Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

ianlouisiana So wrote John Osborne in his Note to the First Edition of his play "The Entertainer" published in 1957.It was intended as a metaphor for the decline of this country as both a colonial and world power which was hastened by Eden's ill - judged invasion of the Canal - Zone of Egypt in response to Col.Nasser's closing of the Suez Canal itself. Written in response to Olivier's request for a play to"turn away from a trivial voguish theatre slanted to please the upper middle class" it initially caused Osborne some doubt about casting the theatrical knight in a play where criticism of the Government's handling of the Suez crisis was implicit."It seemed as dangerous as exposing the Royal Family to politics". Archie Rice is a second - rate Music Hall comedian,a "stand - up" in that awful modern phrase.In the years before television became omnivorous a comic could tour the country for decades with what was essentially the same act,a situation that would be familiar to both him and his father who had been a headliner in his day,a position Archie had never and would never occupy. In contrast to the orthodox theatre,Music Hall depended on the flow of action and response across the footlights,the audience forming a symbiotic relationship with the performer rather than passively watching an immutable series of events take place on the stage.In "The Entertainer" this difference is realised by setting Rice's stage performances between sequences involving his family and other events in his "real" life. Osborne was a huge fan of Max Miller although he always denied Rice was based on him."I loved Max because he embodied a kind of theatre I admired most.His method was danger....danger he might go too far". Archie Rice was no Max Miller,he was crude and loud where Miller was querulous and childishly innocent. The possibility that Olivier may once have been a daring actor has probably never occurred to an audience brought up on his mainly underwhelming movie performances from the last 30 or so years. To see him rage against the machine in "The Entertainer" will be a salutary experience,I promise. Rice is a stubborn,prejudiced,bathetic,vain and superficial man He is a would - be serial adulterer,a seducer of impressionable girls and an opportunist.But for all these shortcomings he is a human being. He and his family squabble and fuss and try to ignore the outside world until it forces itself on them when the son is killed at Suez. As Archie Rice he bellows at the Balcony,shouts at his family,schmoozes a beauty contestant to get access to her rich mothers purse strings. It is a bravura show,and one that has come to be recognised as his signature performance away from the Bard. Olivier displays the manic energy of the man "Born in a Trunk" who has known no other life,indeed fears any other kind of life. However,"The Entertainer" is by no means a one - man - show. The Rice Family are played as a true ensemble with the dynamics immediately recognisable to anyone who has shared a home with siblings and parents.The great Roger Livesey has dignity and authority as Archie's father,the former headliner with a reputation in the profession his son can never aspire to.He vainly tries to keep his brood together as everything descends into chaos. There is a brief appearance by Miss Shirley Anne Field,daughter of the great British Music Hall comedian Sid Field,a small irony in itself. Miss Field,a woman of unusual beauty and talent,seemed about to embark on a glittering movie career especially after appearing opposite Steve McQueen in "The War Lover",but it didn't happen.It is one of the many small tragedies of the British Cinema. The late Thora Hird plays her mother,the woman Rice wants to back his show "Rock 'n'Roll Newd Look".She rarely played a totally sympathetic part and it is a tribute to her strength of purpose and sense of self that she became a genuine Brtitish Institution. But the movie is now remembered as Olivier's "The Entertainer" rather than Osborne's,and the image that remains in the mind's eye is Snowdon's iconic photograph of the actor with his little grey bowler,bow tie and crumpled jacket,his face a horror mask of manic laughter.

bondboy422 This is a film about Archie Rice,"The Entertainer" who is a variety artist at the time music halls were becoming extinct and television had virtually destroyed that way of life.Archie Rice wants to find backers for his show at what becomes a tragic price. He wants to support his family and getting this show together is a last ditch attempt.Billy his father played by Roger Livesey was a very successful star in his day wants to help in anyway he can.Archie Rice as played by Laurence Olivier has not had the success of his father and the stench of failure is never far away. His son Mick is soldier and he is involved in the Suez crisis -- Olivier strongly conveys his concern for his son as he immediately switches on the radio for news.His performance as Archie is staggeringly brilliant -- there is no sentimentality or self pity -- just someone having protective layers stripped away.He is not a nice man and his "dead behind the eyes" description is accurate though he pays in spades for his ruthlessly opportunistic behaviour.As with Jimmy Porter, John Osborne created another unforgettable character.

mark worrell One of the best British films of the sixties, The Entertainer was written as an allegory of Britain's fall from grace by the leading fist-shaker of England's band of Angry Young Men who stormed the London stage with revolutionary new ideas and content, John Osborne. While Look Back In Anger is a more decorated play, this film adaption by Osborne and Nigel Kneale carried the flag of teeth-crunching kicks that the gang of young playwrights hoped to startle the daylights out of England with. Reading the other viewer comments, it is obvious most folks were looking for a Disney story with a Shakespearean performance by Lawrence Olivier. A happier ending? Great Britain forgot to supply one, Andy up there in the mountains somewhere, and the seedy digs were meant to be depressingly seedy, as was the dwindling talent of the family, and its reliance in the end on the grand old name and the grand old accomplishments of the past, as Archie Rice gave his best in replacing his revered father, Billy. Note his offkey performance in singing early on and then the eloquent on key final rendition of "Why Should I Care" as the final performance ends not with a curtain call, but with the hook, as the theater management (those other nations running the world today) angrily demand that Archie get off the stage because he is through, finished, washed up, fired, kaputsky, so long and goodbye. From the direction of Tony Richardson to the selection of grand old places along the sea that Britain once ruled with absolute certainty, everything and every moment of this film are topnotch. The aforementioned slandered scene with Roger Livesey as the Grandfather, Billy Rice, and Brenda de Banzie as Phoebe Rice, involving a misunderstanding over a piece of cake, is one of the most moving and depressingly realistic family arguments ever written. It may not be Olivier's greatest performance ever, but for certain it is the best one ever filmed. It also features the film debut of two actors who would establish themselves among the very best performers Great Britain has offered us, Alan Bates and Albert Finney, along with the introduction of Joan Plowright. As for the unkind comment about Olivier marrying Joan Plowright and this somehow having an ironic similarity to the theme of Archie and his young women; they married in 1961 and REMAINED together until Olivier's death in 1989, which is completely the opposite of the point made in the story. Well anyone is allowed to be in error, but this great film has to rank with our own country's Night of the Hunter as one of the most misunderstood films of all time. Don't miss it,ever, and MGM Vintage Classics has issued an excellent DVD edition.

ejpede "The Entertainer" is a fascinating film based on the play by John Osborne ("Look Back in Anger"); Osborne co-wrote the screenplay.Olivier plays Archie Rice, a fading entertainer in a fading medium (music halls) in a fading empire (the Suez crisis of 1956 figures into the action).Archie's speech to his daughter (Joan Plowright), onstage in an empty theater, about being dead behind his eyes, is especially memorable.Along with other fine actors, Alan Bates and Albert Finney as his sons flesh out this film, which is a must-see for fans of any of these actors.