I have seen "Death and the Maiden" on stage before seeing the filmed version. After that, I can say without doubt that the power of "The Death" is in Dorfman's play/script, which stages such a tensed drama, it will take really lousy cast and director to ruin it. Polansky made no real changes from the stage version and this film is so static it could be as well a screened stage play. Nevertheless, Polansky and the cast are'nt "lousy" - they are very good and they do the stage-play talentfully. Another pro for this movie - the issue of human rights abuses could get to a much wider audience that way. Think of "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" and the awareness of human rights abuses. After all, lots of people wont go to see "Death..." in the theatre.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Miss Firecracker
(1989)
Not the cast's best film, but a fairly good one
8 October 1999
I saw this film in the cables, in an afternoon-ish forgotten hour and wanted to see it all over again. Holly Hunter is an ex-abandoned child and nowadays a bimbo, who grew up in her aunt's house; Tim Robbins is her traumatized cousin. Being way too short and red-headed she wants to win a beauty contest. Hunter and Robbins are not at their best - it is'nt "The Piano" (Or even "Raising Arizona", where Hunter did another tough southerner), but it's a great film and deserves watching, not only by those actors' fans. A better director would have probably made it another "Raising Arizona"/"Gross Point".
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