Product Details

• Actors: Jean De Baer, Jack De Mave, Michael DeLuise, Gaby Hoffmann, Justin Kanew
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: July 28, 1998
• Run Time: 115 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305012814
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,746 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Making this movie represented a rather risky venture for Mel Gibson--it was his first effort at directing, and the role demanded that he deliberately obscure his sexy matinee-idol looks. Gibson seems to truly relish his Lon Chaney Jr.-esque turn as Justin McLeod, a reclusive former teacher with half his face and body badly scarred, and a dark, secret past. The folks in McLeod's postcard-pretty Maine town have dubbed him "Hamburger Head" and exchange malicious gossip about him. But one boy is needy enough to dare to penetrate the fortress McLeod has built against the outside world. Fatherless Chuck Norstadt (Nick Stahl) is so anxious to escape his dysfunctional family that he pesters McLeod into becoming his mentor. Their relationship for the most part avoids the sort of sticky sentimentality one might expect from Hollywood. Chuck is a real, credible kid, a petulant pain with a chip on his shoulder, and McLeod is no Mr. Chips. It's fun, and quite moving, to watch these two cranky misfits battle their way toward a friendship that will change both their lives. Margaret Whitton (Major League) gives an unaffected performance as Chuck's narcissistic mother. "I'm just not cut out for this mothering racket," she tells her rudderless children, as she flits from man to man. Gibson's own personal code of honor, we suspect, is very much in evidence in this movie's message: One must take responsibility for what one wants in life. --Laura Mirsky

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First time's a charm., May 13, 2001

By	Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Mel Gibson's first time directing is notably successful. The Man Without A Face is warm movie with themes touching prejudice, the relationship between teacher and student, and faces of deception. Chuck Norstadt is a young boy whose mother's capricious relationships have sent her skimming through multiple marriages and developing a considerable deal of tension at home. The dysfunctional family leaves Chuck desperately looking for companionship. He finds an unlikely friend, the town's "freak," Justin McLeod (Gibson), who had half his face horribly scarred in a car accident. McLeod lives in a big house on the coast as a lonely hermit whose past is shrouded in ugly rumors and fear.

McLeod becomes Chuck's tutor and his friend, although Chuck will do some teaching of his own. They both realize they have a lot to learn about each other, and their friendship develops into something stirring and honest. Things get complicated when vile rumors and intolerance threaten to separate them, though.

The script is smart, and Gibson's direction guides this film with a discerning knack for emotional lucidity and realism. Nick Stahl (as Chuck) is one of the few young actors who can do emotional expression that doesn't seem forced and stupid. This is critical, because bad casting for Chuck would seriously have ruined this movie. Gibson, of course, is great here, but what would you expect? He's a tremendously versatile actor. I do think the movie probably should have been about 10 minutes longer to flesh out the ending a bit. That's not a huge complaint...the last scene in the movie makes up for any disappointment because it is very moving and evocative in its simplicity. Ahh...truly an excellent movie.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different from the novel but excellent in its own right, January 14, 2001

By	E. Marin "voracious reader" (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mel Gibson does justice to a wonderful story (based on the novel by Isabelle Holland) in "The Man Without a Face," his directorial debut. Commonly underrated as an actor because of his good looks and blockbuster action hits, Gibson is also terrific as the scarred recluse Justin McLeod, cantankerous and charismatic by turns. Like his student, Chuck (Nick Stahl), we notice the terrible burns less and less as the friendship between the boy and his tutor develops, as we penetrate the surface to the beauty beneath. (By the way, as one reviewer noted, only one half of McLeod's face has been disfigured - the title refers, not to McLeod, but to Chuck's absent father.)

I do wonder why Gibson chose to eliminate the homoerotic overtones in their relationship - in the novel, Chuck's yearning for a genuine father figure is inextricably entangled with his confusion regarding his sexual identity and attraction to his tutor, and these twin needs force the dramatic climax that ends their time together. Perhaps Gibson preferred to keep the plot simpler, concentrating on the themes of prejudice, the joy of teaching, and the friendship and platonic love that his protagonists learn from each other. Or perhaps he feared that his viewing audience would not be as sympathetic towards a homosexual McLeod who killed a previous pupil in a drunk driving accident. Some reviewers appear to feel that the movie did not end as well as it began, and I think this could well be chalked up to the Hollywood sanitization of the last third of Holland's book.

Still, this is a quietly splendid first film for director Gibson - a moving tribute to the transformative power of friendship and a funny, sometimes painful coming-of-age story expertly combined.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mel Gibson's most underrated movie, January 1, 2001

By	retrowens (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"Man Without a Face" is one of the very few Mel Gibson movies that you don't ever hear all that much about. That's a huge mystery to me because I thought it was one of his best movies by far, and that's saying a lot after he's made so many great movies such as the Lethal Weapon series, "Braveheart," and many other blockbusters. Mr. McLeod (Mel Gibson) used to be a teacher until he was involved in a car crash and one of his pupils died in the crash. McLeod was rumored to have abused the boy when he didn't do anything. Now McLeod has been living in a town as an outcast for 7 years. He has major scars on one side of his face and he doesn't interact with hardly anybody. However, one day, 12-year-old Charles (Nick Stahl) asks McLeod to help him study for a test that he wants to take to try to get into the military academy. What neither McLeod nor Charles knows at the time is that they're a lot alike. Charles is emotionally neglected and McLeod is an outcast who is all by himself with no friends.

"Man Without a Face" is a spectacular movie. In my opinion, I think it's one of the most underrated movies that has ever been made. I think it should be one of the best known and most popular movies ever because it really is a great movie. It's a movie about true friendship and loyalty when the going gets rough. I recommend "Man Without a Face" to anybody that likes watching great movies.