Charly

Charly
by Ralph Nelson

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DVD details

Actor: Claire Bloom, Cliff Robertson, Leon Janney, Lilia Skala, Ruth White
Director: Ralph Nelson
Brand: ROBERTSON,CLIFF
Cinematographer: Arthur J. Ornitz
Producer: Ralph Nelson
Editor: Fredric Steinkamp
Producer: Selig J. Seligman
Writer: Daniel Keyes
Writer: Stirling Silliphant
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-08
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

DVD Reviews of Charly

DVD Review: Charly - Flowers for Algernon
Summary: 5 Stars

This is such a great story. I wish the movie had been based on the short story rather than the novel, but it still works. Cliff Robertson is a master!

DVD Review: Depressingly bad
Summary: 2 Stars

The Bottom Line:

Charly does a fine butcher's job on the classic novella Flowers for Algernon, featuring one of the most bizarrely out of place scenes I've ever seen in a motion picture (Charly, upon gaining intelligence, joins a wild motorcycle gang!) in addition to an overwhelmed Cliff Robertson (who cannot pull of the "genius" side at all) and an especially turgid pace: stay FAR away.

1.5/4

DVD Review: Charly
Summary: 4 Stars

This was purchased to go with the book "Flowers for Algernon" for an 8th grade novel. I love to use contrast and compare with video and books. The students liked the movie-but thought they dressed strangely. Check the date for production.

DVD Review: A Testimony to Hope, and to Human Cruelty
Summary: 4 Stars

Charly, a mentally-handicapped man played by an actor in an Oscar-winning role, does his best to learn to write a few words. He takes a job as a janitor. But he is the butt of cruel jokes. His co-workers put yeast into his pail, and then laugh as he is surprised by the large glob. Later, they send him to a street corner in Boston to stand and wait for snow, and to report to them when it happens. The policeman asks him what he is doing standing there, and, after he tells them, they laugh.

There is hope, however. An operation can change him. He goes through with it. No longer is he docile as he was before. I will not spoil the ending by divulging further details.

DVD Review: Charly
Summary: 5 Stars

The movie did an excellent job in portraying the intense emotions of the characters, and the gradual increase and quick decrease in Charly's intelligence.

Although the movie was created in the 60s, it has a rather modern feel. I showed this video to my 8th graders after they had read a portion of the book in their anthology. These kids were engrossed in the movie adaptation. Afterwards, they were able to discuss a compare/contrast of the written vs video of the story, character development, ethics of human experimentation, value of human life no matter the intelligence, etc.

I highly suggest this movie. BTW: Cliff Robertson won an Oscar for his portrayal of Charly.

Description of Charly

From the classic Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon comes this "moving" (Boxoffice) and unforgettable adaptation. Featuring an Academy Award?(r)-winning* performance by Cliff Robertson and a "shrewd, talented" score (Variety) by Ravi Shankar, this timeless tearjerker is "definitely one to see" (Cue). When a mentally retarded man named Charly (Robertson) undergoes experimental brain surgery, he is miraculously freed from the prison of his own mind. As his IQ soars to genius proportions, Charly's eyes are opened to a world he's never truly seen. But when the effects of his operation inexplicably begin to fade, Charly must find a way to halt his regression before his own mind destroys his life, his newfound romance and the man he's become. *1968: Actor

Adapted from Daniel Keyes's novel Flowers for Algernon, Charly must be viewed as a soap opera of and for its zeitgeist--the halcyon '60s, when "natural" was nirvana, the air hummed with the mantra "Everybody's beautiful," and all ills stemmed from institutional monoliths such as Science, Government, Education, Religion. Accordingly, Charly (Cliff Robertson) is a 30-year-old retardate whose doofus sweetness makes him superior to most able-minded folk, whether they're the bigoted dolts he sweeps floors for or the ambitious scientists who see him as the human equivalent of Algernon, a mouse they've surgically (but impermanently) smartened up. Naturally, post-op Charly, sporting a genius IQ, "sees things as they are." Trotted out as the neurosurgeons' poster boy, he stands up to the "learned" audience--shot as faceless, inhuman interrogators. He's every '60s flower child, berating his "elders" for blighting their brave new world.

The one gift Charly gets out of becoming Brainiac is sex. In a lengthy montage resembling a retro TV commercial, he and his special-ed teacher (Claire Bloom, madonna with eternal Mona Lisa smile) romp through an Edenic outdoors, their embraces hallowed by sunlight glinting through leaves, moonlight glinting on water, and sappy Ravi Shankar music. (Stylistic clich?s also include embarrassing outbreaks of split screens and multiple small screens within the frame, notably when rebellious Charly turns biker.) Robertson's performance is well-meaning but hokey. Still, in the penultimate moments when Charly begins to slide back into retardation, the actor achieves a genuine tragic gravity, and he became a surprise Oscar winner for his pains. --Kathleen Murphy

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