Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5554 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-08-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Portuguese, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
George Stevens won an Oscar for his 1951 adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy, though the film seems a little overwrought today and even self-parodying at times. Still, Montgomery Clift's performance as a poor lad so drawn to a rich, beautiful girl (Elizabeth Taylor) that he contemplates killing his lower-class fiancée (Shelley Winters) is powerful, sympathetic, and mesmerizing. Taylor makes a strong impression, but Winters is awfully good in the less-glamorous role. The tone of the film is oppressive--the film doesn't exactly breathe with possibility--but there are lots of good reasons to give this movie a visit. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift terrific in this film
This is a deservedly famous film, and Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift give romantic and tragic performances. Taylor is at the height of her beauty in this film; she's really breathtaking to look at. She also acts very well the role of the "has it all" young socialite daughter of wealthy parents, who falls in love with factory worker Montgomery Clift. Clift is at the height of his attractiveness and talent as well, and gives an intense and sensitive performance. (A few years later, while filming "Raintree County," he was in a car accident mid-filming, did survive, but half of his face lost its natural mobility in that film and later ones.) Anne Revere is memorable as Clift's strict religious mother, and Shelley Winters makes a mark too as the factory girl friend Clift meets before he becomes captivated by rich girl Taylor. It's a sad story, but the romantic sparks between Taylor and Clift, as directed by George Stevens, are exciting and involving to watch.

[...]

the American dream which dissolved into a nightmare
Originally filmed in 1931, Theodore Dreiser's landmark novel "An American Tragedy" came back to the screen in 1951, directed by George Stevens under the new title of A PLACE IN THE SUN, with an inspired cast. This moving romance captured the emotions of post-war audiences with it's unflinching, painful depiction of one man's struggle to achieve the American dream, and the fates which conspire against him.

Poor, unassuming George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) leaves his strict, religious mother (Anne Revere) and heads for the big city to work in his rich uncle's bathing suit factory. There, despite a rule which forbids relationships between employees, he falls into a dalliance with dowdy factory girl Alice Tripp (Academy Award-nominee Shelley Winters). Despite Alice's eventual pregnancy, George doesn't see a lasting future with her; instead his affections lie with Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), the dazzling young debutante who offers George the social status and family approval he craves. Still, Alice lingers in the wings, with a secret that will eventually need to be revealed. Just how will George manage to negotiate his way through this delicate situation, and what tragedies will envelope the love triangle?...

Montgomery Clift was and still is the perfect actor to play George (in the original Dreiser novel, the character's name was Clyde). Elizabeth Taylor, in her first truly adult role away from her almer-mater studio MGM, glows as Angela, a character who might have become too vapid or uninteresting in the hands of a lesser actress. Shelley Winters fought hard to win the role of Alice, and in doing so broke away from the sexpot blonde characters she had endured as a contract star for Universal-International. For some great backstage tales about the making of A PLACE IN THE SUN, check out Shelley Winters' entertaining autobiography "Shelley (Also Known as Shirley)".

Still as hard-hitting and heartbreaking today as when it was first released more than fifty years ago, A PLACE IN THE SUN deserves a proud place in your classic movie collection. A no-brainer purchase.

Painfully Touching, Difficult Viewing, Classic Film!
This movie was painful for me to watch; not that it was badly done in any way but in that it was so good and the performances of the cast so convincing that the original title of the play this is based upon: "An American Tragedy" is really a perfect way to describe this film. A poor, ambitious young man just wants to do his best to climb up and succeed and tragically despite all the attempts by his benevolent uncle to help him achieve just that, he manages to screw everything up through a lack of discipline and common sense.

With the advent of Roe v Wade in the 70s, the events shown here would probably never happen today and yet you find yourself really feeling sorry for Clift's character who seems doomed from the start to make the wrong decisions and to inevitably see his dreams come to a tragic end. This film is very good and George Stevens does a lot of novel directing tricks here such as the extensive use of close-ups and the fade out to move from scene to scene.

This DVD version is quite good despite not having been restored; the picture quality is not perfect and yet the original master must have been preserved pretty well as the imperfections are not too distracting. The sound quality is in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and is quite good. If a Blu-Ray version is to be released anytime soon, they could take the opportunity to clean up the picture quality with a proper restoration job.

The special features are decent as they include a documentary with interviews with many famous directors talking about George Stevens who directed this film and retrospective interviews with the cast and crew of the movie. Montgomery Clift was brilliant here and it's tragic how he died so young at the age of 45 from a heart attack. One wonders how far his career would have taken him had he lived on. This is one movie which absorbs you and is so gripping you don't even feel the 2 hour length which is a testament to a great movie.

Although not a restored version, this DVD is value for money given the price and unless you want a perfect picture quality version for which you may have to wait for another release, this DVD version of the film should suffice for you.