Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-01-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
A strong argument favours Gary Sinise's 1992 Of Mice and Men over the classic 1939 version that critics have historically preferred. As adapted by the great playwright-screenwriter Horton Foote, John Steinbeck's Depression-era masterpiece comes alive with timeless simplicity, more candid in language and behaviour, and therefore more honest in its embrace of Steinbeck's beloved pair of lowly dreamers George (Sinise) and his retarded cousin Lennie (John Malkovich). On the lam, they find work as farmhands, joining a close-knit crew and trying to avoid trouble stirred by the dangerously seductive wife (Sherilyn Fenn) of the boss's sadistic son (Casey Siemaszko). There's not a false note or bad performance in the entire film; as veterans of Chicago's acclaimed Steppenwolf Theater, Malkovich and Sinise possess the compassionate chemistry that makes George and Lennie inseparable until the tragic, inevitable final scene. As director, Sinise serves the material with no-frills fidelity; it's easy to believe that Steinbeck would have approved. --Jeff Shannon

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Actor Gary Sinise directs this excellent adaptation of John Steinbeck's tragic tale about two migrant farmworkers in Depression-era California. Lennie (John Malkovich), a sweet-natured, mentally-retarded man who doesn't realize his own crushing strength, and George (Sinise), his companion and protector, befriend an aging farmhand (ray Walston) on the ranch where they work as wheat harvesters. The three men resolve to buy a farm together and escape their down-trodden existence as itinerant laborers. But their dream is shattered when the child-like Lennie accidentally commits a grievous crime.

Customer Reviews

Well acted movie close to the book
Malkovich is once again mesmerising as the tragic but memorable Lennie, a simple minded man born into a cruel world. Senise plays his inseparable buddy and guardian, George, and you feel for him as he struggles hard to cope with looking after the difficult Lennie, mainly because the harsh world doesn't have the time or patience to understand such a man whose behavior can be a little worrying and eccentric. The stretched out wheat fields make a great movie landscape and the mood of the era is quite well defined, it seems. Then you come to the humanity of the famous story, the painful humanity that will not leave you, just as the pain will not leave George, who is forced into making a unenviable decision, by circumstances. A good film version which succeeds in showing much of the flavour of the Steinbeck classic, if perhaps not quite as much power with its message, although it does try. Novels can usually get across statements about the world we live in with much more effect than films, however. It is good effort though and is a rewarding, if inevitably sad film to watch.

Thought it would be too high brow but ................
Bought this for my daughter's GCSE English Literature exam studies, have heard of Of Mice and Men before but didn't know the plot etc. Put the film on for my daughter and I didn't expect to like it myself but would watch it for her benefit. HOWEVER! absolutely enthralled right from the start!! Fabulous story of friendship and loyalty. heartbreaking in places and funny in others. Twist at the end but definately would watch it again. Don't be put off thinking this is just for students, it is for anyone over 15 years.

The mice won
I'd heard about this film from a work colleague and thought it should be worth a gamble. I lost? Malkovich(you either love him or nothing him) seemed type cast but the pace although deliberately slow never engaged me at all. There was all the elements there yet it failed to do itself justice. Good directors are hard to come by and perhaps miscasting may have been the stumbling block. I did however love the scenery!