Product Description

Winona Ryder (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (1995 Best Actress Dead Man Walking) star in this "affectionate superbly acted" (Los Angeles Times) family favorite.With her husband off at war Marmee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters her "little women." There is the spirited Jo (Winona Ryder) conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado - Paulie) fragile Beth (Claire Danes - William Shakespeare s Romeo & Juliet) and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kirsten Dunst [Wag The Dog] and Samantha Mathis [Broken Arrow]).As the years pass the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes - The Man Who Came To Dinner) guide them through issues of independence romance and virtue.Gabriel Byrne (End Of Days) Eric Stoltz (TV s Chicago Hope) and Christian Bale (The Portrait Of A Lady) co-star in this "handcrafted valentine" (Newsweek) of a film.System Requirements:Starring: Winona Ryder John Neville Mary Wickes Claire Danes Susan Sarandon Kirsten Dunst Gabriel Byrne Trini Alvarado Samantha Mathis Christian Bale and Eric Stoltz. Directed By: Gillian Armstrong. Running Time: 118 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 043396050440 Manufacturer No: 05044

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1053 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2000-04-25
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Portuguese
• Subtitled in: Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendoing to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

DVD features
Based on the feature commentary for her film, Gillian Armstrong must be a pretty delightful person to spend an evening with. The Australian director takes us all the way through the lovely 1994 film, "whispering in our ear" with deft clarity. Armstrong engages us while talking about casting (much influenced by star Winona Ryder), locale (mostly Vancouver, B.C.), the modernization of the characters, and the task of bringing the intricate design of the 19th-century piece to life. Armstrong also narrates over two deleted scenes shown separately. She admits it's enjoyable to view the picture five years later because of Thomas Newman's Oscar-nominated score. (The score can also be heard an isolated music track.) There is also a general six-minute featurette (made by HBO) and a better eight-minute featurette on the film's costume design, narrated by Oscar nominee Colleen Atwood. Talent files, productions notes, an elementary timeline, and trivia games are also included. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
Gillian Armstrong's movie is more naturalistic-less storybooklike-than the previous screen versions of Louisa May Alcott's novel about a poor but noble New England family in the eighteen-sixties. In this rendering, the Marches-mother, father (mostly absent), and four daughters-inhabit a coherent, fully realized world. It's a deceptively audacious picture. Armstrong and the screenwriter, Robin Swicord, treat Alcott's familiar coming-of-age saga as if it were the story of American culture's coming of age, and, amazingly, they make their grand conception stick. Winona Ryder, as the aspiring writer Jo, gives a luminous performance; she shows us that even this remarkable young woman comes out of a family, and out of a society. Also with Susan Sarandon, Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Samantha Mathis, Christian Bale, Gabriel Byrne, and Mary Wickes. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Very Accurate Version
It's not the A&E Pride and Prejudice version when it comes to accuracy, but the care the screenwriters went to in order to make this true to the book (yet interesting to a film audience in ways that a straight book-film version would not have allowed) is what makes this movie such a masterpiece. The most important and memorable scenes are made dutifully true to Alcott's original, and the actors are almost always believable (older Laurie seems a little forced at times, and that is honestly my only acting complaint).

However, much of the dialogue is very soft, and while I don't remember having this issue the first time I saw the movie (about six years ago), I recently watched it again and found that I was looking at the subtitles a lot since I couldn't hear the full sentence. I am not quite 20, so I think it is less of a problem of my own hearing as it is the fault of track editing.

When I first watched this movie, I was moved to reread the book, and found it much more enjoyable than the first time I read it. After again seeing the movie, I hope to be able to read the book yet again - it just has that effect!

Best Adaptation of Classic Story
Winona Ryder was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Jo March and after you watch it, you can fully appreciate the intensity and vulnerability of her performance. While Jo is the heart of the story, this is an ensemble movie with some of the best actors alive. Kirsten Dunst simply shines as Amy, so much so that it is a disappointment when the second act roles around and she is replaced by the far less competent Samantha Manthis, who does not look like an older Kirsten Dunset at all. But Gabriel Byrne, the always-fascinating Christian Bale, Claire Danes, and Susan Sarandon more than make up for it.
I was only slightly disappointed by the director's commentary. Most of what she had to say was interesting and I truly enjoy the process of film-making, but she seemed to drag in some places, along with her commentary on the two deleted scenes and why they were deleted.
But the film itself captures the spirit of the novel in every way-- its music, its costuming, its art direction. It makes one long for the time when the English language was written and spoken as it is in Little Women.

A family movie you must own!
I've loved this movie since I was a kid. Great performances by some great Actors. If you're up for seeing a young love-tortured Christian Bale, you will not be disappointed!!