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Best Buy > Music & Movies > Movies > Drama > General Dramas > Product Info

The Substance of Fire - DVD

SKU: 4962838 | Release Date: 1/4/2003
Rating: R for Adult Situations, Questionable for Children

Special Order: Usually ships within 15-21 business days Estimate Arrival Time

Store Pickup: Limited Availability Check Stores

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List Price:
$14.99
Our Price:
$12.99

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Rating
R for Adult Situations, Questionable for Children
Format
DVD
Theatrical Release
1996
Length
101 minutes
Screen Formats
Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV
Genre
General Dramas
Studio
Walt Disney Video
Aspect Ratio
1.85:1

Synopsis

In this adaptation of a stage play by Jon Robin Baitz, a successful head of a New York publishing firm unravels after the death of his wife. Isaac Geldhart (Ron Rifkin) is a German Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who has been emotionally scarred by the traumas of his childhood, during which he spent many days hiding in an attic full of books. He has grown into a demanding perfectionist of a businessman, but his company is failing despite a sterling reputation for quality. He becomes obsessed with publishing a four-volume work on the techniques used in the Nazi genocide. His son Aaron (Tony Goldwyn) pleads with his father to try more commercially viable books, especially a hip contemporary first novel written by Val (Gil Bellows), who turns out to be Aaron's lover. But neither Aaron nor Isaac's long-suffering assistant Miss Barzakian (Elizabeth Franz) can dissuade the publisher from carrying out his financially disastrous plan. Aaron calls his two siblings Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), a children's TV show personality, and Martin (Timothy Hutton), a college professor, to a family meeting to try to resolve things, but their father blows up. Aaron's siblings sign over their shares in the publishing company to Aaron, effectively freezing out their father, who stubbornly sets up his own company and proceeds with his Holocaust project, which in the end proves a disappointment to him. Isaac's world falls apart as he becomes more belligerent, and Martin moves in with him to take care of him. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Version Details

Languages/Sound
Fre/Eng
Screen Formats
Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV
Additional Features
cc Dolby digital surround sound French language track Widescreen (1.85:1) - enhanced for 16x9
Chapters
Side #1 --
1. "Perfecto" [5:21]
2. Pensive Affairs [6:10]
3. Social Significance [3:00]
4. "This Too, Shall Pass" [4:19]
5. Stress And Family [4:32]
6. A Hostile Takeover? [10:49]
7. Divergent Paths [3:47]
8. Knowing When You're Wrong [6:35]
9. The Price of Perfection [6:01]
10. A Tough Sale [3:43]
11. He Needs Help? [8:52]
12. Unyielding Character [6:00]
13. Sanity Unbound [10:05]
14. Competing For Competence [7:24]
15. "He Didn't Want To" [4:17]
16. A Familiar Day [6:35]
17. End Credits [3:41]

Cast

  • Tom McDermott
  • George Morfogen
  • Ronny Graham - Louis Foukold
  • Sarah Jessica Parker - Sarah Geldhart
  • Ron Rifkin - Isaac Geldhart
  • Roger Rees
  • John Sullivan
  • Gil Bellows
  • Elizabeth Franz - Miss Barzakian
  • Tony Goldwyn - Aaron Geldhart
  • Timothy Hutton - Martin Geldhart
  • Eric Bogosian
  • Adolph Green
  • Lee Grant
  • David S. Howard - Dr. Bernard Kramer
  • Viola Davis

Crew

  • Sound/Sound Designer: Steve Hamilton
  • Songwriter: Joseph Vitarelli
  • Cinematographer: Robert Yeoman
  • Casting: Meg Simon
  • Editor: Pamela Martin
  • Producer: Ron Kastner ,Randy Finch
  • Co-producer: Lemore Syvan
  • Producer: Jon Robin Baitz
  • Screenwriter: Jon Robin Baitz
  • Set Designer: Shelley Barclay
  • Production Designer: John Lee Beatty
  • First Assistant Director: Jeff Lazar
  • Second Unit Director: John M. Tyson
  • Director: Daniel G. Sullivan
  • Art Director: Mark Ricker
  • Costume Designer: Jess Goldstein

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Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. Copyright 2007 All Media Guide, LLC.
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