The Company
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Actor: Barbara E. Robertson, James Franco, Malcolm McDowell, Neve Campbell, William DickBrand: CAMPBELL,NEVE
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
Published: 2004-06-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Company
DVD Review: The Company
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been a fan of M*A*S*H for many years. But that wasn't the end of Robert Altman's career. I believe it was the beginning. He's done a whole lot of stuff since then. So how the heck did I miss it? I dunno.
I suspect that, like with Stanley Kubrick and Werner Herzog and maybe a few other directors, some studio someplace just told Altman "do whatever the heck you want and we'll worry about that other stuff (like money) later." And, for whatever reason, I didn't see a single Altman film until now.
Who were the actors and who were not? Everybody seemed so natural that it doesn't matter. You watch a movie and, best case scenario, you tend to focus on a single person or two who seems so natural that they don't appear to be acting. In this film, everybody's like that. I praise the actors who don't appear to act, and I praise the ones who weren't professional actors, and I praise the director (Altman) who found all these people and made it happen.
I have no idea who wrote the dialogue for this film, but he or she also has my sincere admiration. It's as real as it gets.
When you think of me, I assume two non-profane words pop into your head. China, and redneck. I've left China. Meanwhile, if I tell you that I watched a movie about ballet, I am still a redneck.
Rednecks are not conformists. If that makes me the only person to ever live in Pender County North Carolina AND watch a movie about ballet, so be it. If it means I'm talking about Eminem or Shakespeare or even ballet, then that's what it means. Y'all listen up.
What's this movie about? Quite simply, ballet. The dancers spend years learning to do physical feats that are impossible to the rest of us. Art directors put these moves together because they want to communicate something. Some in the audience understand this nonverbal message. This audience member probably does not. But the dancing can be beautiful, okay? And in this film, it is. The choreography and music are superb, because Altman wanted to show us this medium at its best.
The film also pokes a little fun at those visionary art directors, because it's hard not to, and I laughed out loud a few times. Malcolm McDowell is every bit as credible and entertaining as those "actors" in the film who genuinely choreograph ballet for a living, so I'm impressed.
Consider this. I've spent a whole lot of lungpower trying to communicate my love of NFL football to folks who just don't get it. It's very complex, and I'd even say beautiful. (Except for guys who weigh at least 100 pounds more than The Fridge. You have a salary cap, so why not a fatty cap?) You have a group of very different guys, you find out what they excel at, and you build a successful system that plays to their strengths in order to reach a common goal that may or may not involve a whole lot of bloodshed. To me, a blinding flash of the obvious. Meanwhile, some folks will never get it or never want to get it. This film made me look at ballet that way. Not my game, but I get it. Is that not a cool experience for a viewer to have? I think it is. Now gimme the damn ball!
I want to address something that Robert Altman did not, because I think you expect it of me. Are ballet guys gay? Ballet is about grace and beauty, and maybe you gotta wonder about guys who want to achieve that instead of eating a few more pizzas for breakfast. Well, I watched a film about ballet, and I find it more accessible than break dancing, but that does not mean I'm going to prance around in tights myself. (I just offended TWO minorities with that wisecrack.)
I'd like to think that we have better things to think about than homophobia. And while my aesthetic sense is rather poor, I think that a guy who has one and is aware of it is allowed to say he's "getting redneck" about it. And I'd also like to mention that ballet guys lift their female partners off the ground for great lengths of time, and perhaps you're jealous even though I'm not because I happen to be an old hog farmer and Jan weighs far less than any hogs I've known and loved. And just for the hell of it I'll throw in that this film has one love story between a ballet guy and a ballet girl so just grow up already.
(It also had some gay guys. So what? I love how they talk.)
Have you noticed how far I've drifted from the film itself? That's deliberate. An author who limits you to what he's writing about is actually a bit pathetic. Altman knows that, even when he doesn't know that. As in, I know damn well he never expected someone reviewing this film to talk about hogs or Eminem. Word! That's part of what makes this film so extremely cool.
What's this film really about? What all literature, in any medium, should be about. Here are some folks, doing what they do, and maybe what they do is way outside your own experience. So why not spend a bit of time in this other world, which is a quite real world, and enjoy the experience or perhaps even learn from the experience? With the best literature, enjoying and learning are the same.
Description of The Company
A woman on the verge of becoming principal dancer in her ballet company has trouble balancing the demands of her career with her personal life.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD
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