Customer Reviews

The Whales of August [VHS]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I watched this as a young man of 20 I fell in love with it. It is not an action film. It is a beautiful story of deep characters as they find themselves having become old. It is a story of reclaiming yourself, even at the end of your days.

It is one of the last films of Bette Davis and Vincent Price. They gave magnificent performances that I still treasure. I have waited a long time for this to come on DVD!! One of my favorite quotes is from Bette Davis. She was told by her sister that "Memories fade with time." Bette, portraying her blind sister, proudly proclaims in her best Bette Davisness - "That has not been my experience!"

As you can see from the earlier reviews, this movie is well-loved. This is the first time since its release in 1987 it can be seen in its original aspect ratio. This DVD also brings alive the colors of the Maine island where these actors gave their final film performances. The print does suffer from small imperfections but are not very noticable. Sound is an unenhanced stereo. The disc offers no extras other than chapter selection. It is too bad a little more effort was not put into a film that is significant to the filmographies of the stars. Overall, if you have seen this movie on cable and enjoyed the fine acting you will be impressed with the visual improvements this DVD brings.

Great transfer and a great film. Lillian Gish's performance is a great insight for those who haven't reached their later years. She is wise and graceful, firm yet fair in her dealings with those around her and, especially, her difficult sister (Bette Davis). The story is of two sisters who have lived long and full lives now dealing with the realities of their advanced years and the remembrances of their long ago childhood spent in the very house on Cape Cod where Ms. Gish now lives. The dynamics between Gish and Davis reflects very real people. It is at times very tender and at times very tense. Yes, sisters yet very different human beings.

Vincent Price plays the older version of the part he played in 'Lauara.' He plays the sincere lady's man who has fallen on hard times, worn around the edges but one who can still charm the ladies.

The scenery is stunning. In fact, you can watch it for only the visuals. When this film is over one will not easily forget its impact and beauty. A keeper!

Forget the Amazon editorial review of this movie. "Fatally soppy" indeed. There's nothing maudlin here at all. This is a perfectly observed movie by several giants of the movie screen: Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, and Vincent Price at their finest, with outstanding back-up by Ann Sothern and Harry Carey, Jr. It is a moving, melancholy, sometimes almost elegiac look at two elderly sisters in their picturesque Maine cottage, dealing with memories and mortality. The movie takes place over the space of one day, in the 1950s.

Bette Davis is Libby, the caustic blind sister who seems to thrive on bitterness and offending others. But she is also quite astute and, in the end, is the one holding out hope to see the whales of August, to see that change can be good even near the end of a long life.

Gish is the kind, long-suffering sister who owns the cottage, and is a widow like her sibling. She dearly misses her husband, dead for many decades, and wonders what to do with her irritable sister.

The sisters are visited by Tisha (Ann Sothern), the island gossiper and spark plug who is also beginning to really feel her age (she has just had her driver's license suspended). Also visiting is the courtly Maranov (Vincent Price), a refugee from imperial Russia who has lived off his mother's jewels and with friends all his life. A sport fisherman, he brings his catch to a dinner with the sisters, with Libby rebuffing him out loud for angling for more than just a meal.

There are frequent, peaceful scenery shots of the house and property, and of the sere yet beautiful cove and shoreline nearby. And always the gentle clanging of an old buoy in the cove, the same one that was there when the sisters were young and spry, and the whales came by every August. Handyman Harry Carey, Jr. is the one fly in the ointment. While injecting a perhaps useful counterpoint of noise and gruffness to this gentle movie, not to mention a bit of lament about how times are changing (tourists with their autos have discovered the island), he is quite profane. The movie didn't need this jarring quality, but I suppose a reputation as a "G"-type movie (my VHS is unrated) would be considered the kiss of death to adult viewers and yet this subtle a movie too boring for kids.

Such an extraordinary and rich story this movie enfolds. The contrast of youth and age; the way life "fools" us (a constant refrain with Libby); the sorrow of a long life and yet the promise of good things worth living for, and the perfect photography which precisely complements the movie's moods. This is superb filmmaking and acting. Understated but clear, this show will haunt your quiet moments. The older you get, the more you'll understand it.

Early in the movie Sarah asks Libby, who seems more irritable than usual, if something's wrong. "I'm all right," Libby replies in a way that the viewer finds out can be taken two ways, "just a touch of November in my bones." But there's always hope that a memento of their youth, the passage of the whales every August, will be there in their dotage.

This was the last or one of the last movies the principals in it made. It is a beautiful farewell and all the more touching because of it.

What a wonderful movie. I wish they would make it in a DVD. Five
talented veterans of the silver (and I do mean "silver") screen
all together in a beautiful story of golden ages and golden memories. Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern, Vincent Price
and Harry Carey Jr. are a joy to watch. I've watched this film
so many times I think I know all the lines, but I never tire of it. Five stars aren't enough to rate such stellar performances.

