Product Details

• Actors: William H. Macy, Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna, Frances Bay, Rebecca Pidgeon
• Directors: Stuart Gordon
• Writers: David Mamet
• Producers: Al Corley, Allison Wolf, Amy Gunzenhauser, Art Spigel, Bart Rosenblatt
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: First Independent
• DVD Release Date: October 3, 2006
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000GRUQZQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,854 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Edmond" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

William H. Macy, a longtime collaborator of David Mamet, takes on one of Mamet's biggest, ugliest creations in the title role of Edmond. Edmond drops out of his ordinary life after a chance encounter with a fortune-teller, and cruises through a New York inferno that leads to murder. It also leads to a great deal of the clipped, counter-punching dialogue that Mamet is famous for, although at times the film plays like a monologue interrupted by peripheral blips on Edmond's skewed radar. Mamet's subject is the frenzied reaction of the modern male to the narrowing of his domain, a crisis that drives Edmond to the familiar touchstones of bar, peep show, and whorehouse, none of which provide the solace he thinks they should. The 2005 film is based on Mamet's 1982 play, and somehow the picture might have had more pop if it had been filmed closer to that time, when panicked masculinity was a fresher subject. And the text is a kind of dark, horrific fable that probably worked better in the stylized realm of the stage than on film. Stuart Gordon directs with a blunt forward motion that foregrounds the most unsavory aspects of the material (fans of his Re-Animator should note the presence of Jeffrey Combs as a snotty hotel clerk). Except for Macy, cast members come and go in the episodic flow, some of them (Joe Mantegna and Rebecca Pidgeon) identified with Mamet's work. Julia Stiles plays the unfortunate waitress who falls into Edmond's path, and Bai Ling, Denise Richards, and Mena Suvari are women of the night who want to charge Edmond too much money. But it's Macy's show, and he mercilessly gets inside Edmond's bad self: a monster of entitlement and self-delusion, given to epiphanies that lead nowhere except his own ego. --Robert Horton

Product Description

A man (Macy) becomes involved in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder with 3 young women (Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Julia Stiles). It’s a first rate thriller from the legendary David Mamet.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "You are not where you belong" October 4, 2006

By A Customer

Format:DVD

Perhaps the real title of David Mamet's incendiary Edmond should perhaps be, careful what you wish for, or even don't vilify certain minority groups because your actions may come back to haunt you. This edgy and provocative film, featuring a truly spectacular performance by William H. Macy, features the cerebral Mamet at his dramatic best.

Here we have the angst-ridden, misogynistic, racist and homophobic male, so pent-up with hidden fury that he's becomes a walking nightmare. He's a bomb waiting to burst as all the years of "being on top" gradually deflate as he trolls through a nighttime labyrinth of crime-ridden streets, alleyways, and strip clubs in New York, just waiting to explode. (Interestingly the movie was actually filmed in Downtown Los Angeles).

Edmond Burke (Macy) is deeply frustrated with is life and work. Tired of being a white-collar robot, he abruptly tells his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) that he is going to walk out on their marriage because she no longer interests him sexually or spiritually. He's just been to a tarot card reading and the results are not good - murder, blood, mayhem and prison dominate with the dumbfounded psychic telling him, "You are not where you belong."

In a local bar he meets a fellow white-collar worker (Joe Mantegna) directs Edmond to a gentleman's club where he convinces him that what he probably needs is some sex. And in this scene we get the first glimpse of a man who is living on the edge and is easily swayed.

He visits a strip club, a peep show and a massage parlor, where he visits a variety of gorgeous girls including Denise Richards and Mena Suvari, but he's too tight-fisted to part with any money and leaves in a huff or is physically ousted.... Back on the street he's preyed on by African-Americans and then arms himself and lashes out, but violence brings him no peace.

He ends up at the apartment of a kindly waitress (Julia Stiles) where wielding a knife, he unleashes a rant, a foul-mouthed tirade against certain minority groups. She freaks out and he resorts to an action where the damage to his life is irreparably done. Edmond's final odyssey finally takes him from the city to a penitentiary where his prejudices come back to haunt him and where he is forced to face all that drove him into his crazy delusions.

Originally written for the stage in 1982, some of the issues may seem a bit dated by today's standards. The idea of pinstriped respectability meeting the - mostly black - urban nihilistic jungle might come across as a bit perfunctory, and even a bit clichéd. Still, the story with its incendiary language and its merciless portrait of a 47-year-old fractured man who embraces his own worst nightmares of racial and sexual suppression is still totally compelling.

