
the process.

This tale of a mid-western, self confessed 'mediocre farmer and
schoolteacher' having an erotic affair with a 17 year old student, and
the effect it has on his life, especially his long standing, but now
somewhat inert relationship with his fellow teacher, is really about
taking risks in life, even bad ones, and how we need those to stay
alive.

I like and admire that the film neither fully condemns or approves of
anyone or any action. Everything is complex.

Sadly, Amy Locaine as the girl, while stunningly beautiful, isn't at
the acting level of her older co-stars, nor his her character written
with the same kind of insight and precision, which hurts the overall
effect. And some of the writing is a little overly poetic and
theatrical.

Still, it's an unique film, dealing with sex, aging, morality, fear and
self-image in a far more complex, mature way than most American films,
and for once treats mid-western farm folks as just as complex,
intelligent and tortured as their big-city counterparts.

Carried Away is ultimately a cinematic treatise on the dangers of crossing that line no man should ever cross, but a line that so many tiptoe upon either in reality or imagination. Dennis Hopper's character is an aging, bored teacher in a rural farm community. His life is predictable and the only question that still stirs within it is when he exactly intends on marrying his long-time girlfriend (Amy Irving). Things take a sudden change when a new student arrives in town, brining with her a willingness to seduce her teacher, if only to keep herself entertained while living in the new but overwhelmingly drab town. He, although sheepishly at first, falls prey to her advances and within a short period of time, finds his life is complete and total disarray. A solid film, but the gratuitous nudity was a bit forced.

This is the most hauntingly melancholy score that you probably ever will listen to..it is achingly beautiful..while it is minimalist in nature it nonetheless is played full orchestra..regret,opportunities lost and missed,love that is both impulsive and deep-seated,these are some of the emotions that are hinted at by Bruce Broughton's score..perhaps his best work,Broughton is usually associated with more robust scoring,such as his western flavored score for the film"Tombstone",about the gunfight at the OK coral..While many scores suffer as stand-alone entities,this score does not...Indeed,I heard this score BEFORE viewing the film for which it was written...And because I heard this score I found myself saying:What kind of film could this be,to have such an emotional score?So try this album out...You won't be disappointed...