Product Details

• Actors: Willie Nelson, Robert Redford, Ann Richards, Henry Fistar Brooks, Gary Bradley
• Directors: Laura Dunn
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, HiFi Sound, Letterboxed, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: New Yorker Films Video / Cinema Guild
• DVD Release Date: September 30, 2008
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001BDZR2Q
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,450 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #20 in

  Movies & TV > Music Video & Concerts > Artists > Nelson, Willie

Editorial Reviews

Review

A BEAUTIFUL, SOULFUL work about real estate development and sprawl... and if you think that s impossible you haven t seen it. --Andrew O Hehir, SALON.COM

Product Description

The American dream of owning a house with a white picket fence goes head-to-head with environmental sustainability in this urgent, beautifully crafted documentary. When an ambitious real estate developer sets out to transform thousands of acres of pristine hill country around Austin, Texas into a suburban development threatening a nearby natural spring and local treasure the community fights back. In the conflict that ensues, we see in miniature the struggle between development and preservation that today plays out in cities and towns across the country. A work of stunning visual beauty and epic scope, The Unforeseen is a grand meditation on the destruction of the natural world in pursuit of an often fleeting dream.

Special Features:
- AUDIO COMMENTARY by Director Laura Dunn
- SECOND AUDIO COMMENTARY by Producer & Motion Graphics Designer Jef Sewell, Cinematographer Lee Daniel and Sound Designer Tom Hammond
- THEATRICAL TRAILER
- ENGLISH 5.1 SOUNDTRACK
- ESSAY BY FILM CRITIC DENNIS LIM
- SCENE SELECTIONS

A BEAUTIFUL, SOULFUL work about real estate development and sprawl... and if you think that s impossible you haven t seen it. Andrew O Hehir, SALON.COM

A GORGEOUS, LYRICAL documentary. J.R. Jones, CHICAGO READER

A STUNNINGLY GRAND and BEAUTIFUL movie. Mark Nichol, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable, October 5, 2008

By	jd103 - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful documentary about "development" which focuses primarily on one case in Austin, but is really asking questions about the entire society's choices and values. The filmmakers leave no secret about where their opinions lie on the commentary track, but this is not a one sided Michael Moore type film.

Wendell Berry reads from his work over the opening scene and Patty Griffin's Someone Else's Tomorrow plays over the closing credits. In between you get everything from Bush and Richards and the savings and loan crisis to young Willie Nelson, Ed Abbey's cancer cell metaphor, a kid playing outside, a farmer losing all the fields around him, a couple in their new house, an all night city council meeting, a parade, and some beautiful scenes of the natural world. There are film clips and comments which will inspire and infuriate you whichever side you're on.

The description here says there are two commentaries...on the rented version I saw, there was only one featuring all the people listed. In any case, this is a commentary you'll definitely want to hear because it adds a lot of background information and explanation about the scenes and people in the movie. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be Missed View of Austin, Texas, February 3, 2009

By	Carol J. Garriott "C.J." (Seadrift, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a must-see for everyone who loves Austin, Texas. A riveting, heart-breaking view of development in and around this beautiful, fascinating city, over the last few decades.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unforeseen, November 25, 2008

By	Susan E. Mellett (Louisville,KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This film should be viewed by all, especially those cognizant of what is happening to land all over the country, not just in Texas. Unless we would be satisfied living in a super national suburbia dictated by the un imaginative, we need to become aware of what is being perpetrated by land use engineers now. This film is a fine beginning.