Indeed Edmond is a must-see for fans of Bill Macy, who is truly a master at playing this walking time bomb in mild-mannered camouflage. With his ears sticking out from his washed out, blood drained face, he is indeed truly scary. Edmond might be depressing and provocative and even disgusting, but it's also gritty and honest and worth watching for experiencing one of America's best known serious playwrights working in all his unadulterated and uncensored grandeur. Mike Leonard October 06. Read more ›

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Falling Down from the guy that did Re-Animator.... October 3, 2006

By T. Gephart

Format:DVD

Per Amazon..."A man becomes involved in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder with 3 young women."

Not quite, as there's really no game here. This is basically "Falling Down" on acid... and that's a good thing.

Macy turns in a powerhouse, psychotic performance and Mamet's material is full of unexpected scenes that successfully aim to shock.

Of course the biggest shock of all was that B-horror master, Stuart Gordon, directed it.

Try not to watch the trailer to this movie before you see it and you will be in for a disturbing, original viewing experience.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Descending into Darkness: Mamet's Words of Nihilism October 18, 2006

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

EDMOND is a dark, dank, mercilessly downer of a film - that just happens to be one of the best pieces of work the very talented William H. Macy has ever done. In a bravura performance he embodies the strange creature created by David Mamet, triumphs in the extended monologues that include hate, racism, homophobia, hopelessness, and fear and serves them up in a near stoic way that allows the viewer to accompany the dissociating man into the depths of hell - but with an absolutely solid ending. It may not be an easy movie to watch, but it is clearly one actor's tour de force that deserves attention.

Edmond (Macy) is a bored, frustrated. angry robot of a worker who happens on a fortune teller who reads his Tarot cards and tells him he is in the wrong place. Edmond, obviously disturbed, goes home, leaves his wife who no longer stimulates him spiritually or sensuously, and begins his Rake's Progress journey through the bowels of the filthy city. He has a bar conversation with an anonymous guy (Joe Montegna) who advises him to go get laid, gives him an address, and disappears. What follows is a series of bad encounters with hookers, peep show dancers, sidewalk con artists, and pimps: Edmond spits out vitriolic racist epithets, is beaten and robbed, pawns his ring, buys a vicious knife, and begins his retribution - a path that includes murder and prison. As he ultimately finds his prison cell the only place of rest he can tolerate, in comes a cellmate (African American of course) and after an abusive start, Edmond shaves his head, gets tattooed and the story closes in a rather tender fashion....

The cast is superb: the vignettes of the characters Edmond encounters include Mena Suvari, Julia Stiles, Bokeem Woodbine, Rebecca Pidgeon, along with other less well known but equally fine actors. Stuart Gordon directs Mamet's play-to-film story with the right amount of bluntness and dark, smarmy street situations. But it is Macy who is uncanny in his ability to carry us along the warped and disintegrating mind of the character who could be any of a number standing next to us in an elevator....A tough film but well worth viewing. Grady Harp, October 06 Read more ›

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Who do i talk to about getting the last hour and 22 minutes of my life back? October 10, 2006

By Jeremy R. Murath

Format:DVD

I went into watching this movie with great expectations.....and was slapped by the back hand called Edmund. This movie only did not live up what the trailer protrayed it to be but was also slow moving and confusing at the end! If you are looking to kill an hour and a half of your life go get a root canal.....don't waste it watching this movie!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Macy is great, and disturbing March 16, 2011

By T. A. Wauldron

Format:DVD

Wiliam Macy is one of the best actors of our generation. And he is one of the most under-rated.

Macy plays a man whose marriage has dissolved. His life is a blank wall, and he is searching for a reason to his life. So he starts by looking for a woman, believing sexual contact will help him. Any woman. He goes from a strip bar, to a peep show, to a hooker, and in each place, he is the victim of scams and people who rob him, beat him, and want only his money. In each case, everyone sees him as a mark. In his desperation, after being beaten, and robbed, he finally picks up a waitress who he thinks understands him. BUT, he has slowly descended into madness, and he kills her when she doesn't agree with his `philosophy'.

This is a character study of a man who is lost to the world, and after being used and beaten, creates his own morality. A morality that is in opposition to the rigors of `correct society', and destroys him.

Watch this dvd for Macy's performance. He is incredible as always.

Be warned, this film is a brutal study, and very disturbing. It is NOT viewable by children.