Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: TLA RELEASING
EAN: 0807839002416
Format: Closed-captioned
Item Dimensions: Array
Label: Tla
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Tla
MPN: TLAD161
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Tla
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-06-27
Running Time: 101
Studio: Tla
Theatrical Release Date: 2004

In this poignant, soul-searching drama, Pip Anders has just turned eighteen and finds himself estranged from his family and living homeless on the streets. As he attempts to sort out his young life with the help of a local priest (Alan Cumming), he listens to a tape left to him by his deceased grandfather Jason (voiced by Ian McKellen), telling of his own experiences at age eighteen trapped behind enemy lines in battle. Although decades apart, the two young men must face their difficult parallel lives, each on an uncertain journey of redemption and self-discovery.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Surprisingly 'Traditional Values' Movie
Comment: It is rare that I would give an A rating to a movie with as much bad language and sex as there is in this movie, but in this case I think it amplifies the negative, which makes the positive seem all the more appealing. By reading the DVD case, many who hold to traditional values would conclude that this is a gayfriendly movie and pass it up. Indeed there is ample depiction of that lifestyle. However, it is in no way glamorized. In actuality, this movie emphasizes the sleaziness and dangers of paid gaysex.

At the same time, the story is about a boy nicknamed 'Pip,' who harbors a deep hatred of his father. Apparently the boy's brother had tested 'coming out,' and the father treated the brother much as many fathers who catch a teen smoking - forcing them to do it in excess until it literally gags them. As Pip's father was teaching the brother a lesson, while in the car, it crashes and the brother, not buckled up because of what he was being forced to do, was killed.

When Pip runs away from home, he is taken in by this hustler. But, Pip isn't interested in his benefactor or his lifestyle. He finds a wonderful young lady and soon they are a couple. As would happen, she get pregnant, and Pip is forced to steal a camera from his benefactor to pawn for money for an abortion. All the while, in his spare time, Pip is listening to a cassette tape of his grandfather, and his experiences in World War II, when he, also, was eighteen. He reaches the point in the tape where his grandfather reaches a 'life or death' crisis just as his own life is reaching a crisis with his girlfriend's pregnancy.

Now, in the neighborhood where Pip is hanging out, there is a Roman Catholic priest from the local parish who has a special knack of connecting with the street kids. Gradually, as the movie progresses, this wonderful priest gains Pip's confidence, and lets the boy 'unload' his emotional burdens on him. It isn't so much for counseling, but that the priest is letting Christ's love show through him to those in need.

There are quite a few times in this movie where most viewers would get the wrong impression about all the characters, including the priest. But, don't give up on the movie at any of those points. In the end, you will find the story to be completely consistent with traditional values, especially Catholic (or Protestant) values. You might feel like you spent the hour and a half in the South Bronx, or the worst slums of your city, but at the end it will feel as if a ray of sunshine has cleansed all the filth away.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: silly
Comment: The flashbacks to World War II are marred by melodrama and a musical score that suggests epic battle scenes. It is impossible to suspend one's disbelief. A half hour of this film was quite enough. Not recommended.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Understanding
Comment: "Eighteen"

Understanding

Amos Lassen

"Eighteen" directed by Richard Bell is a small gem of a movie in which the viewer is a voyeur and gets to look at the inner workings of a family in which something terrible has happened.
Pip is a street kind who meets life in the big city. In his eighteenth birthday, he receives his grandfather's memoirs from the Second World War on an audio cassette and discovers the remnants of a lost world. His grandfather relates what happened on the day he turned eighteen. He was running from German troops through the woods of France with a dying comrade who was hanging onto his last shred of life. Upon hearing this, Pip begins to live a parallel life of his grandfather's. Both were lost in their environments and in their generations. Pip meets Clark, a street hustler, and Jenny, a young girl hoping to be a social worker who in her own way tempts Pip with feelings of domesticity and love. He also comes to know a parish priest and confides in him his secrets about the death of his brother and a terrible and heinous act that was committed against him by his father before he died.
The introduction of the movie sets the tone for that which is to follow. We watch a family dinner in which something happens which causes the father and two sons to flee in the family car and having an accident in which Pip's brother is killed. Pip, in turn, leaves his family and decides to live on the streets. His father manages to trace him down so that he can send him his grandfather's tape on his eighteenth birthday.
Pip's grandfather, Jason (the voice of Ian McKellen), tells of his experience with a wounded medic named Macauley, who only wanted something to live for and Jason tries to comfort the man as he passes away. This is a gorgeous scene as we see shades of redemption as it is lyrical. Pip's listening to the tape changes the way he looks at life and love.
The movie is polished and beautifully photographed and the characters are developed with great style. The two simultaneous stories come together and I felt as I had witnesses an experience that was tender and beautiful. Even though the subject being dealt with was quite ugly, the performances, the story line and the cinematography combined to give a wonderful viewing experience.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: "Grow old, buy a home and have a child"
Comment: Eighteen is one of those movies that wants to say something about every single provocative subject and also mean something to everyone. There's no doubt the film is an accomplished effort, but director Richard Bell packs so much into his one hour, forty-five minute film that the result is a cinematic experience that sort of over extends itself.

