Product Details

• Actors: Jack Nicholson, David Morse, Anjelica Huston, Robin Wright Penn, Piper Laurie
• Directors: Sean Penn
• Writers: Sean Penn
• Producers: Sean Penn, Bob Weinstein, David Hamburger, Harvey Weinstein, Richard N. Gladstein
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Miramax
• VHS Release Date: July 1, 1997
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304039190
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,809 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Sean Penn wrote and directed this character-driven drama about a divorced couple (Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston) whose relationship never recovered following the death of their daughter at the hands of a drunk driver (David Morse). When the latter's character, a deeply regretful and changed man, gets out of jail, Nicholson, as the vengeful dad, decides to go after him. As a director, Penn is not so good with fluid storytelling and camera clichés, but he is amazing as an actor's director. The onscreen reteaming of former real-life lovers Nicholson and Huston is more than just a voyeuristic exercise: Penn ingeniously uses the duo's palpable friction to bring an often horrifying reality to the pain of a dead relationship. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

Writer-director Sean Penn's story of a grief-stricken man (Jack Nicholson) bent on killing the drunk driver (David Morse) who ran down his daughter is brooding, contemplative, and rather colorless. Nicholson and Anjelica Huston, who plays his ex-wife, give performances that lift the film, here and there, above its earnestness; and Penn shapes the scenes of Nicholson drowning his sorrows in strip clubs with a sad, gritty lewdness. But ultimately all that melancholy stifles the characters. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unforgiven, September 14, 2001

By	Joseph Leydon "(a.k.a. Joe Leydon)" (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Crossing Guard (DVD)

It's too long, too unfocused and way too self-indulgent. But in the end, none of this matters. Sean Penn's second effort as a director-screenwriter is compelling and emotionally resonant ways that more conventionally well-made films never manage to be. Jack Nicholson gives one of his finest performances as Freddy Gale, a jewelry store owner whose daughter was killed by a drunken driver six years before the story begins. Since then, the devastated Freddy has remained alive only by nursing the hope that he will be able to kill John Booth (David Morse), the man who accidentally killed his daughter. But as the guilt-racked Booth is released from prison, it becomes very clear that perhaps neither man really wants to live much longer. Throughout "Crossing Guard," Penn has a tendency to sledgehammer his way through walls rather than simply opening doors. Even so, he always gets where he wants to go -- to that dark corner of our hearts where we can forgive no one, not even ourselves. Co-star Anjelica Huston has a couple of terrific scenes as Freddy's ex-wife, a woman with her own share of guilt, fear and loathing.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tour de Force!, April 15, 2004

By	Curtis Grindahl (San Anselmo, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Crossing Guard (DVD)

I puzzle at those reviewers criticizing this film, which to my mind is a tour de force. Of course, I do volunteer work with dying folks and help train aspiring grief counselors to deal with the traumas that life all too often brings us. I can only assume that those who so quickly dismiss this powerful meditation on grief and remorse have yet to experience these real life emotions. Something by Schwarzenegger may be more to their taste, or one of the ubiquitous comic book recreations we encounter most summers with cardboard characters and pseudo emotions.

Sean Penn is plumbing much deeper regions of the human psyche, and doing so with actors of rare talent, fully capable of sharing with us their heart rending vulnerabilities. Few actors have the courage to go to the places these actors visit as they face suffering almost too great to bear. I'm reminded of the more recent Mystic River that explores equally traumatizing events. It was heartening to watch the joy with which Sean Penn's Academy award for his performance in that Clint Eastwood film was greeted by his fellow professionals who have long acknowledged this young man's genius both in front of and behind the camera. The Crossing Guard deserves a wider audience and will surely reward the discerning viewer with a deeply felt movie experience. Check it out for yourself!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sean Penn and Nicholson make a great team, February 24, 2005

By	DSG "DSG" (Franklin, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crossing Guard (DVD)

Penn is amazing what what he put to script here
Nicholson or Jack Nicholson is brilliant as his role
the movie touches you , scares you, shocks you, keeps you guessing a little about what will happen at the end. but overall a truly moving movie. have it on dvd and it never let me down. it never has and never will. the crossing guard is truly a gem like Chinatown with Nicholson in it. I could watch this movie again and again and again. Nicholson really shines in this role for a movie. and the cast is innovative and picked out quite well :)