Product Details

• Actors: Burt Reynolds, Dom De Luise, Sally Field, Janice Carroll, James Best
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302718929
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,647 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Burt Reynolds directed and stars in this dark comedy, which suffers from diminishing returns the longer it goes on. He plays a fellow who discovers that he has a terminal illness and wants to spare himself and everyone he knows the seemingly unavoidable end of a painful malady. So he decides to kill himself. But he proves surprisingly inept at it and after several tries winds up in a mental hospital, where he meets a cheerfully homicidal inmate (Dom DeLuise). The suicide stuff was handled more imaginatively and with greater flair in Harold and Maude; the film has very few real jokes and only comes to life twice: when Burt tries to confess to an easily impressed young priest (Robby Benson) and when the lunatic DeLuise is onscreen. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An underrated masterpiece, April 29, 2001

By 

Lee LS Rice (Birmingham, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End (1978) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Burt Reynolds directs and stars in this much underrated black comedy which also features Dom DeLuise, Sally Field and Carl Reiner. Reynolds plays Sony Lawson who is diagnosed as having a toxic blood disease. From this rather bleak premise stem a series of hilarious sequences, including the diagnosis itself by a very unsympathetic doctor, and Reynolds confessing his sins in church to a juvenile priest. Adamant that he'll die with dignity, Reynolds resolves not to tell his daughter, parents, girlfriend or ex-wife about his terminal illness, and he tries to cope with it himself by committing suicide. But his plan goes wrong and he finds himself in a mental hospital where he meets DeLuise (in a performance tour de force)who agrees to 'help' him. The resulting scenes of DeLuise's failed attempts to kill Reynolds are brilliantly executed moments of comedy. Tiring of these failures, Reynolds escapes from the mental hospital and again decides to do the job himself. It is really quite a shame that this film has been virtually forgotten. The concept of someone facing such monumental adversity is a universal theme, and this work is much better and more intelligent than higher-profile Burt Reynolds outings such as 'Smokey And The Bandit'. Perhaps this video release (is a UK version in the works?) and Reynolds' recent success in'Boogie Nights' will help gain this film more than just a cult following. It certainly deserves it. And there's even some atmospheric music from Frank Sinatra and Glen Campbell to enjoy too.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dying is Funny, July 12, 2006

By 

W. F. Rucker "eclectic reader" (Stone Mountain, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The End (1978) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I think this is one of Reynold's top three films. It is an hysterical movie about someone who is dying. There are numerous lines from this film that have become part of my vocabulary. Dom DeLuise jumps off the top of a building, doesn't die and says "you were right, it's not high enough". Even the music by Paul Williams is good. I don't know why this film doesn't get more word of mouth, it rates with Mel Brooks for laughs per minute. Do yourself a favor and watch it and you will want to own it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Swimming With The Best of Them, June 1, 2005

By 

D.David T. (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End (DVD)

Burt Reynolds allows us to laugh at ourselves by our bargining skills that we have developed with God. Towards the end of the of the movie, Burt discovers that he wants to live, and thus bargins with God to let him live after attempting to drown himself by swimming out to sea. To show his sincerity to God, he dedicates at first 80 percent of his yearly earning and holding to the church. As Burt gets closer to shore and sees that in fact he will make it out alive, he lowers the percentage to a fraction of the original 80 percent earlier promised. The movie starts slow, but finishes with a punch by reminding all of us that we are not so different after all in private.