Product Details

• Actors: Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, Mark Blum, Robert Joy
• Directors: Susan Seidelman
• Writers: Leora Barish
• Producers: Michael Peyser, Midge Sanford, Sarah Pillsbury
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Mono), French (Mono)
• Subtitles: Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: June 13, 2000
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792845773
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,237 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Desperately Seeking Susan" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This likeable, feminist screwball comedy about several incidents of mistaken identity is remembered more as the film that made Madonna a movie star. She's flip, hip, and energetic as Susan, the wild tramp with whom bored, suburban New Jersey housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) becomes obsessed after reading of her sexual conquests in the personal ads. Of course, since Madonna essentially played herself, the role's hardly a stretch. Director Susan Seidelmen presents a series of zany incidents too complicated to recount, but the result is that Roberta swaps lifestyles with her fixation to explore New Wave culture on New York's Lower East Side. It's territory Seidelmen knew well as her more offbeat, indie debut, Smithereens, reveled in the same setting. But where Smithereens took a more edgy approach to its characters, Susan is a fairy tale romantic comedy, and eventually becomes as conventional as the suburban characters it mocks by settling conflicts with predictable Hollywood formulae. Still, there's much to be enjoyed. The film's at its funniest when juxtaposing New York hip and New Jersey suburbia, like when Arquette's straight, suit-and-tie husband dances with Madonna in a punk club. The performances, too, are engaging, especially Arquette and Aidan Quinn, playing a romantic film projectionist who becomes her grubby Prince Charming. --Dave McCoy

Product Description

If you know what to look for, you can find almost anything in the personal ads...including the loveof your life! Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) is "irresistible" (Newsweek) and, in her first starring role, pop star Madonna (Evita) gives a "marvelously comic" (Time) performance in this "delightful madcap comedy" (US) about mistaken identity. Bored New Jersey housewife Roberta (Arquette) fills her days by reading the personal ads and following an ongoing romance between "Jim" (Robert Joy) and "Susan" (Madonna), a mysterious drifter who leads the kind of free-spirited life about which Roberta can only dream. And dream she does, until the day she actually shows up at the couple's prearranged rendezvous in New York City...and after a bump on the head, a bout of amnesia turns Roberta into Susan and opens the door to intrigue, laughter and love!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars DVD info not listed May 24, 2000

By Matthew I. Halpern

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

The specs for the DVD aren't listed on amazon. This great 80's flick will include running audio commentary by the director as well as deleted scenes and an alternate ending. Just wanted anyone interested to know the extras on the DVD.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Urban Comedy Classic June 24, 2000

By Luis Hernandez

Format:DVD

Considered by many to be Madonna's best film before she did Evita, "Desperately Seeking Susan" is a classic film for anyone interested by the 1980's and its' pop culture. Similar to what "Beverly Hills Cop" did for Los Angeles during that era, "Desperately Seeking Susan" capitulates on the hip and happening lifestyle found in the East Village and most importantly, Madonna.

Who knew how big Madonna would become? The essence of the Madonna we loved back when she was a rising star are all here. The dirty blonde hair, plastic bracelets, studded boots, they are all here. Although, the film was supposed to be a starring vehicle for Rosanna Arquette, everyone knows who stole the spotlight.

The film also served as an introductory spotlight for many stars who would find their niche here including a pre-"Roseanne" Laurie Metcalf, John Tuturro, Steven Wright, Iris Chacon (she is a big Latin television star who appears briefly on a television in the later half of the movie),Giancarlo Esposito and Aidan Quinn.

The score by Thomas Newman is wonderful and memorable, and Madonna again steal the spotlight, this time nusically with her memorable party classic "Into the Groove," played at the night club scene and during the ending credits.

Overall, the film captures the essence of life in the city versus that of the suburbs. If anyone wants to know what New York City was before the P.G. (Pre-Guiliani) age, then watch this film. As one of my favorite films of all time, I highly recommend it to all.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A guilty pleasure from the 80s November 1, 2004

By Feisty Girl

Format:DVD

I've seen this movie probably about 50 or 60 times. It came out when I was a senior in high school and working at a movie theater that showed one movie at a time. DSS played for about 4 months. Hence, the numerous viewings. The movie has never stopped being funny, sweet, and relentlessly entertaining. I still find this movie a guilty pleasure, and I pop it in whenever I'm feeling down and need a pick-me-up. The cast is great: Aidan Quinn and Rosanna Arquette have great chemistry. Madonna is funny and sexy and at this point still has a real woman's body. Laurie Metcalf (as Becky) is simply superb. This woman is a genius and I'll never understand why she isn't a superstar. She has almost all the best lines in the film, and believe me there are many. Steven Wright makes a hilarious cameo. And look for John Turturro. The plot is as silly as they get, but the writing is sharp with tons of quotable lines. The movie is a time capsule of wonderful vintage 80s junk-chic, complete with soundtrack. Watch it and reminisce.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great 80s comedy November 10, 2004

