Product Details

• Actors: Michael Gambon, Tom Hickey, Keeley Hawes, David Tennant, Richard Roxburgh
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1573629723
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,754 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Last September" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Last September opens with a title card portentously announcing that what we are about to see is "the end of a world." Not, it turns out, too great an overstatement. In 1920 Ireland, a wealthy group of Anglo-Irish, the English-descended "tribe" who historically had overseen the country on behalf of its colonial rulers, seat ensconced in their luxurious estate. Just down the road, throughout small towns and villages, the British army is arrogantly terrorizing storeowners, and isolated IRA factions are responding by killing the occasional soldier. But at Sir Richard Naylor's palatial residence no such troubles need interfere. There the daily routine is still built around tennis matches, picnic parties, nature walks, and evenings spent on the lawn watching the stars. Young Lois (Keeley Hawes), niece of Sir Richard (Michael Gambon) and his wife (Maggie Smith), has lived there her entire life and has recently caught the fancy of a sweetly earnest military captain. But when a childhood friend of hers--in hiding after his murder of an army sergeant--takes refuge in a nearby abandoned mill, the thrill of danger and daring, of finally something different after all those maddeningly pleasant years, leads her down a different path. While The Last September is sometimes overly pretty in the British fashion, it benefits enormously from its excellent cast and novelist John Banville's smart, efficient script, which is alert to the nuances of conversations in which the most horrible threats are made and fears confided just below the polite chatter. --Bruce Reid

Product Description

LAST SEPTEMBER - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Searching for Love, March 26, 2002

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last September [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This story is based on Elizabeth Bowen's cleverly crafted novel in which a young woman comes of age in a brutal time. It is a story about seeking love in all the wrong places. Love is not a simple affair. It is a complex journey, filled with many decisions along the way.

As Lois (Keeley Hawes) and Army Captain Gerald (David Tennant) dance through a forest there is an unmistaken sense of innocence clouded by a forboding evil clinging to each step. The deeper they go into the forest, the more aware you become that a ghost-like melancholy seems to consume Lois. She is amused by Gerald, but has a penchant for rebels. Even in her innocence, she longs for excitement and the impossible situation.

You are consciously aware of the intricacies in the lives of the characters and become less concerned with the plot. Laurence (Jonathan Slinger) seems content to amuse himself observing the blossoming yet mild romance between Lois and Gerald.

There are scenes of spinning on a swing, playing tennis out on the grass, frivolous parties and while life seems to go on like Renoir's painting: "The Gust of Wind." The undercurrent is more of a ominous gale. Most of the characters seem unaware of even the slightest political gust. They fill their lives with walks in nature and evenings spent gazing at the stars on a luxurious estate.

Lois wants to be in love and she seeks love where she feels she can find it. Although, she seems to be playing with fire when she discovers Peter Connolly (Gary Lydon) hiding in the old mill house. He is an IRA fugitive wanted for the murder of an English Army officer. Lois sneaks out on her bike to see him, all the while realizing she is putting her life in danger.

This is not the end of the world as predicted, but perhaps the end of a romance. It is however, a tragic romance with artistic moments to die for. The seemingly insignificant raindrops splashing into a glass of lemonade has a much deeper meaning. The joyfulness of a romantic existence is contrast sharply with the deviousness of destiny.

~The Rebecca Review

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "There are occasions when it is better to be ignorant.", May 30, 2005

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Last September (DVD)

Atmospheric and beautifully photographed, The Last September, based on the 1929 novel by Elizabeth Bowen, takes place in Cork in 1920, at the beginning of the Irish Rebellion. Lord Richard Naylor (Michael Gambon) and his wife Myra (Maggie Smith), are the Anglo-Irish owners of a large estate which Richard's family has owned for generations. Richard's niece, Lois Farquar, age nineteen, lives with them, a bored young woman without goals, impatient to fall in love. With a stream of visitors coming to the estate, a British army unit is garrisoned nearby for protection, and the soldiers welcome the opportunity to participate in the aristocrats' garden parties and tennis matches.

Closing their eyes to the eventualities, the Naylors adhere to the idea that "It would be a great pity to have a war. There's been enough unpleasantness already." Gradually the "unpleasantness" draws closer, involving Lois, some of her childhood friends from the Irish community, and a British soldier who is courting her.

Slawomir Idziak's cinematography in this 1999 film creates a lush picture of the countryside and a mood of palpable tension. His close-ups of characters whose emotions are reflected in their faces, rather than by their words, emphasize the lack of communication between Irish and landlord, while whirling dancers and tennis players emphasize their deliberate naivete and frantic activity. Filming between cracks in a wall and through a spyglass and peekholes in the floor, Idziak's scenes are both revelatory and visually intriguing.

