Customer Reviews

Going All the Way [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - New Zealand ]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ignore Leonard Maltin's whiney review! Mark Pellington's "Going All the Way" is ANYTHING but a "familiar seeming" coming of age story! In fact, ignore the synopsis on this very DVD package that describes the film as a "romantic comedy"! Although the characters may have sex on their minds, there is not much real "romance" to be found in this particular tale! Based on Dan Wakefield's 1971 novel of the same name, "Going All the Way" is a somewhat darkly-shaded character study of two unlikely friends in 1950's Indianapolis. One of the charcters, Sonny Burns (played by "Saving Private Ryan's" Jeremy Davies), is the complete antithesis of a glamorous Hollywood leading man, and Davies completely brings to life the character described Wakefield's original book. His brooding, half-mumbled performance perfectly captures Sonny's underlying anger, confusion, and insecurity. Actress Amy Locane (who previously appeared in "School Ties") also shines in a smaller part as Sonny's longsuffering girlfriend Buddy Porter. Although she does not have an over-abundance of dialogue, Locane conveys a lot of emotion with her expressive eyes and facial expressions...and as it turns out in the end, Buddy is probably the most "with it" character in this entire story. This new DVD release is a virtual tresure trove for fans of this film! The original rough cut of "Going All the Way" ran 3 hours and 10 minutes, and was cut down to less than 2 hours for its theatrical release. The DVD provides us with well over an hour of that "missing" footage, presented here as "deleted scenes". In fact the first deleted scene is an entire 45 minute subplot that was excised from the film. (Fans of Wakefield's novel will recognize this section as the tale of Gunner Castleman's ill-fated beard!). This lengthy outttake alone makes the DVD worth owning! Some of the other "missing footage" shows us that Sonny's mother (played by film veteran Jill Clayburg) played a bigger part in the original storyline, as did Gunner's sassy girlfriend Marty (played convincingly by British accress Rachel Weisz), and Locane's character Buddy. There is also a more graphic take of the scene involving Sonny's attempted suicide, and it will probably be a little too intense for some viewers! A little less satisfying than the extensive "outtakes reel" is director Mark Pellington's commentary track, spoken in a deep monotonous voice. Pellington does give some useful insights into the film, but he also has the habit of saying "we shot this on location", without ever telling us WHERE the location is! The director also fails to talk about the relation of the music to the film, although many of the 50's-era tunes heard on the soundtrack draw obvious lyrical parallels to the action on screen. (See Sonny and Gayle's "love scene" together for a great example of this.) Pellington mostly just comments on the performances on the actors, and how he could have shot scenes differetly. In fact Pellington reveals on the commentary track that he plans to re-edit and re-release "Going All the Way" within the next few years, adding some voice-over narration from Davies, and restoring some of the lost footage for an extended "directors cut". Does this mean that I'll have another "Going All the Way" DVD to buy a few years down the road? That's OK, this unique film is well worth it!

This dark, angst ridden film depicts the anxieties of both Veteran's and their families after returning from war. It is the story of one young man's adjustment back into society and the bosom of his family. Between flashbacks, and grating overtures from Mom and Dad and Girlfriend to make things right, it seems like nothing will ever be right again. But with the help of his best-friend, (played by Ben Affleck) he begins to slowly, but surely put things back together for himself, and to enjoy life again, but on his own terms. Moving, emotional and relatible as the boy who never quite fit in, but is now a war hero, this film tells an interesting, compelling story. Ben Affleck plays a "good ol' boy" type, who shuns that image after being exposed to the realities of war. I would recommend it for anyone who would like the opportunity to see Ben in one of his best and biggest performances.

The critics were not too kind to this film and probably a little too harsh. It is not a disappointing film as some would have you believe and brings to life how bad things happen to good people. I thought the acting by Jeremy Davis and Ben Affleck was very good as they brought their characters to life. I not only enjoyed the film but i was in it playing a bar patron along side Davis and Affleck. If you don't have anything better to do on a rainy day, rent or buy this move, sit back with some popcorn, and enjoy!

The lowdown:

Going All the Way is a touching story about learning to let go, coming to terms with yourself, love, and the power of friendship between two young men whose relationship "is the core of the movie," says MTV Award-winning music video director Mark Pellington, whose debut film shows that he clearly knows what he's doing, and that his talents can be set on more than one profession. Pellington tackles the challenge of presenting two authentic young men who we can relate to, and passes with flying colours.