Consequently, Eighteen is all over the place, switching backwards and forwards in time and utilizing parallel narratives, which look like they could perhaps have come from two separate movies. Social comment is all very well, but stories that deal with multiple narratives - unless done well - risk becoming a clutter of straying threads.

In this film we have daddy/son incest, abortion issues, male prostitution, suicide, male rape, stabbings, and gun shot wounds... and the list goes positively on. Pip Anders (Paul Anthony) is a street kid, a runaway from a prominent upper middle class family who is angry with his father over the loss of his older brother who died in a violent car accident.

On his eighteenth birthday he receives a tape from his grandfather (Sir Ian McKellan doing voice over) about the day he turned eighteen. Apparently granddaddy was fleeing German forces through the woods of France with a dying comrade who had suffered a fateful gunshot wound (although it's never made actually clear where they are actually going).

Pip is also suffering, running away from his family and his demons when he meets Clark (Clarence Sponagle) a gay hustler. The two form an uneasy friendship that is eventually tempered by Pip's affair with Jenny (Carly Pope). Meanwhile, Father Chris (Alan Cumming) takes pity on Pip and invites him home where he learns the terrible secret of Pip's past.

But it doesn't stop there! Pip falls in love with Jenny, Clark falls for a juvenile gas station clerk, they both meet head-on their daddy issues, and in flashback we see a World War II drama unfold in the woods of France. There's love, loyalty, sex - both gay and straight - death, passion, betrayal and attempted murder, and of course, Ian McKellan, the constant conduit, heard through a Walkman as Pip attempts to draw parallels with his own life.

Eighteen has some good moments, but so often it falls into uncomfortable histrionics. The acting is mostly melodramatic and a lot of the situations just don't ring true. The strength of the movie, however, is Cumming, who does a lovely understated turn as Father Chris, but apart from him, the rest of the cast come across as rather forced.

The mistreatment of power sexually by authority figures is obviously the theme of the film, but the impact of this gets lost amidst all the dramatics, wailing and the head banging. The World War II flashbacks are a bit of a stretch to tie in to the modern story, with the connection between them not always made that clear.

It's as though Bell is being overly ambitious; he would have been better to either stick to the modern story, or get more financing and make a more fully realized and lavish period piece. Obviously, both son and granddad have to come to terms with their lives and their insecurities, and in particular their guilt and anger - it's all a part of their journey. In the process, however, most viewers will probably be turned off and breath a sigh of relief that there won't be any more melodrama to sit through. Mike Leonard July 06.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and riveting... a deep film
Comment: This dramatic tale unfolds with an incoherant converstation at a dinner table where it can be assumed that one of the boys has just come out to his family. His father errupts in anger and then whisks the two boys off into his mini-van in the pouring rain only to have an accident that claimes the life of one of his sons. It is a dramatic introduction to the life of Pip, a runaway teen who picks up a couple of oddball friendships along his own path of growing up in hard times.
This film is drenched with depressing undertones. And it all seems to come together (despite bing two seperate stories) through the narration provided by Sir Ian McKellen, who plays Pips grandfather. He tells of an experience during World War II that made him grow into an adult real fast... and that story is woven in throughout Pips own struggles. The back story is facinating and suspenceful, but it isn't as engaging as the "front and center" story.
Pip befriends a self centered gay hustler named Clark. Clark does not believe in love but a young man has his heart set on him even though Clark seems a little struck by Pip. After a confusing moment between Pip and Clark, Pip leaves and runs into Jenny and some guys. jenny saves his life and his reaction is less than thankful. Still, through his cold attitude, a relationship forms.
It is hard to feel sorry for Pip at first because he is so stand off-ish. He is cruel to Clark and in a moment when Jenny needs his support, he is rude and unflinchingly bitter towards her. Still, that takes a turn when he finaly meets with the priest who has had short run-ins with him before. It is during a meal with the priest that the truth about the accident that killed his brother comes to light and suddenly it makes sense as to why Pip is cold hearted. I have to say that personally, the revelation shocked me and pissed me off... and I'm sure many of viewers will find the moment disturbing and deeply uncomfortable.
This film approaches such hard hitting topics like suicide, abortion, homosexuality, rape, and molestation with an edgy approach. After the "big" revelation, it was easy to see who the real monster of this film was... and it was easier to feel for Pip as he continued down his dark path. Thankfully, this movie ends on an upbeat note despite being such a downer the rest of the time... although, becuase of the content, I cannot say that it was bad at all.
The acting was decent throughout... although I was a little thrown by the forced flamboyance of Clarks character. It seemed like he was wrestling with the material... and it got a little messy. Brendan Fletcher (as a young Jason Anders... Pips Grandfather) makes out the best because he has the juiciest role... a soldier trying to keep himself and a fallen commrade alive... and he is extreemly convincing. Alan Cumming is also a standout as the priest because he has a couple good lines about priests and molestaion... and the misconceptions that happen because of a few "bad" men.
Overall, a really good movie. It is dramatic and emotionally charged... and it has some disturbing content. It opened my eyes a little bit... and shed light on a world I hope no child has to really endure.

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