I originally saw "The Whales of August" in early 1988 and was struck by its quiet beauty and the very realstic relationship between the two sisters, Libby (Bette Davis) and Sarah (Lillian Gish). Now, almost 20 years later, "Whales" is all the more poignant since four of its leads--David, Gish, Vincent Price (charming and still so suave) and Ann Sothern (nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar)--have left us. The story is simple: it begins in the early 20th century (we're left to wonder exactly when) as young Libby, Tish (played first by Sothern's real life daughter, Tisha Sterling, and then by Sothern herself), and Sarah welcome the whales' annual August visit to the Maine coast. Then, what was once sepia becomes blazing color, and we're now in the "present" (again, we're unsure exactly when. Libby listens to a snippet of Arthur Godfrey on the radio, and there's mention of Eleanor Roosevelt. Could it be the late 40's/early 50's?). Libby and Sarah are living together, still in the rustic Maine cliff house, and their relationship is clearly established from the get-go. Sarah is "busy, busy, busy," enjoying life for all it still offers. Libby, now blind, has obviously had a stroke and rails at the "unfairness" of life. Both are comforted by Memory, and in two separate scenes, Davis and Gish really show us what subtle screen acting is all about. Alone in her bedroom, Libby takes a keepsake lock of her late husband's hair and slowly caresses her face with it (I challenge you to keep a dry eye as you watch this). Later, Sarah celebrates her wedding anniversary with a photo of her soldier husband, Philip, and toasts his philsophy of "passion and truth." It's a touching moment and couldn't have been played more effectively.

Vincent Price is completely charming as a Russian gentleman down on his luck, and Ann Sothern is a delightful revelation. But The Whales of August belongs to Bette and Lillian. I must admit, I was rather shocked to see how "Miss D" had aged (this was her first film after experiencing a real-life stroke), but there's a solid beauty to her ravaged features. This woman has LIVED, and what we're seeing is as strong and enduring as the Maine coastline.

MGM has outdone itself with the lovely DVD transfer, but the lack of extras left me a bit flat. Nonetheless, I'm happy to add this to my growing collection.

Sadly, we'll never see the likes of Davis, Gish, or Price again. I'm happy I had the opportunity to enjoy all three in their later prime (I'm 53). Gee, I was practically raised on Vincent Price horror films! And Bette scared the pants off me in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and "The Nanny." Hard to believe they're gone...just the thought brings a serious lump to my throat.

What a wonderful movie. I can't believe more people don't know about it. Has to be one of Bette Davis' finest proformances in her last years. Lillian Gish (spelling?) was 93 years old when she made this movie. A movie about sisters in the winter of their lives and how they live through their childhood, yet making every day on this earth count. I could, and have watched it over and over again. A beautiful story!!

Yes, yes, they are old, they are feeble, they do not look like the glorious actors they were. However, rarely a movie has moved me like this one. Nothing really happens, nothing extraordinary occurs, there are no surprises, no scandals. But what a beautiful nothing!! The passing of quiet days, the extraordinary relationship between two so, oh so, differente sisters, the small vanities, the memories, all beautifully, beautifully acted. Davis, Gish, Price, Sothern, what a magical crew for such a magical, sweet, beautiful, little movie! They might not be the glamorous "stars" of today, but they are the giants of winter.

Two of the greatest ladies to ever grace the American theatre present, as a final "gift" to their followers, this wonderful view of elderly sisters, one blind, as they spend their summer in their aunt's old home on the coast of Maine, watching the whales. They struggle with their mortality, their relationship with each other, and their understanding of life's final offerings. Superb performances, as usual, by Lillian Gish, Bette Davis, Ann Southern, and the whole cast, many of whom we haven't seen in years.

Watching this film after several years was something of a bitterwsweet experience - it looks wonderful on DVD - it's beautifully photographed and has a subtle, haunting musical score. But its reason for being is as the final showcase for the acting of two screen legends to whom everyone in Hollywood today owes their careers - Lillian Gish, who invented screen acting during the silent era, and Bette Davis, who reinvented it after sound came in. "Life fools you," Davis says in the film, and she could have been referring to herself - it's hard to believe this is the Bette Davis of JEZEBEL and DARK VICTORY, of THE LITTLE FOXES, NOW VOYAGER, and ALL ABOUT EVE, even of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Age, illness and, yes, life - had taken their toll on her. But, she has her moments here - oddly enough, her best are without dialog, such as when she brushes a lock of her dead husbands hair across her cheek, while Gish has the lovely "passion and truth" monologue. Ah well - they don't make 'em like these gals anymore!