Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

southwest3210-156-400970 Stories, whether in book, oral, OR movie form, have always had some ambiguity and mystery to them. Even our Bible, containing prob the most well-known "Stories", is full of ambiguity and allegory. Think of the prophets and parables. Think of genesis/revelation. The beginning AND the end - all symbolism, wedded loosely to a tangible mystery we can never fully comprehend. Think of the Australian aborigines "Creation Stories", in which there is no time, and all that ever is or will be is ever with us....Time is NO time...and ALL time...at once..These story ambiguities convey mysteries that will ever remain so. And the deepest "mysteries", ever residing behind a veil we can never fully tap into, can only be explained by "Allegory". In this sense, Northfork is akin to a biblical story. Floods, change, redemption, death, light, dark, gray......and man's quest to understand the mysteries of this short but profound life through such allegories.There is no "linear" time here. This "story" is all allegory, and lends itself to wherever one wants to be "taken". It is a dream scape more than a narrative. "To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub/For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, /When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, /Must give us pause. - Shakespeare..

Greenie123 I rented this movie solely on the basis of Roger Ebert's four star review. Upon watching the movie, I felt that I had seen one of the most brilliant films ever made. Looking through a few other reviews (Leonard Maltin, etc.), it appears that most critics hated it, for reasons I cannot understand. Yes, this is a slow, deliberate movie, but I found the pace just about right, and parts of the film quite amusing (the ark, Jigger, etc). One of the most striking things is M. David Mullen's cinematography, which is one of the most important characters in the movie. Excellent performances all around from all of the actors.Although the film is not for everyone, I'm sure (Joe Six-Pack run for the hills), if you have patience, take the time to watch this and let it work its way into your mind. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Serge_Zehnder Judging from the reviews about Northfork the truth about the quality of it seems to lie somewhere between art-house masterpiece and pretentious crap.To suggest that anyone should see this movie would be just as foolish as to say, anyone has to see any specific movie. It is also completely unfair to consider this movie utter crap. (I submit to you to watch a movie by Albert Pyun and then have another look at Northfork).It is certainly not an easy sell. The layers, or threads, of the various stories are not fully tide up, but it appears that was never the intention. The film, like the old daguerotype pictures shown at the beginning of the movie, represents the lost and maybe even forgotten spirit of the American Frontier. A rather ambivalent story of course, given the fact that it coincided with the genocide of an entire people. And yet, this spirit of the frontier is something that lies at the very core of the American Dream, this mythical belief, that to this day seems to drive those former colonies forward.But I'm getting sidetracked. Yes, aside from the wonderful visual craft, the beautiful score, the acting, which I felt to be very in tune, this film contains elements from movies made by filmmakers that were mentioned by other users in their reviews. (see Cocteau, Godard, Burton, Lynch etc.). But my guess is, and whoever reads this, it's really just a guess, Michael and Mark Polish weren't interested in copying any one of those marvelous directors, but saw that beneath what developed into the USA, lay stories of people who were now forgotten, who were swept away by the tides of time and progress. There was a clash of values and (in the case of Northfork) literally power. Where there was a farming community there is now a neon-highlighted shopping mall, and where there were people there are now only ghosts of ideals past.Which turns this motion picture into a smashing fairytale, a wonderful ghost story in the best sense of the word. An array of images and moods, and maybe even more substance that one might think. But then, that is another matter, and is truly to be judged individually.

lynnmagdalen Maybe because my grandmother homesteaded in Montana and my dad grew up there in a log cabin, but Montana holds a special place in my otherwise-urban heart. Instead of going for the lush color-saturated beauty of "A River Runs Through It," the Polish brothers have captured the stark beauty of Montana winter, evoking a b&w film by various means of color desaturation, from art direction to assorted film processing techniques, to good effect in my humble opinion. So the palette of gray scale and sepia and flesh tones, pale blue sky and silver airplane and concrete dam, effectively supports the dreamlike quality. The two stories interweave gracefully - it worked beautifully for me. The acting is of a very high standard (although I suspect it may have required judicious editing of the "Irwin" performance, as is often the case with child actors); the writing reminds me of skipping a stone across a lake, touching lightly on various elements before moving into the depths. I enjoyed the direction and editing a lot although I can imagine that some people would find the some of the cuts too "artistic" - but then I like movies that recognize they're movies and they can juxtapose visuals and elements in a way that we can't, living day to day.