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Gray's Anatomy [VHS]
 
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Gray's Anatomy [VHS] (1997)

Spalding Gray (Actor), Mike McLaughlin (Actor), Steven Soderbergh (Director) | Rated: NR | Format: VHS Tape
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews) |

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Product Details

  • Actors: Spalding Gray, Mike McLaughlin, Melissa Robertson, Alvin Henry, Alyne Hargroder
  • Directors: Steven Soderbergh
  • Writers: Spalding Gray, Renée Shafransky
  • Producers: Caroline Kaplan, John Hardy, John Re, Jonathan Sehring, Kathleen Russo
  • Format: Color, NTSC
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Number of tapes: 1
  • Studio: Fox Lorber
  • VHS Release Date: November 3, 1998
  • Run Time: 80 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: 1572521384
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,142 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you can manage to suffer through an excruciating series of painful tales of eye trauma, then you might find yourself caught up and swept away in Spalding Gray's filmed monologue Gray's Anatomy. This amusing and capricious film is a bit different from his previous Swimming to Cambodia, which focused on his role in the film The Killing Fields. This time, Gray finds himself experiencing "disturbances" in his left eye, and after he is diagnosed by ophthalmologists as having a "macular pucker," he sets out to find a cure without having to set foot in a New York hospital. Raised as a Christian Scientist and fearing the loss of his eyesight, Gray dramatizes his journey in search of alternative treatments. Along the way, he calls the Christian Scientists' hot line, visits so-called Native American shamans, eye nutritionists, and Filipino psychic surgeons, all in the name of relief. Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies and Videotape), the one-man show is injected with movement by his inventive use of sets, lighting, and creative camera angles. The pacing can sometimes be frantic due to Gray's excited dialogue and self-examination, but as a result, it succeeds in holding you until the mirthful end. --Michele Goodson

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
As good as or better than "Swimming to Cambodia" and "Monster in a Box", except this time there is more. Surreal sceneries and sounds are added for effect, as well as short testimonials by "people on the street" describing their own unusual eye ailments. Gray always fascinated me...his unique perspective on life and the way he deals with it. I would also recommend reading "Impossible Vacation" (the subject of "Monster in a Box"). Very few books can affect me like that did.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Spalding Gray at his best August 3, 2000
Format:VHS Tape
Incredible writer and monologuist Spalding Gray takes us on an incredible journey, around the world and through his soul. Though based on his his attempts to avoid dangerous eye surgery, the story is really about meeting fascinating characters and Gray's own fascinating neuroses. If the idea of a monologue sounds boring to you -- basically Gray sitting and telling you a story -- I especially challenge you to try this out.

While dry, Gray's humor keeps you laughing out loud. You'll find it mesmerizing, and at the end of your own journey through the film, changed for the better. Highly recommended.

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Birdman
Format:DVD
Spalding Gray's death has left us poorer than when we started. How evident this is after viewing this edgy, moving, often riotous monologue directed by Stephen Soderbergh.

A macular "pucker" leaves Gray virtually blind in one eye. Born into Christian Science, Gray leaves the church when his CS practitioner demands he renounce allopathic medicine to receive help. Gray's breathless journeys through alternative healing remind us that we all face mortality at any cost, and that no religious or philosopical system will spare us the inevitability of suffering or dying.

What I loved most about this film were Gray's frequent outbursts of humor -- framed in frustration, delivered in sentences which resonate like poetry in the mind, this guy rages -- quite literally -- against the dying of the light. And I would add that this is a film best viewed late at night.

While Soderbergh's direction is occasionally heavy-handed and self- conscious, it is still creative and ambitious and will never disqualify this film from classic status.

The movie doesn't benefit from the opening montage of "eye horror stories" delivered by subjects who almost lost their sight, and who occasionally make an unwelcome visit into Gray's monologue. Happily, Gray gets 'round them.

The man had a brilliant, brilliant mind and a great heart. Watch this, and the only thing you risk is awareness of his absence, and it is a sad feeling.

I just loved this movie, or should I say: I loved this mirror.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gray's Anatomy
Though not as on target as his earlier films "Swimming to Cambodia" and "Monster in a Box," this tale of Spalding's "macular pucker" and the many odd and outrageous ways he sought... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Jay Jones
Gray's Anatomy.
If you enjoyed "Swimming to Cambodia", then you will enjoy this film also. If you haven't scene "Swimming to Cambodia" buy this but watch "Swimming to Cambodia" first.
Published on September 2, 2005 by Conor J. Murphy
The art of story telling
This is a wonderful example of the 'gift of gab' - that is, the art of telling a story. Spalding Gray has a story to tell - mind you, the plot is not nearly as interesting as,... Read more
Published on September 19, 2004 by Nameless Faceless User
Rediscovered for the First Time
I had seen a brief bit of this when I was younger and always wondered what movie that was where a guy just sits there talking to a camera. Read more
Published on December 2, 2003 by Michael Kaiser
wonderful
entertaining, well fleshed out with the stories of other patients - Spalding Gray at his best.
Published on September 11, 2003 by Linda R. Petrilli
Better every time I watch it
This is the story of a very neurotic man who can't cope with having something wrong with his eye. I loved this movie. Spalding Gray is funny, smart, insightful, and full of angst. Read more
Published on September 7, 2002
Appealing with a touch of scraping
Unlike Demme's approach with Swimming to Cambodia, which, like Stop Making Sense, tried to capture the essence of a live performance, Soderberg tries to get inside Gray's head,... Read more
Published on May 11, 2002 by Mr. T. Matthews
Typical Gray Matter
Another triumph for Spalding Gray. I love a good storyteller, and Gray is in typical form here, frantically explaining (occasionally in a little too much detail) his journey... Read more
Published on December 30, 2001
Soderbergh destroys Gray
Steven Soderbergh apparently had no faith in Gray's storytelling skills, so you get 30 minutes of Gray, and 30 minutes of videotape of some people commenting on him. Read more
Published on August 2, 2000 by Jonah Falcon
I have eye affliction subject of movie
I was bored and only watched it because I have a similar macular pucker condition. I was looking for some serious finality. I THINK he ended up blind on his eye. Read more
Published on October 9, 1999
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