Cradle Will Rock
1999
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production. Read more
| Starring | Hank Azaria, Ruben Blades, John Cusack, Joan Cusack |
|---|---|
| Director | Tim Robbins |
| Genres | Drama |
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Cradle Will Rock
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
| Starring | Hank Azaria, Ruben Blades, John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Bill Murray, Susan Sarandon, Cary Elwes, Vanessa Redgrave, John Turturro, Emily Watson |
|---|---|
| Director | Tim Robbins |
| Studio | WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 9 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 09 Oct 2006 Production year: 1999 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Set during the anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1930s, this dense and rather gruelling political drama focuses on the efforts of a bunch of New York theatre folk, including Orson Welles, to stage a left-wing play. When the powers that be block the project, all involved decide the show must go on. Actor turned director Tim Robbins marshals the material with skill, convincingly evoking the vibrancy of both place and period. Yet he over-eggs the pudding by cramming in too many intertwined storylines and characters — some historical, some fictional. John Cusack, Susan Sarandon and Emily Watson head the cast, though the star turn comes from Bill Murray as a paranoid ventriloquist.
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A true story, and a fascinating and important one, is given a rousing treatment, providing a panoramic view of the artistic ferment of the time, when passions ran high, and art and politics could be united in a common cause.
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Most helpful member's review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
wonderful
Perhaps the greatest collection of actors in any film. Actors being actors, actors being people, people etc... Wonderful exploration of the communist exploitation of the acting fraternity around the USA depression period (or visa versa ?). The end brought a tear of happiness to my eye.
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Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Customer Review
In this fascinating slice of political and theatrical history, Tim Robbins tells the true story of the day in the 1930's when the U.S. government sent armed soldiers to a Broadway theatre to stop the performance of an operetta. The operetta, a piece of Brechtian agit-prop by the American composer Marc Blitzstein, was funded by the Workers' Theatre Program, (i.e. the U.S. government)and was essentially a plea for U.S. steel workers to form a union. In Tim Robbins' version, the worlds of money, politics and art collide as capitalists like Hearst and Rockefeller help finance the Fascist governments of Italy and Germany, exchanging money for Old Masters, whilst the unemployed begged for small change in the streets as they struggled through the Great Depression. This movie has an exceptionally fine cast of actors, including Bill Murray, Emily Watson, John and Joan Cusack, as well as Susan Sarandon and Vanessa Redgrave. There are several story lines and many characters; the fine actors make a telling impression in very little screen time. Robbins caricatures the very rich and powerful, but is compassionate in portraying the relatively powerless who truly believed that the "Reds" were infiltrating American life; Bill Murray and Joan Cusack play two lonely, rather sad souls who put their own principles on the line and suffer ostracism and ridicule. Emily Watson is moving as a street singer who is cast as the lead in Marc Blitzstein's operetta, finding a family and, she thinks, love within the acting company. This movie has tremendous gusto and speed, and finishes rousingly as the actors defy the U.S. government and their own cowardly trades unions to sing and act "The Cradle Will Rock" from the seats of a borrowed theatre with the composer leading them from an upright piano on the stage. Robbins compresses and distorts history to make his points, and employs a certain amount of fantasy - Marc Blitzstein is accompanied by the ghosts of his young wife and Bertolt Brecht (who certainly was alive and kicking in the 1930's). However, the essential story is true and dramatic enough in itself to bear the additional weight of Robbins' invention and the cast is just incredibly good.
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A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.... -