Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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.

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.

maksquibs Hounded out of the States as a Commie (fellow DGA member Sam Wood outed him), Edward Dmytryk actually made (in the U.K.) that left-leaning agit-prop proletariat 'noir' HUAC vainly searched Hollywood for. The film never got a proper American release, Dmytryk returned, 'named names,' served time, & found himself upgraded to 'A' projects which never lived up to his promising early 'B' stuff. Pietro Di Donato's once influential novel tells a fatalistic story of an Italian/American brick layer, always on the verge of better times, who loses his soul when he rises to foreman during tough depression times. Dmytryk does some impressive work within the restrictions of an indie U.K. production, but he's ultimately defeated by a twice too earnest script and a lackluster cast that has to work overtime to fake that Brooklyn flavor. Five years on, another HUAC alumni, Elia Kazan, would get this sort of thing right in ON THE WATERFRONT, which you may have heard of.

rube2424 After many years in political purgatory, the film version of Pietro Di Donato's masterpiece CHRIST IN CONCRETE comes to beautifully restored DVD. The story of a humble bricklayer (Sam Wanamaker) who wants only the best for his family, and is briefly seduced by becoming "managment" holds up beautifully. Wanmaker is a wonderful, natural actor (I kept thing Actor's Studio before there was such a thing!) and though I had known him in later years, I never realized how dynamic he was as a leading man. (No surprise then that his daughter Zoe is one our finest actors.) Lea Padovani is magnificent, and the rest of the cast give superb performances as well. (What a kick it is to see William Sylvester, Dr. Heywood Floyd of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY as a young man in his first film!)The director, Edward Dmytryk, clearly influenced by Greg Toland as well as the neo-realismo films of the time, uses fascinating camera angles, moody lighting and a steady pacing that makes the nearly two hour running time seem half that time.I had loved the novel and had always wanted to see the film. What a joy it is to finally see it in near pristine condition. Thank you ALLDAY films for finding and restoring this masterpiece. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED................