Oleanna
by David Mamet
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DVD details
Actor: Debra Eisenstadt, Diego Pineda, Scott Zigler, William H. MacyDirector: David Mamet
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Oleanna
DVD Review: An interesting misfire...
Summary: 3 Stars
I generally enjoyed this David Mamet film, but throughout the stuttered, ridiculously choppy and awkwardly timed dialogue, and "come out of nowhere" twists and turns, which keep the viewer generally guessing and interested most of the way, the final resolution is ultimately disappointing as a complete train of truthful, meaningful, logical to the end thought.
This work seemingly invites viewers into taking a side between the only two characters involved, a young, female college student and her middle-aged, male professor. But this is the wrong approach in my view because both characters are eventually portrayed as equally sharing in the blame for what transpires. And that just isn't the case. While the student here is initially portrayed as innocently questioning the prof's teaching methods, and worried about her personal performance in the teacher's class, as are her rights, her character soon turns into an over-the-top and obviously, irrationally vindictive, "bad" person (which she fully admits to being mid-film, but which is never elaborated upon).
And while the prof's eventual physically violent and angry reaction to this crazy student's despicable and false accusations and behavior, go overboard in the much too abrupt end, any truly objective viewer will easily I think, understand (if not approve of) his reactions, as opposed to hers. Almost ordering, as the student does at the end, her teacher not to call his own loved wife, "baby" because she casually "objects" to it, is insane.
The ending in this film is left up in the air as to who has the strongest case here, the student or the teacher, but it's really no contest, as far as I'm concerned. The female student is a clearly, and eventually revealed, psychologically disturbed wacko. The prof has his own faults no doubt, but that he not only tried to, but actually did "RAPE" the female student, simply by taking a caring and personal interest in her philosophical questions and anxieties, is totally specious. The truth is something quite different. This is a movie which throws out a lot of important concepts, especially as it concerns male-female relationships, and the "power over another" incongruities in general of the academic student/teacher dynamic. But in my view, it all eventually comes up short because, at the end, it paints the professor as well as the student as equal "evils." And that just isn't so, as written and presented.
I have enjoyed a lot of playwright/screenwriter/director David Mamet's other works, especially "House of Games," "Edmond," "State and Main," "About Last Night," "Wag the Dog," and "Hoffa," among many others, and his early masterpiece, "The Verdict" (best picture winner 1982), but this effort just doesn't cut it. In virtually every other Mamet film I've seen, a lot of which led the viewer to vaguely interpreted finales, where one has latent sympathies for both the good guy/gal and opposite, there's really no contest here. The graduate female student can only be considered quite deranged and simply "bad." The professor, despite his violent anger and corporal abuse at the end, seems justified in a way, and quite sane and basically decent.
While I appreciate the intent here, as in most of his films, of letting the viewer be the final judge of good and evil (most brilliantly shown in my personal Mamet favorite, "House of Games"), the student's evolving words, behavior, and totally bizarre, harsh, real-life actions she takes against her supposed "oppressor," in this movie, aren't really ever justified by the material as a whole. Or by what the prof actually says, does, or preaches. In essence, the very last scene is really what should've only been the beginning of another ten minutes or so of needed extrapolation and explanation to make the film, and its characters plausible, in which, a true balance of credibility and believable food for thought might've been offered.
What is actually presented here is just too black and white, but is erroneously painted in bogus shades of gray, and the dialogue and pacing are just too artificial and rough, and inconsistently but continually stretch the limits of credulity. Finally, the fact that any university "tenure" committee would EVER take this particular student's "complaints" seriously in the first place, with such flimsy, if non-existent hard evidence, seems highly implausible at best. Let alone such which might and does lead to the poor guy losing his tenure, his job, and basically his whole academic, financial and personal well being, without any shown hearing or trial, based solely on the deranged "word" of an obvious psycho.
Entertaining and interesting up to a point, this is definitely one of Mamet's lesser works. Given his substantial body of other great accomplishments however, this weaker effort I can only give a mediocre rating and let the viewer be the final judge. Though I'd strongly advise everyone to see (I watched it a couple of times on cable), or at least rent this before buying it, based solely upon Mamet's fine overall reputation and body of work alone.
Description of Oleanna
From OscarĀ(r)-nominated* writer-director David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) comes this chillingly provocative, incisive drama that dissects the controversial issue of sexual harassmentfrom every emotionally wrenching side of the equation. When a college professor about to be tenured (William H. Macy, Fargo) meets a struggling student (Debra Eisenstadt) behind closed doors,their conversation yields only mutual misunderstanding and a charge of sexual harassment. And as their mutual antipathy turns ugly, it destroys lives, derails careers and ultimately leads to a cataclysmic event that no one ever expected! *1997: Adapted Screenplay, Wag the Dog (with Hilary Henkin); 1982: Adapted Screenplay, The VerdictBestsellers in DVD
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