Product Details

• Actors: James Caan, Anjelica Huston, James Earl Jones, D.B. Sweeney, Dean Stockwell
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Georgian
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: June 25, 2002
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000066C6J
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,781 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Gardens of Stone" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

GARDENS OF STONE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My review is somewhat biased., November 14, 2003

By 

Deptydog (Hopewell, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gardens of Stone (DVD)

I admit that my review is somewhat biased, because I got to be an extra in this movie. I was a Military Policeman stationed at Ft. Myer when they filmed this movie and I got the chance to be in it and meet the cast.
The depiction of the life of the 3rd US Infantry (The Old Guard) conducting the funerals is fairly accurate. Overall, I think that this movie represented the Army fairly. Some minor details struck me, but they didn't detract from the enjoyment of the movie in any way.
As for the cast, my personal opinion of them varies as well, but I would like to say thet James Earl Jones is a wonderful man and in person, he's larger than life.
If anyone would like to delve a little deeper into this story, I would recommend the book by Nicholas Profitt, or I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Affectionate Tribute to the Old Guard, January 16, 2006

By 

Corlyss M. Drinkard (Nibley, Ut.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gardens of Stone (DVD)

I hail from the Washington DC area and lived in Arlington for many years. As an Army brat, I spent many hours on post at Ft. Myer and observed many of the ceremonies captured in the film. Finally my father was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery during the period covered by the film. Despite the fact that the story is very unremarkable, if not labored, even with such a high-powered cast, it is filled with long loving silent meditations on the ceremonies, and for that, it deserves respect. The credits pay eloquent and simple tribute to all the services' ceremonial units, but this is the Old Guard's show, and they execute with the poise and precision for which the unit is world famous. I found it very moving.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In eternal glory..., April 3, 2004

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gardens of Stone (DVD)

This is a film with a difference -- many people come to it with preconceived notions of how a military-themed film should be, and are somewhat disappointed. This is not an action film, and while it fits the overall genre of being a protest film about Vietnam, it is not unambiguously so. It is an anti-war film, to be sure, but is not an anti-military or even anti-American film. It has an emphasis on duty and honour that transcends minor considerations of the particular patriotism for particular nations -- the themes as old as the Roman centurion's honour for fallen compatriots run through to the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetary.

The plot winds its way around the Old Guard, the honour guard at Arlington National Cemetary, charged with the performance of a hallowed trust, one of the few in a secular nation such as the United States -- that of overseeing the gravesites of the honoured dead who died after service to the nation, including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The primary senior characters are Platoon Sergeant Hazard (James Caan) and Sergeant Major Nelson (James Earl Jones), two crusty veterans overseeing operations; both served in Korea and Vietnam with distinction, and are now sitting on the sidelines of the expanding war in Vietnam in a place where the body count is very apparent. Into this mix comes the young and idealistic Specialist Willow (D.B. Sweeney in one of his earliest roles), an Army brat whose father is (of course) a friend of Hazard and Nelson.

Willow has an unrequited love (played by Mary Stuart Masterson) in the daughter of a colonel, who seems to think that the son of a sergeant is beneath his daughter, even as Willow has ambition toward becoming an officer. Willow also has ambition toward the experience of real combat -- he sees duty at the Arlington National Cemetary as being uneventful -- Willow is certainly not a Patton-esque character, but rather portrays that element of the military and citizenry who wishes to be where the action is when action is happening. Hazard (and, to a lesser extent, Nelson), being world weary, tries to temper Willow's enthusiasm, knowing (and stating several times) that Vietnam is not the typical war -- when Willow says that he wants to be on the front lines, the retort from the more experienced soldiers is invariably that there is no front line in Vietnam. Ultimately, Willow does make it to Vietnam, and Hazard does decide to leave the Old Guard for a more active engagement in the war where he can do more good (or so he feels) than simply burying the dead who return.

Hazard also is involved (as a subplot) with a woman who struggles to deal with the contradictory nature of the war, embodied by Hazard (Angelica Huston plays the correspondent who has a largely anti-war feeling, but again this is tempered by not being anti-military). Hazard's intimacy with her grows throughout the film, being tested when he announces his intention to leave the cemetary duty and go to Vietnam service; Willow's father dies early in the film, thrusting Hazard into a fatherly role, so the trio become a makeshift family of sorts.

From my visits to Arlington and conversation and correspondence I've had with those who have worked there, this film is fairly accurate in its portrayal of the procedures of the place. There are some things which never change, and perhaps one of the more constant places of military tradition is here.

The backdrop of Coppola dealing with the death of his own son runs as a sombre tone throughout this tale, that has both high points and tragic points. The ending is somewhat predictable but no less poignant for being so. Coppola's idea that even with all the honour a mighty nation can muster, death is still tragic and war often has few winners (and certainly the Vietnam had no true winners) remains steady here.

There are few DVD extras, but the picture and sound quality is enhanced, with the full-screen and wide-screen options available.