Swoon
by Tom Kalin
List Price:
Our Price: $11.99
You Save: $7.96 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.84 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Craig Chester, Daniel Schlachet, Michael Kirby, Michael Stumm, Ron VawterDirector: Tom Kalin
Producer: Tom Kalin
Writer: Tom Kalin
Producer: Christine Vachon
Producer: James Schamus
Producer: Lauren Zalaznick
Producer: Peter Wentworth
Writer: Hilton Als
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 82 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-08-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Strand Releasing
DVD Reviews of Swoon
DVD Review: Beauty and the beasts
Summary: 4 Stars
Tom Kalin's 1992 film is a landmark of what Ruby Rich famously called "the new Queer Cinema," and though it's filled with flaws, it's so gorgeous and haunting that it stays with you long after you've forgotten other films that are objectively better. Like ROPE or COMPULSION before it, SWOON seems to dramatize what was known for decades as the Crime of the Century, the morder of fourteen year-old Bobby Franks by two brilliant and wealthy Chicago college students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who wanted to prove they could commit the perfect crime. Other version of the story have made the homoerotic nature of the relationship between Leopold and Loeb only implied: here Kalin makes it the absolute center of the story, and the film is as much about how frustrated two beautiful and gifted young gay men are when they cannot express their sexuality openly but have the money and the leisure to do almost anything else.
Certain sequences of the film are absolutely heartstopping in their beauty, in particular the beautifully photographed opening sequence of the pair's friends photographed against a hazy sky. There's a great deal of pleasure to be had in Kalin's ingenuity in creating 1920s sets and costumes and props to make the whole thing look authentic (though his trick of using anachronistic contemporary props--such as a push-button payphone--looks to be mostly a dodge he passes off as an hommage á Derek Jarman because he couldn't figure out how to get authentic props).
The problems with the film are that in the end it's a bit empty-headed. The analogy between gay men and criminals is done in a very heavy-handed manner, particularly at the end when Kalin has a montage of photos of "criminal types" that are clearly all his friends in real life. Moreover, the film seems to treat Leopold and Loeb as if they were mere martyrs to homophobia; very little is made of how much Bobby Franks and his parents suffered from their crime. (Bobby is hardly seen in the film at all, and when he is he's usually not photographed directly face-on.) It's one thing for Derek Jarman to present Edward II as being martyred on account of his sexuality; but Leopold and Loeb? Despite this, I recommend seeing the film if only for its cinematography and for the excellent performance of Craig Chester as Nathaniel Leopold.
More Swoon reviews:
1
1
Description of Swoon
Studio: Strand Releasing Release Date: 04/06/2006Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Living End: Remixed and RemasteredRelease date: 2008-04-29; DVD
Best price: $11.40
Price in other shops:
Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story - Acting Editionby music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff book
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 2006-02-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.56
Price in other shops:
The Celluloid Closet (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2001-05-29; DVD
Best price: $12.81
Price in other shops:
History -- In Search of History Born Killers: Leopold And LoebRelease date: 2008-07-17; DVD
Best price: $24.95
Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Centuryby Hal Higdon
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1999-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.29
Price in other shops:
Poison: 20th Anniversary EditionRelease date: 2011-06-21; DVD
Best price: $13.73
Price in other shops:
RopeNBC Universal; Release date: 2006-06-20; DVD
Best price: $12.69
Price in other shops:
For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicagoby Simon Baatz
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.72
Price in other shops:
Thrill Me - The Leopold & Loeb StoryRelease date: 2006-08-08; Published: 2006; Music CD
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
CompulsionFox; Release date: 2006-05-23; DVD
Best price: $6.54
Price in other shops: