Product Details

• Actors: Brid Brennan, Des McAleer, Paula Hamilton, Charles Lawson, Brian Hogg
• Directors: Mike Leigh
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Water Bearer Films
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000006E1O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,284 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Side splitting laughter in a realistic setting, May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Days in July [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie centers around two pregnant women from each community in Belfast. As their due date approaches so does the twelfth of July. As the temperature rises, so does the tension and the laughter. Much of the rubbish in movies about Northern Ireland today is based on misery and fiction and ignorance. This movie truly portrays Belfast, the people, the humor and the tragedy. An excellent movie for those wishing to see what the atmosphere of Belfast is really like, and how the troubles affect everyday life. Having grown up in Northern Ireland before moving to the US 24 years later, I can speak from experience.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Excellent Films from a Master Filmmaker, August 31, 2008

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mike Leigh Vol 3 (Four Days in July, Home Sweet Home, Kiss of Death) (DVD)

First, what I wrote about the first collection, which also applies to the second and third:

I discovered Mike Leigh through SECRETS AND LIES, which prompted me to watch VERA DRAKE, which has led me to order all three MIKE LEIGH COLLECTIONS. Thus far I am very pleased.

Mike Leigh has observative powers which are rare in anyone. He can take something apart, put it back together, make you see it in a new way, and perhaps not even let you know what he's done until two hours after the movie's over. You get so wrapped up in his oh-so-real characterizations and organically unfolding plots that you forget. You and your partner are still talking about it after it's over.

Observing the broad sweeping things people do is difficult, but artists do it. But to also capture the minutiae is a Mike Leigh trademark. Watching these traits large and small feed off each other to create a sum greater than its parts is a true joy.

Mike Leigh has the ability to present things in movies that could be presented in novels, for example, but not as well. He's a master of the medium.

In all Mike Leigh films, I suggest not reading the DVD jacket or any plot summary. They give away his spoilers. Trust, watch, and enjoy.

And now for the specifics:

Kiss of Death - 1977, 80 minutes. Mike Leigh's sense of humor is on full display again, this time in a film about an undertaker's assistant trying to find romance. Another keeper.

Home Sweet Home - 1982, 90 minutes. We've got a postman here who probably never met a woman he wouldn't bed. Bitter individuals, says the DVD cover, but I also found them very memorable and both fun and funny to watch. Another keeper.

Four Days In July - 1984, 99 minutes. The man never fails to surprise me and take his filmmaking gift to yet another setting. This time it's Northern Ireland, and if you're an unworldly American like myself who thinks you won't care, think again. This is Mike Leigh giving us another classic that is -- you guessed it -- a keeper.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, the only honest film I have seen about Belfast!, November 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Days in July [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A triumph. Mike Leigh excells himself with this piece of mid-eighties genius. Set in Belfast, the story revolves around two families from different communities, in Belfast, over four summer days. As usual Leigh gets under the skin of his characters to give, what I believe, is the most honest portrait of Belfast and its people ever committed to celluloid. A joy from start to finish!