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List Price: $19.97 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 14254
Released: May 26, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.08 |
| Used Price: $12.09 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A young San Francisco widow is swept into a political uprising in Burma after her sister reluctantly drags her on a Southeast Asia tour.
Description of Beyond Rangoon:
Working at the top of his form, John Boorman is a director who can pursue the poetry of his personal obsessions within the framework of a dynamic thriller and not shortchange the film. Beyond Rangoon involves a journey into unfamiliar territory: the rivers, jungles, and war-torn backcountry of Burma in 1988; But it also ventures into the mythic Arthurian terrain of such seemingly disparate films as Excalibur, Point Blank, and Deliverance. This time, uniquely in this director's work, the quester is a woman. American doctor Laura Bowman (Patricia Arquette) regards her life as having ended after the brutal murder of her husband and their little boy by home invaders. Her sister (Frances McDormand) has persuaded her to come along on a sightseeing tour of Burma. The trip leaves Laura numb until, impulsively venturing into the night alone, she becomes witness to a crisis moment in history: the beginning of the military dictatorship's violent crackdown on the rising democracy movement. The sight of Aung San Suu Kyi, the dissidents' inspirational leader, facing down a wall of armed soldiers with only the power of serene self-possession inspires Laura (an amazing scene--and it really did happen).
But that's only the beginning of Laura’s movement toward enlightenment, and back to life. Beyond Rangoon abounds in memorable encounters--with individuals variously supportive and terrifying, and with locations and situations where hope and catastrophe trade off like valences of the same energy. As critic Kathleen Murphy has noted, "It's as though the fabric of reality shivers like water, racking focus into a new, altered pattern of experience." (Case in point: the startling image of a car's rear window star-shattered by a pursuer's bullet as Laura drives down an almost nonexistent jungle road--the pursuit car sharply irised in the bullet hole.) Boorman makes us feel the total chaos of a spectacularly beautiful land that is not only at the mercy of a brutal regime but utterly cut off from an outside world that doesn't, can't, know what's happening there. In this, Boorman's movie immeasurably increased awareness of Burma's tragedy, but it hasn't prevented the government of what's now called Myanmar from keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest more than 20 years later. --Richard T. Jameson
Beyond Rangoon Reviews:
Patricia sure can run... 
2009-08-01 - Gotta give the girl credit...she did a great job in a very physically demanding role. Didn't mind running fast, didn't mind swimming in foul water and didn't mind mud...but DID mind blood! And she's supposed to be a doctor? Unbelievable indeed. And its ironic to see Spalding Gray here and to know of his later fate.
This is a case of good intentions being lost within bad execution of a very dubious script.
Well crafted 
2009-07-30 - Well crafted film by John Boorman. Haunting in some places, intense throughout. I was surprised at the strength of Patricia Arquette's performance. It is a cut above her previous work.
Worth saving for a rainy day with no other distractions.
5 Stars +
2009-07-13 - We have been waiting for so long... The DVD has finally been released at a time where we would expected a bluray... but still absolutely perfect.
Patricia Arquette in her best role ever, and a music so beautiful that you can easily listen it as a stand-alone.
The movie is purely and simply one of my favorite. I saw it in a theater years ago and since, never felt that the story was losing its attract. At a time when the sympathy of the people is linked to the headlines and soon vanishes, we should not lose from sight the fact that though the movie has ended well (or not so), the situation has not changed in Burma.
Please buy this DVD to your friends as the truth must be heard!
Still Informative! 
2009-07-12 - Had been waiting for this dvd. Eventhough some of the scenes I remember from the original have been cut off, after all these years it sadly amazes me that many people around the world still have no idea who the Nobel Laurate is!!!!! Movies should cause curiosity, specially in the case of Aung San Suu Kyi and her country Myanmar. I had the opportunity to visit Burma 3 yrs. ago. Thanks originally to this movie I had done my research. The people I encountered are VERY afraid to even mention her name.She is called the "Lady" in as many languages as the brave tour guide speaks!!!...it's an entertaining way to get cultivated.
Decent movie, but some hyperbole
2009-05-01 - Beyond Rangoon has become something of a cult classic among the Burmese democracy movement. Until the latest Rambo, it was the only hollywood movie that focused on Burma. It actually provides a good sense of the 1988 protests in Burma, although the chronology of events and details are not historically accurate. For example, there are no accounts of a white woman becoming so involved in the protests. Furthermore, it is a one-sided portrayal, casting the military as evil and opposition as all good - but that's not too far from the truth.
The movie is at times corny, with stale acting and all too naive Burmese "natives." However, a lot of the scenes, particularly during the military's crackdown on the protests, are moving. Furthermore, Hans Zimmer's soundtrack is sublime and really sets the emotional mood.
Overall, this is a great movie to watch if you are interested in Burma, but treat it as entertainment, not a history lesson.