The film, directed by Deborah Warner, lacks warmth and a central focus, however. Though Lois (Keeley Hawes) is the main character, she is lost in the peripheral action and subplots involving aristocratic houseguests, a pallid lover, and a group of rebels whose activities are not always clear. The screenplay, written by novelist John Banville, never famous for natural dialogue, features remote characters who exclude the viewer from their thoughts.

Michael Gambon, as Sir Richard conveys some awareness of what is happening, but he seems incompatible with Myra (Maggie Smith), who plays her usual aristocratic role with panache. David Tennant, as Gerald Colthurst, Lois's suitor, so much resembles a deer in the headlights that is it difficult to imagine him either as an army captain or as Lois's suitor, while Gary Lydon, as the Irish rebel to whom Lois is supposedly attracted, is portrayed as a violent criminal with few redeeming qualities.

Those familiar with Bowen's novel will enjoy seeing rural Cork through Idziak's stunning photography. Those unfamiliar with the period, however, may have difficulty figuring out what is going on and why. (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Last September, October 1, 2000

By 

JY Chan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last September (DVD)

In 1914, the English revoked the "Home Rule Bill", which had been designed to give Ireland a modicum of autonomy. As you might expect., the Irish were not pleased. Various radical and separatist groups were motivated to action, including Sinn Fein ("we ourselves", founded in 1905), a group which is still known today as the political arm of the IRA.

The Easter Rebellion, in the spring of 1916, marked the beginning of a new era in Irish-English relations. On the day after Easter, the Republicans claimed various government buildings in Dublin, and declared a provisional government of the new Irish Republic. This didn't sit well with the English, who sent in troops the next day, established martial law, rounded up the insurgents and sent the leaders to the firing squad without even any pre-execution crumpets.

I don't know if they thought that this would strike fear into the hearts of the rebels, and quell the insurgency, but if they thought that they were plumb loco, as we say in Texas. Shooting some Irish patriots is like shooting Jason in those Friday 13th movies. It just makes them madder. Britain's forceful suppression of the revolt actually strengthened the will of the rebel groups.

Sinn Fein was reorganized under Eamon De Valera, and set up an alternate assembly which claimed to be the legitimate ruling body of Ireland. The British and Irish fought for five or six years, and if you have seen the movie Michael Collins, with Liam Neeson, you're probably familiar with what happened in that time.

The fighting continued until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. Collins himself was nominated to head up the team which represented the Republicans in the negotiations with Lloyd George. This treaty incorporated 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. I believe you know pretty much what has happened to the other six counties over the years. Actually, the 26 to the South weren't so tranquil, either, in those days. Even patriotic Irish leaders were split over the proper nature of the Anglo-Irish relationship, and the Free State treaty had opponents from every extreme of the political spectrum.

OK, enough background. The point is that there was a bloc of English-Irish creoles, people of English descent who were born in Ireland or whose children were born in Ireland, and who considered themselves both Irish and good subjects of the Crown. Many of them had gone there originally to be government administrators. When Ireland became a battleground in the teens and twenties, these people found themselves at the September of their era, with the end clearly in sight.

They were not able to continue in their former glory, and they had no viable alliances to forge a new life. Irish Republicans certainly didn't want them in the new free Ireland, and yet their divided loyalty made them suspect by the British as well.

So they wondered desperately what to do, tried to stay alive, and cried a lot as they planned to leave their great estates and move to two-room flats in Toronto.

This movie chronicles the lives of those people, the Anglo-Irish, in that time, the 1920's.

Needless to say, for the purpose of dramatic contrast, the lovely young Anglo-Irish daughter is flirting with a British soldier (who is unacceptable to her family because of his social status), and an Irish radical (who is a violent outlaw, and therefore even more unacceptable). Her relationships with the two men leave her walking a dangerous tightrope in a netless society.

The movie is marked by beautiful cinematography. You may not have heard of Slavomir Idziak, but he was Kieslowski's cinematographer, and he's in his element here, working with a director who idolizes Kieslowski, and a composer who scored many of Kieslowski's films. If you had told me, "Oh, yeah, it's a rare English language film from Kieslowski", I would have believed you until I looked at the 1999 date. (Kieslowski died a few years ago).

Oh, well, I guess you can already figure whether you'd like it or not. I have to say that I did not. I found it too middle brow and historical-romance-novelish to be a great movie, and too damned slow and boring to be a good entertainment. I thought it was pretty much of a stuffy snoozefest with some very strong atmospheric touches.

Keeley Hawes was topless during her rendezvous with the Irish Republican. These are taken from VHS.The love scene in this movie was done quite well, too well to rely on VHS images. Hawes was afraid of the guy, somewhat repulsed by him, but attracted to him as well, and the scene was charged with a subtle erotica.