By DonMac VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

This is a great little comedy from the 80s. It did a great job of capturing the hip and trendy at the time as well as using the tried and true conventions of amnesia and mistaken identities and the fish-out-of-water gag. The cast is so appealing here: Arquette and Quinn are adorable; Metcalfe and Wright are hillarious, and Madonna is Madonna and that is just perfect for this film. A great rainy day or pick-me-up film that has aged well for the 80s in the same way Doris & Rock did for the 60s.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My, how we've all aged. July 14, 2003

By A Customer

Format:DVD

Back in the mid-Eighties, MTV played the video for Madonna's "Get into the Groove", the hit single from the soundtrack to *Desperately Seeking Susan*, about, oh, 120 freakin' times a day. The video featured so many clips from the film, and the network played the damn video so often, that I certainly never felt the need to see the movie. (Of course, my status as a rocker made seeing a movie starring Madonna prohibitive, anyway.) However, the additions of two decades of physical decay, a pot belly, and a few "distinguished" gray hairs -- in other words, maturity -- has made me appreciate now what I missed back then. Director Susan Seidelman's *Desperately Seeking Susan* is a pretty faultless farce, almost equal to Shakespeare's *Comedy of Errors* (from which it seems to draw its prime inspiration). The plot is impressively complicated: a well-to-do New Jersey housewife (Rosanna Arquette), when not hosting parties for her selfish husband, spends her time following the love affair of "Susan" and her beau in the Personal ads. A series of wildly implausible events culminates in her becoming an amnesiac. She's mistaken for "Susan" by the buddy of Susan's boyfriend, and so she naturally comes to believe that she really IS Susan. Whew! -- did I mention that someone's willing to kill "Susan" for her earrings, which turn out to be genuine Egyptian jewelry of great antiquity? The resolution to all this malarkey is composed like a great farcical fugue, with the plot elements falling lovingly into place (but even so, there's a surprise or two that awaits). Perhaps of even greater interest is the now-nostalgic view of 1980's New York City, which Seidelman renders with exactitude and a surprising amount of real, dirty, pre-Giuliani grit.... Madonna fascinates, too: it's almost touching to see her obvious lack of confidence, her tentativeness . . . hell, her eagerness to please. In this movie, she's not even remotely the same person as the middle-aged virago of ego we all know and love today. Finally, the plot's emphasis on Personal ads makes *Desperately Seeking Susan* seem like a quaint antique when viewed in today's age of e-mail. (The movie could not be made today. Susan and her boyfriend would simply have exchanged private e-mails, and Arquette's character would never have known about it.) In other words, it's bound to make aging GenX'ers feel more than a bit melancholy and, well, old. But that's all right. Time may march on, but the movies of our youth remain young at heart. Read more ›

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Desperately seeking Susan. Meet me, four o'clock, Battery Park. Keep the faith. Love, Jim." February 12, 2008

By Jenny J.J.I. VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Though the story line has been done so many times it's a great film. I'd seen this several times as a teenager and still think of it the same way. This movie really has less to do with Madonna and more to do with Rosanna Arquette.

It's hard to imagine anybody not coming across this film but if you haven't it starts out with Roseanna Arquette who plays Roberta Glass, a bored New Jersey housewife, who constantly follows the on-going relationship of Jim and Susan. One day, Roberta decides that she would really like to meet Susan, so she places an add in the paper, telling Susan to meet Roberta at Battery Park in New York City. Susan (played by Madonna) shows up, but is arrested because of cab fair. Roberta is being harassed by some lunatic. After a bump on the head and a bout of amnesia, turns Roberta into Susan. Susan's boyfriend Jim (played by Robert Joy) asks his best friend Dez (played by Aiden Quinn) finds Roberta, but thinks she is Susan. The two become lovers.

It's not all that great of a storyline, but the characters are charming enough and the music, of course, is '80's perfect. This film captures perhaps better than any other New York & general American pop culture of the early-to-mid-1980s. Madonna is at her best/(worst?) here, and we get a full helping of the clothes, hair, quirky characters, and great pop music of the era. The supporting actors are great, including Laurie Metcalf as Roberta's uptight sister-in-law and John Turturro as a sleazy night club host. The acting is understated and not over the top- including Madonna, who just seemed to be reading her lines very carefully, but to good effect. Susan Seidelman did an excellent job at directing, too bad she has not done much more!... The settings are used to great effect as well, giving you a taste of the exciting East Village and it's suburban opposite Fort Lee, NJ.

This great 80's flick will include running audio commentary by the director as well as deleted scenes and an alternate ending, which to me wasn't all that great. Keep your expectations low and you'll have a good time with this one. Read more ›