Customer Reviews

The Hawk Is Dying

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

 

 

This movie is truly extraordinary, and the principal actor, who also starred in Big Fat Liar (Full Screen Edition) combines brilliant acting with a very capably trained hawk to provide one of the most satisfying 90 minutes of "tuning out" that I have enjoyed in some time.

Sure, this movie has every corney bit from the special child to the sexed up teen-ager to the idiot father that ran, but it kept my complete interest throughout. The hawk, and the man, came of age together, the man found love, and the hawk soared.

This is a GREAT movie.

Some others featuring animals as wildlife that I have enjoyed:
Dances with Wolves (Widescreen Edition)
The Edge
Black Beauty
The Snow Walker
A Man Called Horse

***1/2

At what point, in a person's mind, does obsession finally turn to madness? That seems to be the question raised by "The Hawk is Dying," a grimly depressing yet strangely compelling film about a man possibly being pushed towards insanity by the bizarre, sudden death of the mentally retarded nephew he helped to raise.

The always intriguing Paul Giamatti plays George Gattling, a single man who lives with his sister and her teenage son near Gainesville, Florida. Gattling is determined to capture a wild hawk and train it to do his bidding, despite the fact that all his earlier efforts in that direction have resulted in tragic failures. After his nephew somehow drowns in his own waterbed when he is with a local prostitute (whom Gattling set him up with), Gattling begins to slip further and further into apparent madness, cutting himself off from family members and friends and becoming ever more obsessed with taming the hawk he has captured.

This is no easy film for the casual moviegoer to sit through. It is harsh, grim and depressing, and we're not always sure what the overall purpose of the film is at any given moment. Still, paradoxically, it is this very air of enigma, coupled with Giamatti'a bravura, tour-de-force performance, that most gives one reason to check the movie out. Giamatti is totally riveting as a man driven by an almost manic need to establish control over another living creature, even if that means relinquishing the hold on his own sanity a bit to do so. He receives superb support from Rusty Schwimmer as his good-hearted but dimwitted sister, and Michelle Williams as the prostitute strangely embroiled in the boy's mysterious death. And writer/director Julian Goldberger, basing his work on the novel by Harry Crews, makes the most of the rural, exotic setting to help create an otherworldly mood for his bizarre little tale.

"The Hawk is Dying" is not for every taste or audience demographic, but for those searching for something a little different, out-of-the-mainstream and challenging, this one just might fit the bill.

The Hawk is Dying was an incredible movie - austere, honest, powerful, involving, dynamic, and real. Do yourself a favor, if you are into film that has artistic merit, watch this film.

`The Hawk Is Dying' released in '05 is a small budget film that relies almost entirely on the talents of Paul Giamatti in the starring role to generate and sustain the prerequisite energy and focus to keep the audience entertained throughout.

Synopsis: Giamatti plays the part of George Gattling owner of a local auto custom shop and would be hawk trainer. His aspirations to train this wild spirited bird stems from a deep seeded desire to set himself apart from his lower, middle class existence and like the hawk rise above the normal scheme of things and feel alive and free for the first time in his life. When a loved one unexpectedly dies his need to accomplish his dream escalates and becomes a do or die situation for both him and his recently captured prey.

Critique: Yes, Giamatti has proven himself to be a superior actor and this role only further proves that point. However even an actor of his caliber can only do so much with a storyline primarily consisting of him with a bird of prey attached to his arm. The tale is obviously allegorical and the hawk symbolic of something beyond what is seen on the surface. I'm sure numerous deep thinking viewers will have a great time discussing the layers of meaning over expresso after watching. Bottom line, `The Hawk Is Dying' is worth one viewing, but that's about it.

Transferring a Harry Crews novel to the screen is no easy feat, but director/writer Goldberger and his cast and crew have done an admirable job here. Crews fans should take note that the DVD includes a revealing 20-minute interview with the author (recorded recently at his home in Gainesville) as well a brief excerpt from Gary Hawkins's fine documentary THE ROUGH SOUTH OF HARRY CREWS. A must for the true Crews devotee.

thank you, i am very satisfied for DVD :"The Hawk of Dying".
merci colette

Seller very much appreciated. This movie was filmed in the city where I lived and I was invited to a shoot. Glad to have a copy!

The hawks are metaphors. The first hawk is the autistic kids hawk in actuality; though Giamatti's character thought it was his & thought it was failure on his part that the hawk died. The hawk didn't want to be trained and neither did the autistic boy so they died rather than be trained. The second hawk is Giamatti's hawk and he realizes he has to dive bomb the collection of buzzards around the dead autistic kid, which he does and they all leave. The film is about realizing who you are or what your purpose is, kind of like Dances with Wolves understanding his Sioux name.

The film took the usual Hollywood license of stereotyping Christians and Southerners as ignorant and unenlightened; i.e. the buzzards circling the dead. Giamatti's character is fighting to become enlightened, smokes pot with his confused something or other, and becomes an ascended master I guess. Personally, I'm really tired of films taking liberties of trashing whole cultures and people groups as though there's no good in them at all. Thankfully, many of us still get our grasp of reality from real life instead of liberal propaganda, which really what this film is by subtle stealth. It would have only had maybe 1 star, but Giamatti and the bird hoisted it to a 3.

This is a movie about a man with personal issues who is obsessed about taming a hawk. The characters interact in unusal ways (the main character sets up his love interest with his mentally challenged nephew for sex!) I have to say this was a hard movie to endure. The story line is very unusual and the conversation hard to understand. The actors should have been coached to enunciate! I had to rewind over and over in a few spots and never did figure out what the actor said, so I just gave up and went on. One thing that was interesting about this movie was the insight to taming a hawk, but I wasn't really sold on why the main character would want to do that. Nice packaging and filming, but entertaining? No.

I thought this movie looked like a great nature type feel good movie but it turned out to be a over dramatic dis-jointed bunch of disfunctional weirdos and the dialog sounded like they made it up as they went along and not much of it made any sense. I decided to watch it as comedy but still couldn't get through half of it - what a disappointment. I'm surprised that the entire cast didn't commit suicide. Blaaaaagh.