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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Video
Salesrank: 34810
Released: May 16, 2000 |
| Our Price: $3.86 |
| Used Price: $2.87 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Powerful and sweeping, the critically acclaimed CRADLE WILL ROCK, starring Hank Azaria, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Bill Murray, and Susan Sarandon, takes a kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America. From high society to life on the streets, director Tim Robbins (DEAD MAN WALKING) brings Depression-era New York City to vivid life. It's a time when DaVincis are given to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini war effort and Nelson Rockefeller commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center. A time when a young Orson Welles and a troupe of passionate actors risk everything to perform the infamous musical "The Cradle Will Rock." As threats to their freedom and livelihood loom larger, they refuse to give into censorship. Based on actual events, CRADLE WILL ROCK will move you.
Description of Cradle Will Rock:
"Based on a (mostly) true story," according to the opening titles, Tim Robbins's dazzling dramatization of one of the great stories in American theater indeed takes a few liberties with history. Ostensibly the story of the mayhem surrounding Marc Blitzstein's worker's opera The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles for the WPA at the height of the Depression, Robbins paints a veritable mural around this incident, a city alive with plotting industrialists (John Cusack as Nelson Rockefeller), radical artists (Ruben Blades's Diego Rivera), and struggling citizens (Bill Murray's frustrated vaudeville ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw). Lightning strikes when the government closes the show before it even opens and the cast marches 20 blocks to an empty theater and tosses the staging aside to perform in the aisles, the balconies, and the seats. It's a rare moment of cinema capturing the immediacy and charge of live theater on the screen and it's the heart of Robbins's often exhilarating film. His heroes are Blitzstein (a warm, gently impassioned Hank Azaria) and cheery WPA Theater director Hallie Flanagan (Broadway star Cherry Jones), but in the process he snidely turns Welles and producer John Houseman into sour, silly caricatures. The stew of artistic creation and political action gets murky and at times contradictory, but vivid performances and Robbins' driving pace and staccato crosscutting keep it humming through even the most didactic moments. The songs are by Blitzstein, and the character-rich cast also features Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro, Emily Watson, and Philip Baker Hall. --Sean Axmaker
Cradle Will Rock Reviews:
Great Price, Fast Shipping, Perfect Condition 
2009-09-17 - Seller sent me my movie as advertised in great condition very quickly!
Very happy with my purchase!
Cradle Will NOT Rock 
2009-08-20 - Cradle Will Rock, released in 1999, is a film about finding a balance between art and politics, as well as artists fighting in what they believe is right. Artists are influenced by issues in everyday life, which in this movie is dealing with unions, the government, and the Great Depression. The film tried to show that even though we are all tempted by different types of prostitution or exploitation, we all can remain pure by standing in what we believe in and stand against the evil vices we encounter. During a time of struggle, the artists in the movie (actors, painters, ventriloquists, etc.) stood up for what they believed in. They spoke the truth of the corruption in politics and society. This message is deep, yet I don't think the movie as a whole did a good job of tying it all together at the end to really portray this strong message.
Basically there were too many plots and sub plots interwoven in this film. There isn't a main protagonist and you don't get to connect on a personal level with any of the characters because there are so many of them. Also, this film is very confusing and hard to follow. Not a must see hit. It's a waste of 132 minutes.
Wait for it.... 
2009-08-18 - From a seemingly muddled mess of subplots and characters, comes a great story of the Federal Theatre Project. Set during the 1930's and the Great Depression, Tim Robbins tells a story of poverty, Communism,unions and artistic integrity. Most of the characters and stories are accurate for the time, but there are some liberties taken, after all it is historical fiction. You may not find an affinity for one particular character but you will get behind their cause. While the different story lines seem disconnected they all wrap up in a nice neat bundle in end, you just have to wait for it, and it is well worth it.
An Appropriate Title 
2009-03-11 - Cradle Will Rock.I had forgotten about this movie or film until I had caught a segment of it on television.I Enjoyed the Frida Kalo and Diego Rivera part of the film,being an art lover.I was not impressed by Bill Murray as a Washed-up ventriloquist but he is a fine actor.I wont go into the other segment's.The Actors did a fine job.Accuracy I cannot speak for,If you enjoy musical theater or over the top acting enjoy.I recommend the Movie Frida-for Frida Kalo lover's.
A play about the play
2008-06-13 - The Arts Retrospective students saw a clip from this movie, and immediately became passionate about doing the show (Cradle Will Rock) and also doing a frame - the show about the show, which they see as important; I bought the DVD to convince my fellow faculty the show is worth doing.
