If These Walls Could Talk
by Nancy Savoca
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DVD details
Actor: Anne Heche, Cher, Demi Moore, Sissy SpacekDirector: Nancy Savoca
Brand: MOORE/SPACEK/CHER
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
Published: 2000-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2000-03-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 91365
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product features:
- IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK is a powerful, intimate portrait of how times and freedoms have changed, It will shock you. It will surprise you. And no matter where you stand on the issue, it will force you to think again. A recently widowed nurse (Demi Moore) struggling to take control of her life in the early 50's. A mother of four (Sissy Spacek) overwhelmed by trying to raise a family and maintain a
DVD Reviews of If These Walls Could Talk
DVD Review: A decidely rhetorical HBO movie, but unlikely to persuade anyone
Summary: 4 Stars
"If These Walls Could Talk" is one of the most didactic films you are likely to see, but given that there is no issue in contemporary America that is more polarizing than that of abortion it could well be that it is one of the least persuasive films you will see as well. Those who are pro-choice will see it as compelling, while those who are pro-life will see it as offensive, and those who have not made up their minds are too young to watch anything that originally aired on HBO. That is especially true of this film, which has a pair of scenes that will upset you regardless of gender or ideology.
The conceit of "If These Walls Could Talk" is that three women, living in three different times in the past half-century but in the same house, find themselves pregnant. Each faces a different situation, both personally and in terms of the legal and social climate regarding abortion. In 1952, Claire Donnelly (Demi Moore) is a young nurse whose husband had been killed in Korea. She has a moment of weakness and when she discovers she is pregnant she desperately tries to find someone who can perform an illegal abortion. In 1974, Barbara Barrows (Sissy Spacek) is a mother of four older children who has started work on a college degree when she finds herself pregnant. This baby means no early retirement for her husband and that their oldest daughter can forget about going to the college of her choice, so Barbara considers a legal abortion. In 1996, Christine Cullen (Anne Heche) learns she is pregnant by her married college professor. Christine is considering an abortion and discovers the local clinic is besieged by anti-abortion protesters, with volunteers escorting women inside past the gauntlet.
What I find interesting about "If These Walls Could Talk" is the way that the writers have dressed up their rhetoric. The death of each person in this movie, whether they are born or unborn, is tragic because death is inherently tragic, and there is certainly an extent to which you can read things both ways in this 1996 movie. After all, the death of a woman because of a "back alley" abortion can be seen as an argument for making abortion legal so that it does not happen, but it also serves as evidence for the idea that women should not have abortions in the first place.
Yet in the total context of the movie the preferred reading for such a things seems clear. Within that context the decision not to have an abortion is not just a pro-life decision, but a pro-choice one as well (to wit, she chooses life). Plus, we see a world where the people who carry guns and placards are fanatics in the crazy sense of the word instead of the deeply devote meaning. There are two sides to the issue, and in each vignette those two sides are represented, and the common denominator is that the side that is most judgmental is the side that loses in each instance. It is just that from a political perspective, one side of the dispute is inherently more judgmental than the other.
Description of If These Walls Could Talk
Three women in different eras (1952, 1974, 1996) each must decide if they should have an abortion.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVD
Virtually no one is ambivalent about abortion; the issue polarizes people like no other. HBO tackles the subject head-on with a trilogy of shorts, and, regardless of your opinion on the topic, If These Walls Could Talk is a bold and provocative examination of how the laws and attitudes about abortion in the United States have both changed drastically and remained so much the same.
Three women, three time periods, one house: each finds herself in trouble and must face the overwhelming decision about what to do with the unwanted pregnancy. The first segment is the most powerful, featuring Demi Moore as a young, recently widowed nurse in 1952. With no one to turn to and limited financial means, her options are few. Catherine Keener costars as her harshly judgmental sister-in-law. The next piece occurs in 1974, as Sissy Spacek, a mother of four who is trying to earn a college degree, discovers she's pregnant with her fifth child. Her utterly modern feminist daughter encourages Spacek to get a newly legal abortion, but it's a complex decision. In the final segment, college student Anne Heche becomes pregnant by her married professor. Her best friend, played by Jada Pinkett, is resolutely against abortion and the two wrangle over right and wrong. As the young woman tries to learn about her options, she finds herself enmeshed in the pro-life demonstrations outside the abortion clinic. Cher, who directs this segment (the other two are directed by Nancy Savoca), costars as a doctor at the clinic.
While trying to be evenhanded and demonstrating the different choices different women make, the film does have a decidedly pro-choice leaning. Yet the power of the movie is undeniable and it raises significant questions on both sides of the abortion debate, making it an important film for women (and men) everywhere to watch and talk about. --Jenny Brown
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