Product Details

• Actors: Dennis Haysbert, Mel Harris, Sab Shimono, Dina Merrill, Michael Harris
• Directors: David Siegel, Scott McGehee
• Writers: David Siegel, Scott McGehee
• Producers: David Siegel, Alison Brantley, Buddy Enright, Eileen Jones
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 5, 2000
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792846672
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,041 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This black-and-white neo-noir is written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who also teamed up for 1999's Lush. Vincent Towers and Clay Arlington are half-brothers who meet for the first time at their father's funeral. The two share such an uncanny resemblance that when Vincent decides to fake his own death, he tries to substitute Clay as his body. Clay, amnesiac and not quite dead, finds himself the inheritor of both Vincent's money and his rather pressing problems. A fine plot for a suspense movie as it is, but McGehee and Siegel throw in the added twist of having Vincent played by a white actor and Clay by an African American. Oddly enough, the choice works, and raises the piece from a thriller to a meditation on the nature of identity. Suture includes several other interesting stylistic riffs as well: Clay's plastic surgeon is named Renee Descartes, and his psychiatrist works in an office decorated with huge Rorschach blowups. It's a pity Suture was so little seen in its original release--it offers both a compelling suspense plot and tasty mental candy to chew on. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WHAT'S UP, DOC ?, March 8, 2001

By 

Daniel S. "Daniel" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suture (DVD)

Written, produced and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, SUTURE is undoubtedly one of the most interesting movies I have seen so far this year. Shot in black and white in 1993, this unusual thriller deserves to be rediscovered in the DVD standard since it didn't find its audience when it was theatrically released.

The nervous tension felt by the viewer while watching a movie is generally produced by two simple narrative methods. For instance, the director can decide that the audience will always be kept literally behind the main character, never knowing what will appear next on the screen. In this case, we are manipulated by the director who can easily shock us with unexpected scenes. This method is principally used by horror movies directors. Another way for a director to create tension among the audience is, on the contrary, to give us informations the characters of the movie are unaware of. Just think of all the scenes you have already seen involving a young woman coming home alone while you are aware that there is a serial killer hidden in her apartment.

Scott McGehee and David Siegel have invented, in my opinion, a third narrative method that is going to greatly disturb you. In SUTURE, the characters of the movie DON'T see what you see. For us, the audience, Clay Arlington is a colored guy from the suburbs of Needle, Arizona played by Dennis Haysbert - a colored actor - but for the characters of SUTURE, Clay Arlington is a white guy having a tremendous resemblance with Vincent Towers played by the caucasian Michaël Harris. Are you still with me ?

So you spend half the movie wondering why you are the only one noticing that Vincent Towers and Clay Arlington don't have the slightest resemblance. It's very disturbing and, I must admit, a genial idea. SUTURE is also a movie you can speak about during hours with friends because it's smart, filled with references and artistically perfect.

This MGM DVD presents, apart of the widescreen version of SUTURE, a theatrical trailer and french subtitles. The minimum.

A DVD zone discovery.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suture, January 28, 2001

By 

Matthew Parks (DURHAM, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suture (DVD)

Suture is an experimental film masquerading as a vintage 50's film noir crime drama. Basically, the plot hinges on two brothers (one played by a white actor, one by a black actor), one of whom tries to kill the other, in order assume the other brother's identity to conceal his criminal past. His brother survives, but has amnesia, and must piece together his life before it is too late. The movie does a masterful job of telling the story from a series of shifting and fractured points of view. This, combined with the fact that the brothers, who are played by actors of different races, are frequently confused with on another, results in a uniquely surreal reimagining of the conventional crime noir.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thrilling, intelligent, symbollic and I just can't forget it, January 1, 2003

By 

olga (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suture (DVD)

I've seen this movie eight years ago and still think about it. This movie +simply is very, very intelligent and true. And in the same time it is very simple. It's about the racial madness of the american society. I can't think of better words to discribe the essence of this picture than those of James Baldwin, the negro american poet.
'You don't see me, I'm your black cat. You don't love me, I see that.'
and also:
'Okay. I'm your ... baby, 'till I get bigger!'
We, the viewer, see what happens every day in the american society (and of course in any other racist society): the black man is not seen, he simply is not there. And his white brother trys to kill him.
The story: The black man comes to get to know his white brother, but he, grimly with hate, seeks to kill him.
In the end, grinning and happy, the black man will tell the viewer why he accepts to play on the game and take the place of his dead white brother. And again, he could be saying the words of James Baldwin: 'And then, false lover, you will know, what love has managed here below.'
For me one of the best pictures I've ever seen. Inriching (if this word exists in english- sorry, I'm german.)