American Splendor

American Splendor
by Shari Springer Berman

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DVD details

Actor: Chris Ambrose, Earl Billings, Nick Baxter, Shari Springer Berman, Vivienne Benesch
Director: Shari Springer Berman
Brand: Warner Brothers
Primary Contributor: Shari Springer Berman
Primary Contributor: Giamatti, Paul
Primary Contributor: Pekar, Harvey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: HBO Video

DVD Reviews of American Splendor

DVD Review: Harvey Pekar is a winner!
Summary: 5 Stars

This film rates as one of the most creative and playful I've ever seen. The way the two versions of Harvey play off each other and the way his comic and his real life intertwine is pure genius. Paul Giamatti is at his finest.
Excellent!! Two thumbs up!!

DVD Review: Fascinating Wackos
Summary: 4 Stars

I guess I am sucker for biographies of weird people. This certainly qualifies for that.

What makes this film different from others is the combination of fictional and real people playing the two main characters: Harvey and Joyce Pekar. For most of the film, Paul Giamatti portrays Pekar - the main focus of the film, and Hope Davis plays his wife, Joyce. However, interspersed in the film are comments from the real Harvey and Joyce!

The only thing stranger that the film structure is the story of these actual people. You wouldn't think that two dull introverts like this could be made to look so interesting, but they are. What a testimony to the job the filmmakers did here....and the actors. Giamatti was amazing.

After seeing this movie, I was inspired to go out and obtain several of Harvey Pekar's comic books. Whew! I should have stuck with just the movie. The comics stink!! Don't waste your money on those.

DVD Review: Dull, humdrum movie
Summary: 1 Stars

Imagine your most boring acquaintance. The one you hide from to avoid tiresome stories about his/her humdrum existence. Then imagine a movie about said acquaintance, and you will have captured the essence of American Splendor. You will get to watch amazing scenes about a boring job, a lonely life, and secondary characters with nothing to say. Plus, the Pekar has a very annoying voice. At least they could have added a gratuitous shower scene. Avoid this movie

DVD Review: Excellent film
Summary: 5 Stars

If you're unsure about buying this, it's worth checking out just to see the characters. The crazy thing is that they're essentially real people. Go to wikipedia and look up Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Toby Radloff, and Joyce Brabner. It's a pleasant surprise that they exist. See the movie. (It was in great condition when I got it, too.)

DVD Review: Quality, Six stars not Five!
Summary: 5 Stars

In my opinion this was one of the best films out there. Beautifully shot, written, and acted. I love this movie so much that I don't eve care that people didn't get it...it's their loss, and I hope that if you have not seen it, check it out and see for yourself.

Description of American Splendor

Based on the life and work of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar- a prickly poet of the mundane who knows that all the strategizing in the world can't save a guy from picking the wrong supermarket checkout line.

One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendor is also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction, and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. hospital--is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti in a master-stroke of casting, we see Pekar and his understanding wife (played by Hope Davis) as underdogs in a world full of obstacles, yet also infused with subtle hope and (gasp!) heartwarming perseverance. We also see the real Pekar, and this multifaceted commingling of "reel" and "real" turns American Splendor into a uniquely cinematic celebration of Pekar's life and, by extension, the tenacity of an unlikely American hero. --Jeff Shannon

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