Product Details

• Actors: Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny, Darwyn Carson, Patrick Bauchau, Marvin Elkins
• Directors: Michael Tolkin
• Writers: Michael Tolkin
• Producers: Karen Koch, Laurie Parker, Nancy Tenenbaum, Nick Wechsler
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 9, 1997
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780619404
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,537 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Once upon a time, in the 1980s and early 1990s, American independent movies did not seek to merely ape Hollywood formulas. They were more than just feature-length resumes for shrewd, enterprising filmmakers who had nothing to say, but dreamed of saying it with a big-studio budget. Back then, independent films provided a different kind of movie experience; they challenged and provoked audiences--and none more so than 1991's The Rapture, written and directed by Michael Tolkin, the man who wrote the screenplay for The Player, Robert Altman's scathing anti-Hollywood comedy. Mimi Rogers plays Sharon, a lost soul who gives up her hedonistic life of sex and drugs when she finds God and becomes a fundamentalist Christian fanatic. Her pilgrim's progress, presented in a deadpan, nonjudgmental style, culminates quite literally in the title event--the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, the end of the world, or whatever you want to call it. Rogers's fearless performance becomes all the more provocative when you recall that the actress is a lifelong member of the Church of Scientology. The Rapture is a mind-boggling, wildly ambitious movie that's open to myriad interpretations. But no matter what you make of it, it's sure to leave you engaged and shaken. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 155 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A movie that will definitely provoke thought/discussion!, July 12, 2005

By 

Mir (North Miami Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rapture (Widescreen Edition) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've read some of the reviews already posted (from Christians who are touchy about the subject through to those who clearly are Anti-Christian and delight in poking fun at believers). The diverse opinions suffice to tell you this is not as simplistic or poorly done a film as some might suggest. I do not understand the reviews that say they are confused and don't understand. The movie is hardly that complicated that you can't get some coherent understanding of the plot.

NOTE: I may review more detail than you wish. Consider this a spoiler warning, although I don't give it all away, I wouldn't want you to feel cheated.

First off: I'm a believer. Yes, I believe in God, Christ, the Bible, the historic creeds and in the Rapture to come (I'm post-trib, for those who care). With all that, I liked this film. I enjoyed Mimi Rogers' performance and I enjoyed seeing the journey of this troubled character. We're not dealing with a character who does things in moderation. When she was pre-Christian, she didn't just have sex, she had SEX!, promiscuously, in groups, etc. We learn it's her way of filling this void she feels, the boredom of her meaningless existence. She attempts suicide. She's a mess. BUT...she has a vision of "the pearl" and it gives her a sense of peace and soon she's turned her life over to God and she's a Christian with a Z for ZEAL, evangelizing anyone she can--on the job, on the phone, friends, strangers. To some believers, this seems quite fine and laudable. To some, it will seem strange and immoderate. I think that's part of the interest. Where is this woman going now?

The movie has this haunting air about it. You get a sense of being on the edge of doom, which is suitable given the subject matter. Even when she's all aglow and talking about God, you get the sense this character is rushing headlong into another type of excess. The character may have found something that gives her purpose, and a stability, but something about her is still unbalanced emotionally. Even her "peace" is an excessive peace. Tragedy befalls her--SPOILERS--stop reading if you don't wanna know:--when her husband is murdered in a killing spree at work, and still she keeps this strange calm. You don't see her really break down or do anything a normal grieving woman--Christian or otherwise--would do. It's rather spooky.

When she has visions that beckon her to the desert, visions that gave me the willies and seemed kind of sinister, like a haunting--visions that have even her church's Prophetic Boy warning her that they stand unconfirmed by other believers and might be from Satan--we have a growing suspicion that something will go terribly wrong.

And it does.

One can look at this story as the descent into madness of a never very stable woman and wonder if anything in those last minutes is real or if it's all imagined, sanity banished.

From a Christian perspective, I take enjoyment in a more literal reading that, despite any directorial intention is the most taken away from the film. This is a woman we've seen crack up, a woman whose been kept in check by her faith, her husband and her church. When she loses her ties to a husband, who never had that weird, glazed look like the main character, and when she then distances herself from the accountability and safety net of a church by heading for the wilderness, and then when she allows her faith to buckle, she's left with nothing to stop her from rashness and crazed decisions.

What should this woman know? She should know from her church sermons that to go into the desert is typically a sign of temptation to come: Jesus went into the desert and the devil tried to get him to move away from his mission and disobey God. Here, we see a woman who is tempted, perhaps not by Satan, but by her own desires. She wants to be raptured. She wants to go to heaven. She wants to be done with life down here. She wants the culmination of her faith. She's tried to die before and failed, she wants to go to the better place. The temptation is great, so great, she forgets simple admonitions she surely knows by heart--
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test.

A simple prophetic warning that is uttered by the Prophet Boy and subsequently by the character's daughter, one that is ambiguous at best--"Don't expect God to meet you halfway"--is twisted, as any advice can be, to suit one's emotional needs or fears.

To Christians, some things will irk. For instance, the innacurate rendering of a well-known Biblical doctrine/verse: We love Him because He first loved us. Well, here it becomes, "He loves us because we love him." A total turnaround of truth.

