The Sandpiper
by Vincente Minnelli
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Product details
Actor: Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Richard Burton, Robert WebberDirector: Vincente Minnelli
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 117 minutes
Release Date: 1993-02-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)
VHS Movie Reviews of The Sandpiper
Movie Review: the shadow of her smell
Summary: 2 Stars
ok, now THIS one is dick & liz at their most self-indulgent. even "boom" (not yet released on dvd, alas) is a better movie, if only because it is sooooo bad. it is amazing to realize that right after this, arguably her worst performance, taylor went on to give her best in "virginia wolff". i have given this a second star because the shorts about the making of the film (included on the dvd) are pretty interesting. only for dick & liz completists.Movie Review: Liz is sweet if not entirely convincing...
Summary: 3 Stars
Not only in "Cleopatra" but in her next two films as well, "The V.I.P.s," and "The Sandpiper," Taylor was more the world-famous celebrity and less the conscientious actress than at any other time in her career... The three movies exploit the public's fantasy of what the lovers must be like: tempestuous, as in "Cleopatra;" quarreling, on the verge of separation, as in "The V.I.P.s;" illicit lovers, defying the moral norms, as in "The Sandpiper."
As the ancient Queen of the Nile, as modern day grande dame, or as a hippie artist, Taylor is Taylor, hemmed in by her spectacular fame... The international celebrity, the world's most famous lover, takes over from the burgeoning actress of the Fifties, and Taylor walks through the movies as the fabled beauty she'd become rather than the high-strung Southern belle she had been before Rome...
Playing an unmarried woman who lives with her son exactly the way she wants to live, in harmony with the California coast, Liz Taylor, for once, gets to talk about ideas: her character proclaims the joys of independence and self-expression... Taylor is no Jane Fonda, alight with radical fervor, but the role does express something of herself; it lets us see a side of her that differs from the standard screen Taylor...
Here she's a 'new' woman, free and wise, who teaches a thing or two to a rigid churchman... The film's symbol is the sandpiper with a broken wing which she offers as proof that every creature should be allowed to fly free...
We know too much about her to believe her as a hedonistic artist who would dress so fashionably in such an impossibly expansive beach house... The character's broad humanistic philosophy--her objections to organized religion and to formal schooling, her advocacy of free love and her celebration of the naturalness of physical love--are, oddly enough, at the film's center...
The story that interrupts the characters ongoing declarations about life is the old number of a minister tempted by a beautiful woman... Bombarded by the artist's charms, the man succumbs, only to depart at the end, weighed down by, guilt and vowing to seek the way of repentance and purification...The movie's morality is thus a mingling of the old and the new...
The movie plays it both ways, admiring the woman's freedom and righteous self-justification, but making the clergyman pay dearly for his indulgence in forbidden fruit... It's an old Hollywood romance trying to masquerade as a love story in the modern manner...
Burton's prude is impossible and he plays him in a harsh oratorical manner, as if he's deadening himself to the pain of it all, but Taylor's character almost approaches being a real rebel with ideas... The movie exploits the public image of her as a challenger of conventions, but the role also gives her a chance to sound reasonably articulate about matters other than love... Under Vincente Minnelli's graceful guidance, Liz is sweet if not entirely convincing...
Movie Review: Liz Taylor Really Makes An Impression
Summary: 4 Stars
Whatever else you can say about this movie, Liz Taylor's presence in it makes all the difference. She was really a gorgeous woman in those days, and within the confines of the film, I thought her part was well-acted. That's not to say the film is believable, of course. But the movie is a great preservation (and reflection) of the culture of the sixties - in much the same way as another Burton film, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. The Sandpiper is one of those movies that seems at first shallow and uninteresting, but then you can't stop watching it. Too bad it's not yet available on DVD.Movie Review: Love still goes on
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie has remained with me long after seeing it for the first time. I even found the soundtrack in a local Record store.
When I hear the great song Shadow of your smile I find myself sad that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's love didn't survive in this romantic movie. Then I stop to think and say "wait a minute they had many more years of love at its best in real life, it did survive". Not the greatest script but a memorable experience to watch just the same.
Movie Review: They Filmed the Wrong Scenes
Summary: 2 Stars
The odd thing about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's weakest films is the feeling that their personal lives of high drama and turmoil were far more interesting than any scene concocted for them.
Burton looks torn and haunted with an intensity that rises above his role--and his role is a preacher having an affair, so you can't get much more dramatic than that! Taylor is stunning and passionate, but she looks like she has to work way too hard to worth all the trouble. Their personal lives sound so much more interesting and, after watching each scene in THE SANDPIPER, I kept wishing the camera wouldn't cut and just keep following them to wherever they went after their scenes.
Other reviews have pointed out the other faults: the over-the-top dialogue, older hippies living like millionaires, completely wasting Eva Marie Saint, etc.
The best reviews come from people who remember seeing the film when it opened, when they were young or living in the Big Sur area. It's impossible to be a fair judge of film when you're young. I knew a lady who grew up in on the beaches of Southern California and her favorite film is a terrible Elvis beach movie. I don't think she loves it because it's good, she loves it because, like an old song, that bad movie just takes her back. I can see where THE SANDPIPER does that with its beautiful scenery, nice musical soundtrack and Sixties atmosphere does that.
In a biography of Richard Burton, he was quoted as saying that he and Elizabeth were really George and Martha in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, easily their finest film. He also earned Liz's wrath for that too--probably a lot like Martha as well!
The scenery is nice in THE SANDPIPER, but check out VIRGINIA WOOLF if you really want to see both of these actors at their best.
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