Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Console best movie i've ever seen.

MartinHafer This film has an interesting pedigree. It was made in England--even though it's a story set in New York's 'Little Italy' (it's next to Chinatown in the southern portion of Manhattan). The reason for filming in the UK was that the director, Edward Dmytryk, was one of the famed Hollywood Ten who refused to testify before Congress and were imprisoned and blacklisted. And I am sure this had a lot to do with the film subsequently being pulled from circulation shortly after it's US release.The film begins with a bit of domestic violence. What led up to this is uncertain, as so the film now goes back a decade to show, very slowly, the events leading up to this. Geremio (Sam Wanamaker) is a bricklayer. He works hard and has friends, but his life is tough--and money is far from abundant. However, he decides one day that he should be married and asks a neighbor (Kathleen Ryan)--and she refuses him. Then, a friend helps him obtain a wife from 'the old country' (Italy) and he marries a woman he's never even met (Lea Padovani). The problem, however, is that he'd written her about his life--and lied about having a little house. Instead, he only had a crummy apartment. But, to hide his lie, he rents a house for their honeymoon--and she only learns at the end that it's NOT her new house.Despite this HUGE surprise, the marriage somehow stays strong and through the next decade they have four kids and life, though tough, is good. However, when the Depression arrives, Geremio is disheartened and during the course of this part of the film, his soul seems crushed and the need to feed his family becomes his all-consuming goal. As a result, he's willing to become foreman on a dangerous and substandard job--one that is just a huge disaster waiting to happen. What happens next, I'll let you find out for yourself---but it's pretty shocking as Geremio vacillates between allowing his soul to fester or overcome this dark period. I guarantee that you WON'T be able to guess what will happen next.There is a lot to admire about this film. Wanamaker, while not exactly a household name and easily recognizable face, was great in this film. And the director did a great job setting the mood. I really must admire this film. However, I also need to point out that it's not exactly a pleasant film. At times, it's rather depressing, in fact. And, it does NOT have a happy Hollywood-style ending. But, I admire how the film was willing not to be clichéd and happy. Well worth seeing, but certainly not a film for everyone.

MARIO GAUCI It took me a long while to purchase this one (by which time, most of the output by DVD-producing company All Day Entertainment – with whose president, film historian David Kalat, I had the pleasure of corresponding on a number of occasions – had gone out-of-print) and some more before I actually sat down to check it out. Having finally watched this, I must say that the mainly gushing reviews which I had read on the Internet upon the DVD's first appearance – citing the film as a neglected masterwork (though not quite director Dmytryk's best, in my opinion) were very much accurate; incidentally, the main feature bears the official title given above rather than that attached to the DVD i.e. Christ IN CONCRETE, actually the name of Pietro Di Donato's original source novel. Knowing of its pedigree – Dmytryk having famously been one of The Hollywood Ten, jailed for refusing to appear before HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee) in view of his alleged past Communist leanings – and its theme – the domestic and professional troubles of struggling Italian immigrants in the construction business with a 1920s New York setting – I had expected to be somewhat unenthused by it, but the reverse proved to be the case, thanks largely to Dmytryk's unerring eye for detail and a handful of naturalistic performances (an achievement which seems all the more remarkable when considering that it was entirely filmed in England with a mostly British cast!). That said, one of the two leads was a genuine Italian – Lea Padovani – and the other an American, fellow victim of the blacklist Sam Wanamaker: both of them are terrific playing husband and wife, though he remains attached to friendly Kathleen Ryan, and their consistently precarious economic situation (exacerbated by the Wall Street crash of 1929) shatters the wife's dream of owning her own home. Also appearing in the film are Charles Goldner (the old man who actually got the couple together), Bonar Colleano, William Sylvester and George Pastell as Wanamaker's team-mates at work, Sidney James(!) as another construction operative who harbors ambitions to start his own company and wants the hero to get in on the business with him, and Karel Stepanek as the elderly landlord of the protagonists' house. In view of its inherent grittiness, unusual compositions (employed during melodramatic passages) and doomed hero, the film has been rightfully likened to the then-prevalent noir style – in which, as it happens, Dmytryk had already proved himself several times while still employable on his home turf. Despite its generous length (115 minutes) and the occasional Marxist viewpoint (it is clearly stressed that Wanamaker's downfall transpires because he dared to stand out from the crowd, even if all he wanted was to improve his family's conditions), the proceedings compel attention all the way through – culminating in the unforgettably harrowing sequence of the hero's death, engulfed in cement after the weak structure he had been supervising gives out. Regrettably, I did not have time to look into the numerous extras featured on the double-sided "Special Edition" DVD – I had actually made a resolution in this regard at the beginning of the year, but which I am now finding myself increasingly unable to accommodate! In closing, I cannot fail to mention Benjamin Frankel's superb music score – no wonder that one is even given the option to listen to it in isolation on the All Day disc.

rnc55 This movie does have some great noirish/neorealist visuals, and it tells a story that is refreshingly free of Hollywood's sugar-coating, which was only possible because it was essentially an independent foreign film. But some of the scenes go on for much too long (the wedding, especially), and I found the exaggerated acting and unrealistic dialog to be more fit for the stage than for the silver screen.The dialog was particularly distracting, and it seemed to get worse as the movie went on. Most of the characters were either Italian-Americans or Italian immigrants living in New York in the twenties and thirties, but their dialog sounded like they were practicing lines for a Shakespeare play while they mixed cement and laid bricks. Toward the end I was laughing, and not because the filmmakers wanted me to. I guess the stilted poetry could be defended by saying that the characters would have been speaking Italian, and the dialog is a literal translation of how they would really talk. But it absolutely did not work for me.Another line of dialog made me laugh for a different reason: the main character's son, born and raised in New York in the 1920's, suddenly picks up a lovely lilting British accent. I'm only guessing this had something to do with the fact that the movie was made in England.I give this movie an 'A' for effort and intention, but a considerably lower grade for execution.

green4tom Have I seen this film?! Only every time I teach an urban sociology class, when I show it to my students! I can only echo the previous commentator--what a great film! The best scene--and there are many--is during the Great Depression, when the five bricklayers decides that it is Julio, who starving mouths to feed, should get half a day's work. Then, through a store window, Geremio catches one of the other bricklayers panhandling. "Heaven has forgotten us!" his workfellow says. This film, whose story was written by an Italian socialist (DiDonato) and made by socialists in London (couldn't make it in New York--it was the McCarthy period, may he rest in pieces!) is, besides being dramatically and emotionally rich, is sociologically rich. It's a brilliant portrayal of the conflict between the individualist version of the American Dream among immigrants--and the sordid reality they face. When they face it collectively, they are great men and women, in all their splendor. When they face it individually, they become alienated from themselves and each other. Though the DVD is entitled CHRIST IN CONCRETE, it is actually the prequel to the story in the novel. The last horrific scene is the first chapter of the novel, which detail's the life of Geremio's widow, Annunziata, and their son Paul, after Geremio dies. All the actors are great--but I especially like Lea Padavini--who had to learn the part phonetically, because when they hired her, she didn't speak a word of English! I also highly recommend this film