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The Magdalene Sisters - DVD

SKU: 6283452 | Release Date: 3/23/2004

Rating: R for Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Rape & Sexual Abuse

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Rating: R for Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Rape & Sexual Abuse
Format: DVD
Theatrical Release: 2002
Length: 120 minutes
Screen Formats: Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV
Genre: General Dramas
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Synopsis

One of the Catholic Church's most infamous institutions is the focus of this controversial independent feature from Scottish actor and erstwhile director Peter Mullan. Set in 1964, The Magdalene Sisters hones in on the Magdalene convent, a place where purportedly wayward young women have been sent by their families for reform. Many of the girls are locked up in the institution for questionable "sins," and the movie presents several of them as case studies: Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), who is sent away after being sexually assaulted by a cousin at a wedding; Rose (Dorothy Duffy) and Crispina (Eileen Walsh), who are both unwed mothers; and Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), whose licentiousness has raised the ire of her former orphanage. It soon becomes clear that the reformatory is more of a manual-labor prison, however, as their girls are forced to work long hours and endure endless physical humiliation and abuse at the hands of the head nun, Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan). As their degradation at the hands of the convent's administrators increases, each girl plots her escape, but each finds that she's never far enough from the sisters' all-encompassing reach. The Magdalene Sisters premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was awarded the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion; the Vatican officially condemned the film after its premiere. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Version Details

Languages/Sound

Eng/Fre

Screen Formats

Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV

Subtitle Languages

Eng/Fre/Spa

Additional Features

cc Acclaimed original expos� "Sex in a Cold Climate" French-language track French & Spanish subtitles Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Widescreen (1.85:1) enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions

Chapters

Side #1 --
1. Margaret
2. Bernadette
3. Rose
4. Prayer, Cleanliness and Hard Work
5. The First Night
6. "No Talking"
7. No Home
8. A Holy Telephone
9. Removing Temptation
10. Between Right and Wrong
11. Demeaning Games
12. Falling Ill
13. "I Wanted to Die"
14. A Glimpse of the Outside
15. Keeping a Promise
16. "Not a Man of God"
17. A Liberating Christmas
18. All They Care About
19. "We Have to Go"
20. Epilogue and End Credits

Cast

Crew

Co-producer: Alan J. Wands
Cinematographer: Nigel Willoughby
Composer (Music Score): Craig Armstrong
Executive Producer: Paul Trijbits
Director: Peter Mullan
Screenwriter: Peter Mullan
Executive Producer: Ed Guiney
Production Designer: Mark Leese
Art Director: Caroline Grebbell
Editor: Colin Monie
Costume Designer: Trisha Biggar
Line Producer: Paddy Higson
First Assistant Director: David Gilchrist
Sound/Sound Designer: Colin Nicholson
Art Director: Jean Kerr
Producer: Frances Higson
Casting: Lenny Mullan

The Magdalene Sisters: AMG Review
Michael Hastings , AMG

Crafted with the kind of care and urgency that can only come from being personally invested in a subject, writer/director Peter Mullan's scathing expos� The Magdalene Sisters goes above and beyond predictable movie-of-the-week requirements to offer up a harrowing, first-hand view of the kind of inhumanity and persecution that might, in other times and circumstances, warrant the attention of a group like Amnesty International. From its opening scene -- involving a young woman's rape at a family gathering, told without dialogue -- the film adopts an unflinching, distant-but-sympathetic tone that creates a genuine sense of outrage and suspense for the viewer, without ever pandering to easy sympathy. The young women in Mullan's film -- brilliantly embodied by Anne-Marie Duff, Dorothy Duffy, Nora-Jane Noone, and Eileen Walsh -- don't spend much time pondering their assignment to the Magdalene convent/asylum the way they would in Girl, Interrupted or any one of a number of inferior, American "wayward girl" films. Instead, theirs is a more tactical, resigned existence, one in which escape is elusive and bitter compromise is the only means for survival. Where other directors might play up the syrupy bonding between the girls, Mullan doesn't shy away from the in-fighting and the resentment among them, even as he shows the small ways in which they try to protect one another. If the director's representation of the convent's Catholic administration is a more than a little sadistic, it's very much in line with the acts of brutality and humiliation we see them commit, as well as with Mullan's unerring effort to give the audience his lead characters' point-of-view. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

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The Magdalene Sisters - DVD

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The Magdalene Sisters - DVD

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Synopsis

Version Details

Cast

Crew

Related Movies

Order Support

Community

Product Support

Credit Cards

Reward Zone® Program

Corporate Info

More Best Buy Sites

Need help? We're available 24/7 at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289)