Awful!!!

It is obvious the movie is too deep and too symbolic for all to enjoy. Perhaps if you understand the trials of the women in Afghanistan this movie would make sense to you. In all cultures including ours here in the U.S the treatment of women has not always been pleasant. No one has mentioned it but perhaps the pain that is sometimes felt by women who for whatever reason have had an abortion is alike some of the feelings in this movie.

The movie is extremely well made, true to the wonderful book from which it is adapted (not alwways true of Hollywood).

Uh...if you didn't like the movie then I suggest you don't watch it again. Simple. I personally thought it was a very good movie, it's true it was very long and not the most action packed and exciting movie ever. But it was fairly moving (to me anyways). In school you always read about slavery...but this gives it a visual and gives you something to think about. I mean come on, killing your own children so they don't have to go through what you did?? Oh..and did Denver go work for her mothers former owner thing? I missed some parts of the movie due to homework.

Very boring.

Yeah. Just as you,


Dumbazz....LOL!!!!!

PCL

Ohh I get it!

Just the desperate whining of an old fart's idiotic low life comment trying to 'wake up' an already default board. Okay!

I will admit that the first time I saw this movie, I was confused and appalled. However, I only saw the last 1/3 of it first. This compelled me to find it online and watch it all the way through and then I immediately got it. I can understand why some would think it's awful because it seems so horrifying and over-the-top. But the truth is ... this is the truth. And the truth isn't always pretty or "realistic" in the way we view society today. However, things were very different back then.

I have first-hand experience of watching someone suffer horribly through their early life choices based on unfair circumstances. My great-grandmother (Big Mama) grew up in rural Mississippi in the early 1900s. Her struggle was not slavery, but it was being a black woman in those times with few choices. In a similar sentiment to The Color Purple, she was forced to marry a 30-year-old man when she was 15. She quickly had two children and had to succumb to abuse. Fearing for her life and realizing that her husband (my great grandfather) would not allow her to leave with the children, she ran for her life at around 18 years old. She moved north to Missouri and wasn't able to see her children again for about 7 years.

I would equate the Beloved character to my grandmother who for her entire life resented her mother for leaving her and tried to make her suffer through guilt. Even worse, my Big Mama was haunted by her decision - and when I say haunted, I meant HAUNTED.

I'm 32 now and when I was about 17 years old, I spend a lot of time at her house. Knowing nothing of her story then, I remembered constantly hearing the sound of kids playing around the house. It sounded like a playground. There were no young kids in the neighborhood but I would look around the house inside and out every time and no one was there.

After a while, my Big Mama would talk about "the kids" and how she left them and they were coming to get her. You could literally hear kids saying "Mama ... Mama!" It was terrifying for me. My Dad explained that Big Mama had been heavily into Voodoo in Mississippi and had the ability to conjure things. What she produced through her guilt was a "rememory" similar to Sethe's Beloved. Though her real kids were alive, the relationship was never repaired and her guilt produced these "ghost" kids ... AND WE COULD HEAR THEM.

So before people criticize the movie, it would be good to talk to people who lived in a time period that is different from today. We live in a light-hearted pop culture and couldn't possibly imagine what rural life was like in a time when neither women nor black people had rights. You'd be surprised by just how "realistic" this movie really is and how many people actually lived very similar lives to Sethe's or my Big Mama's everyday - and the guilt they felt for horrifying choices they were forced to make as a result of the HORROR that was inflicted upon them. I think the movie was very good and very real.

I REALLY didn't like this movie!!!!

I am very glad I read the book beforehand. It's a difficult novel to adapt to film, but I think this was a good effort. The acting was powerful, especially Newton as Beloved, but because of the nature of Morrison's narrative style, a lot of the best parts are lost in the adaptation from page to screen.

It was a long film, but all the scenes were necessary, and many key scenes from the book, acting as sub-plot, did not appear in the film. I prefer to see Beloved as a symbol rather than a character. Her origin and character are supposed to be ambiguous, and yes the film may leave you feeling disgusted - that is its intention: to provoke a reaction.

I would recommend reading the book, perhaps you'll understand the significance of the more confusing parts of the film and enjoy it on a second viewing.