Product Details

• Actors: Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight, Joanna Pettet
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 150 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630408434X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,267 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A class-act soap opera - brilliantly staged., January 7, 2010

By 

Gary Vidmar (Colorado Springs) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Group (DVD)

This version of Lumet's THE GROUP is presented in the original 1:66 to 1 aspect ratio - however the DVD is letterboxed instead of anamorphiccally enhanced for 16:9 television screens. Fox/MGM on demand DVDs would do well to follow suit with the WARNER BROS. archive collection and present their widescreen films progressively scanned, and with anamorphic enhancement. I would expect that scope films in their catalogue (like TRAPEZE and TWO FOR THE SEESAW) are anamorphic, or there will be further customer complaints at their price point. That said, the print used is acceptable and true to the theatrical look of the picture.

As for the film, it's a superb soap opera, thanks to Sidney Buchman's excellent adaptation of the Mary McCarthy novel. The character vignettes are energetic, and combine for a telling mosaic of the decade preceding World War II. The performances are perceptive ones, and by the time the picture is over, you're convinced that these characters have honestly evolved. Photographed by Boris Kaufmann with a handsome clarity. Sharp and smart.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars COMPELLING ODDITY, June 25, 2001

By 

R. Penola (NYC, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Group [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Sidney Lumet gives this movie a glossy sheen, and it is certainly dated with a sense of pretension. However, the story, about a group of lberal-educated women in the 30s/40s, is fascinating in its truly bold depiction of issues rarely raised in the movies of the 50s and 60s. The issues these women confront as they weave themselves into ordinary life play like a prequel to Valley Of The Dolls -- with some camp intact. Jessica Walter plays her frigid society girl to the hilt, while Shirley Knight has a gorgeous glow as perhaps the most humane member of the group. The costumes and art direction are much more 50s/60s than 30s chic -- and this detracts from the story, which is infinitely more compelling and even shocking knowing that these women -- who speak freely of communism and lesbianism -- are essentially products of a Depression-era college. Still, what fun to peek into the living quarters of these Manhattanites, and watch the soap suds rise.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazon has unfortunately managed to butcher this hard to find masterpiece, March 23, 2010

By 

Anne Welles-Burke (Goose Creek, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Group (DVD)

When viewing the DVD, I was mystified and appalled to see that the film, which was not made originally in widescreen due to director Sidney Lumet's general dislike for that process, has been visually mutilated to make it appear to have been "letterboxed". What kind of perverse thinking is this? How disrespectful to this brilliant film's legendary director!I love this film so much, I'm keeping it anyway, however I am extremely disappointed...