Four Friends

UPC: 027616927460

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Profanity]

Summary: Also known as Moritorium and Georgia's Friends, Four Friends follows the titular quartet from high school to young adulthood. The film is set during the tumultuous 1960s, an era when everyone's values were turned inside out, shaken around, and reassembled. The central character is first-generation American Craig Wasson, who confounds his Yugoslavian father (Miklos Simon) by pursuing his own let-it-all-hang-out lifestyle. Wasson's best friends are athlete Jim Metzler and chubby Michael Huddleston; all pursue the affections of bewitching Jodi Thelan. Though they are obviously deeply in love with one another, Wasson and Thelan continue to foolishly avoid a long-term commitment as the sixties unfold around them. Four Friends calls for a fresher approach than the one offered by director Arthur Penn, whose handling of the material is much too pat and old-fashioned. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Romance

Awards: New Star of the Year – null Film Presented – Berlin International Film Festival New Star of the Year – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: ccOriginal Theatrical Trailer

Four Friends

Format: DVD

Release Date: 08/23/2005

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 115 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Four Friends
1. Main Titles/America! [:08]
2. Out of Control [6:32]
3. Poetry [8:07]
4. "Coward" [6:37]
5. Moving On [7:22]
6. Raging Hormones [7:20]
7. "Kiss the Bride" [6:49]
8. Proposal of Marriage [6:45]
9. On the Way to Freedom [6:04]
10. Life & Death [7:12]
11. Just a Woman [7:01]
12. All Day Every Day [6:08]
13. Party Time [7:32]
14. Bar Talk [6:42]
15. A Promise Kept [7:59]
16. Smiling/End Credits [6:42]

Donald Guarisco

This stab at an epic drama about the 1960's has some interesting scenes but ultimately falls apart. Steve Tesich's autobiographical script is heartfelt but unfocused: it never finds the right balance of personal drama and social allegory it is looking for and suffers from some abrupt transitions at key dramatic moments that pull the viewer out of the story. It's also so stacked with characters that some never get to develop properly (with the exception of one key scene, the character of Jim gets to do little besides stand around). Arthur Penn's direction is sensitive to his actors but it suffers from an unsteadiness of tone like the script: a few moments that veer into high comedy or unexpected tragedy are jarring and work against the story's flow. In terms of performances, there is a winning turn from Craig Wasson as main character Danilo but Jodi Thelen's overstated, oft-campy work as Georgia makes the character annoying when she should be mesmerizing. In fairness to Thelen, the script often forces her character to act out in illogical ways but the overall lack of subtlety in both writing and performance work together to make this characterization ring false -- and that's a major problem because the film depends on her character being some mythical representation of youthful American freedom. In short, Four Friends is an intriguing but deeply flawed work that strains under the weight of its own ambitions. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

Cast and Crew: William Theiss  Actor 
Paul Greco  Actor 
Natalia Nogulich  Actor 
Felix Shuman  Actor 
George Womack  Actor 
Glenne Headly  Actor 
Mercedes Ruehl  Actor 
Jim Netzler  Actor 
Petrea Burchard  Actor 
James Maxwell  Actor 
Dick Sollenberger  Actor 
Michael Tolan  Executive Producer 
David Chapman  Screenwriter 
Stephen F. Kesten  Producer 
Arthur Penn  Director 
Arthur Penn  Producer 
Elizabeth Swados  Composer (Music Score) 
Steve Tesich  Screenwriter 
Gene Lasko  Producer 
Craig Wasson  Actor 
Jodi Thelen  Actor 
Jim Metzler  Actor 
Michael Huddleston  Actor 
Reed Birney  Actor 
Julia Murray  Actor 
David Graf  Actor 
Zaid Farid  Actor 
Miklos Simon  Actor 
Elizabeth Lawrence  Actor 
Beatrice Fredman  Actor 
James Leo Herlihy  Actor 
Lois Smith  Actor 

Country: USA