Product Details

• Actors: John Hurt, Gregory Smith, David Strathairn, Marla Sokoloff, Sarah Buxton
• Directors: Bob Swaim
• Writers: Vince McKewin
• Producers: Mark McClafferty, Pamela Edwards McClafferty, Robert Rhea, Tom Parkinson
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Spellbound Pictures
• DVD Release Date: August 21, 2007
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000SQVGNQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,753 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Climb" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Review

John Hurt, the star of The Climb, is an actor with an often staggering capacity for conveying human suffering. With his watery eyes and lean bony, tragic-looking face. Hurt can almost radiate pain. Yet there's a sardonic side to his acting (in stories like The Naked Civil Servant and Love and Death on Long Island ) that undercut any sentimental mush. He's capable of making us laugh at the victims he portrays and their folly even to empathize with their entrapment. Almost all Hurt's skills and view in The Climb which is one of those sterling independent films that some times unfortunately slip through the cracks. Set in 1959 in Baltimore suburb (although it was actually shot in New Zealand. It's an engrossing and sometimes wonderful little family drama, revolving around a young boy's relationship with his reticent father (played by David Strathairn), a man falsely accused of cowardice, and with the dying old engineer (played by Hurt) who lives next door. The boy, Danny Himes (a very good, unsentimental performance by Gregory Smith) obsessed with the notion of proving his courage, partly because in a neighborhood dominated by Korean War veterans, his non-veteran father Earl (Strathairn), is a target to abuse and ridicule. Danny becomes fixated on proving his own bravery by climbing an abandoned TV tower high in the hills above the suburb, as one of his collaborators is Hurt's, Chuck Langer a cancer-ravaged engineer who built many a bridge and road in South America. All of the actors in this film are good. But, as Langer, Hurt is simply tremendous. Impending death has snuffed out almost all Langer's inhibitions and turn him into a railing profane old tyrant. Yet, the warmth and the depth of his ties with Danny are always convincing. The Climb is a little jewel well-worth seeking out - for its humanity, its humor and, most of all, for the brilliant hurting of Hurt. --Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

Product Description

Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG-13
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 94 minutes

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, Suspenseful and Perfectly Acted, December 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Climb (DVD)

Poignant, suspenseful and perfectly acted, The Climb is as rare as its unlikely central friendship -- and as full of humanity. - Sheila Benson, film critic

A solidly crafted film from the director Bob Swaim, The Climb is an engaging tale of growing up in the 1950's. - David Rooney, VARIETY

In a world where marketplace spin and the one-line pitch meeting has diminished movie-making to deplorably predictable levels, it is a joy to see Bob Swaim's multi-leveled and richly-textured new film. Instead of Hollywood clichés and cardboard figures, he gives us believable characters and situations alive with all the nuance of real life. Defying all easy categorization, THE CLIMB is destined to become a classic. -William Hjortzberg author (Falling Angel, Legend, Angel Heart)

.. one of those sterling independent films that sometimes unfortunately slip through cracks. ...THE CLIMB is a little jewel well worth seeking out... - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Movie Critic.

The Climb' is a moving coming-of-age drama with a juicy performance by John Hurt as a cantankerous, chain-smoking, bourbon-slugging geezer. David Strathairn displays his typical understated brilliance playing a father who redefines heroism. -Annette Insdorf, Columbia University

Brilliant cast, insightful and sensitive direction. Without question some of John Hurt's finest work. Bob Swaim grew through his high school years in California, and it shows, for unlike most Europeans his vision of US life is honest to the core though clearly his years in French cinema give him an intuition most Americans desperately lack about their own culture. -David Franzoni screenwriter, Citizen Cohn, Amistad, Gladiator,Jumpin' Jack Flash

Funny, touching and thought-provoking. An island of reality and humanity in a sea of effects films. - Daniel Will-Harris, editor, eFuse.com

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, Suspenseful and Perfectly Acted, December 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Climb (1997) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Poignant, suspenseful and perfectly acted, The Climb is as rare as its unlikely central friendship -- and as full of humanity. - Sheila Benson, film critic.

A solidly crafted film from the director Bob Swaim, The Climb is an engaging tale of growing up in the 1950's. - David Rooney, VARIETY

In a world where marketplace spin and the one-line pitch meeting has diminished movie-making to deplorably predictable levels, it is a joy to see Bob Swaim's multi-leveled and richly-textured new film. Instead of Hollywood clichés and cardboard figures, he gives us believable characters and situations alive with all the nuance of real life. Defying all easy categorization, THE CLIMB is destined to become a classic. -William Hjortzberg author (Falling Angel, Legend, Angel Heart)

.. one of those sterling independent films that sometimes unfortunately slip through cracks. ...THE CLIMB is a little jewel well worth seeking out... - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Movie Critic.

The Climb' is a moving coming-of-age drama with a juicy performance by John Hurt as a cantankerous, chain-smoking, bourbon-slugging geezer. David Strathairn displays his typical understated brilliance playing a father who redefines heroism. -Annette Insdorf, Columbia University Film Department

Brilliant cast, insightful and sensitive direction. Without question some of John Hurt's finest work. Bob Swaim grew through his high school years in California, and it shows, for unlike most Europeans his vision of US life is honest to the core though clearly his years in French cinema give him an intuition most Americans desperately lack about their own culture. -David Franzoni screenwriter, Citizen Cohn, Amistad, Gladiator,Jumpin' Jack Flash

Funny, touching and thought-provoking. An island of reality and humanity in a sea of effects films. - Daniel Will-Harris, editor, eFuse.com

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How high can you climb, August 28, 2000

By 

jasenao (Dothan, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Climb (1997) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In "The Climb," a boy named Danny wants to climb a tower in order to prove to his father and the bullies that he's not a coward. He finds an old man that wants to commit suicide. Since Danny (Gregory Smith) won't get the gun for the old man, the man agrees to help him get to the top of the tower just as long as he thinks he can get back down. But there's one thing that goes wrong, Danny breaks his arm a few days before he plans to climb to the top of the tower.

"The Climb" is a little slow getting started, so you probably won't get real interested in it until Danny and the old man actually go to the tower and start carrying out their plan. About the only thing that will keep you interested before then is the old man's performance, he does a great job and so does Danny.

If you like drama movies, I would recommend seeing "The Climb." It is interesting and toward the end of the movie when the climb is taking place, it has some good suspense.