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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Miramax
Salesrank: 48557
Released: November 16, 1999 |
| Our Price: $3.82 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Academy Award(R)-winner Jack Nicholson (1997 Best Actor, AS GOOD AS IT GETS) drives this suspenseful, critically acclaimed action thriller about one man's unquenchable thirst for revenge! For six agonizing years, Freddy Gale (Nicholson) has waited for John Booth (David Morse, THE NEGOTIATOR), the man jailed for a crime that destroyed Freddy's life. Now, Booth is out of prison and Freddy's giving him three days before he returns ... to even the score! Directed by Sean Penn and starring Academy Award(R)-winner Anjelica Huston (1985 Best Supporting Actress, PRIZZI'S HONOR) and sexy Robin Wright (MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE), THE CROSSING GUARD is an intense, emotionally charged thriller that delivers!
Description of The Crossing Guard:
Sean Penn wrote and directed this character-driven drama about a divorced couple (Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston) whose relationship never recovered following the death of their daughter at the hands of a drunk driver (David Morse). When the latter's character, a deeply regretful and changed man, gets out of jail, Nicholson, as the vengeful dad, decides to go after him. As a director, Penn is not so good with fluid storytelling and camera clichés, but he is amazing as an actor's director. The onscreen reteaming of former real-life lovers Nicholson and Huston is more than just a voyeuristic exercise: Penn ingeniously uses the duo's palpable friction to bring an often horrifying reality to the pain of a dead relationship. --Tom Keogh
The Crossing Guard Reviews:
Powerful Performances 
2009-12-04 - The Crossing Guard marked Sean Penn's second outing as a writer and director. Even today, The Crossing Guard receives a cool reception from those who stumble upon it. While almost all agree that the film is not a masterpiece, some go so far as to say it's not even a good film. It's not perfect, it's not a masterpiece, but I can't tell you that The Crossing Guard is not a good film that proves Sean Penn is a true film director.
Jack Nicholson plays Freddy, an alcoholic jeweler whose daughter was killed some years ago by a drunk driver named John Booth (David Morse). Booth has recently been released from prison, moving into a trailer in his parent's driveway and Freddy plans to kill him. Since the death of his daughter, Freddy has nothing. His ex-wife Mary (Anjelica Huston) has re-married and his two sons call him by his first name; his nights are spent drinking and socializing in a strip club. He's hit rock bottom and has nothing worth holding on to. When Freddy finally attempts to kill Booth, he has gun troubles and tells Booth he has 3 days. Booth is still suffering from the guilt that he no longer fears his own mortality.
This synopsis makes the film sound like a cheap, conventional, and contrived thriller. There are parts of Penn's story that are contrived, without a doubt...But this a strong, character-driven piece that allowed me to slightly overlook blemishes in the story.
The film is driven by Nicholson and Morse, two vastly contrasted performances, with Morse giving a subdued performance as Nicholson immerses himself into the character, once again crating a memorable character while essentially playing a variation on himself. The fact that Sean Penn is an actor greatly helps him get great performances out of his actors. 20 minutes in there is a scene between Nicholson and Huston (who had gone through a tumultuous breakup only a few years earlier) which seethes intensity. Quite late into the movie, they have yet another scene together and it's easy to see both of them drawing from their personal history to get through the scenes correctly. While both Freddy and Booth are appropriately fleshed out, I felt that Penn didn't fully flesh out Huston's character and Jojo (Robin Wright), Booth's love interest. They felt more like devices of the plot rather than actual characters.
I do find it funny to note (due to Penn's famously hot temper) that, despite playing Booth's love interest, there is not a single scene of Wright and Morse kissing.
Penn proves himself with this film that he's a strong director and a strong writer, but he still hadn't fully matured as one. His script is "good," but would not have worked as a film without the cast he chose to populate the movie. The saddest thing about The Crossing Guard is that it's not a great film, although it certainly had the potential to be just that. The contrived story, specifically the happy ending, is what killed it for me. In the end, I felt the film would've worked better as a grim story about revenge than a dark tale about redemption. There are great scenes in the film, but others that are just too forced and predictable to ignore...The paradox of Freddy in particular. I saw that coming from the very beginning of the film. The Crossing Guard has great performances, great direction, and is entertaining enough but it could've been so much more.