The Controversial Ending: To any orthodox (not as in Greek Orthodox but as in traditionally doctrinal) Christian, the ending is not controversial. Are we suprised that God both showers grace and forgives at the last minute or that he implacably judges and condemns? I think not. We know He does both.

However, God shows his grace by giving the character multiple opportunities to make a different decision. Providentially, someone she knows from her past shows up near the end. Then another character counsels her. Then another gives her an example. So many chances....Then character chooses her final fate, all the while unwilling to see where she is at fault. It's easier to just blame God.

The director/writer may have meant this to be Anti-Christian. Dunno. I didn't HAVE to take that away from it. I could choose to see it as an examination of a particular character with specific weaknesses and how it manifests in the context of Christian eschatology. The other Christians aren't shown being cruel or harsh or encouraging disastrous outcomes. Ultimately, this is about this ONE woman. One woman's choice. A very pro-choice film, actually. And the ending may cheer fans of INVICTUS, but it will make most of us feel pity.

If one wants to see it as a mental degeneration of a troubled woman, that works, too. But I don't think it works as well as accepting the ending as "real". The film's power works only if the woman's choice is a true-life scenario and not the mental figment of a lunatic.

The Rapture can lead to fruitful and interesting discussion after viewing, even for believers. I recommend it.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex, God, And the End Of The World--A Challenging, Uncompromising Study Of Faith That Will Defy Your Expectations, December 17, 2006

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rapture (DVD)

"The Rapture" is a film that I have treasured for many years, and yet it has failed to become well-known. I was dragging people to see this film in the theater and have introduced dozens of others to the video and DVD versions. Released in 1991, "The Rapture" is a bold and uncompromising picture--one that deserves to be recognized as a classic. Rarely will you see a film tackle the subject of religion so fearlessly, so relentlessly, and so literally. I suppose that's why some people have stayed away. Religion is not a very fashionable topic. Some people stay away for fear of being preached to, while many religious supporters get offended if the film is anything less than pious. Now, you will see many one star reviews claiming this to be Anti-Christian heresy--but I have many Christian friends who have embraced this film as an intelligent and powerful study of faith and commitment.

"The Rapture" starts out with Mimi Rogers living a life of emptiness and boredom. By day, she's a telephone operator and by night she fills her time with promiscuous sexual adventures. In a gritty and brave depiction, this is a lurid world, to be sure--but all she has to "connect" with others. Seeking more, seeking better--she enters into a decidedly spiritual world. Relinquishing her past, she embarks on a monogamous relationship with David Duchovney and attempts to fill the void in her life by spreading the word. She becomes a woman transformed by the church. When an unexpected tragedy strikes, she now has faith to console her. Her support group, led by a prophet, believe in the Second Coming. With supreme and unerring devotion, Rogers embraces a religious fervor and offers herself and her daughter up to God. Her faith borders on a mania, but she never wavers.

The challenging film never backs down from here on out. God, of course, does not respond as she might have envisioned which results in yet another tragedy. Rogers has gone from an empty vessel to a devout churchgoer to a state of dementia--and now faces her biggest challenge yet. The END OF THE WORLD is here. With horsemen, trumpets and other attendant signs of the Apocalypse--Rogers faces the ultimate decision. Will she embrace the God again who she feels has betrayed her commitment? In an ending unlike any other feature film I've ever seen, Rogers stays true to her character. This film lets no one off the hook--it's daring, audacious, and so ambitious.

Rogers has never been better. I've always felt this was her "Sophie's Choice." While perhaps not an actress with the greatest range, she really taps into something primal here. It's as brave and open as you're likely to see an actress--emotionally and physically. It should have been her Oscar nomination. But the secondary star is "The Rapture"'s screenplay. Powerful and thought-provoking, this is a rare and ultra-serious work for adults.

I don't pretend that everyone will love this movie. It definitely pushes buttons and provokes debate. But anyone who out-of-hand dismisses it, they are being unjust. I want films to challenge, move, and engage me. Far from bashing Christianity, "The Rapture" is a major work studying faith in the modern world. It may not always be a pretty picture, but it is a relevant one. An unqualified success, to me, at every level--I'm proud "The Rapture" was able to be made in an era when the least bit of controversy threatens to scuttle adult, intelligent filmmaking. KGHarris, 12/06.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Christians, Please View! Tolkin Takes You Seriously!, December 28, 2004

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Chris Ward (Costa Rica) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rapture (DVD)

Several reviewers below knock this film's low budget (undeniable) and some committed Christian believers are shocked by Tolkin's protagonist's final word on "The Rapture." BUT SEE THIS AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF! Writer/director Tolkin does you the not insignificant favor of treating "The Rapture" as something REAL- he doesn't mock it or water down its significance. And for that you should be grateful. This is a film about IDEAS and not for those who can't think for themselves. It is, however, a film for adults, as early scenes show major characters adrift and leading abundantly "sinful" lives.

See this movie and discuss it with those you love. If you're an agnostic or atheist, it's a fascinating window into another world, with a first-class script and sterling performances. If you're a Christian, especially one who believes in "The Rapture," there's much here to both challenge and confirm your thinking. Don't look for a big Steven Spielberg ending-- the budget is too low for that. But the IDEAS found here are worth any amount of Hollywood flash.... An excellent film.