The Cider House Rules | | Cast : | Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Michael Caine | | Director : | Lasse Hallström | | Studio : | Miramax Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 1999 | | DVD Released Date : | September 07, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | Political diatribe | Content
 | This movie, was nothing but a three hour political statement for pro abortion views. thats it, some mediocre acting, some cute kids, but in the end it was just another hollywood movie trying to be artsy with touchy subjects. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | A Beautifully Made Movie | Content
| I love this movie, Michael Caine is superb and Tobey Maguire really shines. This movie boasts a great story and involving characters you actually care about. This movies weakest link was Charlize Theron, who despite being very attractive just never seems to wow me in movies, including this one, but hell she's not nearly as bad a J.Lo so oh well. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 11, 2005 | | Summary | Rules are meant to be broken | Content
| "The Cider House Rules" stars Tobey Maguire as Homer Wells, an orphan who spends his young life growing up in an orphanage, while being mentored by Dr. Larch(Michael Caine) on gynocology.
St. Cloud orphanage is the setting for the beggining of the film and while here, we learn that Dr. Larch is performing more than simple baby deliveries. He is also performing abortions, which at this point in the United States, is illegal. Dr. Larch performs these abortions, because as he says "If I don't do them properly or turn these women away, somone else will perform the abortion improperly" and we are shown the horrible results of a situation where that happens.
Homer is very appreciative of everything that Dr. Larch has taught him, but feels that he must decide for himself what path his life will take. He also has a serious issue with the idea of abortion. So, Homer decides to leave with a young couple Candy(Charlize Therion) and Wally(Paul Rudd), whom just went through an abortion of their own. Wally is a pilot for the air force, on a leave to help his mother with the harvesting of their apple orchards. Homer decides that he would like to try his hand at apple-picking and gets a job at the orchards.
While here, Homer stays with the rest of the apple-pickers; a group of southern, black men, very different from anyone that Homer has ever known in his sheltered life. He takes to all of the men and finds that he really enjoys apple-picking. Homer also falls deeply in love with Candy, while Wally is sent back to war.
The boss of the apple-picking crew, Mr. Rose is a tough, mean boss, who prefers for his workers to "mind their business" and remember that their business is "the apple business, nothing else." Well, the movie really gets interesting when we find out that Rose, Mr. Rose's daughter, is hiding a pregnancy. Homer discovers this immediatly, seeing as to how he is a trained physician. He tries to talk Rose into taking a trip to St. CLoud to have a proper abortion, but his pleas fall on deaf ears.
Then we discover that the father of Rose's baby is none other than her father, Mr. Rose. At this point, Homer must make and face a critical decision. He knows that if he does not perform the abortion, Rose will attempt to handle it on her own. He also knows that their is no way that Mr. Rose will be willing to let Rose leave to go to St. Cloud. So, Homer goes against his earlier morals and decides to perform the abortion on his own. After he does so, Dr. Larch overdoses on ether, a drug he has somewhat of an addiction to and Homer realizes that the real world is really no different than the illegal one he knew at St. Cloud, only at St. CLoud, he was actually making the world better for many people, whereas in the real world, nobody else cared enough to let him help, when he felt he was capable of helping.
This is an extremly fascinating movie, complete with a great cast, great writing, a great score and wonderful setting. This movie tackles controversial issues such as abortion and incestial rape and shows very grapically the repercussions of both.
The title is intriguing, because when Homer reads the Cider House rules to his fellow apple-pickers(none of them can read), they all laugh, because they either break those rules all of the time or have no intention of ever doing what is forbidden in the others; except of course, sitting on the roof. Prior to Home reading that rule about no sitting on the roof; none fo the apple-pickers had ever done so. Well, after he read that rule to them, we see them on the roof numerous times. As Mr. Rose states "Those ain't our rules. They was written by folks that don't live here. We live here. We make our own rules." And that is basically the plot of this story. Dr. LArch had been "making his own rules" everytime that he decided to perform an abortion or when he forged a Harvard diploma with Homer's name on it. He was doing things his way and, in the end, the best way for everyone. Homer "made his own rules" when he decides to hep Rose and perform an abortion for her.
This movie is really excellent and thought-provoking and is really worth watching. Very boring for children, so don't even bother showing to them. No extreme violence or sex scenes and although numerous abortions are performed in this movie, nothing very graphic is shown---THANK GOD.
A definate movie to check out!
Great Job to the cast on this one!! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 25, 2005 | | Summary | Controversial but great film | Content
| Genre: Drama
Genre Grade: A
Final Grade: A-
Yes, this was the first time I have ever seen this movie. I am trying to watch movies that won Best Screenplay Oscars, since I've seen just about every Best Picture winner from the past 15 years. This one won Best Adapted Screenplay. It was based on a John Irving book and he wrote the script for the movie. I really want to read his books because he wrote this book as well as The Door in the Floor and Simon Birch, and the critically-acclaimed A Widow for One Year. Anyway, this was an excellent film, very powerful and dealing with some very controversial subject matter.
I am extremely pro-life, but I did agree with a couple of the lines from Michael Caine in it - that if he didn't do it properly then the pregnant mother was going to do it herself or have an amateur do it. If abortion has to be legal, I think it should be done safely, as not to accidentally end two lives instead of just one. And outside of that topic was a great story about an orphanage and how far one person will go to redeem value to their life. Great movie, I definitely recommend seeing it. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 15, 2005 | | Summary | Good people can do bad things | Content
| Homer(Tobey Maquire) was an orphan brought up in a remote orphange run by Dr. Larch (Michael Caine). The orphanage was a loving, idyllic and peaceful place, and the orphans all appeared to be happy, well looked after, and got along well with each other. Dr. Larch was a loving, caring, benevolent doctor who had the the best interests of the orphans at heart. However, Dr. Larch also performed illegal abortions, abused ether, and later on even falsified medical credentials for Homer. Homer was an innocent, naive and sensitive young man who was so generous and helpful to anyone that he met both in the orphange and later on in the world outside the orphange. However, he also had an affair with the girlfriend(Charlize Theron)of the soldier(Paul Rudd) who gave him the opportunity to see the world and then went to war, expecting Homer to take care of his girlfriend and her mother. The black foreman (Delroy Lindo) was very nice to his crew of apple pickers, but also loved his daughter "so much" that he was an incest perpetrator. I think the film tries to make us not to see people as either good or bad. It delivers the message that it is not only human to make mistakes, but being human (unless your are psychopathic)will also mean that we will suffer,as a result of our guity conscience, from the consequences of making mistakes. It is a great film abut humanity and humaneness. |
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