GRADE: B
A Haunting Tale Of Forgiveness
2009-05-19 - This is a strange movie. That's what I thought when I first saw this a decade ago. It was one of those films I thought about a couple of days later and couldn't get out of my head for a short while. When I saw it again a few years ago I almost had the same reaction.
What's different about this film is the message: forgiveness. That's really what it's about and it's done in a touching way even though most of the characters in here are anything but nice people.
If you can enjoy a good character-development story and not get too dismayed by a depressing scene or two this movie will reward you with some intangibles that are hard to describe unless you've seen this.
Jack Nicholson, David Morse, Angelica Huston and Robin Wright make for an interesting foursome, I'll say that.
If you don't like this movie, I would understand that, too. It's not an easy film to like. It will either haunt you or put you to sleep. It haunted me.
cheap, fast, perfect 
2009-01-07 - Product was extremely cheap, in great condition (new) and arrived swiftly during the Holiday season.
Jack and Anjelica together again 
2008-04-16 - Nicholson and Huston were a big Hollywood couple for well over a decade in the late seventies/ early eighties into the nineties. The relationship ended when Jack fathered a child with someone else. This knowledge enhances their performances in an otherwise average film. When these two confront each other it feels raw. It feels more like they are frustrated with each other as people rather than as actors playing a part. I didn't think anything in this film, directed by Sean Penn, was as impressive as their brilliant performances. Freddy Gale (Nicholson) is a bitter drunk who never recovered from the death of his daughter at the hands of a drunk driver named Booth (a buff David Morse). Freddy's emotional spiral proved too much for his wife (Huston) who divorced him and moved on with her life. Freddy practically lives in a run down strip club where he spends his nights and dates the dancers. The only pleasure he gets out of life is torturing his ex wife by bringing up their dead daughter. When he learns of Booth's release from prison, Freddy plots the murder of the man who ruined his life. Freddy lets everyone know of his intentions, including Booth. He pays him a drunken visit and gives him three nights to set things right before he comes back to murder him. The remarkable thing is that Booth is accepting of this. His life was forever ruined by this tragedy too. In his last days Booth romances an artist named JoJo (Robin Wright Penn) and tries to tell her and his parents about the daily guilt he has been living with. Wright Penn is beautiful but after watching her embarrass herself by dancing to Salt N' Pepa you question if she was only cast because her husband wanted her in his movie. My biggest problem with this film is Freddy's hypocrisy. His daughter was killed by a drunk driver yet he is constantly driving home drunk from the strip club. In the film's last act, when he tries to execute his revenge, he is drunk driving and endangers the life of a small child his daughter's age. It's a decent, heavy film that deals with sensitive issues and has brilliant acting from a good cast. A promising effort from Penn.
About Redemption
2007-08-11 - I saw brilliant movie from Penn 'The pledge' which has some similiarities to this ...a man with obsessed goal. However this one turns out to be a movie of 2 guys who have to deal with their tribulations. Jack Nicholeson who looses his 7 yr old daughter and obsessed in killing the guy (David morse). David kills his daughter in an dunken driving accident and comes of prison but still plagued by Guilt. The plot turns out with an ending where two people give up their irrationality and accept themselves.
This movie potrays deep emotions traumatized souls (as all sean movies) in a symbolic way but however suffers with poor script. David is not suited for this role and doesn't play the emotions of guilt.The way he acts shows as if his personality doesn't have emotions at all. Forget guilt. The romance between David and Robert Penn is not developed properly. Surprising that the romance is not focussed in the movie when movie revolves around Jack who spends time with young girls without any drama involved.
Inspite of poor script, Jack gives great performance..as good as it gets on would think. Jack's ex-wife plays her role with ease. The audience can get the taste of melodrama of troubled souls finding peace at the end. All in all, it is average movie with simple plot.
This movie is no match for 'The pledge' which is chilling and brilliant thriller although theree are some similarities.
