Thin
by Lauren Greenfield
List Price:
Our Price: $16.99
You Save: $2.99 (15%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $10.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Alisa Williams (II), Brittany Robinson, Polly Williams (III), Shelly GuilloryDirector: Lauren Greenfield
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
DVD Reviews of Thin
DVD Review: Shallow and Conventional
Summary: 3 Stars
I've watched "Thin" three times and I'm still not satisfied. This "documentary" focuses way too much on the superficial drama within the clinic and only reinforces certain stereotypes due to its lack of depth. The eating-disorder itself, with all of its pervasive and sinister, deeply felt psychache is left undisclosed, unexamined. They should re-title this film "Frew Crew" and air it in portions as a soap opera on daytime television, or as an MTV reality show. At least it's amusing. At least it exposes the interior of an inpatient facility - something the public is rarely privileged or cursed enough to see. Given the context of a society that loves to intrude and is greatly amused by the suffering of other human beings it is no wonder that "Thin" is so shallow.
So why am I giving it 3 stars? The footage itself is of excellent quality and I easily watched it three times indicating that it has its merits as a form of entertainment.
DVD Review: perfect!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
perfect disc, perfect quality, perfect!!! no scratches or anything. it was exactly what i hoped for.DVD Review: A Hands-Off Non-Judgmental documentary is a wise way to tell this tale
Summary: 5 Stars
I look at Greenfield's THIN as an attempt to solve the problem of telling a story around an emotional topic that is bound to get pelted by criticisms from both sides.
Inevitably, the film will suffer from criticisms that are bound to the reality of eating disorders, not to how a documentary was put together.
I was originally interested in the topic when I started watching, but the craft of storytelling soon took over. It's as if the moviemakers are sleuths who are simultaneously trying to solve the mystery of "why" alongside the mystery of "who."
I found the light touch of THIN a necessary approach: it does not try to answer either questions: it allows the camera to roll as tidbits and revelations surface while others stay submerged. An expert moment arrives when the therapist asks Shelly what lurks in the recesses of her past, possibly making her do what she does. She says, "if I'm not telling anyone, why should I tell you?" And our voyeuristic view gets cut into the next segment, deprived of an answer we may unfairly proceed to apply to other cases later on.
The use of the blue rolling luggage cage (as each patient leaves the center) is poetically angled for each departing outpatient as well. Some leave pushing a big load, while others leave with nothing but bags they carry by hand.
I also appreciated the light use of background music as a way to refrain from playing with a viewer's emotions. I only wished that some of the other members at Renfrew (apart from the main four) were introduced earlier, because by the time situations come to a head, and they speak up, I was left to wonder, "where were these articulate people earlier on?"
If you are looking for a documentary that gives you the answers, you won't find it here, but I've always believe that the best documentaries show you the problem, and leave you to seek out the answers.
DVD Review: Helpful, but potentially harmful.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great documentary to show someone who doesn't understand eating disorders. It offers keen insight to what it's like to suffer from one.
With that said, this dvd is also potentially dangerous, because I found it to be very triggering. I personally would not recommend it to someone currently suffering from an eating disorder.
DVD Review: Docs Rock
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't understand why these girls want to deperately to go to this top of the line treatmant facility, only to get there and be unahappy. no one wanted to do the work. just a free ride to relive college dorm life once again and at an outstanding expence to their families. Excellent doc on the daily lives of the girls living at the facility
Description of Thin
The HBO Documentary film Thin takes us inside the walls of Renfrew Center, a residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders, closely following four young women (ages 15 - 30) who have spent their lives starving themselves?often to the verge of death. The film deftly chronicles the pervasiveness of restrictive eating behaviors (most of the women profiled learned dysfunctional eating habits from their mothers while growing up), as well as the failure of our current health-insurance industry to address its clients' needs, while never shifting focus from the women themselves. Director Lauren Greenfield documents with astonishing depth the daily rituals, spontaneous friendships and startling swings between recovery and relapse that make up life at the center. The result is a powerful new insight into one of our society's most insidious open secrets.A compelling film that delves into the lives of young women with eating disorders, the HBO documentary Thin offers sobering insight into why anyone would sacrifice her health for the pursuit of unrealistic body perfection. Set in a Florida clinic that specializes in treating patients with bulimia (binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting) and anorexia (consuming barely enough to survive), the film introduces viewers to four women. Shelly, 25, is a psychiatric nurse who weighs 86 pounds. Talking to her therapist, she says, "I used to have a personality." Alisa, 30, is a mother of two small children who joined the Air Force to lose weight. Though she seems to be the perfect patient, it's obvious her eating disorder has taken control of her life. She just wants to be thin, she says, and "if it takes dying to get there, so be it." Polly, 29, checked herself in for treatment after a suicide attempt. The cause? She had allowed herself to eat two pieces of pizza. Brittany, 15, grew up watching her mother--who also has an eating disorder--behave compulsively around food. Once weighing 185 pounds, Brittany dropped to almost half her weight in a year, causing severe liver damage. When her insurance runs out, the teenager has to leave the clinic. The last group meeting she attends with her fellow patients is heartbreaking. As she sobs, it's obvious she'd rather die of starvation than risk being heavy again. Even when a 28-year-old patient tries to convince her that she is young enough to change her life around, Brittany cries that death is a better option than being fat. Filmed in a matter-of-fact manner by director Lauren Greenfield, Thin offers hope, but no happily-ever-after ending for these women. It will be a struggle for them to eat--and not purge--once they leave the clinic. And the documentary leaves viewers hoping the best for these tortured women, but realizing that some of them might not make it. --Jae-Ha Kim
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Man on WireRelease date: 2008-12-09; DVD
Best price: $13.37
Price in other shops:
Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $17.59
Price in other shops:
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedRelease date: 2008-10-21; DVD
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth & The Blue Planet Seas of Life (Special Collector's Edition)Planet; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $52.97
Price in other shops:
The Beales of Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-12-05; DVD
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
A Haunting in ConnecticutRelease date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $3.53
Price in other shops:
Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Best price: $25.20
Price in other shops:
ReligulousLions Gate; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
The BBC Natural History Collection featuring Planet Earth (Planet Earth/ The Blue Planet: Seas of Life Special Edition/ Life of Mammals/ Life of Birds)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $85.99
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $19.49
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Super Size MeSony; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
Girl Cultureby Lauren Greenfield
Chronicle Books; Published: 2002-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.12
Price in other shops:
Diary of an Anorexic Girlby Morgan Menzie
Thomas Nelson; Published: 2003-04-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disordersby Aimee Liu
Wellness Central; Published: 2008-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)by Marya Hornbacher
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Perfect Illusions: Eating Disorders and the FamilyRelease date: 2003-02-24; DVD
Best price: $19.95
Perfect BodyImage Entertainment; Release date: 2004-08-10; DVD
Price in other shops:
For the Love of NancyRelease date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $124.99
Thinby Lauren Greenfield
Chronicle Books; Published: 2006-10-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.78
Price in other shops:
NOVA: Dying to Be ThinWGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2004-06-29; DVD
Best price: $10.25
Price in other shops: