Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9505 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-02-19
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Synopsis
Jackie works a job that many would find dull; she is a CCTV operator but one that gets a perverse kick out of watching others going about their everyday business; that is until a day in which a man appears on her monitor: A man from her past and one that she never wanted to see again. Now she has no alternative but to confront both the man, and the demons inside herself.

The Sun
‘Riveting revenge drama is this week’s must-see movie’(4 'dogs')

The Independent
‘Andrea Arnold’s superb debut...the best made film in Britain this year’(5 stars)

Customer Reviews

Not many films manage to be both tender and sinister at the same time...
but this film does.

Red Road is the story of Jackie, played by the extraordinary Kate Dickie in a restrained and sensitive performance, which is all the more powerful for its understatement.

Jackie is a lonely CCTV operator, watching over the streets of Glasgow like a guardian angel, trying to stop people coming to harm. She comes to know some of her "regulars" by their habits, although they don't know her, or the affection that she feels for them.

Outside of work, her relations with real, flesh and blood people, appear less successful. She rarely goes out and is having an affair with a married man that is distant, cold and demonstrative only of how badly Jackie feels about herself.

One day Jackie sees someone from her past on camera, someone she cannot forget, so she starts to watch him.

This is a quiet film, keenly observed and deeply felt; an extremely rewarding watch.

Red Road is part of a collaborative series of films, organised by Lars von Trier, whereby each of the film makers involved agreed to be constrained by a set of rules, one of which was that all the films in the collaboration should share a cast and that therefore all the casting for all the films had to be done at the same time and collaboratively between the teams.

Despite this, none of the actors appear miscast, all of them give finely nuanced performances. The only way that the audience could possibly tell the method of casting is that there seems to be an intimacy between the cast that perhaps points to a longer term involvement than is often seen.

That intimacy is supported by the nature of the film, its themes of love and loss, pain and comfort.

Completely wonderful.

Amazing film
A very cleverly constructed film. As other reviewers have mentioned, it takes a while to get going. The director plays with our perceptions of what is happening and about 2/3 of the way through the whole tone of the film appears to change, when we realise that things might not be quite as simple as they appeared. Whilst trying not to spoil the plot, this means that the viewer might see events in the film in a new light. Some of the sex scenes are quite explicit. These can also be seen in a different context when all is revealed towards the end of the film.

A slowly unfolding story.
Very slowly the reason for Jackie's stalking of of ex-con Clyde is revealed. These two characters are excellently portrayed: both have complex personalities and motivations. The long delay before one begins to realize what drives Jackie's obsession makes the first half or more of the film a bit difficult to understand, but the film-maker maintains a sense of tension and menace that keeps the viewer watching.

Life in high-rise, council-housing estates in Glasgow is bleakly and realistically depicted. This aspect of the film reminded me of the film Train-spotting. Despite being Scottish I found quite a bit of the speech of the subsidiary characters unintelligible-maybe that's because I'm from Edinburgh! I needed sub-titles, particularly for Clyde's violent flat-mate.

It's not a happy film, but a good one, that leaves one moved by the characters' dismal lives.