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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Blue Underground
Salesrank: 9720
Released: May 31, 2005 |
| Our Price: $25.00 |
| Used Price: $14.88 |
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MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Winner of Six Australian Academy Awards, Including Best Picture and Best Director.
Exquisite 2-Disc Special Edition
This is the film that became a worldwide sensation and remains perhaps the most beloved and acclaimed romantic epic of all time. Oscar -nominee Judy Davis (Passage To India, Husbands and Wives) made her international debut as Sybylla Melvyn, a free spirited young writer who refues to conform to society's expectations of how a 'proper woman' should live her life. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) co-stars as the wealthy suitor who tries to win her restless heart in this Oscar nominated classic by Gillian Armstrong (Little Women, Starstruck). Long unavailable in America, My Brilliant Career has been fully restored and remastered in High Definition from the original negative, under the supervision of Academy Award nominated Director of Photography Donald McAlpine.
Description of My Brilliant Career:
The acclaimed debut of Judy Davis is the best reason to see My Brilliant Career, and the award-winning film is highly recommended as the feature debut of director Gillian Armstrong. This was an early entry in the magnificent "New Australian Cinema" movement that yielded such classics as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, and Breaker Morant, and 27-year-old Armstrong (who would later direct the popular 1994 version of Little Women) brought just the right feminist touch to this stately adaptation of the 1901 semi-autobiographical novel by Miles Franklin. Davis (who was 23 at the time) plays 16-year-old Sybylla Melvyn, on the verge of womanhood in turn-of-the-century Australia and determined to have a "brilliant career" as an independent writer and lover of life, but her attraction to a wealthy bachelor (Sam Neill, charming as always), and the pressures of her family to lead a conventional life of devoted domesticity, turn this into a romantic and highly observant drama of personal dilemma and free-spirited conviction. It's no surprise that Davis and Armstrong went on to brilliant careers themselves (Davis starred in David Lean's A Passage to India just a few years later). --Jeff Shannon
My Brilliant Career Reviews:
TERRIBLE 
2009-09-15 - Only reason I bought this film was for a college class as 99.99% of the dialogue was so hard to understand in class I needed this to try to write a paper on the film. Basically if you need this film for a class buy it otherwise this remains an outdated film not worth the time to watch it.
Yet another contrarian review 
2009-08-14 - I agree with the other two "contrarian reviews." The one by A. Heifez says everything I would want to. I only add my comments here, to give prospective buyers a full range of opinions since there are so many raves.
I watched this film for about forty-five minutes and like the other "contrarian" I really tried to like it. From the get-go, the message was broadcast loud and clear---that the heroine was not about to settle for the type of life that was being offered to her. She was different, spunky, full of life and energy and blessed with a full head of thick red hair and freckles to match. And she wants to be an Artist. (Think "Jo" of Little Women, but Aussie stlye---a bit more rustic.)
She is initially saved from a life of servitude by the generous offer of her very wealthy grandmother, who rescues her from the outback and brings her to the city her to live in her magnificent home with her family. They freshen her up, give her beautiful clothes and introduce her to suitors who will give her a life of ease and luxury. Sybilla turns up her nose at all of that, clinging to her dream of being an Artist. She hasn't decided yet what field of art she will pursue yet...music? writing? perhaps the theater? This shows the level of realism where she lives. A real artist would have been actively practicing her art form by the time she is S's age. She does know one piece on the piano which she plays repeatedly with a dogged enthusiam if not with much talent.
What Sybilla is very good at, though, is scorning everyone she feels is her inferior and that includes most everyone. I could certainly sympathize with her objection to being married off to someone she doesn't love, but she does love one of the men, who is charming and sweet as well as well-off. Judy Davis, whose performance I loved in Passage to India, was appropriately spunky here but the amount of smug smirking really turned me off. I think it would be possible to show energy and an independent spirit without being so snotty. We're supposed to be rooting for this character but I found nothing to endear her to me. After a while I really didn't care what happened to this ungrateful girl and I turned it off.
Maybe it got better as S. met the bumps of life and matured. I'll never know.
Cinematography excellence! 
2009-02-22 - My Brilliant Career is the most beautifully filmed movie I have seen. If you were to pause nearly every frame, you would have the equivalent of an impressionist painting - beautifully balanced in color and texture, and always with compassion for the landscape, the characters, and the story. Set in a period of economic hardship for Australia, the story's characters struggle between conventional expectation and individual fulfillment. Strong performances by a stellar cast, amazing cinematography, and a timeless storyline made this movie the big breakthrough for Australian film making. I am so pleased to have found this wonderful film to add to my library!
I Bugged HBO About Sam Years Ago Because of This!
2008-04-19 - I saw this years ago when it was new. LOVED the film, read the book (and the sequel). Became a BIG Sam Neill fan. In the "old" days when cable was new, you could request films, by name. I was able to do some digging in foreign film periodicals, and started requesting some of the films he made in New Zealand and Australia. HBO aired them, several times! So, in my own small way, I helped introduce him to the states. And Judy Davis is/was wonderful! Loved the hair!!!
Great movie! And great for younger girls to watch.
For true romantics
2008-03-05 - This is simply a beautiful film, bursting with life and creativity--I recommend it to anyone. Don't miss the featurettes on the DVD set, especially the interview with director Gillian Armstrong, recalling how she argued for the film's free-spirited ending (barely imaginable even in the 1970s) and ended up winning the hearts of the audience at the Cannes Film Festival.
