SUPERFANTASTIC MOVIE!
Added 5/5/2009
I love Adrien Brody as an actor - Regarless this is a great movie - I caught this on satellite movie channel & decided I wanted to see it whenever I wanted to - SO I BOUGHT IT!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Part 4 of the Baltimore Trilogy
Added 11/3/2008
It's hard to watch Liberty Heights without finding it a pastiche of Barry Levinson's previous three films about Baltimore and its engaging residents and neighborhoods. Liberty Heights has goofy young males, seemingly unattainable American princesses, flawed but loving families, a businessman (albeit a crooked one) caught on the cusp of societal change, an abiding love of big cars, and esoteric late night diner conversations. All those elements are found in one or more of Diner, Tin Men, and Avalon (and that perfect scene of fireworks bursting over the new immigrant's head, one of my favorite movie scenes ever.) Still, I was happy to watch these new riffs on some old themes because new elements keep getting added, in this case a more direct depiction of the barriers and prejudices of the era. Unappealing though some of them may be, you find yourself rooting for almost all of Levinson's characters, hoping they'll make it safely through to the other side of the enormous gap between the fifties and the late sixties. Liberty Heights also brings a fine performance from Adrian Brody and an even better one from the always quiet, but always pitch perfect Joe Mantegna.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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An excellent film that is often overlooked
Added 7/24/2006
A Barry Livingstone production, which is semi-autobiographical. The story centers on a Jewish family living in Baltimore at the height of anti-Semitism. Other racial issues emerge, such as the introduction of African American students into White schools. Despite the `weighty' content, this movie is actually a comedy, and there are several moments that are truly funny. Benefits from a great cast, including Adrian Brody - before his `mainstream' emergence.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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A movie about a Jewish family in Baltimore, Maryland in the mid-1950s. One of my favorite movies.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Excellent film, valuable history lesson...
Added 4/10/2005
A lot of Americans---especially the younger generations---are breathtakingly ignorant of their own very recent history, and films like "Liberty Heights" are invaluable for reminding us that no, this country has never been a utopian paradise of freedom as current day simpletons (read: George W. Bush and all his right wing partisan prostitutes like Rush Limbaugh, etc.) would have us believe.
The idea is not to fixate on the past but to use it as a guidepost towards the future---the kind of racist and anti-semitic world that "Liberty Heights" portrays has abated on many fronts but is far from vanquished, and all this progress did not magically arise but was the fruit of the blood sweat and tears of many principled and brave individuals over the course of the last several decades. Many battles have been won but the war is not over by a long shot.
Aside from social history, Levinson's film is also stirring entertainment: he has assembled a very strong cast, with an excellent script and masterful camera direction. "Liberty Heights" does not have the grand epic sweep of "Avalon" but is deals more directly with racial and ethnic tensions in 1950s Baltimore without falling into the usual cliches and sensationalistic traps that such socially conscious films (see "Grand Canyon" or recent Spike Lee movies) often stoop to. This is no cheap Hollywood tear-jerker but an honest, balanced and very mature work---probably explains why it tanked at the box office.
5 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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SUPERFANTASTIC MOVIE!
Added 5/5/2009
I love Adrien Brody as an actor - Regarless this is a great movie - I caught this on satellite movie channel & decided I wanted to see it whenever I wanted to - SO I BOUGHT IT!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Part 4 of the Baltimore Trilogy
Added 11/3/2008
It's hard to watch Liberty Heights without finding it a pastiche of Barry Levinson's previous three films about Baltimore and its engaging residents and neighborhoods. Liberty Heights has goofy young males, seemingly unattainable American princesses, flawed but loving families, a businessman (albeit a crooked one) caught on the cusp of societal change, an abiding love of big cars, and esoteric late night diner conversations. All those elements are found in one or more of Diner, Tin Men, and Avalon (and that perfect scene of fireworks bursting over the new immigrant's head, one of my favorite movie scenes ever.) Still, I was happy to watch these new riffs on some old themes because new elements keep getting added, in this case a more direct depiction of the barriers and prejudices of the era. Unappealing though some of them may be, you find yourself rooting for almost all of Levinson's characters, hoping they'll make it safely through to the other side of the enormous gap between the fifties and the late sixties. Liberty Heights also brings a fine performance from Adrian Brody and an even better one from the always quiet, but always pitch perfect Joe Mantegna.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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An excellent film that is often overlooked
Added 7/24/2006
A Barry Livingstone production, which is semi-autobiographical. The story centers on a Jewish family living in Baltimore at the height of anti-Semitism. Other racial issues emerge, such as the introduction of African American students into White schools. Despite the `weighty' content, this movie is actually a comedy, and there are several moments that are truly funny. Benefits from a great cast, including Adrian Brody - before his `mainstream' emergence.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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