Jeremy Davies is perfect for these kinds of rolls, where he plays a shy, secretive, insecure young man trapped in a boy's body, who's trying to escape his parent's domination... having played two such intriguing rolls in one year, in Going All the Way and in John Patrick Kelley's equally enchanting and moving (but ultimately a little too broody) The Locusts. And although at war with his parents, he also wants to try and make up for all the lonely years he spent in high school masturbating over fevered fantasies beyond the reach of fulfillment. I mean, sure he's got Buddy (just the name makes me cringe) but she's much too available and overall not the sort of woman out of his skin mags who'll sweep him off his feet. Sonny Burns' life is enough to drive anyone to the rubber room, and you truly share his pain. At times, it may have seemed as though he has finally reached that flight of stairs, merely to once again find himself at the very bottom of where he started, of his ultimate goal... to happiness. Jeremy's brooding, partially-mumbled performance perfectly captures his underlying disarray, insecurities, and anger. The thing that's so unique about him is that, while he'll make you sympathise for his suffering at times, he can be so funny at others, that he'll also make you laugh like there's no tomorrow; not many actors have the capability to do that.

This may not be the film that claimed Ben Affleck to fame (Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy was) but it sure was enough of one to really get him noticed (after that, it was no more playing the vileness bully for this guy, I'll tell ya that right now). The man's very presence commands the screen. You watch him, and he's just so cool and casual, that you feel as though he's not even acting at all; he's an expert. When you observe his character, Gunner Casselman, you basically have to look through his physical features, because that rebellious, tough-guy looking image he's given doesn't really say a lot about him since his visit to Japan. We see him depart from his rowdy old high school buddies in a bar to hang around with little old Sonny (even Sonny himself was surprised, as we were, seconds prior to them leaving the scene, driven to a surreal trip inside his head and learned that he thought he was being made fun of), who he'll drag along to art galleries and also take pictures with since Sonny shared his love of picture taking with him. When I look at Gunner, what I see is a hunk with a heart of gold and a fresh outlook on life, who's really begun to discover himself and whose goal is to go to New York because that's not only where he thinks a future career awaits him but it's also a place where he won't have to deal with his naggy mother and her discrimination against his Jewish girlfriend (and Jews in general). I also perceive that he's quite impressed by Sonny, thinking that, while he scored all those touchdowns and lured the girls with his bod and charm back in his high school years, he was an intellectual, when really he spent those very years masturbating if not watching him with awe.

Aside from the catchy oldies tunes, I really enjoyed the dialogue the two young men shared with one another, which was as absorbing as it is true. Among all, one in particular comes to mind, where Gunner was trying to prove a point that "peach pie is fine, but that's all you get? I mean, morning, noon, and night, peach pie? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, peach pie. Peach pie, day in, day out. Day in, peach pie." Jeremy and Ben were terrific together. As improbable a coalition as their character's had, I thought that they, nonetheless, had perfect chemistry together, and were very enjoyable to watch.

Going All the Way is based upon Dan Wakefield's enormously popular novel (one of my favourites, as a matter of fact). Mark Pellington read it at the early age of thirteen after he discovered it sitting in his father's shelf, and immediately fell in love with it. Sixteen years later, he showed his love with the making of the film, which I thank him for, because it's one of a kind. It's a film with real depths to it, that is of a true depiction of the male mind.

The book was one of the most funny I've read, and the film just didn't do it justice. One improvement is that Sonny's character is much sweeter and more likeable in the film than in the book, but the finer points of the story have been lost. The part about the beard, for example, which wasn't just very touching, and funny, but incredibly shocking to someone born in 1964 and had never known a time when beards were downright subversive! All the actors were excellent--but more of the book could have been written into the film.
Also, to a previous reviewer, the time frame of the story is in the early '50's--they were NOT returning from the Vietnam War! The Korean War was in the early '50's; the Vietnam War didn't begin till 1964!

Not one of my most beloved favorites, but it was rather entertaining, funny, and deep, but not a masterpiece. Jeremy Davies is well cast as the returning vet who comes home to an overloving and over bearing mother and a strictly business father, and the girl he left behind. All of them eventually get on his nerves, and finds himself unable to control his sexuality. Ben Affleck is equally good as his buddy but has different views on life. From the looks on his face he looks as if he prefers to have worked with Matt Damon rather than with Davies, but what does that matter? Not for everyone's taste or pleasure, but rather amusing to see, especially if the girls saw Davies in "Saving Private Ryan" and want to see more of him. They should get more than their fill here.

Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) and Gunnar Casselman (Ben Affleck) are two young men who strike up an acquaintance on their way home from the war in Korea. As students at the same high school, Sonny, the neurotic introvert, and Gunnar, the Golden Boy athlete, moved in entirely different circles. Now, following the life-changing experience of the war, this odd couple is able to provide much needed support for each other as they resist sliding back into the same old routine. Unlike Gunnar's hard-drinking, partying high school buddies, Sonny takes Gunnar's newly-found, "inner-directed" (as he calls it), philosophical side seriously. Gunnar provides vital support and advice as Sonny tries to overcome the crippling neuroses that make it so difficult for him to relate to the opposite sex and break away from his controlling parents. The entire cast is excellent, but Davies really excels as the imploding, desperate Sonny./

This film, while it may be regarding every boy's life growing up in whatever period of decade, not necessarily the nineteen-fifties, it can really relate to anyone. Not only does it voyage into Sonny Burns' yearning for sexual fulfillment, but it also concerns the mothers of these individuals, who just don't know when to let go, and it also voyages into the power of friendship, into the bond of two young men-one of whom being Sonny-returning home from the Army to discover that their attitudes on life, love, and the town in which they grew up in have altered in this bittersweet coming-of-age drama. Their chemistry was natural, and together they visually generated an improbable coalition rather than some silly contrast. Both men are circumscribed and callow, their inducement is focused on their genitals, and yet they burn with idealism, with fevered fantasies of their own eventual triumph (. . .)

The theme which caught my attention most was that of Sonny's sexual frustrations and afflictions with his parents, whose religious beliefs are a matter in which they still assume he opts to follow, or rather neglect to face the fact that he just may no longer want to, like many individuals emerging a certain age, who'll depart from the past and take their own path to whatever life and career that awaits them. But it's not that Sonny necessarily was growing out of the whole scene of going to church every Sunday morning and saying a prayer before going to sleep. It's more that, as detestation grew within him over the years, he has grown to hate God for never bothering to give a helping hand when needed one to pull him out of all this wretchedness, the misery of waking up each morning knowing that he is trapped inside the same slender, opprobrious body and enduring the same life that seemingly never really has any light shed upon it (. . .) I was utterly moved and empathized such tortured souls, for I am quite similar to this character, thereby this very genuine film opens a tremendous amount of interest for its viewing, for I, every time I watch it, feel as though I was watching myself-resemblance between us is that great. I'm not so much proud to admit of the fact, but it's nice to see a film that doesn't concern the usual farfetched subject matters regarding the most inane things, and one that rather concerns issues which can resemble amongst many others out there, such as myself, for instance. Jeremy Davies was terrific depicting this character, capable of delivering both humor and great poignancy to the screen like the natural that he is.
After having to deal with well over fifty actors whose goal was to obtain the roll of Sonny Burns-which essentially exemplifies how many others relate to this character and would like to express their feelings of rage, if you will, on screen-Jeremy Davies impressed the filmmakers with his uncanny take on the character; his brooding, indistinctly-uttered performance ideally captures Sonny's underlying indignation, confusion, and insecurities (. . .)While this synopsis may seem like the premise of a nineteen-fifties feel-good movie, Going All the Way emphatically subverts in any evoked nostalgic feelings. Its twisting narrative veers from relatively straight-although ennui-laden-jesting boy talk to surreal trips into Sonny's disturbed inner world, culminating in a profound and painful moment of sexual humiliation. So while it may seem as a direct comedy, it really isn't, as such a character's deepest desires disintegrate and are clear that a mere "fantasy" is all they'll conspicuously be. Besides, since when has a film that features graphical scenes of those in the progress of slitting their wrists in an attempt to use such unusual actions as a method of rehabilitation, been humorous by any means? Since when, huh? My advice to you would be to ignore the ostentatious synopsis on the back of both the VHS and DVD package, which bluntly describe the film as a "romantic comedy."

This film about the friendship of two very different men was extroadinary. My hat's off to the director, Mark Pellington, he will most certainly be one of the top ten directors in Hollywood in the very near future. In fact, I think he's there already. It's a must see film.

I purchased this film mainly because I am a Ben Affleck fan. I rented it once on video and thought that it was a great film. There is an interesting story and stuff to get you roped in...it was good