- Waking the Dead (film)
Infobox Film
name = Waking the Dead
image_size =
caption = Theatrical poster
director =Keith Gordon
producer =Jodie Foster
Keith GordonStuart Kleinman Linda Reisman
writer =Robert Dillon (screenplay)Scott Spencer (novel)
narrator =
starring =Billy Crudup Jennifer Connelly Molly Parker Janet McTeer Paul Hipp Sandra Oh Hal Holbrook
music =tomandandy
cinematography =Tom Richmond
editing =Jeff Wishengrad
distributor =Polygram USA
released =March 24 ,2000
runtime = 105 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget = $8,500,000 (est.)
gross = $327,418 (USA)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:184312
imdb_id = 0127349"Waking the Dead" is a 2000 American
drama film directed byKeith Gordon . The screenplay byRobert Dillon is based on thenovel of the same name by Scott Spencer.Plot
The film flashes back and forth between the 1970s and 1980s and centers on the relationship between Fielding Pierce, a young
Coast Guard officer with political ambitions, and radical and idealisticRoman Catholic Sarah Williams, who is drawn to programs designed to better the lives of the underprivileged and has mixed feelings about his career goals.In the opening scene, Fielding sees a television news program reporting Sarah's death in a
Minneapolis car bomb ing following a church-organized excursion toChile to feed the poor and organize resistance to the oppressive right-wing government. He never quite recovers from the news, and he finds himself increasingly haunted by the past, in which the couple were as romantically close as they were politically apart, divided by his desire to work within the system and her conviction that it's the root of all evil. His obsession with Sarah slowly puts his career, forthcoming marriage, and sanity in jeopardy.The question of whether or not Sarah actually was killed remains unresolved as Fielding's sister Caroline reports having seen her on the street some years later and Fielding himself supposedly meets her after being elected to the
United States Congress , only to wonder afterwards if she merely was ahallucination .Principal cast
*
Billy Crudup as Fielding Pierce
*Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams
*Hal Holbrook as Isaac Green
*Janet McTeer as Caroline Pierce
*Paul Hipp as Danny Pierce
*Molly Parker as Juliet Beck
*Sandra Oh as KimProduction
The film was shot in
Montréal, Québec with a budget ofUSD $8.5 million. The character portrayed byEd Harris was eliminated from the completed film, although he is seen briefly on a television screen.Sandra Oh appears in one short scene and has little dialogue; a longer scene with her was deleted but is included as an extra feature in theDVD release.oundtrack
*"Snow Come Down" performed by
Lori Carson
*"A Case of You" performed byJoni Mitchell
*"Maggie May" performed byRod Stewart
*"Help Me Somebody" performed byBrian Eno and David Byrne
*"Mercy Street" performed byPeter Gabriel Reception
"Waking the Dead" debuted at the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2000. It opened inBrazil one week later andAustria in February and was shown at theSanta Barbara International Film Festival in early March before going into limited release in North America later that month. It went on to gross $327,418 in North America, well below its budget. [ [http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2000/WAKNG.php "Waking the Dead" at The Numbers] ]In his review in the "
New York Times ", Stephen Holden said, "In falling short of its goal, the movie raises the question of whether it's possible to film an intelligent tear-jerker that prompts us to think and cry at the same time. Or are serious suds and serious ideas a cinematicoxymoron ? At its best, "Waking the Dead" suggests an intellectually upscale answer to "Love Story". At its weakest, it comes off as a stiff, muted exercise in counterculturalnostalgia . . . [it] makes a terrible mistake by continually and abruptly cutting back and forth between the 70s and the early 80s. The movie is forever stumbling over itself and breaking its own spell. At exactly the moment it begins to draw us in to one of its stories, it makes another leap, and the mood is broken. Because it barely distinguishes between the two decades, theflashback s have none of the resonance of treasured memories." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/032400dead-film-review.html "New York Times" review] ]Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times " said the film "has a good heart and some fine performances, but is too muddled at the story level to involve us emotionally. It's a sweet film. The relationship between Sarah and Fielding is a little deeper and more affectionate that we expect in plot-drivenmelodrama s." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000324/REVIEWS/3240304/1023 "Chicago Sun-Times" review] ] In the "San Francisco Chronicle ",Mick LaSalle called it "a film teeming with riches. One of the most powerful romances of recent years, it is as generous as they come . . . an intelligent tale told with go-for-broke passion . . . Crudup and Connelly are splendid together . . . "Waking the Dead" gives us acting at its biggest and most beautiful." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/03/24/DD108237.DTL "San Francisco Chronicle" review] ]Awards
Robert Dillon was nominated for the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay but lost toKenneth Lonergan for "You Can Count on Me ".References
External links
*imdb title|id=0127349|title=Waking the Dead
*amg movie|id=1:184312|title=Waking the Dead
*rotten-tomatoes|id=waking_the_dead|title=Waking the Dead
* [http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=580 iFMagazine interview with Keith Gordon]
* [http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/int/2000/03/28/waking_the_dead/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=110 Salon.com interview with Gordon]
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