4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
fine addition to the FAERIE TALE THEATRE series, November 9, 2004
This review is from: Faerie Tale Theatre - Rip Van Winkle (DVD)
RIP VAN WINKLE is a fine addition to the FAERIE TALE THEATRE series, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Harry Dean Stanton in the titled role.
Rip Van Winkle (Harry Dean Stanton) is a good man, he's just a too much of a dreamer is all. His wife Wilma (Talia Shire) has had just about enough of his loafing ways, the house is falling about their ears and there's no money.
When Rip goes hunting in the forest he happens upon a group of ghosts, who offer him some of their stange green drink. Sleepy and confused, Rip sleeps away in the forest (for 20 years!).
Once awake, Rip now finds himself in an entirely different world to that he knew only yesterday. What has happened to Rip Van Winkle?
Featuring great performances from Roy Dotrice and Tim Conway. Harry Dean Stanton is suitably-bewildered in the title role, and Talia Shire has a ball as the frazzled Wilma.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enough of Washington Irving's Magic Resonates, June 19, 2004
RIP VAN WINKLE is the kind of pseudo-fairy tale that can mean nearly anything that the reader wants. In the hands of director Francis Ford Coppola, RVW is a surprisingly entertaining version of the Washington Irving novel that was resurrected by the Fairie Tale Theater. A previous reviewer castigated Coppola for what he termed the cheapness of the sets. Yet, as I watched the film for myself (no children involved), I was carried along by what I saw as a deliberately surreal style that successfully mimicked the much more somber tone of the text. Rip (Harry Dean Stanton)is presented as a henpecked husband of wife Vilma (Talia Shire), a woman whose cacophanous shrewishness more clearly suggests Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West than the shrill yelping of say Hillary Clinton. In such a non-threatening world, Vilma's harsh voice and equally harsh hairdo do little more than serve as plot devices to propel Rip into the haunted mountains of the Catskills, where the tale's true power resides. Rip leaves the outer level surreal world of his village to enter the inner level surreality of the Magic Mountain of Commander Heinrich. There he sees the magical ghosts whose own deaths 150 years ago prefigure his own looming sleep death of twenty years. Rip's return is a balancing of his own confusion of his long sleep with an equally confusing long sleep of the burgeoning united colonies. The silliness of the mayor (Tim Conway) suggests the subtext that the changes in Rip's village--astounding as they must seem to the bewildered Rip--are only the precursor to further changes that involve granting rights to women and people of color. When Rip finally accepts the reality of his new life, so does the viewer accept the notion that even the seeming reality of momentous changes must be viewed against future and even more momentous ones. RIP VAN WINKLE succeeds in resonating this message as well as far more "serious" films.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Faerie Tale Theatre: Rip Van Winkle, February 11, 2004
Atmospheric and delightful version of the Washington Irving classic from Faerie Tale Theatre. Francis Ford Coppola creates a spellbinding film with Harry Dean Stanton turning in a great performance as the man who liked to sleep alot! Talia Shire is wickedly funny as Rip's wife, Wilma. Alot of people probably think the same thing as I do, that the sets are a little too fake such as the sheet used for water when the goblins talk about their misfortunate shipwreck. Overall however, it's another excellent episode.
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